THE GARDEN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 176, 27 July 1907, Page 3

THE GARDEN.

PRUNING BUSH FRUITS

The gooseberry, currant and raspberry call for more or less regular ami heavy pruning, according to the favourableness of the soil and climate, and the quantity of growth made from year to year. The raspberry always needs a great deal of pruning, since canes which have borne once call for yemovalj and all the weak and crowding young- canes also need- cutting away. In rich soils raspberry canes should be left their full length, and placed far apart; they will then bear fruit over their entire length and on all sides, whereas if cut hard a tuft of rank and often fruitless growth appears, and much space and material runs to waste. No precise number of caucs may be stated as sufficiency for one crown, but from five to seven usually furnish the most profitable head. If the canes are all weak, then the strongest should be selected, and the others cut clean away at the ground. It is also an advantage to cut back somewhat weak canes, so as to encourage fairly strong growth. Again, windy or dz-y positions call for strong canes, whilst rich, moist and well protected soils j'ield most fruit where moderately weak canes are laid in.

Old raspberry crown 3 are helped by passing a spade or broad axe through their centres during the winter, and this treatment tends to force new roots in what has become neutral ground. Deep digging and . heavy surface dressing with manure should always follow in the pruning of weak plantations of raspberry, but a clearing and light digging or cultivating of strong plants will be more conducive to fruitfulness. Lime, soot, kainet and seaweed are excellent dressing for raspberries which have become infested with mould, and once the pruning is carried out. any disease should be attacked in such a way as will secure a clean and vigorous spring growth. ••■ ■■ . Gooseberries call > for plenty of picking space between all their bearing vsood,. Any bush which provides room for rapid stripping of fruit will almost certainly be enabled to bear abundant and even crops. Only the young and the old bushes call for cutting back, plants in their prime standing in need of no more than a careful thinning and regulating of the branches. Some varieties of gooseberry bear almost entirely on spurs, and these call for more space between the branches than do such as bear direct from the branches. A glance at any bush should enable the pruner to discern its characteristic habit of malling stout and bearing wood. The weaker the wood the smaller the size of bush striven for, and the stouter and more upright the class of bearing wood laid in. Young plants bear a light and spreading wood, whereas old and failing plants can yield fruit of good size and quality only on fairly upright and stout wood. Short trunks are best for the gooseberry in all but the coolest and most elevated regions, as where the sun beats upon the bark it usually dry's and impoverishes it to the extent that the plant is starved and cannot long survive. Currants, both red and white, bear chiefly on short light spurs, springing from roots of various ages. Very young and soft wood will not yield fruit, nor will that which is very old, weak or hard. The pruner should be able to estimate the age and comparative vigour of the wood, and select only the old or medium growth, according as he sees the necessity for more or less vital wood. Black currants bear on clean, young shoots, and as their leaves are large and the wood does not-usually'ripen'well in close shade, there is the greater necessity for keeping all the main wood well snread and the bearing shoots at such distances from each other as will se-

cure plenty of light and air to all the desired leaves. The black currant likes a cool, moist climate and plenty of exposure to the sunlight during winter. A shady and sour winter soil will effectively prevent fruiting, and so will any close pruning, which renders tho head a dense and airless thicket.