Tub Bulletin 



17 



Pruning Three-Year-Oi d Tkach Trees. 



The peach tree will hc^in to form fruit buds the third or fourth 

 year after transplanting. The.-^e fruit huds are borne in pairs and are 

 usually located in the middle part of the twigs. The leaf or wood buds 

 are produced at the base and ends of the twigs and are arranged spi- 

 rally. The pruning should consist of cutting off the ends of the shoots 

 to prevent the wood buds from producing too much length growth, so 

 as to enable the buds at the base to make the new fruit bearing growth 

 for next season (Fig. 13). By this plan the tree will be kept to a 



Fia. 13. — Three-year-old peach tree. Notice the buds on the peach tree, single buds at 

 ends of twig.s and double buds at base. Prune the ends of the new growth to 1-2 or 1-3, cut 

 out central leader and interfering growth to open center of the tree. The peach tree bears 

 fruit on new growth beginning the third year. The double buds develop into fruit. Prune with 

 this in mind in subsequent years. The dotted lines indicate where pruning should be done. 



limited height and the fruit will be closer to the main branches so that 

 there will be less danger of the branches breaking from a heavy crop. 

 The fruit also is not so liable to be blown off by the wind. 



After peach trees become four and five years old the pruning will be 

 the same as of the three-year-old trees except that there will be more 



