IS PRmJIfJO V/ORTH THE COST ? 



The ansvrer, for sone of the pruning I've seen, is definitely "No." The present 

 day scale of ?;ages, a dollar an hour or s^meivhat less, is justified in pruning only 

 if the worker understands the VJhy of pruning and realizes that it is closely 

 associated with good spraying and a higher percentage of Fancy fruit. But if the 

 pruning cuts involve mainly easily reached branches, or vigorous v/ond instead of 

 weak v/ood, then the returns on a pruning investment are likely to be non-existent. 



In lilichigan, someone made the observation a few years ago that during mild 

 winters, fruit gro\Ters viere inclined to prune too heavily and when the i-dnter v/as 

 severe or the snow deep, little or no pruning was done. Looking at some of our 

 J.'assachusetts orchards, .the same observer would conclude that for many winters 

 past, the ovmers had stoked the fire instead of braving the elements. To say that 

 a fevj- commercial orchards would profit from a mild vdnter or two may be an under- 

 statement. 



One authority was harsh enough to characterize a certain orchard as being 1'^ 

 years behind on pruning. This raises the simple question, Why prune at all? 

 Beautiful fruit frequently comes from trees which haven't seen a pruning saw in 

 years. And certainly the amateur who concentrates on pruning instead of pest 

 control has a rude avrakening long before harvest time. Let's look at a bearing 

 apple tree as Yie try to ansvrer this question, 



V^en a tree begins to bear at 5 to 7 years of age, each bearing tmg is bent 

 dovmward. Year after year this bending process continues as new grov.i^hs develop, 

 generally in an upward direction. And as these growths become tv/o or three years 

 old, they are themselves bent doirmward under a load of fruit. If we follow this 

 process for five or ten years, assuming heavy annual crops, the v/hole tree becomes 

 a drooping affair, vri.th some varieties resembling an umbrella. In the meantime, 

 v;hat has happened to those parts of the tree \7hich vrere bearing apples for the firdi 

 time five or ten years ago? They are now in the hopelessly shaded class and have 

 been superceded by more recent grovrths which still get a glimpse of the sun new 

 and then. 



From their location in the tree it is easy t« understand v;hy some spurs boar 

 small, poorly colored apples and others larger apples of brilliant color. And no 

 one would question the msdom of doing something to correct this situation. But 

 with pruning saw in hand the tendency is all too comi^ion to cut out the veiy vraod 

 whinfi is capable of producing Fancy fruit, just because it secins to be shading 

 the tvags underneath or because, as some pruners insist, it is "getting too high." 



In the extreme tnp of the tree there is good reason for removing some of thco. 

 branches which are heading skyvrard, since spraying is thereby siir.plificd. But in 

 rther parts of the tree, the experienced pruner mil concentrate on the drooping, 

 submerged branches and will leave most of the young, vigorous, well exposed 

 branches. In this v/ay he eliminates poor apples at the source, by cutting out thot^c;' 

 parts of the tree which produce them, instead of cutting out good wood in the hope 

 of invigorating the poor wood. 



In the writer's opinion a grovrer cannot affoixl to do detail pruning on the 

 average bearing tree. The pruning shears has little or no place here because it is 

 too time consuming. Instead of sifting out small unwanted twigs, v;holc branches 

 or parts of branches, frequently one to two inches in diameter, should be removed, 

 If such grovrths are belov; the horizontal position, the chances are that a large 

 proportion of their spurs have largely outlived their usefulness. In many bearing 



