-7- 



TREATMENT OF GIRDLED FRUIT TREES 



William J. Lord 

 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



Girdling or partial girdling of fruit trees occurs annually 

 in spite of orchard sanitation, poison baits and mechanical pro- 

 tectors, and may be particularly severe in years of heavy, persist- 

 ing snowfall, as occurred during the winter of 1977-78. You can 

 help prevent damage when snow accululates above the wire or plastic 

 guards by tramping the snow to lower its height. 



Determining the Treatment 



1. Trees not worth saving should be removed and replaced. 



2. If apple, pear or plum trees with injury above the graft 

 union are only 1- or 2-years old, they can be cut below 

 the girdled area. Shoots will then develop from the re- 

 maining stub. One of these can be selected during the 

 following spring for a new tree. B£ sure the selected 

 shoot originates above the graft union. In case of inter- 

 stem trees the shoot must originate above the interstock. 



3. If apple or pear trees are 1-1/2 or 2 inches in diameter 

 they can be cleft grafted. Cleft grafting is less likely 

 to be successful on stone fruits. 



4. Trunks of girdled apple, pear or plum trees more than 



2 inches in diameter can be bridge grafted. Peach trees 

 usually do not respond satisfactorily to bridge grafting. 



5. When the roots of an apple tree are so badly injured that 

 scions cannot be readily attached to them, inarching can 

 be done. 



6. Repair of girdled apple trees is complicated by planting of 

 interstem trees. Girdling of the interstem portion, usually 

 M.9 (it is reported that mice prefer M.9), means that when 

 bridge grafting, cleft grafting or inarching is done part, 

 if not all, of the dwarfing influence of the interstem will 

 be lost. A solution to this problem is using scion wood 

 and rootstocks from a stool bed of M.9 maintained on the 

 farm. 



Season for Repair Grafting 



Repair grafting by bridging or inarching should be performed 

 when the bark is slipping readily. Under Massachusetts growing 

 conditions, the bark may not begin to slip readily until mid-April. 

 Cleft grafting can be done earlier (March) since it is not necessary 



