214 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



plants at all, but to plant them out — as soon as their 

 leading shoot is about 6 inches long — one pot with two 

 plants to every two feet in length of the fruiting-bed — 

 the one plant to be trained due north and the other 

 south, pinching off all attempts at lateral growth from 

 the base of the plant at the seed-lobes, but allowing 

 the leader to grow on unstopped, tiU it reaches within 

 1 foot of the side of the frame, when, if stopped, it will 

 "quickly throw out lateral growths with fruit, just the 

 same as in the former case, — the difference in favour of 

 the latter way of training being that the single leader 

 reaches the desired length sooner, and consequently 

 bears stopping, and forms fruiting laterals sooner than 

 those plants stopped young, and brought away with 

 three growths. Of course this once-stopping system 

 requires nearly double the number of plants to fill a 

 frame, but in all other respects it is the best for speedy 

 fruiting. These two systems of planting and training 

 must determine whether the plants are to be stopped 

 when young ; and to obviate the necessity of referring 

 again particularly to stopping, I will now explain 

 that immediately the female blossoms with the embryo 

 fruit appear, the lateral shoot must be stopped two 

 joints beyond the fruit, after which the blossoms soon 

 expand, and the shoots and leaves rapidly increase in 

 size, and it will be found that there will just be about 

 enough of foliage thus produced to cover the whole 

 bed. All late laterals must afterwards be pinched off, 

 unless some be necessary to cover the surface of the 

 soil, which is desirable ; but these should not be left 

 on the fruit-bearing lateral, provided no harm occurs to 

 the main leaves. 



