CTie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
857 
The Small Patch Garden 
Pruning Tomato Plants 
Can you advise me how to prune to¬ 
mato p’laiits? The more I prune the 
more they branch. L. A. P. 
Binghamton, N. Y. 
In general field culture there is no ad¬ 
vantage to be gained by pruning. But 
under glass or when grown outside on 
stakes, trellis or fence, more or less prun¬ 
ing is quite essential to keep the plants 
under control. When grown on stakes 
it is best to train the plants to a single 
stem, and the stalks should be six or 
eight feet high. The pruning consists 
of holding the side shoots under control 
by cutting them off just a short distance 
beyond the first or second blossom clus¬ 
ter. Tomatoes are unlike trees and 
many plants, that one pruning when done 
at the proper time will suffice for the 
season, but must be looked after and 
pruned frequently until the plants have 
about completed growth. When the 
plants are trained on a fence or trellis 
they will give best returns when trained 
fan shape. The same kind of pruning 
for main and side leaders is required as 
for a single stem plant. The pruning of 
tomato plants is designed to meet two 
objects, i.e., to give light and air by re¬ 
moval of surplus growth of foliage, and 
restriction of the set of fruit, so that 
those borne by the pruned plant will be 
better in size and form, and evenly 
ripened without loss by rotting, as is 
often the case, when the fruits come in 
contact with the ground, particularly in 
a w'et season. With a little practice 
and use of common sense, anyone can 
soon leai'n how to prune tomato plants 
properly so as to give the best results. 
The plants will have to be gone over 
many times during the growing season 
and a lateral cut out here and another 
there to keep them in proper shape. It 
is but natural that they will throw out 
many side sprouts when pruned. Prun¬ 
ing induces this growth and to hold it 
in check is out of the question, except 
by pruning and more pruning. K. 
Small Asparagus 
Why is it that my asparagus (some of 
it) grows in small pencil-like stalks, and 
not big and fat, as it seems from the good 
treatment it has had it should? Is it 
because the clump of roots should be 
parted? Flavor is good, but does not 
seem to be as it should with the care it 
gets. w. H. B. 
Kingston, N. Y. 
Asparagus cannot be induced to give 
all large fat shoots. It is natural that 
a certain percentage of the shoots are 
small, as all do not, nor cannot, develop 
alike any more than all the apples or 
peaches will be the same size on a tree. 
This is due to various causes, most of 
which are well known. In asparagus it 
is generally due to lack of nourishment, 
from root defects or weakness caused by 
too late cuttings, or both, generally both. 
Everyone has this same kind of growth 
to a greater or lesser extent, but seem 
to have no worry over it, as all are good 
in flavor*. The only trouble is in the 
added difficulty in preparing it for cook¬ 
ing, wffiich is of slight importance when 
used in the home, K. 
Poor Blooming of Rambler Roses 
Why do not the Rambler roses, such 
as the Dorothy Perkins, bloom the past 
two seasons? Does pruning every year 
help them? W. W. 
(ialveston, Tex. 
All kinds of roses should be pruned 
more or less every year. We make a 
practice of cutting out one-half or more 
of the canes of our Ramblers every year. 
Making Dwarf Apples Bear 
In the Spring of 1914 I bought 20 
dwarf Stark Delicious apples and planted 
them in a row 10 feet apart. They have 
been growing nicely for four years now, 
and although I looked for some bloom Last 
year, and also this year, I have been dis¬ 
appointed—no sign of any bloom. The 
disappointment is all the more, as I am 
getting along in years and -would like to 
see them fruit. Can it be my fault? 
Ohio. J. ir. E. 
In my experience the Delicious apple is 
rather slow in coming into bearing as a 
dwarf, and in the average number of 
cases I would not expect them to bloom 
and set fruit w'ithin four years after 
planting. Such varieties as Stayraan, 
Winter Banana, McIntosh and Bismarck, 
come into bearing much earlier than the 
Delicious. You do not state whether 
these trees are propagated upon Paradise 
or Doucin stock. In the latter case they 
might be a year or two longer in coming 
into bearing than if propagated upon 
Paradise. If the trees have been growing 
quite rapidly and you -would like to make 
a special effort to get one or two of them 
to bloom you might try a mild form of 
girdling by cutting through the bark with 
a knife blade completely around the 
trunk about the first of .July. Two or 
three circular cuts about five or six 
inches apart can be suggested. Please 
note that this does not mean the removal 
of any bark, but simply severing the bark 
through with a knife. This will quickly 
grow together again, but may provide a 
sufficient check to cause the setting of 
some fruit buds. I would not advise this 
upon a commercial scale, but find it quite 
successful in some ways when practiced 
upon a few trees. It might check the 
vigor of their growth somewhat, but I 
infer from your letter that you are par- 
ticulai-ly anxious to secure a few fruits 
as soon as possible, and are not so much 
interested in the quantity of fruit that 
these trees might produce some years 
from now. M. A. blake. 
Late Tomatoes and Cabbage 
1 , I have an order for 1,200 bushels 
of green tomatoes for the month of -Sep¬ 
tember. I have sown Success seed in 
the open ground. Do you think they will 
come along all right so that I can set 
them in time to get any kind of a 
crop, or would I better buy larger 
plants? 2. Is the end of May too late 
to sow late cabbage in the field in drills 
three feet apart and thinned to two 
feet apai-t in the d ill? I have never 
grown them that way. J. O. 
So. Deerfield, Mass. 
1. With plants raised in the open 
ground you could scarcely expect more 
than half a crop, even of green tomatoes. 
You would gain <a little by keeping sash 
on until the first good i*ain about the 
middle of the month. But I should pre¬ 
fer to buy some good, stocky plants. 
You can get them at $2 to $10 per 1000, 
and you would get several pounds more 
per vine. Even one pound more should 
pay co.st of a good plant. The best one 
can do, there will be many small toma¬ 
toes frozen on the vines at frost time. 
Of course with the early plants, part of 
the crop must be sold as ripe tomatoes. 
2. The late sown cabbages of late v.a- 
rieties will not yield many large solid 
heads. -I tried the plan with Drumhead 
and Savoy two years ago. It works 
pretty well if sown about Dlay 1. Wake¬ 
field, Summer, and possibly Winning- 
stadt can be grown that way in favor¬ 
able season sown as late as June 10 to 
15, and I have had salable heads of 
Wakefield sown .July 1. Nitrate of soda 
at time of a setting or first cultivation 
will hurry along both tomatoes and cab¬ 
bages. G. B. F. 
preferring to remove all the old canes 
when and where it can be done without 
spoiling the shape of the plant. The pre¬ 
ceding year’s canes always give the lai*- 
gest and finest clusters of bloom, and 
we find it pays to remove all older wood 
wherever practicable. I cannot say lack 
of pruning is responsible for your plants 
not blooming, but it is possible that has 
something to do with it. If these plants 
were ours we would cut them down to 
the ground at once, and allow them to 
make an entire new growth from the 
root. By doing this, we would look for¬ 
ward with confidence for a fine crop of 
bloom next year. k. 
A New Method With Asparagus 
One of our readers tells us about a 
new method he has worked out for cul¬ 
tivating asparagus. He says he plants 
the roots 3% feet each way, cultivating 
both ways with a horse and has quite 
an acreage just beginning to bear. By 
this method of culture he raises a very 
large and exceedingly tender stalk—some 
single stalks weighing over eight ounces. 
Under this system of culture every bit 
of stalk is tender or eatable, or so at 
least this grower informs us. We had 
.samples of the stalks cooked. They were 
very good and exceedingly tender and of 
a beautiful light color. We would like 
to know if othere of our readers have 
ever attempted to grow asparagus in 
this way. 
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