GARDEN NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 1731, 24 January 1885, Page 7

GARDEN NOTES,

Although the season wIU be far enough advanced before tho3e Notes reach our readers to give summer pruning or pinching a fair trial, yet it is not too late for most of the fruit-bearing plants. The advantages of cummer pruning over winter are that it is easier performed, can be done to better purpose, and is far more effective. The young wood is tender and easily nipped, and by stopping the supply of sap for the growth o! wood, which in the winter would be cut back, the strength of the plant is directed to the forming and maturity 0! frulß buds and spurs, which 19 the tffeit object to be attained, as on the»e the supply of fmit in the future depends The sidea which guided gardeners in former times In regard to newly-planted voUDg fruit trees was that they should not be touched until tbo f ollowinjr Brainoas they would then ba established, and could toe formed according to design. -)ho same principleobtamoi with regard to older trees, with the difference that these might bo pruned at anytime after the fall of the leaf. But great cbarjge3 have recentlytaken place a3 to tha time, manner, and extent of pruning. By most fruitists summer pinching, combined with, root pruning, has almost entirely gone away with the use ot the knife in winter and STirim? Some go so far as to assert thai only ignorance or Incompetence, or C jreles3nes3 necessitate fee winter work, but ai all events it ia true that the leas Severe Everyone in charge of a garden or orchard will noticethat all descriptions of fruit treea or bushes make great growths o# youncr wood during- summer. Some of them shoot away like willows, aa if getting ready for tho basket-maker. There young shoots smother tho fruit and each other, aad render the fruit buds afc their base thin and almost worthless. In winter pruning the majority of the?e young shoots are cufc off, so that, the whole strength of tho treo has been e>poiderl in producing wood whleh for practical nurpope3 Is wovth'e3s. r

As a piacical cliroebion for riummer pruning no cast-iron rule can be l»Sd down, 113 different sorts of the various kinds ot frriift tree 3 have very opposite hibifs o, g-rovrt'a— some being free and vigorous in producing jioung wod, othors the reveree. It may, however, b e accepted as a safe mefihod to adopt in all caoea to pinch or cut oS the young shoot, leavine only three or four leiveg. At the base or axis ot the^o leaves frmfs burls will be formed which will produce the following: year. Tbis treatment! may be adopted both for t"p and lateral branches, and as tice3 generally hare a natural tendoncy to shoot upwards, tho topmost bousrhs, although more difficult tn set at t elnaid not be no?leeled. This pwtninr or pirching belnc do»te now, the sun, rain, nnd dew« of autumn and the vital force cf the treo itself wil? I'lump. up tho na»row buds before the end of theirrnw ng season. The liyht, heat, and moisture ahut out by the young growing wood will after such pruning- play freely wound and araOßsj the clus*ern nt huit buds, and fill them to thj, brim with frufi in embryo Snramcr pruning, it prnperlv understood a»d practised, is simply plaeio* fertile power Xre ifc wll be found next V oar i» & plentiful crop, of luscious branches, preserve the form of ttis tree i>nd removo Buporrt.lolll or gross eho.f,, which woVd growT* much wo! the fralk bu-?s bom* tome at the W £ Iw.txear'd.ho^ Poiche* and aorle->tebo« or/thl rirenc-Uvoo. of th» prcvow re-u'a growth. TwT pro-lye in W irujfe on i hick staut SparZ m i^. nhjooi, ,„ p.uulns: or plnchinsf is to s»curo tV»»toma« t'oa of tho spurs? and pveveut Ivixurkn* Growth Bm~ - sfefOt cipaiw. hut not entvre'v, on two vv C ar oH wood and hnirv k "Wtol uaetVa of training currant or gooseonrry hiy*^ 19 to place a wooden hoon in the centre <• o ♦!$• aml train U P a^ d fa< -* e n the branches to> y. By this means the centre is kepi open, and thebranches ore easily sone over, besidei which a piece tb^rom the biX b ° ** °™ tbem M a prOteg "