CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 

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SHALL IT BE "GRAPEFRUIT" OR "POMELO"? 



Grapefruit is the accepted American commercial name for the 

 fruit and an accepted commercial name is too valuable to disre- 

 gard The last report of the manager of the California Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Exchange, our great citrus marketing organization, makes 

 several references to grapefruit and does not use the name pomelo 

 at all. Dr. W. T. Swingle points out in the Standard Encyclopedia 

 of Horticulture that "pomelo" and "pummelo" are contractions of 

 the Dutch "pompelmoes" and cover nearly all fruits of citrus 

 grandis, and he advices that we use it in this generic sense and 

 apply it to all the species of the genus except the grapefruit group, 

 which he holds to be distinct enough from the others to merit a 

 separate name. It is therefore likely that we shall henceforth use 

 the term grapefruit in California because pomelo means too much 

 in a botanical sense and too little in a commercial way. 



CULTURE AND PRUNING OF THE GRAPEFRUIT 



The grapefruit is so like the orange that its propagation, plant- 

 ing, shaping the trees, and general culture thereof are almost iden- 

 tical with the same acts for the orange, as detailed in the preceding 

 chapter. The treatment of bearing trees to insure continuous thrift 

 and the restoration of them after neglect and over-bearing are 

 practically the same. The following specific suggestions for prun- 

 ing the mature grapefruit tree, which are drawn from the practice 

 of Mr. Herman Brussow of Whittier, as applied to grapefruit trees 

 of Mr. Louis Farnsworth in the Imperial Valley, are also pertinent 

 to the treatment of the old orange tree : 



Grapefruit trees like Valencia oranges tend to bear heavily in alternate 

 years. Prune while the trees are dormant in the winter before an off year. 

 Go over a tree systematically three times. Where limbs are low, creep 

 under on your knees, and saw out enough to give the remainder good 

 clearance from the ground, and take out everything low in the crotches. 

 Inside fruit wood to be left above will hang down in this space later. It 

 is necessary to leave enough clearance for circulation of air under the 

 tree and to cultivate closely so the ground will not sour. 



The second time over the tree is pruned with long-handled clippers, 

 also inside, and clearing out the low brush so you can stand up. Don't 

 take out limbs that would leave holes in the side of the tree. Where it is 

 a question which of two crowding limbs comes out, take the lower. Prune 

 out all dead and crossing wood. Do not leave any twigs which would hang 

 on the ground with fruit on. Leafless twigs of fruit wood will have leaves 

 and flowers shortly after irrigation, within a month, along in February here 

 in Imperial. Don't cut them out, thinking they are dead. 



Standing up for the last of the second inside pruning, you can locate the 

 limbs that should still be cut much better than from the outside, though the 

 third time over the tree will be from the outside. 



Where much is being taken from the tree anyhow, leave all possible, 

 to be pruned two years hence, to avoid too much shock by removal of 

 leaves. Where it is a question whether to leave twigs under or on top of a 

 limb, leave those on top, to grow upward so they may replace the end 

 brush of that limb when it shall be taken off in the future. 



It is better to cut two branches of a limb off in two different cuts than 

 in one, because quite often in making the first cut the "picture develops" and 

 shows the remaining branch to be needed on the tree. 



