- 6 - 



The small tree produced by M.9, with early bearing and often 

 better fruit size and quality, soon convinced the Dutch of the 

 superiority of this stock for their conditions. Therefore, many 

 growers removed their "permanent" trees and replaced them with 

 trees on M.9. They were grown predominantly as bushes. 



Trends in the 1950's 



The permanent and filler system was discarded and interest in 

 seedling roots and vigorous rootstocks faded rapidly. M.9 became 

 the most popular rootstock although a sizable number of plantings 



were established on semi-dwarf 

 rootstocks in the early 1950's. 

 Planting design became rectan- 

 gular and to obtain most of the 

 sunlight available, the tree 

 rows extended north and south. 



Tree form changed in the 

 early 1950's to the free-spin- 

 dle (Fig. 2) which because of 

 its conical shape allowed good 

 light distribution along the 

 sides of the hedgerows and with^ 

 in the trees. The free-spindle , 

 sometimes referred to in the 

 past as the "free round spindle," 

 is characterized by the presence 

 of 3 or 4, generally 3, perman- 

 ent branches at the base of the 

 leader. Above this permanent 

 framework are short fruiting 

 branches arranged around a cen- 

 tral leader. These branches 

 are kept small by pruning and 

 renewal. 



Form and training of free- 

 spindle distances for trees on 

 M.9 were frequently 10 feet by 

 13 feet (335 trees/A) for vigor- 

 ous varieties, or 7 feet by 13 

 feet (479 trees/A) for weaker 

 growing varieties, such as 

 Golden Delicious. The semi- 

 Fig. 2. A 4-yeap-old 'Golden Delicious' dwarfs were spaced about 10 feet 



apple tree onM.26. This is a free- by 16 feet (272 trees/A). 



spindle tree with its characteristic 



whorl of 3 strong branches at the base of 



the leader. 



'Unfortunately, there appears to be considerable confusion in the 

 USA on the nomenclature of the tree forms used in the Netherlands, 



