Among The FRUIT TREES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 8

Among The FRUIT TREES

Prune gooseberries and currants. Stone fruit trees should also receive attention; second laterals and top leaders should be removed. .... Paint cut ends with oil or tar. Plant fruit trees and bushes. Spray with red oil or lime sulphur. It is wise to start the pruning campaign on the small fruits, particularly gooseberries and currants. With gooseberries, if the picking season is borne in mind, it will help a lot in deciding which pieces of growth to remove. Generally this growth is too generous, and if enough of it is removed to give easy access to the branches left, good progress will be made jn the pruning lesson. The berries are borne on the older dark wood, and a lot of the current season's white growths are superfluous, as all cannot be allowed to remain. Other obnoxious growths are the weeping or trailing ones; these should be removed and growth encouraged to go upward. Most varieties are erect enough in habit, but the popular large red Farmer’s Glory has a weeping willow habit and should have careful pruning at an upward eye to curb this inclination. Gooseberries and loganberries are prone to attack by a white small scale, which is easily visible on the old wood. That is why it is important to spray all the bush fruits in the winter, using red oil emulson at the rate of one to 15. A rule to remember is that stone fruits should now be sprayed with Bordeaux or lime sulphur at full winter strength, and that, as all pip and small fruits are subject to scale insect infections, red or white oils are the best cleaners.