If you have a medlar you will know that sometimes you have to cut its branches to keep it growing and developing. But when to prune a loquat?
If you have just realized that you do not know exactly the instructions for pruning your fruit tree, here we will try to help you take the best care of this living being.
Contents
Why prune the loquat
Depending on what you want to achieve with your tree, pruning will happen one way or another. For example, it may be that what you want is to increase the production of fruit, because it gives you little; or maybe you want it to produce better quality fruit.
In general, a loquat is pruned for several reasons (and each has a different way of pruning).
- Because you want to shape your loquat. In this case, a formation pruning is carried out.
- Because you want to take care of it and increase the amount of fruit it gives you (production size).
- When cleaning branches and leaves that are dry or interfere with each other (thinning pruning).
- Because you want to rejuvenate it (total pruning).
In this way, the first thing you should ask yourself is why you want to prune a loquat. Depending on your answer, you can choose one type of size or another. Are you saying it’s only cut that way? The truth is no.
We give you an example. Imagine that you have a young medlar and you want to shape it. You would use the training size, but what if after a few years it is already formed and now you want something else? It would be done with no problem. You would maintain the formation size to prevent it from going “wild”, but this would be minimal compared to the size you want to start at that time (cleaning, production…).
When to prune a loquat
Once you have a clear goal to achieve with pruning, the next step is knowing when to do it.
In this case, loquats should never be pruned in winter, even in cold weather, because they are very delicate and can die after pruning if you do it at low temperatures.
For this reason, experts recommend that, if you choose a time, it should be in early spring, but taking into account the temperatures it can get. In other words, if it’s spring but it’s still cold, it’s better to wait a bit, at the beginning of summer, which will be much more appropriate.
In autumn it is not recommended as much because it may not reach winter without having healed these cuts and it would be more difficult to move forward.
How to prune a loquat
If you have a medlar and you have seen that now is the right time to prune it, we are going to give you the keys so that you can do it in the best possible way. Do you want to know how? Dark.
Tools
The first thing will be to get the tools you will need. Be careful, because it will not only be a pruner, but, depending on the state of your fruit tree, you may also need a saw or a chainsaw and/or a pruner.
In general, you should have:
- Secateurs. They will serve you for branches less than 5cm. It is true that it could cut thicker, but you risk that the cut will not be fast or clean, and you will cause the tree to suffer.
- Saw or chainsaw. The first is useful for branches up to 20 cm while with the second you can cut thicker branches.
- Mower at height. Ideal for high branches.
This would be on the one hand, but you will also need stairs in case your specimen is very tall; and protect yourself, with gloves, safety glasses, boots, etc.
Obviously, you are going to use more or fewer tools depending on the type of pruning you are doing.
types of size
As we mentioned earlier, you not only need to know when to prune a loquat, but also the types of pruning that are done.
Depending on your goal, you will choose one or the other based on the following:
training size
Training pruning can start from the moment you have the young plant, as it is all about customizing its structure and getting a good base for your loquat.
In this case, you need to make sure you have a central stem of around 40-50 cm. Between 4 and 6 main branches should come out of it, what we could say is the first floor, then these will form the following ones.
At the time of pruning, you must control that it holds the base and at the same time that the sun and the air penetrate the whole tree perfectly.
production size
Also called fruiting pruning, the objective is both to improve the quality of the fruits as well as to increase their production.
And how is it done? You must prevent the tree from growing too high. To do this, you will cut the vigorous branches and leave the most fruitful ones. It is also necessary to eliminate those that grow vertically and do not leave many holes so that the sun does not burn the branches or the trunk.
thinning waist
Called a cleanup pest, it involves minimal maintenance, where you will need to remove both diseased branches and those that are already dry from the tree.
With this you will ensure that diseases or pests do not develop, and on the other hand you will prevent the energy that the medlar spends on these branches from being distributed on those that are really important.
rejuvenation waist
The last of pruning is the most drastic, and at the same time the one to which you must pay the most attention since it is not easy to achieve it with good results.
This happens when the loquat is already older and the fruit production has dropped a lot. So, we try to give it a second life, but at the same time, if we don’t do it well, it could end the tree.
What should you do? Cut it practically on the first floor that we have already told you about. The goal is for him to reform a new skeleton, obviously keeping a base.
Of course, we recommend that you use healing paste on all cuts to prevent the entry of disease or pests. Another option is to use cinnamon powder, which has a good effect on plants and can be of great help.
Now that you know when to prune a medlar and what kind of pruning to do, it’s time to get to work if you haven’t already. Can we help you with anything else?