BUSH FRUITS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 103, 4 May 1933, Page 17

BUSH FRUITS

METHODS OF PRUNING

The pruning of all bush fruits should be done during May and June. To get satisfactory results it is necessary to have some knowledge of how the various bushes bear their fruit, otherwise quite a lot of damage may be done. Black currants bear on young growth of -the- previous year, hence ucw wood should bo encouraged and all old wood be removed. These bushes should be encouraged to throw up sucker growth from -the base; these growths being merely shortened a few iuchos to remove any soft sappy growth which would be liable to be nipped by frost. Old branches may'bo cut right out— with a . saw if necessary—and any wood showing borer holea muat be ie-

moved, cutting well below the affected part. Bed and white currants bear mostly on spurs. New growth, should be shortened back to encourage spurring. The growths should be thinned out to keep the centres of the bushes open, and any suckers from the base should 'be removed. The ideal with these bushes, as with gooseberries, is to have a bush on a single trunk forming a head ' about one foot from the soil, then" it is : comparatively easy to work under the \ bushes without doing harm to the branches. Gooseberries also bear chiefly on spurs, and new growth should be ', shortened back, the leading branches to three or four eyes, and the laterals lor side growths to one or two eyes. ', Keep the centres of the bushes open ' and- remove any branches which are [ crossing or getting entangled with ; others. Gooseberries may be grown '' successfully on the cordon system, the 1 branches being trained on low wire ' fences, this system having the advan--1 tage that the fruit may be more read--1 ily gathered. Grown in this way they | act as a useful low shelter fence. Easpberriea bear on young cane •of 1 the previous year's growth. All the \ old canes should be broken or cut out [at the base and the new growths reduced to four or five of the strongest i canes to each clump. The canes re- ; tamed may be shortened a few inches. ' Always leave the strongest canes, and .as far as possiblo choose those which are evenly spaced. Any sucker growths , which appear between the rows should ■be rigidly suppressed by grubbing out. 'If allowed to grow a jungle will result,

making it very difficult to gather the fruit. Raspberries like a rich, moist soil. After pruning a good dressing of stable manure may be spread between the rows. After pruning bush fruits gather up all tho prunings and burn them as soon as possible. .Fork over the ground round the bushes, working in some bone dust around the gooseberries and currants. Care must be taken in working round bush fruits, as their roots are very near the surface, and may easily bo damaged by-earless use of the spade.