
I harvested my pie cherries a couple days ago, and left a few not quite ripe fruit on the tree. It is a young tree, about 4 years old. About 5" diameter and 9' tall. Looked out there this afternoon, and there are 3 broken branches, including one of the largest. Looks like something climbed out on them?? Is there anything I can do to save any part of the branches? The breaks are at the base of the branches, torn off the truck, with only a small amount of bark left connecting them. The interior of the branches broke off the trunk, leaving a hole in the trunk. Sorry, I need to figure out how to load pictures.
What can I do?

I wouldn't do a whole lot. Typically the tree will sense that a lot of light is coming through and angle new or old branches into that slot. Could've been a kid who stole cherries-I don't know.
Judicious pruning over the next couple of years should take care of it.
My two cents.
John S
PDX OR

Sounds like Raccoons, to me… Cherry trees are quite symmetrical when young, but stuff happens… Generally, you want to spread them. Pie cherry trees are not near as aggressive as sweet cherries but it’s still best to ‘spread’ their limbs to keep them from getting too tall.
I’d make clean sawn cuts to remove branches broken from the trunk, and there’s no need to paint or coat the cuts with anything as it’s growing season right now and they’ll heal over when left alone. Cherries are susceptible to lots of infections so don’t be surprised to see some oozing around the cuts. Not much else you can do.
If enough light hits the trunk it will likely send up ‘latent’ bud shoots near the cuts; you may thin and leave those with the hope they’ll develop into ‘replacement branches.’ But I’m afraid your production has now moved higher up the tree. I’d figure out ‘what’ did the damage and do your best to see it doesn’t happen again next year.

Yeah, we're pretty sure it was a raccoon that did the damage. Upon reflection, they may have also been the culprit that knocked so many of my sweet cherries to the ground. I focused on birds, and got beat by a ground assault.
I cut the broken branches off close to the truck, but left a bit of the damaged trunk with the bark still attached in place.

You might be interested in a motion activated sprinkler to scare them off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5D3GKlT ... r_embedded
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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