Practical Facts About Planting Fruits 



The Garden Magazine 

 March, 1919 



Fruits and Their Favorite Soils 



The kind of soil you have need not be an insur- 

 mountable obstacle to the growth of some fruits. 

 So long as it is fit for cultivation at all it can be made 

 to give at least fair returns from some crop or other. 



As a guide to choosing and locating the kinds of 

 fruit you will grow, note the following preferences: 



Apple likes clay loam best but thrives on greater variety 



of soils than any other fruit. 



Pear prefers heavy, dense, clay loam. 



Plum ) medium loam best, but will stand considerable 



> clay. Good for planting in chicken runs and other 

 Cherry ) heavily fertilized locations. 



Peach ) light, sandy loam best. Must be well drained. 



?■ Warmth is desirable, but northern exposure delays 

 Apricot ) opening of buds and often prevents frost damage. 



Quince does best on heavy, deep, moist (not wet) clay loam. 



Grape choose the lighter, somewhat poorer upland soils. 



Too much fertility, especially nitrogen, causes ' 

 excessive cane growth and poor quality fruit. 



Currant I jieed coolness and moisture in both air and soil, 



> which should be medium heavy clay, rich in humus. 

 Gooseberry) Northern situation and fall planting desirable 



"Nay, you shall see mine orchard, where, in an 

 arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of nay own 

 grafting, with a dish of caraways, and so forth." — 

 Mr. Justice Shallow. 



Raspberry } 

 Blackberry ) 

 Strawberry 



,nedium heavy loam. Wil 

 moisture than preceding, 

 need the most moisture. 



do best with a little less 

 Of the two, blackberries 



almost any soil will do providing it is well drained 

 and rich. Land previously cultivated is better than 

 newly turned sod land. 



Heavy soils in general are harder to work and need 

 less fertilizing than others; on them, trees come into 

 bearing later, but grow larger, live longer, and yield 

 larger crops. 



Light soils are easy to work and require heavier fer- 

 tilizing, including especially the addition of manure and 

 other forms of humus. But they stimulate earlier bear- 

 ing, accompanied by smaller growth, shorter life, and 

 lighter yields. 



How to Buy Wisely 



Buy only the best grade of stock, preferably prop- 

 agated from selected, sometimes erroneously called, 

 "pedigree" trees. 



Buy only stock that is guaranteed healthy. This 

 is quite easy by dealing with established concerns be- 

 cause of quarantines, fumigation of stock, etc. 



Buy only of reliable, established nursery firms, pre- 

 ferably fruit specialists with whom you can deal direct. 



Buy from the nearest concern that has the requisite 

 standard. As next best buy from a point somewhat to 

 the north of you. 



Buy what you know you want, according to your 

 knowledge and preferences. Insist on what you want 

 and don't take whatever a dealer attempts to sell'you 

 as a substitute. 



Buy well grown, vigorous stock, of medium rather 

 than large size, and young rather than old. Old trees 

 are more severely shocked by transplanting and often 

 lose more time in getting reestablished than the appar- 

 ent advantage given them by their greater age and de- 

 velopment. The approved planting ages for different 

 fruits are: 



Apples, pears and quinces, 2-3 years 



Plums and cherries, 2 years 



Peaches and apricots, I year 



Grapes, 1-3 years (from cutting) 



Gooseberries and currants, 2 years (from cutting) 



Raspberries and blackberries, I year plants 



Strawberries, newly rooted plants only. 



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Use a planting board to secure a tree in the exact place 

 desired (see text) 



Selecting Varieties That Will Fit 



This is very largely a matter of personal taste and 

 preference. What appeals most to one palate may not 

 tickle the next one nearly so keenly. Again differences 

 in locality may make almost as much difference between 

 a good and a poor specimen of a supposedly standard 

 variety as between two entirely distinct sorts. // 

 you know what varieties you like best, those are the ones 

 for you to grow; otherwise take into consideration the 

 following general principles, then select such varieties 

 as are well known and time tried. 



1. Choose varieties that you are sure thrive in your locality. 



2. Choose standard, established varieties. Leave it to the 



commercial growers and the experiment stations to try 

 out novelties. It takes too much space and too many 

 years to give a fruit a fair trial to justify doing this in the 

 ordinary home garden. 



3. Choose high quality varieties, known for their flavor, ten- 



derness, juiciness and other edible qualities, rather than 

 their keeping, shipping and selling characters. 



4. Choose with reference to the particularly effective use of 



each variety. Some apples are supreme for baking, 

 others for making sauce, others for eating raw; and the 

 same with many other fruits. 



5. Choose with a view to obtaining the greatest variety that 



your space permits. Select for a wide seasonal succes- 

 sion, but as a rule put more emphasis upon summer and 

 fall varieties of apples and pears than on late, winter 

 kinds. 



6. Choose to satisfy your own taste and that of your family — 



a bushel of something you delight in is better than 

 twenty bushels of something you accept with resignation 

 as "the only thing there was left." 



JUST PASSING SUGGESTIONS 



Merely as a suggestion of varieties that are generally 

 classed among the best on a basis of quality and adapt- 

 ability to home garden cultivation over a considerable 

 range of territory and natural conditions, the following 

 are given to guide the planter who had no preconceived 

 ideas to assist him. All are arranged approximately 

 in order of their season, most attention being given to 

 standard, midseason sorts. 



Economy of space: dwarf fruits trained on a trellis close 

 to a wall; strawberries in the foreground 



SIX GOOD APPLES 



SIX GOOD PEARS 



SIX GOOD PEACHES 



Sweet Bough 



Madeleine 



Lamont 



Primate 





Clapp 



Crawford Early 



Wealthy 





Flemish 



Oldmixon 



Mcintosh 





Seckel 



Foster 



Spy 





Bosc 



Crawford Late 



Golden Russet 



Cornice 



McKay's Late 



FIVE GOOD 



FOUR GOOD CHERRIES 



FIVE GOOD 



GRAPES 



SWEET 



SOUR 



PLUMS 



Moore 



Black Tartari?n May Duke 



Abundance 



Worden 



Windsor 



Montmorency Shropshire 



Agawam 



Napoleon 



English Morello Italian Prune 



Concord 



Governor 



Wood Late Duke 



Reine Claude 



Catawba 







Golden Drop 



THREE GOOD 



GOOSE- 



THREE GOOD 



THR.EE good 



BERRIES 



CURRANTS 



RED RASPBERRIES 



Red Jacket 





Ruby 



Cuthbert 



Dr. Van Fleet 



Pomona 



St. Regis 



Downing 





Wilder 



Marlboro 



FOUR GOOC 



BLACK- 



SIX GOOD STRAW- 



THREE GOOD BLACK 



BERRIES 



BERRIES 



RASPBERRIES 



Agawam 





Michel 



Black Diamond 



Joy 





Premier 



Gault 



Kittatinny 





Brandywine 



Gregg 



Eldorado 





Chesapeake 

 Marshall 









Progressive (everbearing) 







THREE GOOD QUINCES 



Champion 





Meech 



Orange 



Planning Principles for Fruits 



In laying out your space arrange to make the maxi- 

 mum use of it by interplanting large and small sorts 

 but remember that the more you try to grow on a given 

 plot the more carefully must the soil be handled, and 

 the more food and moisture it must receive. 



Plant only those fruits that are really adapted to youi 

 locality. A fig tree occasionally bears in the North, 

 and some varieties of gooseberry may succeed in ele- 

 vated sections of the South, but as a rule the fruit gar- 

 den is no place for experiments with exotics or brand 

 new, unproven novelties. 



Grow mostly the sorts you are particularly fond of, 

 and of which you can make the best use. If you and 

 the family are likely to be away from home in early 

 summer, omit strawberries; if you get. special pleasure 

 from preserves and jams in winter, plant freely of 

 quinces and gooseberries. 



If you practice combination planting, count on tak- 

 ing out eventually about half of your bushes and 

 smaller trees as the others mature and demand all the 

 space. This is often a painful duty, but unless you are 

 firm in your determination, almost to ruthlessness, 

 you will in the long run get poor results. 



Spacing Rules in Fruit Planting 



The distance required between fruit trees, rows of 

 bush fruits, etc., varies with the nature and strength 

 of the soil, the location and climate (which influence 

 growth), the variety (especially in the case of trees), 

 and the style of pruning that is to be followed. The 

 practices of low heading and heading in with a view 

 to keeping trees close to the ground and comparatively 

 compact are generally advisable in the home garden. 

 The following figures give the usual extreme distances 

 for different fruits, and, in parenthesis, the number of 

 plants that can be set in one acre at each such distance 

 apart: 



Apple and sweet cherry, 30 feet (48) to 40 feet (27). 



Pear, apricot, plum, peach, sour cherry, 16 feet (170) to 24 feet 



(75). 

 Quince, 16 feet (170) to 20 feet (108). 

 Grape, 6x8 feet (907) to 8 x 10 feet (544). 

 Currant and gooseberry, 4x6 feet (1,815) to 6 x 8 feet (907). 

 Raspberry, 3x6 feet (2,420) to 5 x 8 feet (1,089). 

 Blackberry, 4x7 feet (1,556) to 6 x 9 feet (806). 

 Strawberry, 1x4 feet (10,890) to rf feet (7,260). 

 Dwarf pear and apple, 15 feet (193) to 20 feet (108K 



Some Fruit Combinations 



Apples interplanted wit h peaches or dwarf pears. 



Currants and gooseberries between young peaches, these be- 

 tween standard apples or sweet cherries. 



Strawberries may occupy the space between rows of brambles 

 for the first year, or between any tree fruits until they shade 

 the ground. 



Actual Planting Programme 



For most tree fruits, and especially peaches and 

 plums, spring planting is the safest. In the case of 

 bush fruits and in sections where the spring is likely to 

 be late and cold, fall planting saves time and often 

 makes possible a crop the first year instead of only 

 after eighteen months. Strawberries, except newly 

 potted runners, which should be set out in summer, are 

 probably best planted in the spring in most places. 



Make a planting board as shown in the illustration, 

 about four feet long, with a hole at each end and a 

 notch in the middle. When ready to plant a tree set 

 the notch against the locating stake, pin the board fast 

 with stakes in the two holes, remove the centre peg, 

 dig the hole, set the tree in it so the stem takes the place 

 of the peg, and fill in the hole before removing the board. 

 This will leave the tree exactly where it should be. 



Whatever you plant, dig the hole plenty big so to 

 take all the roots without crowding or bending. The 

 stiffer and poorer the soil, the bigger the hole should be. 

 Make it deep enough so that the tree when set will 

 stand an inch or so lower 

 than it did in the nursery 

 row. Let brambles stand 

 five or six inches deeper 

 than they stood before. 



When the stock arrives, 

 if you can plant it within a 

 day or so, leave the bun- 

 dles unopened, moistening 

 them a little if necessary 

 and keeping them in a cool, 

 shady place. Otherwise, un- 

 do the material, and heel it 

 in, that is, pack it closely 

 together with the roots in a 

 trench where they can be 

 kept covered thoroughly 

 with earth until planting 

 time. 



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Wire or other rabbit guards 

 must be fastened loosely to 

 permit expansion 



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