DWARFING 



DWARFING 



1083 



weather are preferred. About half a year previous 

 to removal, a ditch should be made around the plant. 

 In removing, the main root should be carefully cut 

 off by scissors, leaving its end downward to avoid 

 the resin from accumulating, which otherwise might 

 destroy the tree. For different shapes, the branches 

 are to be twisted to and fro, as shown in the cut (Fig. 

 1368) ; bind the part with hemp-palm rope, and pull it 

 moderately toward the trunk with a cord. The special 

 nature of this tree is to dislike the humid earth. Hav- 

 ing no pleasing flower or fruit, the pine must exhibit 

 merit in the arrangement of needles or the color of the 

 bark. The best time to transplant is in autumn. For 

 fertilizers, one may use oil-cake or a bone-meal. 



Mume (Prunus Mume). This is different from the 

 Japanese flowering cherry; the beauty of the flower 

 should accompany the picturesque form of the tree 

 itself. The age of the tree is highly regarded. Slender 

 branches as well as grotesque trunks with mossy bark 

 are usually chosen. Hence, all dwarfed Mume plants 

 are raised by grafting. The potting of Mume may take 



Elace as soon as the flowers have fallen. The pot is to 

 e kept in shade at least one month, the earth having 

 been thoroughly pressed. To have more flowers, the 

 old roots are destroyed, and the branches cut, leaving 

 a few branchlets. Potted Mume is fertilized with thin 

 liquid manure, oil-cakes or occasionally cow's milk, 

 between December and February. 



Pomegranate. In this plant, the portion of the roots 

 which is close to the main trunk may be exposed to the 

 air. As a dwarfed tree, pomegranate is enjoyed both for 

 fruits and flowers. All new sprouts are to be pinched off, 

 other than those that will produce flowers. Until the 

 fruits have grown larger, one should wait for manuring. 

 For flowers, oil-cake, tankage, or bone-meal are used; 

 for fruits a light fertilizer is used. 



Bamboos. Choose one of the most proper kinds and 

 keep it in a pot for two or three years. Then wait 

 upon several shoots coming up. One year after this, 

 these new bamboos are transferred into other pots. 

 The practice needs much patience and great skill, and it 

 would hardly pay, knowing that the prime age of bam- 

 boo is only for four or five years. I SSA TANIMURA. 



Dwarf fruit trees. 



Generally speaking, dwarf trees are those which by 

 various means are made to remain smaller than normal 

 trees of the same species or variety. Three means 

 are in common use in dwarfing trees: by growing on 

 dwarfing stocks, restricting the root run, and by 

 pruning to check or suppress the growth of the top. 

 Horticulturally speaking, and particularly as the term 

 is applied to fruit trees, dwarf trees are those which 

 are grown on dwarfing stocks. A discussion of dwarf 

 fruit trees is, then, most largely concerned with dwarf- 

 ing stocks. 



Dwarfing stocks are not modern innovations. For 

 at least three centuries, various stocks have been used 

 to dwarf apples, pears, plums, cherries and quinces. 

 In fact, dwarf fruit trees were quite as common, or 

 even more so, in Europe a century ago than they are at 

 present. They have been grown in America, at least 

 dwarf apples and pears, for nearly a century, during 

 which time in recurring periods they have received much 

 attention from fruit-growers. There is in horticultural 

 literature much data, which, while fragmentary, is still 

 substantial, to guide us in the use of dwarfing stocks 

 and to indicate the value of dwarf fruit trees. 



The action of dwarfing stocks is readily explained 

 after a statement of what stocks are. A dwarfing stock 

 is always a smaller, a weaker, or a slower-growing 

 variety or species than the tree to be propagated on it. 

 The top conforms to the roots chiefly because of the 

 inability of the latter to furnish sufficient nutrition. 

 The tree is dwarfed through starvation. Other than 



69 



in size the trees are little or not at all affected, 

 although minor changes in the fruit and in the bearing 

 habit are supposed to be brought about by dwarfing. 



Dwarf fruit trees are propagated by the same methods 

 employed in growing standard trees with preference 

 given to budding dwarfing stocks, whereas standard 

 trees are still largely propagated by grafting. Propaga- 

 tors hold that a better union can be obtained by bud- 

 ding than by grafting, and since it is always difficult to 

 secure a good union between plants as widely divergent 

 as stock and cion in a dwarf tree must of necessity be, 

 budding should have the preference of the two methods. 

 In fact the chief problem in growing dwarf fruit trees 

 is to find a stock with which the larger growing cion 

 can easily be worked and with expectations of a close 

 and permanent union. This brings us to the matter 

 of stocks for the several fruits. 



Dwarf apples are commonly grown on two stocks 

 the Paradise and the Doucin. Both of these, it must 

 be understood, are class names, there being in the 

 literature a dozen or more varieties of Paradise and 

 about as many of the Doucin. Carefully compared, 

 the many kinds in use can be reduced to the French 

 Paradise (Pommier du Paradis), English Paradise, 

 and the Dutch Paradise for the first class, while the 

 Doucin stocks may be grouped under the Doucin, 

 the English Broad-leaved and the English Nonsouch. 

 There is much confusion in the names of dwarf apple 

 stock in nurseries and the grower will be fortunate if 

 he gets what he calls for. Of these two classes, the 

 Paradise stocks make the dwarfer plants and should be 

 used for trees to be kept as true dwarfs and for all 

 that are to be trained in fancy forms. The Douchin 

 stocks are the better for free-growing trees. 



Pears are dwarfed by growing on quince roots. Any 

 quince may be used, but the Angers, upon which 

 quinces are commonly propagated, is the best dwarfing 

 stock for the pear. Comparatively few pears can be 

 successfully worked on quince roots because stock and 

 cion do not make a good union. This antipathy is 

 obviated by budding the quince with a pear which 

 unites readily; the next year the un tractable variety 

 is budded on the more amenable variety, the result- 

 ing tree being thus pear on quince, followed by pear on 

 pear the "double-working" of nurserymen. 



There is no question but that the Mahaleb is a 

 dwarfing stock for the cherry, and in Europe, where 

 it has long been used, it is always regarded as such. 

 In America, where the Mahaleb in the last quarter 

 century has all but superseded the Mazzard, a free- 

 growing stock, it is not so commonly known that there 

 is a difference in the size of trees on the two stocks. 

 It must not be understood that the Mahaleb stock 

 gives a true dwarf cherry, but it has a very decided 

 dwarfing effect on either sweet or sour cherries. 



Stocks for plums have not been well tested a 

 statement that .holds for all stone fruits. It is very 

 certain, however, that varieties of Prunus insititia, 

 as the Damsons or the St. Julien, the latter one of the 

 best of all plums for a stock, have a dwarfing effect 

 on the varieties of the larger-growing trees of P. 

 domcslica, as do also several of our free-growing native 

 species, among which P. americana may be recommended 

 for cold climates. For true dwarf trees, however, the 

 only stocks that give promise are the dwarf natives, of 

 which P. pumila and P. Besseyi have been found to 

 unite readily with several varieties each of either the 

 Domestica or Triflora plums, and to make very good 

 dwarfing stocks for them. 



Peaches, apricots and nectarines are dwarfed by 

 budding on P. cerasifera, P. insititia and P. americana. 

 It is probable that all of these fruits, and the cherry 

 as well, can be grown on P. pumila and P. Besseyi as 

 true dwarfs, several experiments having demonstrated 

 that good unions form between the peach, at least, and 

 these dwarf sand cherries. As to whether the union 



