PRUNING THE DIFFERENT TREE FRUITS 



233 



If one-year-old whips are planted, head 

 them back to the height desired. Under most 

 conditions 24 to 36 inches is a satisfactory 

 height, but if the trees are to be pruned by 

 the budding or pinching-out method as de- 

 scribed under peach pruning, the whips 

 should be left about 50 inches high. On well- 

 branched two-year-old trees, all branches 

 which are not desirable for framework 

 branches should be removed and the others 

 should be cut back, the amount depending 

 to some extent upon the growth that they 

 have made. Such branches should be left 

 at least 16 to 18 inches long if possible, so 

 as to allow plenty of room for secondary 

 branches to grow and not be too close to 

 the trunk. A higher percentage of the trees 

 which are headed back usually live the first 

 year, especially if it happens to be a dry 

 season, because the roots have an oppor- 

 tunity to make some growth before much 

 leaf area is expanded. Unless conditions 

 are very satisfactory for rapid root growth 

 and for low transpiration, limbs which are 

 not headed back usually leaf out but make 

 very little extension growth. 



The principle of dwarfing certain limbs 

 by heavier cutting is often employed in train- 

 ing young trees. If two branches of prac- 

 tically equal size are so arranged as to form 

 a bad crotch, which eventually might split 

 if both were allowed to grow equally, one 

 limb, by heavy pruning, can be dwarfed and 

 made a side branch of the other (Fig. 79) . In 

 this way a much stronger framework can be 

 if it is desired merely to suppress a branch 



Fig. 78. This apple 

 tree has been headed 

 high enough so that 

 well-spaced scaffold 

 limbs can be se- 

 lected by the debud- 

 ding method soon 

 after growth starts. 



built. Likewise, 

 for a few years 



