Table 1. Effects of summer pruning on Mcintosh fruit. 



Parameter 



Summer pruned 



Not summer pruned 



Change (%) 



Red color (%) 57 



U. S. Extra Fancy (%) 72 



Crop harvested l^t pick (%) 79 



Crop harvested by hand (%) 81 



Drop (%) 19 



Dormant pruning time (min/tree) 11 



49 

 42 

 59 

 70 

 30 

 17 



+ 16 

 + 71 

 +34 

 + 16 

 -37 

 -40 



Did summer pruning pay? Let us assume a price of $1.60 per bushel for 

 drops and $8.00 per bushel of hand picks. There were 144 more bushels of hand- 

 picks per acre from summer-pruned trees with an additional return of $932.00. 

 It would take a pruner about 30 hours per acre to do a good summer pruning job 

 on these trees. Unless a grower pays his workers $31.00 or more per hour, 

 summer pruning more than paid for itself. This figure is conservative because 

 it required 40 percent less time to prune summer-pruned trees during the 

 dormant season, thereby producing additional savings. We feel that summer 

 pruning is a procedure that should be part of every grower's maintenance 

 program on mature trees, especially if Alar* is not used. 



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POMOLOGICAL PARAGRAPH 



Scion Cultivar Affects Rootstock Shank Rooting 



Wesley R. Autio 



Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



University of Massachusetts 



Many nurseries bud apple trees on certain rootstocks 12 to 18 inches above 

 the soil line. When these trees are planted in the orchard a large portion of 

 the originally above-ground rootstock material must be buried. The philosophy 

 behind this practice is that rooting along the long, buried shank may improve 

 the anchorage of the tree and reduce requirements for staking. However, in 

 some cases rooting does not occur and a less stable condition results than if 

 the trees were budded at a lower height and planted only slightly deeper than 

 they were in the nursery. A reason for this lack of rooting is given by Roy 

 Rom and George Moticheck in a study published this year (HortScience 22:57-58). 

 They found that the scion cultivar was the major factor affecting rooting along 

 the buried rootstock shank. In general, nonspur cultivars resulted in 

 significantly more rooting than did spur-types, possibly explaining the poor 

 shank rooting which has been observed with some trees. 



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