210 GROWTH OF TREES AND FORMING OF FRUIT BUDS 



or side growth, especially if the blossoms '^set" fruit. The 

 next year this leaf bud, on the secondary growth usually makes 

 a straight growth, and then a fruit bud which blossoms the 

 following spring is formed at its terminal (Fig. 71). Thus 

 the same spur normally bears fruit only, every other year. 



Fruit thinning after the June drop then would hardly be 

 expected to cause fruit buds to form again on such spurs for 

 the next yearns crop. It will also be seen, later in the chapter, 

 that by the time most fruit thinning is done, 

 fruit-bud differentiation for the next yearns 

 crop is well under way. Fruit spurs generally 

 complete their growth in length for the year 

 within two weeks after blossoming, although 

 increase in diameter continues over a much 

 longer period. 



The age of spurs can readily be ascertained 

 by observing the ^^rings^^ caused by the scars 

 left where the bud scales have fallen off. It 

 is easy to determine whether the spurs have 

 been productive or whether they have never 

 borne by looking for the cluster bases, or for 

 scars made where the stems of fruit were re- 

 moved from the spur. See Fig. 72. To be 

 productive, spurs should make a fair amount 

 of new growth each year and have a good 

 supply of healthy foliage. 

 (e) Consider the Fndting Habits of Different Fruits, 

 Apple and Pear, Much of the fruit is borne on spurs in the 

 apple and pear, although in certain varieties considerable 

 fruit is often borne laterally and terminally on one-year-old 

 wood. Fruit spurs are normally produced more abundantly 

 on certain varieties than on others. 



In some apple varieties, as Oldenburg, Jonathan, Rhode 

 Island Greening, and Wealthy, the spurs often develop fruit 

 buds during the same year that the spurs are formed. Such 

 Varieties thus bear considerable fruit each year on two-year 



A six- 

 apple 

 which has 

 blossomed 

 or borne fruit. 



