CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Special Points on Peach Pruning. Whatever plan for low, vase- 

 form be adopted, there are variations in the use of it by successful 

 peach growers in various parts of the State. A few instances will 

 be given : 



In pruning the peach I have found it a great advantage not to cut the 

 new wood until after it has done its work. This is my method: A new 

 shoot grows out to three feet this year. Don't cut it back next winter; but 

 let it grow. There will be a few peaches on it and a great many strong 

 buds will develop to set and mature a crop the following year. After that 

 crop is off, cut the whole shoot back to the main branch. Other buds 

 will grow from about the same place and below it on the big limbs to go 

 through the same cycle. While this shoot is bearing its heavy crop, others 

 will be growing and setting fruit buds for the year when the first men- 

 tioned one has been cut off. 



When you cut off a new shoot several others start next season near the 

 cut, and draw all the sap from the buds below. They are stunted and 

 probably killed. The several new shoots use a lot of sap that ought to go 

 to fruit, for it is well known that the cutting back stimulates undue wood 

 growth. You will have your trouble of cutting back year after year; and 

 as time goes on, you build the tree higher and higher out of the reach of 

 fruit pickers. By my method after a tree is large as convenient to prune 

 and pick from, the fruit is forced out all along the limbs where it can be 

 most securely held up and most thoroughly nourished. The tree does not 

 grow appreciably higher, there is very little waste wood growth, for the 

 shoots unpruned grow only a very few inches and that few inches is good 

 for the production of necessary leaves. If the tree seems too prolific, take 

 out more wood always at its junction with the limb from which it 

 springs. The tree is kept open enough always to supply light to the inner 

 fruit spurs, but enough new wood is left to protect it from sunburn. New 

 spurs are constantly growing among the bearing ones, so that the old 

 limbs continue to bear. Should the new spurs get a little too thin, or the 

 tree seem to need more leaves, a few shoots may be cut back for the sole 

 purpose of providing new wood. Ed. Ames, Newcastle. 



Unless the growth is systematically cut back it will be spindly and will 

 not come low down on the limbs which could hold the weight of fruit de- 

 sired. Without proper cutting back, the new growth will come from the 

 terminals of last season's growth and on ordinary soil will be short, weak, 

 and spindly, and the following year will produce little fruit. If such a 

 tree is on low, moist soil, the growth from terminals will be longer and 

 will set more fruit, but will be so spindly that it cannot hold up or mature 

 the crop it sets. Cutting back the new growth stiffens it and the limb it 

 comes from. After a tree is mature, the wood which bore fruit last year 

 should be removed so far as practicable; and where new growth is too 

 thick it should be thinned. This, with the cutting back of new wood, will 

 force new growth throughout the tree. 



In the cutting back, the habit of the variety in locating fruit buds must 

 be observed. With Elbertas and Muirs fruit buds are made near the junc- 

 tions with larger branches, so cutting back of fruit laterals only is neces- 

 sary, and they may be cut pretty short, especially far out on a branch. 

 With Lovells the branch itself may perfectly be cut back, leaving fewer 

 laterals and these considerably longer, because their fruit buds are scarce 

 near the junctions. C. B. Weeks, Red Bluff. 



The peach is renewed every year by cutting into the older wood so that 

 there will be ample growth of yx>ung shoots which bear the coming crop, 

 and this cutting is more severe after the tree has reached maturity, in 

 order to get the desired result. The tree should not be allowed to become 

 too large or straggling but should be pruned so that young growth is 

 always plentiful from the bottom up. While growth is very vigorous a 

 summer thinning o f surplus inside growth is beneficial. Leonard Coates, 

 Morgan Hill. 



