CHAPTER V 



PRUNING 



A certain amount of pruning is desirable with all fruit trees. 



The amount of pruning required varies with the kinds of 

 fruit, their age, fruiting habits, and other factors such as soil 

 management and fertilization. 



Operations : 



1. Deciding when the pruning should be done. 



2. Determining how heavily the trees should be pruned. 



3. Selecting the pruning tools. 



4. Pruning the different tree fruits. 



5. Determining pruning costs. 



1. Deciding When the Pruning Should be Done. Experi- 

 ments show that pruning may well be done at any time from 

 leaf fall in the autumn until the buds start to grow in the 

 spring. In some sections where the winters are unusually 

 cold, if there is danger of winter injury to the fresh pruning 

 wounds, it would be well, especially with peaches and other 

 stone fruits, to wait until spring before doing the pruning. 

 In general, if one had only a few trees to prune and plenty of 

 help, the work might well be left until spring; otherwise 

 pruning should start in the fall or winter. Wounds made just 

 as growth is starting in the spring heal a little more quickly, 

 but this would not be of enough importance to delay the 

 pruning if there is much of it to do. Careful pruning ex- 

 periments in this and other countries have shown, however, 

 that, as a general rule, dormant pruning over a period of 

 years has been more satisfactory, when measured by tree 

 growth and fruit yields, than summer pruning. Young trees 

 given approximately the same kind and amount of pruning 



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