Fruit trees are pruned

[Gump]

Been trying to get this done the last couple weeks. Decided to leave work early today and get it done. Hopefully a good year for apples and cherries.

[Longjohn ★]

How much snow do you have?

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

How much snow do you have?

Probably 18 inches here and 3 feet up on the Hill. We skied yesterday and it was great.

[Longjohn ★]

I never tried pruning my trees when we had snow on the ground.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I never tried pruning my trees when we had snow on the ground.

You should do it when they are dormant. I prefer to prune earlier in the winter so the wound heals before sap starts moving. 

[Airehead]

Do the birds know exactly when the cherries are perfectly ripe?

[jsharr ★]

Post some pics so I can critique your pruning.  Close up of some cuts with a bud in the picture and some at distance to show branch structure. 

Also briefly describe how you sharpened disinfected your pruning equipment.

[MickinMD ★]

2 hours ago, Zackny said:

Been trying to get this done the last couple weeks. Decided to leave work early today and get it done. Hopefully a good year for apples and cherries.

I planted 6 of them, dwarf and semi-drawf, in the yard of my first house.  My favorites were a Bing-like cherry and Japanese Plum. I also had a 5-in-1 apple tree, though it didn't bear very well. If I plant a couple in my current yard, I'd go for one of those "bird-proof" wax-type or otherwise not-red-when-ripe cherries and a Japanese plum, whose pale redness didn't seem to attract the birds as much as the cherries did.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, jsharr said:

Post some pics so I can critique your pruning.  Close up of some cuts with a bud in the picture and some at distance to show branch structure. 

Also briefly describe how you sharpened disinfected your pruning equipment.

You don’t want to see pics as I have neglected these a bit for the last couple years.

as for disinfecting the pruning saw, I just peed on it?

[donkpow]

11 hours ago, Airehead said:

Do the birds know exactly when the cherries are perfectly ripe?

Birds know when cherries are almost perfectly ripe. My BIL had a couple of cherry trees and the birds would get to the cherries just before they were ready for harvest.

[jsharr ★]

1 hour ago, Zackny said:

You don’t want to see pics as I have neglected these a bit for the last couple years.

as for disinfecting the pruning saw, I just peed on it?

Back when I was in the nursery business and I would prune first year peach trees for customers I had to make sure I took some time and explained best practices.  I would normally leave three branches with good crotch angles just to ease their pain.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/stone/stone.html

[MickinMD ★]

14 hours ago, Airehead said:

Do the birds know exactly when the cherries are perfectly ripe?

I had a bing-type semi-dwarf cherry tree and had a huge net plus one of those Japanese plastic owls to try to keep the birds away.

I had to pick the cherries as soon as they began to turn red or else the birds would still get the majority of them.

If I plant a sweet cherry tree in my current yard, it's going to be one of those semi-dwarf "bird proof" varieties that don't turn bright red when ripe - sort of wax-cherry in appearance.