December, 19^1 

 Pruning Suggestions 



{Conti/tneJ from fdge 7) 

 be avoided. I do mean, however, 

 that in general a fruit spur which 

 bears fruit one year will not bear fruit 

 the next. The reason is obvious if we ap- 

 preciate the theory of fruit-bud develop- 

 ment. The spur which bears fruit expends 

 all its energies and uses all available food 

 supply to develop the fruit. There is no 

 reserve food supply available for fruit-bud 

 development. This spur must then take 

 another year for recuperation and fruit-bud 

 formation. On the other hand the spur 

 from which the fruit has been removed 

 will elaborate in its own leaves a supply of 

 reserve food material and will develop 

 fruit-buds for the next year's crop. This 

 then is one of the prime objects of thin- 

 ning. To be sure, we thin for size, but 

 after all we may thin for size and not 

 secure annual bearing. That is we may get 

 a crop of fair sized apples and still have 

 alternate bearing. 



There is a limit to the amount of fruit 

 that may be developed and still develop 

 fruit-buds. One must gain judgment on 

 this point by actual experience. We are 

 quite apt to lack courage in thinning. I 

 believe we should decide about how many 

 boxes of fruit a tree will develop and then 

 thin for that amount. This means that we 

 may actually need to count the fruits re- 

 maining on the tree. Suppose we decide 

 a certain tree should bear ten boxes of 

 apples and that a desirable size of fruit is 

 say 135 to 150 apples to the box. Then 

 thin the trees to 13 50 to 1500 apples. If 

 you don't make some such estimate you are 

 pretty sure to leave more fruits than the 

 tree will properly develop. If it produces 

 this crop and fails to bears flowers the next 

 year you have over-estimated the ca- 

 pacity of the tree at least in most varieties. 

 If the fruits develop over-size or the tree 

 matures it fruit well and makes too much 

 growth you have under-estimated the tree's 

 capacity. 



Every grower must for his own condi- 

 tions, work out his own standard. It will 

 not be necessary to make counts in all trees 

 for you will in time develop a good thin- 

 ning judgment. If this thinning is to be 

 effective it must be done early, at least 

 before the season of fruit-bud development 

 is well advanced. In our standard apples 

 like Wealthy and Mcintosh I am quite 

 sure that the annual crops may be secured 

 by proper pruning thinning, but not by 

 pruning alone. 



TT IS ALSO well to. remember that in 

 -'- some varieties at least there is a choice 

 to be made in the fruits to be left. For 

 instance, a normal cluster of apple flowers 

 is six. In the Mcintosh the center or sixth 

 blossom does not develop a good fruit. The 

 stem is short and fleshy and the fruit is 

 angular and of poor shape. This is the 

 flower that too often sets and the fruit 

 develops at the expense of the others which 



BETTER FRUn 



drop or are crowded off. The next two 

 blossoms below this are the ones that 

 develop into the best fruit. 



I want to mention briefly, that there is 

 another stage in the development, which 

 we should watch out for, and that is the 

 stage when the fruit begins to develop out 

 on the tips of the branches, at the expense 

 of those in the center of the tree. Such 

 a growth indicates that the tree requires 

 more pruning, and then we begin what we 

 might call a system of pruning for the 

 heading in of the branches, to encourage 

 more growth in the center of the tree. I 

 don't think much of allowing the tree to 

 develop its fruit away out on the tips of 

 the branches. 



Then, one other point, and that is, prun- 

 ing tools. I don't believe many of us ap- 

 preciate the convenience of proper pruning 

 tools in orchard pruning, and I think we 

 should put more emphasis on proper tools. 

 I wonder how many orchardists have used 

 a pole pruning saw, which, in my estima- 

 tion, is one of the most convenient prun- 

 ing tools about the orchard; we have all 

 used pruning clips, probably, but by a pole 

 pruning saw, we will eliminate one-half of 

 the climbing and one-half of the work on 

 stepladders; a good type of pruning saw 

 is one with a curved blade on the end of 

 the pole; they cut both ways, but particu- 

 larly when pulling, which is the safest way 

 to cut, when pruning. 



Page 21 



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