8 LEAFLET 2 19, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Pruning After the First Year. — To many inexperienced growers 

 the question of how to prune trees and bushes appears to be very 

 complicated. If certain basic principles are kept in mind, however, 

 it is possible for even the inexperienced grower to do a satisfactory 

 job of pruning. The purpose of pruning is to develop the tree or bush 

 so that it will have maximum strength to carry a load of fruit and 

 maximum bearing capacity. A safe rule in pruning trees, particularly 

 young trees up to bearing age, is to prune them as little as will accom- 

 plish this specific purpose. Cross branches and suckers should be 

 removed, and broken or dying limbs should be cut out. Young trees 

 of most fruits require little pruning before they come into bearing. 

 Pruning of fruit trees in general should be done during the dormant 

 season, preferably in the spring after danger of severe winter freezing 

 is past but before growth has started. 



If the growth of vines of bunch grapes is rather weak during the 

 first season, it is advisable to cut the vine back at the end of the first 

 growing season to one or two buds and to train up a strong trunk 

 during the second growing season. If the vine is to be trained to a 

 fence or a two-wire system, it should be tied to a stake and carried 

 upright until it reaches the top wire. At that point it should be 

 pinched off and two laterals led out, one in either direction, along the 

 wire. During the second season, lateral canes will grow from all the 

 buds along the trunk. Two of these at the height of the first wire 

 above the ground should be selected and tied to that wire to develop 

 fruiting wood. The other branches along the trunk should be rubbed 

 off or pinched back during the growing season. 



Pruning should be done while the vines are in a dormant condition. 

 It is important to note that the fruit is borne on shoots from the canes 

 of the previous season's growth. In pruning, therefore, enough new 

 wood should be saved to provide for the next summer's crop and the 

 rest removed. With healthy, vigorous vines, from 50 to 60 buds will 

 produce as much fruit as the vine can mature properly. More wood 

 may be left on vines for home production, provided sufficient space is 

 available for the vine to develop. With vigorous vines, the leaving of 

 more wood may result in a greater total quantity of fruit, but the indi- 

 vidual bunches may be inferior in size and the fruit of poorer quality. 



Vines of muscadine grape are pruned somewhat differently. With 

 these the canes laid off on the wires serv e as permanent arms, and the 

 new growth is pruned so as to leave fruiting spurs 6 to 8 inches long. 

 Such spurs should be evenly distributed along the arm and so spaced 

 as to allow free development of new shoots. All excess wood should 

 be pruned away. 



Except in the mountain region the priming of dewberries and black- 

 berries consists in removing all the canes, both old and new, after the 

 fruit has been picked. New canes will then develop strong growth to 

 produce fruit for the following season. In the western part of North 

 Carolina and South Carolina, in northern Georgia, and in Tennessee 

 the season is not long enough for strong new canes to grow. There 

 just the old canes that have fruited should be cut out after the fruit 

 has been picked. The new canes of dewberries are left till the follow- 

 ing spring, when they are tied in a spiral to stakes standing about 

 6 feet above ground. Winter pruning of the blackberry consists in 

 cutting back lateral branches to about 12 inches. 



U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942 



For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. ------- Price 5 cents 



