138 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



7-8 EDWARD VII., A. 1908 

 TOMATOES — EXPERIMENTS IN PRUNING, 



The experiment with a certain method of pruning tomatoes begun in 1904 was 

 continued again in 1906. The plan adopted is the following: As soon as the plants 

 in the hot-bed have six strong leaves the tops are nipped off and the plants given 

 more room, being placed 5i inches apart. The object of pinching off the tops 

 is to cause new shoots to develop at the axils of the leaves in order to have six 

 branches bearing tomatoes instead of having only the one cluster usually found at 

 the top of the plants, thus getting a larger crop early in the season. In one part of 

 the experiment no other pruning is done than merely the nipping off the top as de- 

 scribed. For comparison, all laterals except the six first ones which develop from the 

 axils of the six leaves are removed as they appear, necessitating going over the plants 

 •twice. In 1906 the seed was sown on March 13, the young plants pricked out on 

 April 5 and transplanted again into strawberry boxes on April 27. The plants were 

 set out in the open field on June 5, the tops having been nipped back previously as 

 described. Wlien set out, the plants had six laterals all showing flower clusters. On 

 July Y and 21 what other laterals had developed were pinched out of 20 of the plants. 

 Twenty plants had merely their tops pinched off at six leaves in the hot bed and no 

 further pruning in the field, and twenty plants were left unpruned. Two varieties 

 were used, viz. : Sparks' Earliana and Chalk's Early Jewel, the latter having been 

 used for only two years. In the following table most of the figures given are average 

 results for three or two years. 



Name, 

 of Variety. 



Date of 



First 



Ripe Fruit 



190G. 



Sparks' Fa-liana : 



Unpruned. . . . 



Top pinched 

 off at six 

 leaves 



Top pin c h e d 

 off at six 

 leaves and all 

 laterals e x- 

 cept first six 

 renioved in 



field 



Chalk's Early 

 Jewel : 



Unpruned. . . . 



Top pinched 

 off at six 

 leaves 



Top p i n c h ed 

 off at six 

 leaves and all 

 laterals e x- 

 cept first six 

 removed in 

 field 



July 19.. 



July 28... 



Aug. 3., 



Average 



Date of 



First 



Rijje Fruit 



11(04- G. 



July 22. 



Aug. I. 



July 2«...i Aug. 1., 



; 1905-6. 



July 19... July 18.. 



Aug. 1... July 31. 



Aug. 1., 



Ripo Fruit 



First 



Three 



Pickings, 



Average 



1904-6. 



Lbs. oz. 

 11 7 



13 3 



24 13 

 1905-6. 

 9 2 



12 



Yield of 



Ripe Fruit 



Fourth 



Picking 



Aug. 8th, 



1906. 



Total 



Yield of 



Ripe Fruit 



1906. 



Lbs. oz. 

 18 



90 



77 



13 



41 



42 



8 



Lbs. oz. 

 230 13 



388 



, ( 282 



226 



318 12 



255 



Total 



Yield of 



RipeFruii 



Average 



1904-6. 



Lbs. oz. 

 1G5 11 



245 15 



183 2 



1905 6. 



233 9 



287 6 



214 8 



Esti mated 



Total 

 Yield per 



Acre 



RipeFi'uit 



1904-6. 



Tons, lbs, 

 11 554 



16 1478 



12 928 



1905-6. 



15 1794 



19 1119 



14 1199 



It will be noticed in the above table that the early fruit from the pruned plants 

 in comparison with the unpruned is greater in the case of the Sp.^rks' Earliana than 

 the Chalk's Early Jewel. In fact the unpruned plants average considerably more than 

 from the pruned. Note, however, the marked increase in yield from the pruned plants 



