Sarah Tanuki

Hello all,
I've recently moved into a new place in Saskatchewan and there is a row of choke cherries in the yard which is riddled with black knot. I pruned the first bush, but I have some questions that I would like to get answers for before I do the whole row (and potentially cause more harm than good!)

1. Should I prune now, or wait until fall when the plant is dormant?
2. I am trying to cut the branch so I get rid of all the rot, however there are occasions when I cut the branch right back to the crotch (I believe this is the correct term!) but the cut shows that there is still rot inside. Is it best to cut the healthy-looking main branch that the diseased one was attached to, to make sure there is no trace of rot remaining, even if I would cut off quite a large chunk of the bush in doing so?
3. Where is the best place to cut any branch?
a) as close as you can to the rot, without having any trace remaining, even if there is no offshoot branch near the cut
b) just above the nearest offshoot on the branch
c) the crotch where it meets the main branch
4. Should I sterilize the loppers between each bush, even though they all have black knot?

Really hope someone out there can help me - I want to do the best job I can!

Thank you!

Hello all, We really need some help here! We have just moved into a rural property in Saskatchewan. We're mainly concentrating on the house at the moment, but eventually we are hoping to set up a permaculture garden on the land here. We wanted to plant a shelterbelt this year however, as obviously trees take a long time to grow, so the sooner they're in - the better! Unfortunately, the area where we need to plant the shelterbelt is the old vegetable garden area and the vacated patch (the property has been vacant for about 8 years before we moved in) has been overgrown with Canada Thistle, dandelion, and I presume a whole bunch of other weeds. I have been told that the trees will not be able to compete with the mighty roots of the Canada Thistle, and we have to spray it with roundup!!! Noooooo! This is absolutely the antithesis of what we want to be doing with our land!!! Not only are we advised to spray, but we are also expected to spray multiple times. I have been frantically searching online, but it looks like there is no good solution to Canada Thistle and that it is the lord of the weeds. Can anybody give us any good suggestions of what we could do without the use of evil chemicals?