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STRONGER AND HARDIER APPLE TREES 



Even though very low temperatures or extended periods of low temperatures 

 have occurred during the past two winters, there doesn't seem to be evidence of 

 winter injury to Vermont apple trees. In fact, there are not many active growers 

 who remember the severe losses of Baldwins, Spys, Red Delicious and even Macs 

 during the 1933-34 winters. Much of the injury to these varieties caused at 

 that time is still taking a toll of broken scaffolds and dying trees, often 

 without being recognized as associated with winter injury. 



The hardy stock, Malus Robusta No. 5, developed by the Canadians, shows a 

 lot of promise for planting to help avoid future losses caused by winter injury 

 as well as to develop stronger trees. Robusta, being a clonal stock, is propa- 

 gated in much the same way as are the dwarfing stocks. This makes them a little 

 more difficult to get and more expensive than seedling stocks. 



The Vermont Horticultural Society, working with a prominent Quebec apple 

 grower who is producing hardy stocks on a commercial basis, is assisting Vermont 

 apple growers to obtain hardy trees. The first sizable plantings will be made 

 this spring by about 20 Vermont growers. 



Two tree-building systems are used. In the first, a single bud of the scion 

 variety is set by the nurseryman in Robusta stock at a point about 20 inches 

 above the crown. The resulting scaffold system is of the scion variety and no 

 special budding or grafting work is required by the apple grower after planting. 

 The second method is that of budding or grafting onto a trunk and scaffold system 

 of the hardy stock. In this system, growers plant Robusta 5 and usually bud the 

 scion variety onto 4-6 scaffolds during the first two years the tree is in the 

 orchard. This requires more time and know-how, but evidently will result in an 

 even hardier and stronger scaffold system than where a single bud is used. 



A very favorable crotch angle development is being observed even on Red 

 Delicious and Spys grox^m by the single bud as well as the topworked system. 

 This may be due to the high vigor of the Robusta root system compared to 

 seedling stock. Single budded trees are always planted as one-year trees 

 because growth during the second year in the nursery is very fast, possibly 

 because the root system is one year older than the usual seedling roots used. 

 Most of the hardy trees being ordered are Mcintosh aiid Red Delicious with the 

 best local strains being collected and sent to the nursery for budding on a 

 custom basis. 



C. Lyman Calahan 



I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



WHATS HAPPENED IN THE PAST THIRTY YEARS IN THE APPLE INDUSTRY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 



Pruning 



Pruning thirty years ago was a controversial subject and still is. There 

 were as many methods of pruning in 1927 as there were growers and times haven't 



