If possible there should always be a branch on one side of the tree corresponding to a similar branch on the other side of the tree. The pruner ensures that branches grow out in this way, by notching the buds on the main central stem, in the winter during the first five or six years. When a nick or notch is made just above a bud in one-year- old wood a shoot will develop.
The following winter the grower can cut back the lateral to this plump bud. Each winter also he will prune away the unnecessary wood, he will cut back the branches that tend to grow into one another,as well as those that are actually rubbing one another. His aim will be to let light and air into all parts of the tree, and to see that the branches are evenly spaced. It is really letting an apple or pear tree grow as it wants to grow, with a certain amount of thinning out.
The bush tree is grafted on to a fairly weak or weak stock, but the standard or half-standard must be worked on to a fairly strong stock, so that a good length of fairly stem strong or trunk may be produced. Thus the nurseryman allows the maiden or one-year-old tree to grow naturally for another year before he cuts it, the idea being to get greater height. However, the ordinary man will buy his standards or half-standards already formed, and all he will have to do is the pruning, to produce the extra necessary branches.
The procedure for the second year is then repeated year after year, until the tree is about 5 feet 6 inches tall. At that stage the central shoot may be left unpruned, though, if because the season has been wet the top growth is very vigorous, then the entire shoot may be removed in the middle of May, by cutting it back to the topmost sideshoot found below it.
Alternatively, they are pruned back quite hard to just above a bud, and a nick is made in the bark just below the base of this bud to convert it into a fruit bud. Care must be taken as the tree is trained to see that no branch gives extreme shading to one below and if and when this happens the tree is say seven or eight years old, one of the branches must be removed altogether. The idea is to keep the branches furnished with young wood, for though the majority of the laterals may be left to form fruit buds, some will be purposely pruned back, in order to form more growth.
The work was therefore tremendous. When the trees tended to make too much wood under this system, root pruning was done, to reduce wood growth and to encourage the production of fruit buds. - 15266
The following winter the grower can cut back the lateral to this plump bud. Each winter also he will prune away the unnecessary wood, he will cut back the branches that tend to grow into one another,as well as those that are actually rubbing one another. His aim will be to let light and air into all parts of the tree, and to see that the branches are evenly spaced. It is really letting an apple or pear tree grow as it wants to grow, with a certain amount of thinning out.
The bush tree is grafted on to a fairly weak or weak stock, but the standard or half-standard must be worked on to a fairly strong stock, so that a good length of fairly stem strong or trunk may be produced. Thus the nurseryman allows the maiden or one-year-old tree to grow naturally for another year before he cuts it, the idea being to get greater height. However, the ordinary man will buy his standards or half-standards already formed, and all he will have to do is the pruning, to produce the extra necessary branches.
The procedure for the second year is then repeated year after year, until the tree is about 5 feet 6 inches tall. At that stage the central shoot may be left unpruned, though, if because the season has been wet the top growth is very vigorous, then the entire shoot may be removed in the middle of May, by cutting it back to the topmost sideshoot found below it.
Alternatively, they are pruned back quite hard to just above a bud, and a nick is made in the bark just below the base of this bud to convert it into a fruit bud. Care must be taken as the tree is trained to see that no branch gives extreme shading to one below and if and when this happens the tree is say seven or eight years old, one of the branches must be removed altogether. The idea is to keep the branches furnished with young wood, for though the majority of the laterals may be left to form fruit buds, some will be purposely pruned back, in order to form more growth.
The work was therefore tremendous. When the trees tended to make too much wood under this system, root pruning was done, to reduce wood growth and to encourage the production of fruit buds. - 15266
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When the trunk tip of the fruit tree in the garden grows 12 to 15 inches higher, two more buds are chosen and the process is repeated.
