Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



\ ovember 



thinning-oul and heading-in. These 

 new twigs will bear a few lateral fruit- 

 buds near tbe base, while those nearer 

 the tips will be branch buds. These 

 branch buds will develop into vigorous 

 and productive young fruit spurs. If 

 the new growths are long and produce 

 many lateral buds, it is best to reduce 

 the number of branch buds to live or 

 si\ by cutting off the tips during the 

 dormant pruning season. If many buds 

 are left, the resulting spurs will be 

 weak and the best ones will be too far 

 removed from the main branches of 

 the tree. 



The sweet cherry then produces its 

 fruit on short spurs and at the base 

 of longer one-year-old twigs. Remem- 

 ber that weak spurs with few axillary 

 fruit-buds are the result of insufficient 

 pruning which leaves too many branch 

 buds. Remember that a few new spurs 

 should be developed each year to take 

 the place of older ones. Remember that 

 these new spurs are the result of prun- 

 ing, sufficiently severe to force the 

 growth of new shoots which develop 

 not only axillary fruit-buds, but axil- 

 lary branch-buds. The growth of fruit- 

 ing wood throughout the entire top may 

 be encouraged by such heading-in and 

 thinning-out as will force new growth 

 in the center of the tree. If we neglect to 

 watch this feature, we some day awake 

 to the fact that all of our fruit is a long 

 way from the ground and must be 

 gathered with long ladders and at a 

 heavy expense. 



Also remember that the sweet-cherry 

 bud produces only flowers and that the 

 fruits developed are, to a certain extent 

 at least, dependent upon foliage of the 

 spur for elaborated-food material. This 

 means that fruiting wood cannot be 

 shortened-in as a means of thinning 

 fruit. The fruit upon wood with its 

 terminal and axillary branch buds re- 

 moved by pruning, would be at a dis- 

 advantage, for it must either elaborate 

 food material itself (this it could do 

 during its early period of growth) or 

 it must draw this food material from 

 the limb from which the twig arises. 

 Not only this, but the wood with all its 

 branch buds removed by pruning is de- 

 stroyed. It has no means of continuing 

 its growth and must die at the close of 

 its fruiting season. Pruning employed 

 as a means of thinning fruit must re- 

 move entire and not parts of fruiting 

 branches. 



The sour cherry is much like the 

 sweet cherry in its fruiting habit. It is 

 more fruitful on the longer twigs, often 

 all the lateral buds on twigs a foot long 

 being fruit-buds. In fact, the trees can 

 be depended upon to produce much 

 fruit from these stronger new growths. 

 Old spurs are less desirable than in the 

 case of the sweet cherry. 



It is well to remember that fruiting 

 branches can be shortened in only to 

 branch buds, for like the sweet cherry, 

 the sour cherry fruit-bud produces 

 from one to five or more (lowers, but 

 no leaves of real value. Contrary to the 

 common impression that the sour 

 cherry will not stand pruning, the tree 

 really thrives with severe pruning. In 

 the neglected tree all the axillary buds 

 are fruit-buds. New fruiting wood can 



only be developed from terminal buds, 

 and as a consequence the tree is filled 

 with fine wood from one to three, four 

 or even five feet in length bearing a 

 half dozen fruit-buds on a half inch of 

 new growths of sufficient length and 

 vigor to bear axillary branch buds as 

 well as fruit-buds. These branch buds 

 develop into strong young spurs bear- 

 ing well-developed fruit-buds, which 

 will the next season produce the maxi- 

 mum number of well-developed (lowers, 

 'the fruit-buds of the peach are nor- 

 mally axillary and only very, very 

 rarely do we see one terminating a 

 twig. These buds open and produce a 

 single flower, but no leaves. They are 

 borne singly in the axils of single leaves 

 or in pairs, one on either side of a 

 branch bud, the three buds being borne 

 in the axils of as many leaves. The 

 first type of bearing is found in trees 

 poorly pruned or on weak spurs in 

 well-pruned trees. In most varieties 

 shoots that do not make a growth of 

 over ten or twelve inches bear their 

 fruit-buds singly. The triple buds are 

 found on the stronger one-year-old 

 wood. The stronger type of fruiting 

 wood with its triple buds is the most 

 desirable. In the case of single buds it 

 is impossible to thin the fruit by 

 heading-in the fruiting wood. To do 

 this would remove all the foliage from 

 the twig as in the case of the cherry, 

 and the fruit borne by this leafless twig 

 would be poorly nourished. Where 

 (he tree has made a poor growth and 

 all the fruiting wood bears single buds, 

 pruning can be employed as a means of 

 thinning fruit only so far as entire 

 branches can be spared. Surplus fruit 

 on the remaining branches must be re- 

 moved by hand thinning. The buds at 

 the base of these twigs are usually 

 branch buds, and it is well to remember 

 that those to be removed may be made 

 a source of desirable new fruit wood if 

 spurred back to one or two of these 

 branch buds. The fruiting wood with 

 its fruit-buds in pairs with a branch 

 bud between may be cut back even to 

 its last pair of fruit-buds. The branch 

 bud will continue the growth of the 

 twig. With this type of fruiting wood, 

 practically all of the thinning can be 

 done with the pruning shears. It may 

 not be desirable to cut this close when 

 doing the general pruning, but after the 

 fruit is set and danger of frost is past, 

 the fruiting wood may be shortened-in 

 to remove the oversupply of fruit. 

 Thinning is a small task as compared 

 with that on a tree bearing single 

 fruit-buds. 



Such a type of fruiting wood can only 

 be developed by severe pruning. As in 

 the cherry, some of these strong twigs 

 will grow in the tops of the poorly- 

 pruned trees, but to grow them in the 

 center of the tree the top must be 

 pruned back severely. Remember that 

 it is almost impossible to maintain a 

 fruiting area over seven or eight feet 

 in depth. Little is gained by growing 

 a peach tree fifteen feet in height when 

 the bottom seven feet is barren. It is 

 better to keep .the trees down to a 

 height of ten feet with fruit wood 

 within three feet of the ground. A 

 well-pruned tree will grow three feet 



of new top each year; but, if the tree is 

 to continue productive, practically all 

 of this must be removed each year. 

 Prune according to the wood growth 

 you get, and set the standard of twig 

 growth to be desired at from fourteen 

 to twenty inches. It is safe to say that 

 in a well-pruned peach tree four-fifths 

 of the one-year-old growth is removed 

 at each pruning season. Pruning that 

 is too severe will produce strong twigs 

 with the first fruit-buds, near the 

 middle or farther out on the year's 

 growth. Such pruning not only causes 

 the tree to expend energy in the pro- 

 duction of needless wood, but necessi- 

 tates the leaving of fruit-spurs long. 

 This makes the tree bushy and hard to 

 work in, and develops a type of fruiting 

 wood that must be early replaced by 

 newer arms forced from the main 

 limbs. Wood with the triple buds near 

 the base may be spurred back close 

 each year and may be maintained sev- 

 eral years before they are long enough 

 to become undesirable. 



The nectarine is really a peach and 

 the trees so much like a peach tree that 

 it is unnecessary to outline a special 

 system of pruning. Prune the tree as 

 you would prune a peach tree. 



The fruiting habit of the apricot is 

 much like that of the peach, or at least 

 a system of pruning adapted to the 

 peach would do very well for the apri- 

 cot. The tree is inclined to bear more 

 of its fruit upon short spurs, but it 

 also bears abundantly on longer new 

 growths. On the weaker spurs espe- 

 cially the fruit-buds are often borne 

 singly in the axils of single leaves. On 

 the longer twigs they are found in 

 groups of two, three or four, and on 

 these stronger growths, branch buds 

 are more often found in the clusters 

 with the fruit-buds. Unlike the peach, 

 the apricot twigs bear no true terminal 

 buds. All the buds are axillary and 

 those at the tips of branches may be 

 either fruit-buds or branch buds. The 

 fruit-buds normally bear a single flower 

 and no leaves. As in the case of the 

 peach, fruiting wood bearing its fruit- 

 buds single, cannot be headed-in as a 

 means of thinning the fruit. 



The most desirable type of fruiting 

 wood is the longer growth bearing 

 fruit-buds in groups. In these groups 

 there is nearly always a branch bud, 

 and the twig may be headed-in to any 

 point without destroying the spur or 

 leaving the fruits without foliage. The 

 shorter spurs on poorly-pruned trees 

 are apt to bear only fruit-buds. As a 

 result, the spurs die at the end of the 

 fruiting season, for they have no means 

 of continuing their growth. Such trees 

 are inclined to bear heavily only alter- 

 nate years; at least they bear heavy 

 crops in the main body of the tree only 

 once in two years. Even if poorly 

 pruned the stronger branches in the top 

 of the tree bear every year. 



The apricot tree should be pruned 

 severely. Prune until the tree makes 

 as much growth as the well-pruned 

 peach. The growth should be strong 

 enough so fruiting wood will bear some 

 branch buds in the clusters of axillary- 

 buds. The twig may then be headed- 

 back to any one of these groups of buds, 



