Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . nd fre-quently fails altogether. Pruning the apple or peartree, therefore, ought to con-sist in thinning out the top soas to let in enough light andair to keep it healthy, andin persistently holding on tothese small spurs just as longas they remain productive. How Peaches are Borne.—Now contrast this method ofbearing and pruning with thepeach. It is about as differentas one can well imagine. Tobegin with, the peach alwaysbears on last years shoots in-stead of on these ancient littlespurs (Fig. 49). Then thefruit buds, inste
Productive orcharding, modern methods of growing and marketing fruit . nd fre-quently fails altogether. Pruning the apple or peartree, therefore, ought to con-sist in thinning out the top soas to let in enough light andair to keep it healthy, andin persistently holding on tothese small spurs just as longas they remain productive. How Peaches are Borne.—Now contrast this method ofbearing and pruning with thepeach. It is about as differentas one can well imagine. Tobegin with, the peach alwaysbears on last years shoots in-stead of on these ancient littlespurs (Fig. 49). Then thefruit buds, instead of being *mixed buds, as in the apple, whichproduce both leaves and blossoms, are plain blossom buds, eachwinter bud containing a single peach blossom. This is probablyone reason why peaches are more subject to winter-killing of thefruit buds than apples. They are not nearly so well lastly the bearing section of the tree in the peach migratesalong the branch, as we might say, instead of remaining practi-cally stationary for years, as in the Fig. 49.—Young peaches just set. Noticethat most nodes have two peaches and acluster of leaves. HOW PEACHES ARE BORNE 123 The whole object of the peach primer is therefore to keep upa supply of new wood. His short, interior twigs are often uselessafter one year, in which case he may cut them out any case he prunes his tree much more severely than in theapple, so as to develop new growth. Sometimes this new growth,resulting from severe pruning, is so vigorous that it does notbear much the first year but the operator knows that he can rely Fig. 50. Fig. 51.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfruitculture, bookyea
