IQI5 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 9 



rank terminal growth so as to force 

 out the laterals and allow them to 

 make a good growth and become hard- 

 ened before fall. In this way you will 

 gain a whole year in the framework of 

 your trees. A good practice to follow 

 with such trees is to do most of the 

 heading back in .Tunc and most of the 

 thinning out in March or April, or 

 whenever the winter pruning is done. 

 However, should the trees after they 

 are pruned in June make such a rank 

 growth that they need some topping 

 back again the following spring, you 

 should by all means do so. In nearly 

 all cases it will be advisable to do some 

 topping back of the terminals, or else 

 the terminal bud will incline to con- 

 tinue this growth, producing a long 

 leggy branch. If no topping is done on 

 these shoots in spring it will be neces- 

 sary to give them a heavy heading 

 back in summer, to prevent their be- 

 coming too long before producing 

 desirable laterals. You should remove 

 from these young trees, during the 

 summer time, any undesirable growth, 

 branches which you know will never 

 be of any value to the tree and are 

 growing at the expense of some branch 

 which should be developed. We would 

 caution, however, against the too 

 strenuous thinning out of young trees. 

 We are of the opinion that we have 

 overdone the thinning out of lateral 

 branches. 



This pruning which is given to these 

 young trees, while it does not as a rule 

 directly induce fruitfulness, will tend 

 to bring the trees up to the critical 

 period in much better condition than 

 otherwise, since it tends to balance the 

 tree; and since it distributes the prun- 

 ing over two periods of the year, it 

 eliminates the necessity for very vig- 

 orous pruning which so many growers 

 give trees. The heavy winter pruning 

 given young trees serves as a stimulus 

 and often causes too much vegetative 

 growth. 



Some growers are opposed to sum- 

 mer pruning on the grounds that such 

 pruning weakens the tree, that it is de- 

 vitalizing, that it is unwise to remove 

 any of the leaves as they are the 

 "lungs" and manufacturing organs of 

 the tree. We feel that it would be only 

 in very extreme cases that summer 

 pruning would ever be devitalizing, and 

 certainly not where one makes the 

 single summer pruning as already rec- 

 ommended. Such pruning in some 

 cases might give increased vigor; in 

 others very little ditTerence will be 

 noted; while in still others the growth 

 may be modified to the extent that 

 there is less vegetative growth, but 

 even in the last case there is modifica- 

 tion rather than devitalization. The 

 result of a single summer pruning as 

 recommended for these young trees is 

 not so much a question of vigor as it 

 is a question of change in direction of 

 growth or energy. Tlie clipping back 

 of the terminal, forces the growth into 

 desirable new lateral framework rather 

 than into a useless additional terminal 

 growth. There aie cases where fre- 

 quent sunnner pruning at short in- 



FiGURE 30 — An example of unequal growth. Branch .1 is growing at the 

 expense of the other branches in the tree and should be suppressed. 



tervals during the summer has a tend- 

 ency to check or dwarf a tree; for ex- 

 ample, in growing dwarf trees we must 

 not only have a dwarfing stock but we 

 must practice frequent pinching back 

 of shoots. Again, we have seen walnut 

 trees dwarfed by removal of all lateral 

 growth for a period of years. These 

 last two cases, however, are extreme 

 and represent excessively frequent 

 pruning. The greatest danger of de- 

 vitalizing young trees does not come 

 from a single summer pruning, but 

 rather from allowing too heavy bearing 

 of young trees. 



We shall now consider summer 

 pruning as related to our second class 

 of trees, namely, those from four to 

 seven years of age. These trees have 

 now gone through their formative 

 period and should have good trunks 

 and scall'old limbs, and shoidd be aj)- 

 Iiroaching that i)eriod when they can 

 begin to bear heavy crops. We shall 

 modify summer ijruning for these trees, 

 as compared with the yoiuiger trees. 

 In this case we are to work wilh the 

 idea of trying to induce fiiiilfidness 



directly if possible. The iiruning will 

 generally come consideraljly later with 

 these older trees. There is no definite 

 time to set. We recommend, however, 

 tliat the pruning be done at the time the 

 terminal buds are forming on the ends 

 of the shoots. You will note the leaves 

 are beginning to get larger on the ends 

 of the twigs, and if you will look 

 closely you will see that the terminal 

 bud is forming. At that time, which in 

 the Willamette Valley, for example, is 

 generall>- abotd the middle of .luly, we 

 cut back the terminal growth, cutting it 

 back to the i)oint where it is desired 

 to force out new laterals for another 

 year's growth. The cutting at this time 

 seems to cause a thickening of the 

 branches, piolj.ihly an accimnihition of 

 tissues around the buds, and with some 

 varieties, pi-obal)I.\-, will lead to direct 

 fruiting the following season. With 

 others, however-, it will simi)ly tend to 

 keep the trees in balance, and probably 

 encourage earlier fruiting than would 

 otherwise be true. That is, your rc- 

 sidls may come in two or three years 

 rather than in one year. If this prun- 



