BUDS 



59 



be more regular annual bearers or fruit than do those 

 varieties which produce fruit buds only on older growth. 

 Annual bearing, it must be stated, however, is i habit 

 which is dependent not upon thi< one factor alone, but 

 upon other factors. For instance, certain spurs may bear 

 fruit one year, while others are fruitless. The foUowj^e 

 season the fruitless spurs may 

 bear the crop, while the pre- 

 viously fruitful ones may ;ake 

 a rest. Fruit spurs MAY pro- 

 duce fruit each alternate year, 

 but this is not nearly as regular 

 a habit as it is popularly be- 

 lieved to be. 



62. Pit fruit bud positions. 

 While the outline (56) shows 

 the general ways in which pit 

 fruit buds are borne, yet the 

 /ariations due to variety, en- 

 vironment and other causes de- 

 serve a special paragraph. 



Stone fruit blossom buds are 

 unlike those of apple and pear 

 in being simple ; that is, they 

 are not clustered with leaves, 

 though plum and cherry buds 

 often contain a few little leaves 

 that usually drop off before .the 

 fruit ripens. Sometimes peach 

 and apricot buds contain two bu , s . 4> that the lowest bran h 



flowers, though One is the nor- bud s are not swelling while tha 

 , x-,. , upper ones are. 



mal number. Cherry buds 



usually reveal two flower buds, though the number may 

 vary from one to five. The same is true of plums, excep^ 

 that two or three are the usual numbers. 



The peach bears its blossom buds singly beside i 

 branch bud or in pairs with a branch b id between, except 



1 



FI3. 3:< 



'. GROWTH OF 

 PEACH 



The three pieces constitute on:; 

 branch of "lart" season's growth. 

 Note, 1, positions o 1 ' t! e bloom - 

 near the middle of tlu branch; 2. 

 that normally a branch bud li?s 

 between two blx:m bu !s and els > 

 at the *erminal; 3 that bloom ex- 

 tends nearly ?o f h: t:o with or'y 

 short, bar^ intrv-ls above ard 

 b'low the main blooming area, ard 

 t' ese in'trv./s he?r 're- n h or !e f 



