[Antonius]

I know its still a little early,but how do I go about pruning my cherry trees when the time comes? To be honest they appear to be going a little out of control/shape and I dont want to do something silly by ruining them. I have a Morrello,which isn't in too bad a shape,but my Stella is going crazy and is spreading its branches at a rate of knots!

[Trillium]

Here's a good info factsheet:

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/treefrt/homegdn/cherries.htm

When I had cherries, both sweet and sour, I pruned them in late winter before any sap ran. I did minimal pruning, mostly to keep it open and airy against mildew, etc, and pruned out excess 'water' sprouts, those many short veritical branches off a main limb. I also pruned just a bit to keep the size I wanted and a general good shape where odd branches didn't stick way out sort of thing. They don't require much once you've got the shape right.

[saejtin]

I understood that you should only prune stone fruit in the summer for fear of silver-leaf disease.
Cheers
Alison

[Trillium]

Silver leaf disease will establish mostly on weak tree stock. Healthy trees are fairly resistant to it.

[saejtin]

I'm not talking from experience just books! but I think it may be more of a risk in the UK - maybe due to a moister climate? so the advice is to prune between June and August when the spores are not active

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/silver-leaf-disease-153706.pdf

but where are you Antonius?

[Antonius]

I'm in Manchester,but thanks for all replies to my question.