228 



PRUNING 



Pruning, by causing a decrease in leaf area, dwarfs the 

 tree and reduces fruiting. When some of the branches of a 

 tree are removed by ^^thinning out" and those remaining are 

 '^headed back/' a large number of buds which might otherwise 

 grow are removed. This means that the leaf area of the tree 

 is reduced in proportion to the severity of the pruning. 



With the leaf area reduced, the amount of carbohydrates 

 and other foods formed is greatly reduced also, and since these 

 are the materials which cause top and root growth and fruit- 

 bud formation, as explained in Chapter IV, it is apparent why 

 heavy pruning would dwarf the trees and decrease fruit pro- 

 duction. 



With the reduced root growth resulting from the pruning, 

 less top growth would be produced each year in the heavily 

 pruned trees, and thus the dwarfing, in comparison to the lighter 

 pruned trees, would be more pronounced each year as the prun- 

 ing continued, at least until the lightly pruned trees were 

 bearing heavily. 



In spite of all this, pruning is an essential orchard prac- 

 tice. The tree cannot be permitted to grow at will. A strong 

 framework is necessary to carry future crops. Fundamental 

 weaknesses are best corrected while the tree is small. The 

 emphasis, therefore, should be on pruning as little as possible in 

 keeping with known objectives and especially before the tree 

 has begun to bear. 



(b) Prune Young Bearing Trees Lightly. More wood 

 growth and fruit are produced, for the same reason as de- 

 scribed in the preceding section, if young bearing trees are 

 given light rather than heavy pruning. Although the tops 

 of lightly primed trees may appear a little thick, while bear- 

 ing the first few crops, nevertheless the trees usually develop 

 faster and produce heavier crops than trees pruned more 

 heavily. On young bearing trees the fruit usually is of good 

 size and color, even though the trees are lightly pruned. 

 The amount of pruning may well be increased after two or 

 three commercial crops have been borne. 



