FORMS OF FRUIT TREES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 185, 6 August 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

FORMS OF FRUIT TREES.

To tho uninitiated the terms used to describe the various types of fruit trees are not very plain, and a description of what is actually meant will enable them to judge the various uses and positions of the" trees. Cordons arc trained in an upright, sloping or horizontal position. The main leader is carried up or along the desired

length, the laterals being cut back yearly, so as to form spurs. Trained upright or sloping, they can be planted three feet apart, and make a fine useful and ornamental covering to the side of a house or a tall fence. Apples or pears do very well trained on this system. The horizontal cordons arc about 18in from the ground level, and are usually trained along ordinary fencing wire. Horizontal or espalier trained are very useful for a screen to the kitchen garden, or they can be used against a wall. They arc a very economical method of growing fruit where space is limited, as is usually the case in small gardens. Pears do remarkably well under this system, and it is largely in this way that exhibition fruit is grown ia England and on the Continent. Tho tiers of branches are about 12in apart, and the number of tiers is dopendent upon the height of the support. Fan Trained.—This is a very useful form for covering walls, and peaches, plums, apricots and stone fruit generally seem to do exceptionally well under this

system. The branches start at about 18in from the ground level, and are kept at various angles from the main stem. Bush Tree. —This is the usual type of tree which is used in this country, and tho one figured is a fair example. In many cases, owing to bad training, or

the want of training, the object is often lost, and instead of getting a tree at three years old, like the one figured, it ia often a long, straggling tree with plenty of timber and but few fruiting spurs. Pyramid Trained is a type that suits the pear particularly well. The main stem is allowed to continue, and laterals

are allowed to grow so that the tree assumes a pyramidal form. The fruit is carried on spurs produced on the lateral branches. Standard Trained is the old-fashioned type of orchard tree, and not much in use to-day.

Standard Fan-trained is really a fantrained tree with a long stem, and is

1 used to plant between two dwarf fantrained trees to cover the upper part of a high wall. The training of fruit trees is a fascinating work, and although it is to a certain extent unnatural, it is justified, like many more of our unnatural methods, by enabling us to produce more food from a, small area*