COLOUR IN APPLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19889, 7 March 1928, Page 17

COLOUR IN APPLES.

J4OW IT IS INFLUENCED.

I FACTOk OF CONTROL.

•THE QUESTION OF REGRAFTING.

Colour is of the utmost importance in fruits, particularly in dessert apples. Nothing is more attractive than nicely-col-oured fruits. Soil will certainly, to a great extent, influence the amount of eolour in apples; but the colour factor is largely controllable, and the greatest advantage should be taken of the means at Jjand to increase the amount, of colour in Jthe different varieties. The type of Block on which the apples are grown has » bearing upon the colour of the fruits. Apples grown on the Crab stock are Usually less highly coloured than are apples on Paradise stock. Apples grown on grass land are often much more highly soloured than are those grown on cultivated land. The drawback to this jaethod of adding to the colour of the Iraits is that unless the trees are comparatively old the quantity and size of the fruits will suffer. By digging annually round the base of the trees, however, Jhe trees may be kept productive and the colouring effect of the grass may be largely preserved, says a writer in The Gardeners' Chronicle.

Poultry in an orchard add considerably to the colour of the fruit. If ICO fowls are given an acre of orchard, the effect »pcn the colour of the fruits will be the tame as if the trees had been grown altogether in grass Poultry have the advantage over grass, as although the colouring effect on the fruits is similar, the fruits are not liable to deteriorate, but the manure will improve the quality and size of the apples. Fifty fowls to an acre will be sufficient to colour the fruits well, but not sufficient to keep down rubbish.

i Ducks and geese have a similar effect to fowls in the orchard, so far as the colour ©f the fruits is concerned, and are quite us good at keeping down rubbish, although where any quantity is kept the land is apt to become much more messy than with fowls. Apples on the shady aide of a tree often lack colour, while those on the sunny side are well coloured. Assistance may be given to the fruits on the shady side by removing a few leaves from just round them so that a certain amount of sun may reach them. Needless to say, overcrowded branches shonld be removed when pruning, otherwise these will have the same effect in preventing colouring as do the leaves which shade the fruits.

There is strong reason to believe that colour is improved by regrafting, because ■when trees hav6 been beaded back and regrafted with coloured dessert varieties, the colour of the fruits produced en such trees is mostly excellent, often being euperior io that on trees of the same variety previously growing on this land, but which have not been regrafted. As so many of the factors necessary for the improvement cf colour in apples are controllable, it is possible, even on unsuitable soils, to ensure that reasonably v,-ell-coloured fruits are produced. Every effort should be made to do so, as the advantages, both from the point of view of attractiveness on the table and in the market, are so considerable.