FRUIT TREES IN POTS 6i 



to withstand exposure outside by the end of June. These trees, by a judicious 

 choice of varieties, would have yielded fruits from early in May to the third 

 week in June, and then a week or so is left for the free use of the syringe 

 and full ventilation. Melons, if sown a month previously and potted in 6-inch 

 pots, would by then be ready to form a successional crop. They should be planted 

 out the first week in July upon hot beds made upon the floor of the house. By 

 the end of September all the melons will be cut, and then the house is free once 

 more, say for chrysanthemums or other autumn flowers, up to the last week in 

 November. Cleansing operations must then commence preparatory to starting 

 the pot trees on, say, December i, or between that date and the middle of the 

 month. If autumn fruits are in great request late fig trees in pots can follow 

 the melons by thinning them out from other houses. Or late pot trees of plums, 

 pears, and apples might succeed the melons : tomatoes, if preferred, could easily 

 be planted instead of melons. One division of the house should, if possible, be 

 at liberty by the end of October as a storehouse for all trees that are to be forced. 

 The other division that has been used for ripening the latest peaches and 

 nectarines would answer for this purpose. Where the earliest fruit crop is pro- 

 vided by cherries in pots, then an excellent succession is found in late plums in 

 pots (dessert varieties only) ; these will have flowered, and their fruits have set 

 under an improvised shelter or another house. In order to make the best 

 use of orchard houses devoted to the culture of trees in pots, a selection of 

 various fruits is most desirable, so as to cover as long a season as possible. 



Cultivation — Choice of Trees. — The best time to commence the culture 

 of fruit trees in pots is in the autumn ; then the wood is well ripened and all 

 active growth has ceased. Trees two or three years old, established in pots, are 

 the best. These should be bristling with spurry shoots and fruit-buds. To 

 grow fruit trees in the open ground and sell them after one year's pot culture 

 is not, in the case of nectarines or of peaches, a safe plan to adopt. It may 

 answer for plums or cherries, pears or apples, but even then the trees are not so 

 satisfactory as those which have been in pots for two seasons. To attempt to 

 obtain fruit from trees lifted from the open ground in the previous autumn is 

 absurd. As a rule, the size of pots in which the trees are grown by the trade 

 varies but little, those of 9, 10, and 11 inches diameter being generally used. 



Potting. — If early forcing is contemplated, the trees should be repotted at 

 the beginning of October. The later trees ought to be potted by the end of 

 October, if possible, otherwise the heavy autumnal rains will render the work 

 inconvenient. Some misapprehension still exists in respect to the annual 

 potting of fruit trees ; some hold the idea that this is not essential. It must 

 not be assumed that young trees just received from the nursery, even if looking 

 ever so well, do not require repotting. Without exception it may be con- 

 sidered that for all practical purposes the soil in the pots is greatly exhausted 

 after one season's growth, and the available food assimilated by the plants 

 during that period. True, artificial manures can be given to supply the de- 

 ficiency, but these, if used to excess, are worse than useless ; I do not by any 

 means condemn their use, but they should be used judiciously. I consider it 

 is far better to repot annually. It is our practice to do so, and some nursery- 



