Pruning Young Trees 
H. E. Cornell, Winter Haven 
This address will be confined to a dis¬ 
cussion of the pruning of young trees be¬ 
fore planting and for a period of three or 
four years after. 
Whether you plant just a few trees for 
home use or a large number for commer¬ 
cial marketing, you are naturally desirous 
that they shall be successful. A correct 
start is most important. Given this, your 
trees will avoid a set-back at the begin¬ 
ning, avoid subsequent slow growth and 
diseases, and instead grow vigorously and 
quickly reach a productive size. 
In considering trees to be planted we 
will have in mind the ordinary sizes of cit¬ 
rus trees from the nursery, from one-half 
inch to one inch in diameter. 
The first thing to decide is how the 
trees shall be cut back for transplanting. 
It used to be general practice to plant 
branched trees—that is, trees cut back, 
leaving the main branches six to ten inch¬ 
es in length. The new top of the trees 
was then formed from buds growing 
from these branches, and every sprout be¬ 
low on the trunk not allowed to grow at 
all. This is not the best way to prune for 
planting. The shoots growing from the 
branched tree are apt to develop into 
drooping branches, grow toward the 
ground and be anything but vigorous. 
The sap flow has had to become estab¬ 
lished throughout the entire length of the 
trunk to reach this top. Often before this 
is accomplished, the bark has become 
somewhat hardened and dried out, and 
though the tree may live, the growth is 
weak and reluctant. Later, much french- 
ing will occur and for years it will be nec¬ 
essary to keep pruning out hard and with- 
ertip branches. 
Unless trees are extra large in size, over 
three years of age and calipering three 
inches or more, the best way to prune back 
for planting is to cut off the entire top, 
leaving a stub of a trunk twelve to twen¬ 
ty-four inches in height. Within these 
limits, the larger the tree, the longer the 
stub. For the average one-year-old bud 
on four-year-old root system which we are 
considering, calipering three-quarters of 
an inch, sixteen inches is about right. 
The trees should be dug with a liberal 
root system. This root system has to ab¬ 
sorb water from the soil to replenish that 
evaporated from the trunk and keep it 
from becoming hard and bark-bound un¬ 
til the tree gets started. It will readily be 
seen that it is best to have this absorbing, 
pumping, root area, large, and the exposed 
trunk subject to drying out relatively 
small. 
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