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Summer Pruning by Julie Sedwick All of the factors of pruning which have been mentioned are governed largely by the time of year at which the pruning is done. Winter prunings tend to produce wood, while summer pruning tends to produce fruitfulness. Summer pruning, through the removal of the leaves, reduces the working and elaborating surface, and a consequent tendency to starvarion or weakening of the plant. If this summer pruning is done in such a manner, and at such a time as to stop the wood growth in the plant, it will generally promote the formation of numerous fruit buds, but if done too early in the season the growth of the tree will be upset, and it will make a second and late growth that summer. If done too late, after the tree has stopped making wood growth for that summer, it will have much the same effect as winter pruning, Summer pruning is more often done by pinching the tips from shoots that are making an excessive growth rather than by cutting out any large amount of wood.
The climate in which a tree is growing determines to a large extent what the manner of pruning shall be and when it need be done. In the colder parts of the country winter pruning, that is , cutting off large limbs during mid-winter, allows such a large amount of moisture to evaporate from the wood that the bark may be damaged for some distance around each wound from the effects of drying out. Under such circumstances the pruning is best done late in the spring, so that the wounds can be closed over most quickly. In the hot, dry sections of the country there may be a considerable amount of sun-scalding following severe pruning, and has given rise to the statements in the Central Western states that the trees should not be pruned. This, however, needs to be considered carefully, for, while it is true that in the states of bright sunshine and dry air the fruit will color up well even in trees with dense foliage, the trees will become more or less misshapen unless pruned. Under such conditions the pruning needs to be followed just as regularly as in the humid air of the coast states,but needs be done less severely.
In the Rocky Mountain region, where the rainfall is often less than eighteen inches annually, the trees have barely enough moisture to maintain themselves, and they have the habit of early fruiting. Cherry trees often produce a heavy crop at five years from the bud.Throughout all this region fruit trees have such a tendency to overbear that the system of pruning needs to be heavy every winter. On the western side of the Cascade Mountains,where the air is thick with jumidity most of the year, the trees make an excessive amount of wood growth and grw so late into the fall that they are many times not sufficiently matured and suffer more or less from winter killing. Under such conditions the pruning should be done so as to prevent excessive wood growth, such as a generous amount of summer pruning. It frequently happens in the irrigated sections that where the trees are heavily watered, they will make unusually long shoots each season and set few fruit buds. This trouble can oftentimes be corrected without resorting to special pruning. By simply reducing the amount of water that is supplied to the trees, the vigorous wood growth can be stopped and the trees made to produce fruit buds.
In fact the styles of pruning that must be adopted by the irrigation fruit grower must of necessity be governed by local conditions, and will be to a greater or less extent different from that in use in the rainy districts.
The direction in which any given branch will grow will be governed by the position of the bud. In cutting off a branch it should be done just over a bud or branch that is on the side of the limb and pointing in the direction which the new limb is to take. with young trees especially the selection of a bud pointing in the direction the new limb is to take will enable the pruner to quickly and easily get the tree into the most desirable shape. | |
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