BETTER FRUIT 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF MODERN, PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



The Pruning of Stone Fruit Trees 



OF all phases of orchard work, 

 none is more interesting than 

 pruning; and of all pruning, none 

 is more fascinating than the pruning of 

 those trees commonly known as stone 

 fruits. It is safe to say that no class of 

 fruit trees suffers more quickly from 

 improper pruning, and none responds 

 more promptly to proper treatment. 

 Probably it is this ready response, a 

 response which so clearly indicates 

 whether the pruning has been right or 

 wrong, that makes the work interest- 

 ing. We are able to see results and to 

 intelligently reason out causes for suc- 

 cess or failure, before we have forgot- 

 ten how the pruning was done. How- 

 ever, the subject is a large one, and I 

 feel it would be a mistake to attempt, 

 in the time at our disposal, to cover the 

 entire field. 



The ideas advanced are based upon 

 personal observations and experience 

 in pruning apricots, sweet and sour 

 cherries, nectarines, peaches and plums; 

 and, while of a general nature, and 

 though to some of you they may seem 

 far-fetched, I hope we may be able to 

 get at some of the fundamental prin- 

 ciples to be observed in pruning these 

 plants. In the case of each fruit, or at 

 least the more important ones of this 

 class, I shall attempt to answer three 

 questions: Where does the plant bear 

 its fruit? What are the most desirable 

 types of fruiting wood? And how can 

 we best maintain these desirable types? 

 To some this may seem an unusual man- 

 ner of attacking the subject of pruning, 

 yet I feel that these are things we must 

 know if we are to prune intelligently. 

 In other words, that the principles in- 

 volved are important ones and that sys- 

 tems of pruning are largely dictated by 

 the fruit-bearing habit of the plant. 



The Nature Study idea has in recent 

 years been much talked of in educa- 

 tional circles. Probably nature study 

 in its truest sense was designed for 

 children, but many of w-e older people 

 might profit had our faculties for ob- 

 servation been quickened by such study. 

 Did it ever occur to you that so much 

 of our education is gained through ob- 

 servation? And do you realize that 

 most of us are such poor observers that 

 two or three good educations might be 

 overlooked in a lifetime? The doctor 

 who is a leader in his profession is not 

 necessarily the man who graduated at 

 the head of his class. More likely he 

 is the one who has done most to edu- 

 cate himself. Such education has been 

 acquired by accurate observation, and 

 the opportunities for observation were 

 afforded by his practice. We are accus- 

 tomed to class such training as expe- 

 rience, but I fail to see why such an 



By 0. B. Whipple, Bozeman, Montana 



important part of one's education 

 should receive this commonplace classi- 

 fication. 



"What I have to say to you, you may 

 call nature study if you like; I shall not 

 feel insulted. But how many are able 

 to answer such questions as these? 

 How many flowers will a single fruit- 

 bud of the peach, plum or cherry de- 

 velop? Does the fruit-bud of the peach, 

 cherry or plum produce leaves as well 

 as flowers? Where do these fruits 

 really bear their fruit-buds? Yet the 

 information is important if we are to be 

 good pruners. The moral is, we should 

 all be better observers. 



Anyone who has had any great 

 amount of experience in pruning our 

 common fruit trees realizes that these 

 trees bear their fruit in certain posi- 

 tions, each kind of fruit tree having a 

 fruit-bearing habit more or less of its 

 own. Possibly we have not stopped to 

 think that many other plants, grown for 

 flowers for instance, have their flower- 

 bearing habit which must be consid- 

 ered in pruning. The rose bears its 

 flowers from certain types of wood and 

 the gardener has learned to regulate 

 flower-bearing by thinning to a certain 

 amount of this wood. However, a sys- 

 tem of pruning, such as is commonly 

 practiced in pruning the rose, would 

 leave a lilac bush without a flower. 

 Even the cucumber and the canteloupe 

 have a regular habit of bearing fruit. 

 The pistilate flowers which develop 

 into fruits appear in certain places, 

 while the staminate flowers occupy all 

 other positions where flowers are nor- 

 mally borne. On the first main vine 

 the first pistilate flower is generally 

 well out in the axil of say the sixth, 

 seventh or eighth leaf. On the branch 

 vines a pistilate flower appears in the 

 axil of the first leaf. This branch then 

 commonly grows for some distance be- 

 fore it bears another pistilate flower. 

 If, however, another branch vine arises 

 from this, the first flower is a pistilate 

 flower and it appears in the axil of the 

 first leaf. In these curcurbits, early 

 setting of fruit may be induced by such 

 pruning as encourages early branching. 

 The gain is not so much in production 

 as in securing an early set of fruit, and 

 consequently the ripening of the nop 

 over a shorter season. 



Among our common deciduous fruit 

 trees, we have two types of fruit-bear- 

 ing— from axillary buds and from true 

 terminal buds. The axillary buds are 

 borne in the axils of leaves along the 

 side of the branch, and the terminal 

 hods at the tip of the shoot or branch. 

 When applied to buds the last term is 

 confusing, for we must remember thai 

 not every bud terminating the growth 



of the season is a true terminal bud. 

 In the case of many of the plums and 

 the apricot, the last bud, in fact all 

 buds, are axillary. Each is developed 

 in the axil of a single leaf, while the 

 true terminal bud is usually subtended 

 by two leaves, one on either side of the 

 stem. The plant which bears its fruit 

 from the axillary buds is naturally 

 more productive than the one that bears 

 only from terminal buds. One can see 

 at a glance that a tree bears many more 

 axillary than terminal buds. The stone 

 fruits as a class bear from axillary 

 fruit-buds, and we recognize them as 

 more fruitful than apples and pears, 

 which bear mostly from terminal buds. 

 For this reason, the stone fruits require 

 more vigorous pruning. But a fruit- 

 bearing habit may mean more than 

 bearing from axillary or terminal fruit- 

 buds. These axillary fruit-buds may 

 appear on certain types of wood, or 

 those on certain types of branches may 

 be more desirable. While all stone 

 fruits bear from axillary buds, each has 

 a fruit-bearing habit more or less pe- 

 culiar to itself, and the pruning of each 

 must be considered separately. 



The sweet cherry bears most of its 

 fruit-buds axillary on short spurs. 

 Each bud may produce from one to five 

 or more flowers, but, if any at all, only 

 rudimentary leaves. These spurs are 

 always provided with a terminal 

 branch bud which continues the growth 

 of the spur in a straight line. The rate 

 of growth will vary according to how 

 well the trees are pruned. Spurs on 

 poorly-pruned trees may not grow over 

 a quarter of an inch, and under such 

 conditions of growth are inclined to 

 bear only alternate years. The tree in- 

 sufficiently pruned bears so many of 

 these spurs that during seasons when 

 they are developing fruit, they cannot 

 obtain enough food material to develop 

 lateral fruit-buds. They simply mature 

 a terminal branch bud which unfolds 

 the following spring, and, under favor- 

 able conditions, produces new growth 

 long enough and strong enough to bear 

 lateral fruit-buds. 



The most desirable type of sweet 

 cherry fruit spur is one that grows at 

 least three-quarters of an inch per year. 

 Those that grow this much will produce 

 annual crops of vigorous blossoms and 

 large fruit. Spurs max live and produce 

 fruit lor many years, but it is a question 

 if it is wise io depend upon old spurs. 

 It is better to prune the tree enough to 

 secure each year some new growths 

 from lour to twelve inches long. Such 

 twigs are found in the lops of trees 



p I> pruned, but they can only be 



developed throughout the entire tree by 

 vigorous pinning both in the way of 



