Vol. III. No. 23. 



JANUARY, 1908. 



^IRI5M OARDENINO 



A Monthly Educational Journal devoted to 

 the Advancement of Horticulture in Ireland 



Summer Pruning of Fruit Trees. 



By F. W. MOORE, A.L.S., Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 



^ HE question of sum- 

 mer pruning" of fruit 

 trees is one wliich 

 lias recently been 

 ^ ^ I a r g- e 1 }• b r o u g- hi t 



f ^^jmSmt^ under the notice of 



\ ^^Ijl g-ardeners by dis- 



>^ ^1 cussions at societies 



and by writing's in 

 the Horticultural 

 Press. The whole subject is certainly of 

 sufficient importance to warrant the attention 

 bestowed on it. On the 15th October last a 

 very important and fully exhaustive discussion 

 on summer pruning- took place at the meetings 

 of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society of England. Papers were read 

 by Messrs. Rivers, Spencer Pickering", and 

 A. H. Pearson ; and eminently practical market 

 g^rowers, such as Mr. Seabrook (of Chelmsford) 

 and Mr. Smith (of Lodding"ton), joined in the 

 discussion — an important point being" that these 

 practical growers, who work in different parts of 

 the country, and who are noted for their success 

 as g"rowers and for the excellent quality of their 

 fruit, both strongly advocated the practice of 

 summer pruning". (For full report see Gardeners' 

 C]i)'ouieh\ October 26th, 1907, p. 299.) Under 

 these circumstances no excuse is needed for 

 ventilating" the subject in the pages of Irish 

 Gardening. 



The following points have to be considered: — 



1. What is summer pruning? 



2. What are the objects of summer pruning"? 



3. What are the effects of summer pruning ? 

 It seems natural to suppose that the removal 



of any parts of a fruit tree — say apple, pear, or 

 plum — during the period of active growth shall 

 be considered as pruning, but many gardeners 

 will not admit this. They maintain that the 

 removal of ingrowing or crossing shoots is 

 not pruning, it is only thinning, or that pinch- 

 ing the points out of the young shoots is not 

 pruning, it is only pinching". This is only 



playiiig with words, and I write on the assump- 

 tion that the intentional removal of any part of 

 the branch system of a fruit tree, by any means 

 and for any purpose, must come under the 

 head of pruning. If we will only agree on this 

 simple, straightforward definition many mis- 

 conceptions will be avoided, and the issue can 

 be debated without confusion. 



Briefly stated, the practical object of summer 

 pruning is to expedite and increase the fertility 

 of the tree. To understand this we must know- 

 how and where the fruit is borne on the tree. 

 In the case of ordinary orchard trees, such as 

 the apple, pear, plum, and cherry, with which 

 alone I am dealing, the fruit is borne on what 

 are technically known as spurs (there are ex- 

 ceptions in the case of the plum). These spurs 

 are simply modified branches — branches which 

 are terminated by flower buds, but in which 

 during the growing season the fruit resulting 

 from the flower bud is pushed aside by a new^ 

 terminal bud ; branches in which the extent oi 

 annual growth in length and in circumference 

 is extremely small. Lateral buds are frequently 

 developed on these spurs, and we then have 

 branching" spurs. The object of summer prun- 

 ing is to help to increase the number of these 

 spurs, and to secure that they shall be as evenly 

 as possible distributed over the tree. It must 

 not be assun"ied that " once a spur always a 

 spur" holds good. Injudicious pruning, either 

 winter or summer, may cause these spurs to 

 " bolt " or " break," and develop into ordinary 

 growing shoots, which will not bear fruit, but 

 which must in their turn produce spurs before 

 they can help towards the crop. Spurs are 

 usually developed from lateral buds on the 

 growing shoots, and usually from the weaker 

 lateral buds, but buds which have sufficient 

 vitality to grow despite the smothering effects 

 of the'more rampant growths of apical, or lead- 

 ing buds, on the same shoot. This is not a 

 universal rule, as owing to such causes as 

 injury to the primary or apical bud during 



