. The fruit garden. Fruit-culture; Fruit trees. THE PEAR 121. Side Branch in Growth produce better fruit and more fertile branches that disbudding is resorted to. We will take the previous year's main shoots first. These will very seldom show any blossom buds the first year, although occasionally a few are formed at the extreme ends of the shoots, and they should be allowed to bear fruit, as usually it is of excellent quality. These young shoots will vary in length from 12 to 18 inches, and will, when breaking into growth in spring, produce from eight to twelve or more small shoots. Five will
. The fruit garden. Fruit-culture; Fruit trees. THE PEAR 121. Side Branch in Growth produce better fruit and more fertile branches that disbudding is resorted to. We will take the previous year's main shoots first. These will very seldom show any blossom buds the first year, although occasionally a few are formed at the extreme ends of the shoots, and they should be allowed to bear fruit, as usually it is of excellent quality. These young shoots will vary in length from 12 to 18 inches, and will, when breaking into growth in spring, produce from eight to twelve or more small shoots. Five will be quite enough to fur- nish spurs for this length of shoot for the following year, therefore they should be reduced to this number, and so that they are equally distributed the whole length of the shoot. Spring and summer pruning possess one great advantage over winter pruning, because then it is impossible to be in doubt as to which is a flower ^'^ Extension growth stopped ; {d) side shoots shortened . I , , . , . to three ieaves, not counting small basal ones; le) spurs. bud and which is a wood bud. When winter pruning nothing is more difficult to the amateur and beginner than to be able to tell the difference between a wood bud and a fruit bud. The fruit buds are short, thick, and blunt at the end, containing as they do the embryo flowers. The wood bud is longer and thinner, and tapering instead of being blunt at the end. Having explained the manner in which last year's shoots should be disbudded, it only remains now to treat of the main branches in the same way. They ought to have flowering spurs at least every 10 inches, each of which often produces three or four clusters of flowers. These should be reduced to two, reserving, of course, the best. Two clusters would really be enough, as at most we can only have two fruits to a spur ; but as frost and much inclement weather have to be reckoned with, we must be on the safe side, and consequently retain two of the clusters of
Size: 1928px × 1295px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksub, booksubjectfruitculture
