FEUIT-TREES IN POTS. 



627 



If there are not plenty of bees in the houses to do it, they must be 

 fertilised with a camel-hair brush. Plenty of air must be given at this 

 stage. 



When the fruits are set and the leaves growing, the house should be 

 kept closer and the syringe used freely, damping down well at night to 

 obtain a moist and growing atmosphere. Peaches and Nectarines will be 

 found to push too many growths along their shoots ; these would be over- 

 crowded if left, and must be disbudded — that is, about every alternate bud 

 should be cut right out — and most of the remainder must be stopped by 

 pinching out the growing point; only the end bud being allowed to extend, 

 and one or two others required to fill up or cut back to. 



When the stone fruits are beginning to swell, dead calyces, &c, must 

 be removed. In most cases the fruits will require thinning ; one must be 

 careful not to do this too thoroughly at the early stage. With Pears 

 and Apples especially, many of the blooms drop without setting at all, 

 others after the young fruits have attained some size, so that until one 

 knows which are going to mature they should be left to themselves. 



Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots do not thin themselves in the same 

 way ; they set as a rule a great many — too many — fruits, all of which would 

 mature, or try to do so, if allowed. They must have their crop reduced to 

 within reasonable limits, and to do this one should go over it at least 

 three times, once just after the fruit is set, again when it is about the 

 size of a nut, and finally after stoning is finished. After Peaches, &c. 

 have stoned, and when Apples and Pears are swelling, the trees must be 

 fed up to enable them to mature their crop ; they should be top-dressed, 

 and may now be given liquid manure about twice a week. Equal parts 

 of horse- droppings and kiln dust are mixed together and made into a 

 bed about a foot deep, which is then saturated with liquid manure. This 

 is ready for use the day after it is made. The mixture is placed on the 

 surface of the soil, about two inches deep, near the rim, sloping down 

 towards the stem of the tree, thus making a hollow to hold the water. 

 It should be renewed when the fruit is colouring. Summer-pinching 

 controls the growth of the tree. W 7 hen a shoot has made about eight 

 good leaves it should be pinched back to five ; the leading shoot on a 

 pyramid may be allowed to extend rather more. The top shoots on a 

 tree, always the most vigorous, are pinched first ; this keeps them from 

 taking the lead and retaining it. A second pinching of the after-growth 

 is sometimes necessary. Bushes or round-headed half standards of 

 Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots are the easiest for the amateur to 

 manage ; they approach most nearly to the natural shape of the tree. 



When picking Peaches and Nectarines, snip the stalks of the fruit 

 with a pair of Grape scissors ; if one tries to twist it off without doing 

 this the fruit may easily be damaged. The fruits should not be picked 

 just after the tree has been watered, or the flavour will be insipid. 



Apples, Pears, and Plums may have their fruit set under glass, and 

 the trees then be plunged in borders outside to ripen it. In this way one 

 can grow more trees than could be fruited in an orchard-house and be 

 sure of getting Pears, which are such an uncertain crop in the open. 



Insects are really easy to deal with under glass if never allowed to 

 get the upper hand. Aphides are killed by fumigation with vaporising 



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