3- 



Vesper 



The berries are very large, attractive, moderate in 

 firmness and good in flavor. The plants are vigorous 

 and productive but are susceptible to both red stele 

 and Verticillium. 



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PRUNING MACSPURS 



Department 



William J. Lord 

 of Plant and Soil 



Sciences 



On bearing Macspur trees, it is common to find weak scaffold 

 limbs with few lateral branches. Scaffold limbs of this type have 

 small potential bearing area. Branching can be induced on these 

 limbs with stubbing cuts into 2- or 3-year-old wood. 



Figure 1 illustrates the response to such a stubbing cut. On 

 this figure, the arrow points to where a branch on Macspur was stubbed 

 during the previous dormant season. Note the vigorous upright growth 

 during the following growing season that was stimulated by the cut. 

 The branch in the upper-right-hand corner is one that possesses inade- 

 quate lateral branching. 



During the dormant season following stubbing, the vigorous vege- 

 tative growth behind the stubbing cut, portrayed in Figure 1, should 

 be selectively pruned leaving only those which have the potential to 

 become horizontally-oriented lateral branches. This is illustrated 

 in Figure 2 . 



Don' t make stubbing cuts unless they are needed to induce branch- 

 ing, reduce the length of limb, or stiffen unheaded limbs, because it 

 has been shown with Delicious that stubbing can convert fruiting spurs 

 into non-fruitful, vigorous shoots. 



Figure 1 



Figure 2 



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