Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



December 



Figure 37 — Three-year-old English walnut tree properly staked. The prun- 

 ing of these trees should consist, first, of the removal of two lower laterals, 

 and second, the cutting back strongly of last year's growth. This tree was 

 headed at thirty inches. It would have been better to head five inches 

 higher. The alternate trees are three-year-old cherries, which were summer 

 pruned the previous season. Note how much stronger and better spread the 

 trees are than the cherry tree shown in Figure 30. 



tate to take out large branches. How- 

 ever, you sliould take care to protect 

 the wounds carefully, as cherry wood 

 is softer than that of most of the 

 poniaceous fruits. 



Special Recommendations for Prunes 

 There is very little additional that 

 can be said which will be helpful in 

 the handling of young prune trees. 

 The recommendations for the apple 

 trees apply very closely. The trees are 

 generally headed higher than any of 

 our other fruits, 30 to 3.5 inches. Some 

 growers, however, are heading about 

 20 to 25 inches, and we have seen some 

 very pretty trees headed at this hei.ght. 

 The tree never becomes extremely high 

 headed, and since most of the fruit, 

 which is to be evaporated, is allowed 

 to drop on the ground before harvest- 

 ing, the height of head from the har- 

 vesting point of view does not need any 

 consideration. However, we believe 

 that the growers will get better results 

 by constantly suijpressing terminal 

 growth and thinning out the centers 

 where they become too dense, so as to 

 allow development of strong wood. 

 Do not overdo this, however, by re- 

 moving all small laterals, spurs and 

 secondary branches. We would urge, 

 also, that not too much wood be taken 

 from the outside of the tree, and that it 

 be kept fairly open. Many growers of 

 young trees practice cutting off con- 

 siderable wood on the outside of the 

 tree and leave the centers a little dense. 

 We would recommend just the reverse 

 of this policy. Try to keep the trees 

 low headed, broad and spreading, so 

 as to build a large framework for fruit- 

 ing wood in succeeding years. 



Special Recommendations for English 

 Walnuts 



W^e would recommend that the trees 

 be headed at about 35 inches, and at the 

 time they are headed that a good heavy 

 stake, 7 or 8 feet in length, be driven 



down close to the body of the tree. The 

 first summer choose the four or five 

 laterals that will give a good scaflfold 

 framework and tie these to the stake. 

 If you do not do this they will tend to 

 droop to the ground too much, but by 

 careful tying you can keep them well 

 in shape. The following spring cut 

 back the trees exactly as though they 

 were apples. We find in many walnut 

 trees that one branch may grow up six 

 or eight feeet. It may grow three or 

 four feet higher than any of the other 

 branches. Cut this one back hard so 

 as to bring on the other branches. We 

 generally recommend the pruning to be 

 done just before the starting of the sap 

 flow. Formerly the trees were allowed 



to grow three or four years and all 

 laterals were taken off and the trees 

 grown to poles. We find that when 

 they are handled as though they were 

 apples we get a more spreading tree, 

 one with larger fruiting area and one 

 which will be much more easy to 

 handle from the orchard management 

 point of view. 



Special Recommendations for Peaches 



The peach has an entirely different 

 fruiting habit from any of the other 

 trees we have mentioned. The fruit is 

 all borne on the one-year-old wood. 

 However, the aim in pruning such trees 

 the first few years is very much the 

 same as that for other types of fruit, 

 namely, the building up of a good, 

 strong framework for future years of 

 fruiting. The peach when it is secured 

 from the nursery is generally too large 

 and has a large number of branches. 

 An ideal tree would be a straight whip, 

 but it is almost impossible to buy such 

 trees, and under our soil and climate 

 conditions they tend to grow very vig- 

 orously in the nursery. We would rec- 

 ommend a general beading to about IS 

 to 20 inches. If whips can be secured 

 they should be pruned as is customary 

 with other trees. If there are a few 

 weak laterals we would recommend 

 their removal, but if the trees have 

 strong laterals, instead of removing all 

 the lateral growth, which is practiced 

 by some growers, we would advise 

 choosing half a dozen well-spaced 

 branches and cutting them back to one 

 or two buds. This will give a larger 

 leaf surface the first year, will remove 

 the danger of having a tree stand with 

 only one or two branches, and also will 

 remove much of the danger of the trees 

 dying. We have found that under our 

 climatic conditions a great many peach 

 trees, when they are pruned back to 

 whips after they have once formed 

 strong laterals, never start to grow at 



FiGVRE 38— This illustrates two methods of pruning the English walnut 

 tree. The trees pruned to "fishpoles" at AA arc exactly the same .ige as 

 tree B. the nnlv dilTerence being that on trees AA all lateral growth has 

 been kept olT for several years, the trees being given sumnuT as we I as 

 winter pruning to remove laterals, while with tree /( all laterals have 

 been allowed to remain. 



