AUGUST 



IRISH GARDENING, 



127 



The Fruit Grounds. 



By A. Barker. Carrigoran, Nevvmarket-on-Ferg-us, 

 Co. Clare. 



THE training- and pruning of all kinds of fruit trees 

 on walls needs continued attention. Peaches 

 should have the young shoots regularly tied in, 

 and the trees will be much benefited by copious sup- 

 plies of water at the roots while the fruits are swelling, 

 with plenty of syringing overhead, and especially so if 

 there is any sign of red spider present. Heavy syring- 

 ing with water after the sun is off the trees is both a 

 preventive and a sure remedy against red spider ; if as 

 much soot water as will just discolour the syringing 

 water is added it makes the check to red spider 

 quicker and more effective. 



Morello cherries should have about a third of their 

 young shoots tied or nailed down and the remainder 

 cut right out, as it is on these young shoots the fruit is 

 produced and not on spurs as with sweet cherries. 



In the case of trained trees of pears, plums, dessert 

 cherries, and apples on walls or espaliers, continue to 

 train all shoots needed to extend the trees ; leading 

 shoots will now have made sufficient growth and the 

 points may be pinched out, to check further growth. 

 If the breastwood on such trees has not already been 

 shortened do not delay any longer in getting it done, 

 as apart from the benefit to the trees generally the 

 cutting away of the young growths renders the trees 

 much more pleasing in appearance and takes away 

 the rough uncared-for look of trees unpruned or un- 

 trained. Keep all secondary growth on previously 

 pruned trees closely pinched back. Cordon trees, 

 whether on walls or on wires in the open grounds, 

 may be similarly treated. 



The fruits on the five mentioned trees will now be 



t much benefited by plentiful supplies of water, unless 

 the rainfall should be sufficient to meet their needs 

 (except in case of such early varieties as are just 

 approaching maturity), weak manure water if available, 

 or failing this a dressing of any approved fertiliser 

 raked in to the ground previous to watering ; occasional 



I washings with the garden engine or hose pipe will also 

 assist very materially in keeping the trees clean and 

 the fruit swelling away freely. Similar waterings will 

 also be of great benefit to bush and pyramid trees. 

 Bush and pyramid trees may now have the leading 

 shoots stopped, and if the side shoots have not been cut 

 back, as previously advised, make an effort to get this 

 done at once, and especially as the pressure of gathering, 

 &c. , of small fruits is almost over. Give all attention 

 possible to the larger fruits so that they may still gain 

 all the advantage possible from the summer pruning. 

 Fully grown or large old orchard trees may be left 

 alone until after the fruit is gathered. 



If woolly aphis has made any headway it should be 

 taken in hand and persistently destroyed, when and 

 wherever it appears. A very handy way of treating this 

 aphis on small trees, or such as can be reached from 

 the ground, is to go around and give every bunch of 

 the aphis a dressing of methylated spirits. Obtain 

 some receptacle to use the spirits from ; such a thing as 

 a small jam-pot with a piece of copper wire tied round 



and over to form a handle for carrying with, and a 

 small paint brush, or a fev,- bristles tied round the end 

 of a stick, will do quite well. Keep the brush continually 

 moistened with spirits, and touch up all the aphis with 

 sufficient spirit to destroy it. Do not use a large brush, 

 as this is wasteful of the spirits and liable to drop too 

 much over the foliage and fruits. For larger trees 

 syringe with paraffin oil and water at the rate of a 

 wineglass of paraffin to one gallon of water. Keep this 

 mixture thoroughly churned up to prevent the oi! 

 collecting on top of water and to keep the oil evenly 

 distributed with the water ; otherwise the mixture 

 would be harmful to foliage and fail to destroy the 

 aphis. An ordinary syringe or garden engine is the 

 best thing to apply the mixture with. Syringe with 

 good force to dissipate the woolly covering of aphis, and 

 thus make the syringing more fatal. 



The wasp pest also needs severely dealing with now. 

 They are likely to be very numerous this year, as there 

 was a very unusual number of queens evidetit. For 

 instance, some time ago I sent a couple of youngsters 

 to a raspberry square to look for queen wasps, with a 

 promise of a penny each for all they killed ; they 

 were not long before they returned, exclaiming — 

 " Here, sir, we"ve got more than two shillings worth 

 of "em," plain evidence of the great number of 

 queens in existence. A very fatal agent of destruc- 

 tion to wasps nests is cyanide of potassium. A 

 small teaspoonful dropped just at the mouth of 

 their entrance to nest is certain destruction to them. 

 This should be used just before dark, when all the 

 wasps are in the nest or returning. Obtain the 

 best quality, and have it ground ; this makes it 

 more effective than lumps. Gas tar poured into the 

 mouth of the hole where nest is formed is a very ready 

 and safe means of destruction, if the tar is kept in a 

 garden-can with a long spout it is ready for pouring 

 about a pint or more into any nest as soon as found. 



As early as possible after strawberry runners are well 

 rooted get them planted in their permanent quarters. 

 Assuming that the ground has been for some time pre- 

 viously well manured, trenched or deeply dug ; choose 

 a day when the soil is in such a condition of dryness 

 that it will bear any amount of walking on without 

 clogging, and trample the ground thoroughly to make 

 it firm and break down all lumps. After this make 

 the ground perfectly level and smooth with plenty of 

 raking. Trample the ground over the second time if 

 there is any suspicion of the ground being spongy or 

 soft, then draw very small drills across the plot both 

 ways —i.e. from north to south and east to west — at 2\ 

 feet apart each way for ordinary growing varieties, 

 planting the plants where the lines cross. Make the 

 plants very firm in the ground at planting and supply 

 them with abundance of water for a week or two after 

 planting in case dry weather prevails. This may seem 

 an unusual amount of ground to give the plants in these 

 days of heavy cropping, but providing the ground has 

 been thoroughly well prepared and the plants after- 

 wards well mulched and kept in good order it is none 

 too much space to give them. I have gathered as 

 much as three pounds of good ripe strawberries off a 

 plant at a single picking under the method of cultiva- 

 tion I have described during the past few months. If 



