How to properly prune barberry bushes in summer, spring and autumn

Gardeners know little about pruning barberry, although it is grown in almost all areas. This shrub is an excellent honey plant. Its flowers attract bees, which also pollinate other flowering plants. The bush is unpretentious. It adapts well to soils, is insensitive to strong winds and grows quickly. In order for the plant to please the gardener and not cause inconvenience, timely pruning is required.

Why is barberry pruning important?

Why you need to prune shrubs:

1. Without crown formation, this thorny shrub takes on an untidy shape.
2. And picking berries from such plants is problematic: you have to protect your hands with gloves. And pests and fungal spores can overwinter on the remaining fruits.
3. A well-formed bush decorates the site. Several plants planted in a row can serve as a hedge. But without timely intervention, the gardener risks getting painful scratches.

You cannot start pruning the bush: it is quite difficult to form a thickened crown.

Timing of work

There are no strict deadlines for when barberry should be pruned. But agronomists recommend forming deciduous types of barberry as soon as the snow melts, and evergreen plants - in early summer, as soon as they bloom.

Typically, a gardener begins working with plants in early spring. At this time, the movement of juice has not yet begun, and the operation will be painless for the plant. First of all, the branches damaged during the winter are removed, then the crown is formed.

It is recommended to carry out formative pruning in the summer, if it is not done in the spring. If the bush becomes very thick, it should be thinned out.

In autumn, the plant needs to be prepared for winter. It is recommended to cut out immature shoots (this is especially important for regions with cold winters). If the gardener does not plan to prune in the spring, then it must be done in the fall.

Necessary tools for pruning

Before starting the procedure, you should check that all tools are available. The gardener will need:

• sharp pruning shears;
• thick gloves to protect the skin of the hands;
• potassium permanganate solution or any disinfectant;
• a jacket made of thick fabric to protect the body;
• lopper (in the case of working with an old thickened bush);
• garden varnish or oil paint (for processing sections with a diameter of more than 5 mm).

It is recommended to choose a dry, windless day for work: such weather is not only comfortable for the gardener, but will also protect the barberry from infection by fungi.

Circuits and technology

Proper pruning of shrubs is quite simple. Its branches grow almost vertically and rarely get tangled. But giving thickened barberry the required shape can be difficult.

Features of pruning a young bush

The first pruning of a young bush is carried out in the first spring after planting. Choose one of the strongest shoots and shorten it to the first bud. Cut out all weak branches. Over the summer, the shrub will produce abundant growth. In this form he will go away for the winter. The gardener only needs to remove damaged or diseased branches.

Next spring, the shrub is “planted on a stump.” All branches are cut low, leaving high stumps. During the growing season, the awakened buds will give abundant growth. The rule for pruning young barberry: the operation is carried out only in the spring, in the fall the bush is left alone.

Anti-aging pruning

Old bushes (12 years or more) require anti-aging pruning. It is recommended to proceed as follows:

• cut out all old shoots of dark color without leaving stumps;
• weak young ones should also be removed;
• cut out some of the young ones, leaving stumps;
• shorten the remaining young shoots by 1/3.

You should not be afraid of removing shoots too radically: barberry will quickly respond to it and grow new branches. In this way, you can extend the life and fruiting of the shrub in the garden.

Wellness

Healthy pruning is carried out at any time of the year.During this process, all broken and dried branches are removed. It is definitely recommended to carry out the operation after strong winds, heavy snowfalls, and freezing rains.

Formative

It is simple to form barberry: all its branches grow almost vertically. The gardener is only required to promptly remove old and tangled shoots. It is necessary to take into account that some barberries produce abundant root shoots. It also needs to be cut close to the ground. Barberry easily recovers after pruning of any intensity, so it can be given any shape using a topiary frame.

Features of pruning various types of barberry

If barberry is left alone, it will form into a disheveled ball. Landscape designers take this feature into account: most often they cut barberry in the form of a ball, cone or pyramid.

Sometimes in the garden there are barberry bushes, trimmed in the form of a cube or rectangular parallelepiped. In this way a hedge is formed.

When planning an outline, the gardener must calculate the number of skeletal branches of the plant:

• for a spherical or cubic shape, 2-3 strong shoots are enough;
• a pyramid or cone involves 6-8 skeletal shoots of different lengths.

It is impossible to give the required shape to a plant in one season. First, the gardener should determine the number and direction of the main branches, and next year, using a frame or template, complete the pruning.

Post-procedure care

Proper pruning is half the success. The plant needs help after the procedure. Without a set of health measures, the bush will stop bearing fruit and wither.

How to feed the bush

After spring pruning, barberry needs nitrogen. For each adult plant, you need to add a bucket of mature compost or rotted manure. It is recommended to distribute organic matter evenly around the tree trunk. Gardeners organize liquid fertilizing with fermented grass. To do this, dilute 1 liter of infusion in 10 liters of water and water the bush.

After sanitary summer or formative autumn pruning, the plant needs to be given potassium and phosphorus. The sources of these elements are inert flour and stove ash. If there is a shortage of components, mineral complex fertilizers are used.

When decorative pruning, the plant is given liquid foliar fertilizer. An infusion of fermented grass or a ready-made complex fertilizer (potassium humate) is suitable.

How to care for large cuts

It is unacceptable to leave sections larger than 0.7 cm unprocessed. Fungal spores or pathogenic bacteria penetrate into wounds. Infected barberry will have to be treated.

To prevent such problems, it is recommended to seal the cuts immediately. Suitable:

• garden varnish (layer thickness no more than 1 mm);
• Oil paint;
• garden antiseptic;
• brilliant green solution.

Properly processed cuts quickly become overgrown with bark, hollows are not formed, and the wood does not rot.

What problems might you encounter?

Barberry tolerates even anti-aging pruning well. It recovers quickly and continues to bear fruit. But beginning gardeners face difficulties:

• when pruning, burrs remain, leading to rotting of the core of the shoots;
• stumps are formed, which after a few years give rise to hollows;
• Too drastic rejuvenation surgery slows down the growth of barberry.

When pruning a plant for the first time, you should not rush: it is better to divide the procedure into 2-3 stages.