546 



GROWING BUSH FRUITS 



This heading back produces not only a stockier cane, but a 

 cane with lower branches. The buds which produce much of 

 the next year's fruiting shoots are borne on these branches. 



The crop is borne for the most part upon new fruiting 

 branches which grow in the spring from axillary buds along 

 the laterals or branches. However, when the laterals are 

 headed back heavily, considerable fruit is also borne from 

 shoots which spring from the main cane. 



The fruit buds on the laterals are generally so numerous 

 on healthy plants that it would be impossible for the plants to 

 develop the crop if all of them were left. As a result it is best 

 to shorten these laterals in the spring just before or at the 

 time growth starts. 



Standard recommendations in the past have been to shorten 

 these laterals, leaving them 14 to 18 inches in length, but it 

 has recently been shown that the laterals of black raspberries 

 can be headed quite severely without greatly reducing the 

 total crop, while the size of the individual berries will usually 

 be much better because of such severe pruning. Studies in 

 Michigan show that, where laterals are headed back to four 

 or six buds, excellent fruit is produced from these buds and 

 also many fruiting shoots force out from the main cane. The 

 individual fruits produced on the shoots which grow from the 

 main cane are larger than those produced from the laterals. 

 Other valuable evidence shown in these tests is that the yield 

 from canes and from laterals, and likewise the size of berry, 

 are closely associated with diameter or size of cane. Yields 

 of individual fruiting shoots and likewise the average size of 

 berry were also found to be closely correlated with the amount 

 of foliage. It is stated, 'The advantages of short pruning are 

 more pronounced during ripening seasons that are character- 

 ized by low humidity and high temperature. It is to a degree 

 an insurance against drought injuries." 



It has also been shown at the Cornell Station that practi- 

 cally all the buds on black and red raspberry canes are po- 

 tential fruit buds, although in blackberries there seems to be a 



