220 



CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



with fruit-bearing wood. Each leader that is left is cut back according to the 

 vigor of the tree. After a dry year, or a heavy crop, it would be cut back 



These leaders of new wood may bloom but are not likely to set fruit 

 that will mature. Their principal business is to put forth new spurs which 

 will fruit the year following. Only enough opportunity for new spurs should 

 be left so all that come may be vigorous enough to support the fruit that sets 

 on them. New growth is left long on young trees in order to get a large 

 surface for fruit bearing as soon as possible. 



The top of the tree is shaped into a hemisphere to expose a large sur- 

 face to the direct sunlight, and not so thick but that sunlight may filter 

 to the interior quite freely. If the interior is shaded too much, all fruit 

 wood there will die. 



Mr. Losse believed that his success with the Hemskirke variety 

 was due to not cutting back but simply thinning out interfering, 

 surplus, or weakened branches. He expected to cut them back 

 every five years severely enough to grow new wood. 



Still Longer Pruning. Training apricots without cutting back 

 and renewal of old trees which have grown too high is thus de- 

 scribed* by Mr. Aratus Everett of Ventura county : 



In 1893 I set out about 150 acres three miles west of the town of Moor- 

 park. This locality is subject to spring frosts. I soon noticed that the 

 earliest lower blossoms were often killed by frost when those coming out 

 later, say above ten feet, made a crop of fruit. 



As I never had approved of the extreme practice of close heading back 

 of young trees, so I left from three to five main branches to make my trees 

 and headed back and thinned out the inside branches only. 



An acquaintance of mine set out about 150 acres of apricots near Saticoy 

 the same year that mine were planted. These were set on rich land. He was 

 thoroughly imbuded with the extremely close cutting back system of prun- 

 ing young trees. At the end of five years each main limb of my trees was 

 longer than his whole tree and each of those limbs bore more fruit than his 

 whole tree. From one of my best trees when it was only four years old we 

 gathered over 500 pounds of fine fruit. When this tree was six years old it 

 bore nearly 500 pounds of apricots (green), and it has borne heavy crops 

 right along and is now (1920) in fine condition. 



When my apricot orchard was about 20 years old I had about one-quarter 

 of the large limbs that were equally distant around the tree cut off about ten 

 feet above the ground. A great many sprouts started at the top and some 

 lower down on their limbs. By breaking off all but five or six of these 

 sprouts while they were small, the rest made a strong growth which was 

 slightly headed back the next year when we cut away another quarter of the 

 main limbs. This plan was repeated for five or six years as limbs too small 

 to cut away the first year became large enough after four years more growth. 



My old orchard is now renewed with bearing top varying in age from one 

 to five years. This orchard has often made 1,000 tons of fresh fruit of good 

 quality. The trees are on apricot roots. 



Early Fall Pruning. Fall pruning, as noted in Chapter XII, is 

 the rule with the apricot where summer pruning to repress growth 

 is not followed. It is done in the Santa Clara Valley in September 

 too late to start new shoots. It is held that though there is a loss 

 of nourishment to the tree by early removal of green leaves, the 

 early pruned trees stay green later and so perhaps make up this loss, 

 besides using the energy more profitably for the grower by filling 

 out the fruit buds. 



California Cultivator. Jan. 24, 1920. 



