184 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 16, 1907. 
Fruit Growing 
for Amateurs 
Planting Trees Against Walls. — 
The best time for planting the trees is in 
the autumn directly the leaves have fallen. 
The tree should be one which has been 
grown in a pot and so produced a good 
number of fibrous roots. 
The Soil. — A void a very rich rooting 
medium. In cases where the trees are 
planted against dwelling houses or other 
buildings every care should be taken to 
prevent the roots gaining access to the 
4 
4. Shows how to -plant a tree in a pre¬ 
pared pit ; A, A, rough walls to enclose the 
roots. 
space beneath the floors as roots of t ig 
trees have been known to ramble long dis¬ 
tances under such floors and to cause 
damage to them, and also to enter sani¬ 
tary drains and block them. 
While the soil is removed in readiness 
for the planting some efxtra brickwork or 
slabs may be fixed to prevent the roots 
going under the foundations of the walls. 
The ordinary garden soil will answer very 
well, but such a rooting medium is not of 
lasting benefit to the trees, therefore it is 
better to procure some old sods which con- 
5 . A good specimen for planting against 
a wall. 
tain plenty of fibre, chop them up and mix 
with them one peck of old mortar rubbish 
to two bushels of the chopped loam. 
Plant in rather shallow beds, and place 
some slates, brick-bats, or broken slabs in 
the bottom, building up at the same time 
a rough narrow wall to confine the roots 
(see Fig. 4. A space four feet by three 
feet will be quite large enough for a large 
tree. Make the soil—which should not 
contain any manure—very firm around the 
roots. The best kind of tree to plant is 
one about three years old and trained fan- 
shape (see Fig. 5). 
Summer Treatment. —Fig trees are 
often grievously neglected in the matter of 
watering. They are left to struggle on 
as best they can no matter how dry the 
soil is at their roots. Now-, this is wrong 
treatment. A Fig tree naturally bears many- 
very large leaves, therefore the evapora¬ 
tion of moisture is correspondingly- great 
during the hot day-s of summer, and, un¬ 
less water, is supplied to the roots in. due 
time the formation of the young fruits 
will not be satisfactory-. 
6. Shows how a specimen tree 
Training. —This consists in duly- filling 
up ail the vacant wall space without over¬ 
crowding- the branches. Every- time you 
fasten a shoot to the wall—'a permanent 
shoot I mean — consider whether it will, 
as placed by you, receive all the light 
and sunshine of the season (see Fig. 6). 
From the beginning of the season 
young, sappy shoots will grow. Do not 
use a knife to remove them, but pinch out 
those not required and pinch off the ends 
of the others when they have attained a 
length of about five inches. Young, 
sappy, shoots w-hich grow from the main 
stems must be removed altogether, unless 
such are needed to fill up gaps (see Fig. 7). 
During the first week in September 
pinch off the ends of every growing shoot-; 
young Figs w-ill be forming by- this time, 
and the effect of the pinching w-ill be to 
cause them to sw-ell nicely. 
With regard to the roots a mulch of 
rotted manure and fibrous loam will be 
highly- beneficial, and encourage the for¬ 
mation of fine surface roots. 
During the grov-ing season you should 
liberally feed trees which possess abun¬ 
dance of roots in a confined rooting area. 
Weak manure w-ater from the stables and 
cow houses, and clear soot w-ater w-ill assist 
both the growth of the branches and the 
fruit. 
Protecting Ripe Fruit. —Wasps and 
flies soon destroy the ripening fruits un¬ 
less the latter are protected. Birds, especi¬ 
ally starlings, will also eat half-ripe Figs 
wholesale. As the latter are very tender 
when ripe, it is best to wrap open muslin 
cloths around a few leaves and branches 
as well as the fruit, so that the muslin 
bags do not touch the skin. Birds eat 
aw-av both muslin and fruit w-hen the can¬ 
vas touches the latter, so that it is advis¬ 
should be trained on a wall. 
able to properly net the whole of the tree, 
or at least that portion which bears the 
ripening Figs. 
Winter Treatment. — Very- little labom 
need be expended upon the trees during 
the winter. Where the summer pinching 
of the shoots has been duly- attended to 
there will be very little pruning at thi- 
season required. Simplv cut out any bac 
wood and branches which are too strong 
and sappy-^ long-jointed and not bearing 
embryo Figs. This should be done when 
there appears to be too many branches foi 
the space available (see Fig. 8). 
Top-dressings of fibrous loam may b' 
A, A, fruit-bearing spurs ; B, B, stem shoots which must 
be removed. 
