Pruning and Training 



on apple and pear trees. As the young wood does 

 not possess fruit buds it is, evidently, the wood 

 which should be cut out to admit light and air. 

 Young " maidens " are usually shortened hard 

 back in the first year to induce a bushy habit, and 

 the weaker varieties should be cut further back than 

 strong-growing sorts ; but in any case quite two- 

 thirds of the length of each shoot should be cut away. 



In the second year the young leading shoots 

 should be shortened by about one-half their length. 

 That is to say, if the shoot possesses twenty 

 buds, ten will remain after pruning, and so on. As a 

 rule we cut back all leading shoots to a bud pointing 

 in an outward direction, so that next year's leader 

 will grow outwards instead of towards the centre of 

 the tree. We aim at keeping the centre open, and 

 any young shoots which tend to fill up the middle 

 should be removed altogether. (See also Chapter I.) 



The young side shoots (or laterals) should be 

 shortened back to three " eyes " (or buds) to form 

 fruiting spurs, and after the third year I prefer to 

 do most of this spur pruning during the summer. 

 This refers also to the side shoots on cordons, espa- 

 liers, and all dwarf-trained apples, pears, plums, 

 red currants and gooseberries. 



The winter pruning of apples may be commenced 

 as soon as the leaves have fallen, but I prefer to 

 leave pear trees till later so as to delay the flowering 

 period. Pears, if pruned early, will flower early, and 

 consequently much of the bloom will be destroyed 

 by frost. If the trees are pruned as described above, 

 regularly year by year, the whole business is fairly 

 simple, but when they are neglected for several 

 years the treatment is altogether different and more 



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