Pruning honeysuckle in spring: video for beginners, tips from experienced gardeners

It is necessary to prune honeysuckle in the spring if this procedure was not done in the fall. Without pruning, the shrub loses its decorative effect, fruiting worsens. However, the problem is the fact that the plant wakes up early in the spring. If you do not guess with the timing, then the procedure will cause severe injuries to the shrub.

Do I need to prune honeysuckle in the spring

By itself, honeysuckle is unpretentious in care. This is even evidenced by the reviews of many gardeners. It is decorative and edible. Bushes usually grow up to 1,5 m high. They make a beautiful green hedge. However, pruning is necessary for all types of crops. The intensity of the event is related to the nutritional value of the soil on which honeysuckle grows, as well as the frequency of watering.     

Pruning is needed to get a large crop of large berries

To get a good harvest, honeysuckle is abundantly fed and watered. With a lack of moisture and nutrients, the berries become smaller, they become smaller every year. However, water and top dressing stimulate the growth of branches. Over time, the bush becomes very thickened. If it is not cut, the same problem will reappear. Few berries will grow, and they will all be small.

When growing honeysuckle for the sake of decorativeness for a green hedge, pruning is done less frequently. The procedure helps to form bushes. Completely do without pruning will not work. From thickening, the shrub will lose its decorative effect. There will be a lot of dry foliage, broken branches.

To properly trim the honeysuckle shrub, you need to know where the fruit buds are located on the branches

For the correct pruning of honeysuckle in the spring, you need to know the location of the fruit buds. At the bottom of all branches are growth buds. Often they can be solitary. From the middle to the top of the branches, there are buds that give rise to shoots and flowers. In the first and second year of a seedling’s life, the apical bud grows and usually dies. On a new branch, lateral shoots grow from the buds located above and below. Of these, skeletal branches are formed in the future.

In summing up, it remains to find out the benefits of pruning:

1. The procedure contributes to the thinning of the bush. Sunlight and fresh air flows penetrate the crown. The berries gain sweetness, become larger, the number of ovaries increases.
2. An unthickened bush gives a powerful increase faster. All skeletal branches will grow straight, pointing upwards towards the sunlight.
3. It is more convenient to harvest on a well-groomed shrub.

There is no doubt about the need for pruning. Whether the procedure can be done in the spring is another question. Usually this is done in the fall. In the spring, gardeners carry out only sanitary pruning. Remove frozen or damaged branches. If in the fall it was not possible to form a crown, then you will have to do this work with the onset of heat. It is only important to correctly guess the timing.

In the video, how to cut honeysuckle in the spring:

Spring pruning dates

With the advent of warm days, honeysuckle begins vegetation early. Buds may begin to swell when there is still snow. At this time, it is too late to do pruning. But early spring with frosts is not the best time for the procedure. It is desirable that a stable temperature above zero is established outside. For most cool regions, this period occurs in March.

You can not cut the branches if the buds have awakened on the honeysuckle

The climate is warm in the southern regions. Even in March it will be too late to prune. Here, the optimal time is determined individually, but it is better to form a bush in the fall.

Spring pruning scheme

Honeysuckle seedlings develop slowly after planting. However, from the first year and throughout all the years of life, the shrub is pruned. Even when spring is selected for this procedure, the scheme looks like this:

1. The first pruning in the spring of edible honeysuckle is the shortening of the seedling at the time of planting. If the root system is severely damaged, 1/3 of the shoots are removed.
2. Sanitary pruning is mandatory every spring every year. Remove broken, frozen, gnawed by animals branches.
3. Detailed pruning is performed throughout the growing season. In honeysuckle, small, dry, underdeveloped shoots are removed.
4. They begin to form a crown at bushes that have reached the age of three. If there are old obsolete branches, they are cut off at the newest growth point of the new shoot. In the spring, remove branches growing inside the crown and touching the ground. Shoots with a small increase are simply shortened.
5. Partial rejuvenation is carried out in honeysuckle when its age is 7-10 years. The following procedures are performed every 5 years. Remove as many old branches as possible from the bush in the spring. When pruning, leave a stump a few centimeters high. On the rejuvenated plant, 5 powerful skeletal branches remain.
   
   

   With partial rejuvenation, 5 skeletal branches are left on the honeysuckle

6. If honeysuckle has not been looked after for 15 years, a neglected shrub requires radical rejuvenation. All branches are cut off, leaving small stumps 30-50 cm high. A new crown will form from them. However, experienced gardeners advise such a procedure to be carried out not in spring, but in autumn, in order to less injure the plant.
   
   

   Radical rejuvenation is best done in the fall

Any pruning of honeysuckle in the spring for beginner gardeners is difficult and raises many questions. Here it is important to understand the fact that after rejuvenation in the first year, one should not wait for the harvest. Flower buds are mainly located on the tops of shoots that have been removed. Another nuance is that dormant growth buds are located at the base of skeletal branches. For this reason, you need to leave the hemp when trimming.

How to prune honeysuckle in spring

Compliance with the scheme is the main requirement when pruning in the spring. However, there are also rules of precedence for each action. They help to optimally form the crown in spring, causing less injury to the plant.

When pruning a bush in the spring, they observe not only the scheme, but also the rules of the sequence of actions performed

Proper pruning of honeysuckle bushes in spring occurs in the following order:

1. First, dry and diseased shoots are removed. The next branches are weak and with obvious damage.
2. The bush is freed from the branches lying on the ground. There will be no sense from them. They can not even be removed immediately, but used for reproduction. The branches are dug in the spring with earth and watered abundantly. After rooting, they are cut off from the mother bush, transplanted to another place as a full-fledged seedling.
3. After the lower part of the crown is released, all the clumsy shoots growing inside the bush are cut off.

At the end of the process, shoots are removed at the base of the trunk. The soil in the trunk circle is loosened, freed from weeds, and mulched.

Tips from seasoned gardeners for pruning honeysuckle in spring

Any plant care procedure has many nuances and secrets. Some of them are ready to share experienced gardeners.

Flowering honeysuckle is beautiful in a hedge

After pruning in the spring, gardeners recommend feeding the shrub, as the procedure brought great stress to the plant. It’s best to use organic. A bucket of compost is added under each shrub. Of the minerals, phosphorus-potassium complexes are suitable, but the dosage must be observed.

Sour berries can be, even if pruning is done correctly in the spring. Perhaps the plant gets little sun in the first half of the day. It is advisable to plant the shrub so that it is in the sun before lunch, and in the afternoon in the shade.

Bitterness in berries similarly does not always appear from a violation of pruning technology. Often the weather is to blame, or during the hot months the gardener did not water the plantings enough. Sometimes bitterness is a varietal trait.

Conclusion

Trimming honeysuckle in the spring is better for experienced gardeners. If you guess wrong with the timing, the plant can be greatly harmed. Then the harvest will have to wait even longer. It is optimal for novice gardeners to do the procedure in the fall, and in the spring to conduct a sanitary inspection.