February, 1921 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 5 



Pruning Young Peach Trees at Time of Planting 



By C. L. Burkholder, Associate in Horticultural Extension, Purdue University 



IT IS a common pruning practice to 

 cut young peach trees to a whip 18 

 to 24 inches long at planting time. 

 When the trees come from the nursery 

 with green, spindling, poorly developed 

 limbs at the point at which it is de- 

 sired to start the head of the young 

 tree, it is without doubt the best policy 

 to cut to a whip. On the other hand if 

 there is a nice head started at that 

 point or even a little higher up it seems 

 foolhardy to cut it off and grow on 

 another at nearly the same place. Fig. 

 1 shows a young peach which has a fine 

 set of scaffold limbs at about the right 

 height when it came from the nursery. 

 Three of these were selected for the 

 head of the tree as shown in Fig. 2. 

 These three limbs were cut back to 

 stubs from three to four inches long. 



Fig. 3 shows a tree which is best cut 

 to a whip. The limbs are thin, green, 



Figure 2. The t 



n Figure 1 after pruning. 



Figure 1. A tree like this should not be cut to 

 a whip. The scaffold limbs are already nicely 



and sappy on the lower part of the 

 tree where the scaffold should be 

 started. When a peach tree is pruned 

 to a whip at planting time, it often 

 happens that three or four limbs start 

 on one side of the tree, making a very 

 poor head. In other cases the whip 

 dies down nearly to the ground and 

 sprouts up from near the bud. This 

 risk is avoided when a scaffold can be 

 picked from the limbs on the tree as it 

 comes from the nursery. 



Some very successful growers start 

 the heads of their young trees six inches 

 above the ground. This makes a low 

 head and produces the largest number 

 of branches 40 to 50 inches in length 

 the first season but it does not seem to 

 make a noticeably stronger scaffold. It 

 is much more difficult to cultivate up 

 close to a tree headed only six inches 

 high than it is one headed 24 or 30 

 inches high. Many growers are train- 

 ing their trees higher than formerly as 

 they are finding that they can keep the 

 top of the tree plenty low and at the 

 same time are able to disk up close 

 to this type of tree. 



It does not seem advisable to cut all 

 peach whips to the same height at 

 planting. It will be found on observa- 

 tion that there are very definite areas 

 on the peach whip where the buds are 

 much better developed. By cutting 

 just above such an area of buds the 

 chances are much greater that a satis- 

 factory head will be formed the first 

 season. Another factor having a bear- 

 ing on the height at which peach whips 

 should be cut is the diameter of the 

 trres. If small stocks, below % inch, 

 they will made a more satisfactory 

 growth the first year if cut back more 

 severely than trees of the larger grades. 



M. A. Blake of the New Jersey Ex- 



perimental Station found that the most 

 numerous buds on a peach whip were 

 first 36 to 42 inches above the ground 

 followed in order by the 42 to 48 and 

 the to 6 inch spaces. His conclusions 

 were that peach trees at the time of 

 planting should be pruned somewhat 

 according to the grade and character of 

 the stock and not according to some 

 definite height regardless of all other 

 factors. 



nrar. 3. A type of peach tree which should 

 always be pruned to a whip. 



An exportable surplus of 100,000 

 boxes of apples in New Zealand is the 

 estimate of the minister of agriculture 

 of the dominion. With 37,000 acres of 

 commercial orchards coming into bear- 

 ing, new outlets will have to be found 

 for the surplus. 



