Home Fruit Garden Tour – UFO Cherry Trellis

UFO Cherry sm res

Plant a whip (young tree without branches) at an angle of 45 degrees to the ground, and tie to a trellis wire. Remove the dormant buds so that only up facing buds 8 to 12 inches apart are left on top, with no buds facing the ground. Do not cut the tip of the whip off.

After the shoots at the tip have grown several inches the tree is bent and tied horizontally on the lowest wire of the trellis 2 feet from the ground. This should encourage the other buds along the young trunk to begin growing. Since the four (12 gauge) wires of the trellis are 2 feet apart, an extra support wire between the 1st and 2nd wire is helpful to tie the new shoots to until they reach the 2nd wire because the shoots need to stay in an upright position in order to encourage growth.

The tops which grow too high above the trellis should be cut off in late spring and summer. All side branches are removed or cut back to several inches if they have blossom buds in the first several inches. After several years begin cutting a few of the thickest upright branches back to several inches to encourage the growth of new upright branches which will produce larger berries.

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