Once cherry trees have finished fruiting it is time to prune them.  Generally, you don’t need to prune them the year after you’ve planted them but one of ours was definitely in need of pruning.  We’ve got two trees and they came from different places.  One was from a specialized fruit nursery and the other was from a local nursery selling many different plants.  Not surprisingly, the specialist nursery knew what they were doing and pruned the growing tree into a sensible shape.  The branches are short and come off the trunk at about 90º, so that we have nice horizontal branches.  The tree is probably about4-5 feet high which feels right.  The one from the local nursery doesn’t look as though it has been pruned at all.  The branches are very long and come off the trunk at about 45º, meaning that the branches are angled.  It’s also about 9 feet tall already.  So, it was in definite need of a prune.  The important thing about pruning cherry trees is that you do it during the growing season.  This should minimize the risk of the tree becoming infected with bacterial canker.  We pruned our tree quite heavily and to make doubly sure if doesn’t become infected, we painted all the wounds with Arbrex Seal and Heal.  It’s looking a lot more sensible now.