48 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



As soon as the bud has made a growth of 3 or 4 inches, it 

 should be tied back to the stem of the seedling with raffia. 

 Later it must be stake-trained, and when it has reached a height 

 of 24 to 30 inches it should be forced to branch and form a 

 shapely top. The stub which remains from the seedling stock 

 should not be cut off until the bud has developed to the height 

 of one foot. In California it is usually considered best to 

 remove the stub in winter ; it should be cut off just above the 

 bud, and the cut surface covered with grafting-wax, or shellac 

 made with alcohol and a little rosin. Common paint should 

 not be used for this purpose. 



Field-grown trees, after they have reached the proper size, 

 are either lifted and put into pots or boxes, where they are held 

 until established and then planted in the field; or they are 

 balled at any time after they have gone dormant in late winter, 

 and heeled-in under a plant-shed, where they can be kept until 

 spring and then planted out. In Florida, field-grown plants 

 are usually lifted and set in wooden boxes 5 X 5 X 12 inches in 

 size. As soon as they are placed in these boxes, they must 

 be set in partial shade and watered copiously. When they 

 have become established, which will be within a month or 

 six weeks, they can be transplanted to the orchard. 



Transplanting with bare roots has not proved generally 

 satisfactory in California. Regarding his experience with it 

 in Florida, Krome says : 



" This may become one of the recognized methods of planting and 

 under certain conditions it has many advantages over setting either 

 boxed or balled plants. Two years ago I moved about four hundred 

 seedlings with semi-bare roots and lost only three trees in the process. 

 The trees were two year stocks averaging four feet in height grown 

 in a 'red-flat' at my own grove. We began transplanting during 

 July but most of the trees were moved in September. We waited 

 until the trees had reached a dormant state between flushes and then 

 defoliated them and pruned back the most tender growth. We moved 

 them only after three o'clock in the afternoon when the greatest heat 

 of the day was over, digging only as many trees as could be carefully 



