GATHERING FRUIT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20675, 13 March 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

GATHERING FRUIT

PRACTICAL ADVICE In a season like the present we all wish to make the most of our fruit. Picking is a task requiring a great deal of care, and, as with all other work, there are right and wrong ways of doing it. What shall we need for picking? Receptacles in which to put the fruit are the first things that come to mind as essential. Apples can be picked into boxes or baskets holding about half a bushel. This is a handy size, taking a fair amount of fruit, yet not being so bulky as to impede handling. Pears require some-

thing different. Most varieties bruise very easily, and to place them in a large box would Is to spoil the sample. Something in the nature of a flat tray, holding a single or double layer, is best.

Then for picking from mature trees a pair of steps or a light ladder will be required. Usually steps are the most suitable. For gardens with only a few trees a pair of household steps will do, but for large orchards, especially if they are rough or hilly, a pair of proper fruit-picking steps is to be preferred. For work on the side of hills the best steps are those with three legs only; that is to say, two holding the rungs and a single pole in front. Never shake down the crops. This damages the fruit and breaks spurs off the trees.

A special fruit-picking ladder, with tapered end, is ideal for tall, standard trees. It can easily be slipped in between the smaller branches, so that it can find secure support against a main limb. Ordinary square-topped ladders are a great nuisance, as they are too bulky to be pushed up into the tree, and must be rested against the outer branches, which are usually thin and brittle. Spurs are broken off, and young wood irretrievably damaged, with consequent loss to the appearance and cropping capabilities of the trees. Moreover, ragged wounds afford harbourage for all manner of insect pests and the spores of fungoid diseases. One cannot take a picking box up the steps, so some kind of picking bag, which can be hung across the shoulders, should be obtained. The bag can be taken up the steps, and emptied into the picking box or basket when full.

It is rather difficult to tell when apples are ready for gathering. It is seldom that all the fruits ripen at the same time, and at least two pickings are necessary as a rule. When ripe an apple comes away from the tree easily if raised in the hand or given a twist sideways. Further, the p’ps of a ripe apple are brown, whilst those of an unripe apple are green or white. To cut a sample fruit open and inspect the pips is a simple matter. It is not very important to have culinary apples dead ripe, for with them size is the chief consideration; but dessert apples must be gathered in the best condition. It is better to pick underripe than over-ripe. The fruit can always be kept for a few days until the full flavour has been obtained. Early culinary apples of the codlin type may advantageously be picked over as soon as the biggest specimens are large enough for use. This lightening of the crop encourages the remaining fruit to increase In size. If the smallest apples are left till the final picking the total weight of fruit will be found to be much greater than if the whole crop were picked in one operation. This applies in a lesser degree to mid-season cookers; but there is not much object in picking over late varieties several times. It is desirable to store late varieties of apples only. Early sorts require to be eaten as gathered, some of the very earliest going mealy in a few hours. Apples are best picked before they are fully mature, when the ground colour is green rather than yellow. Small specimens keep best, and it is useless to store anything not of the first quality. Pears, with the exception of some of the earliest varieties, should not be left to ripen on the tree. They are best picked when approaching maturity and stored until fit for use. Many people feel each specimen to see if it is soft. This method of testing only bruises the fruit. Picking should be done as soon as the first specimens begin to get soft just round the stem. Culinary pears do not ripen on the tree In this country. They may be picked in October (March and April in New Zealand) and stored.—P. K. 8., in Amateur Gardening. WHY ENGLISH GARDENERS LEAD Sir William Wright Smith, who was described as “The King’s Botanist for Scotland,” prefaced the Foundation Oration he delivered last week at the City Literary Institute, London, on “The Sources of Our English Garden Plants” with some remarks on why the English lead the world in horticulture. “One reason,” he said, “is because of our remarkable climate, which makes England easily the finest place for the growing of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from all over the world If you survey the globe from China to Peru, it would not appear that there is one spot likely to rival these islands except possibly New Zealand."

The second reason Sir William advanced was that in the last three or four hundred years many of the colonies we had obtained were those with temperate climates, from which it had been possible to secure the most appropriate plants for growing in this country. There was also the point that the chief explorers into new areas had been of our own race, who had brought treasures to this country for English gardeners to try. Another reason, not quite so obvious, was because the British Isles were very fortunately placed in the right latitude. "There is also something in the English temperament,” Sir William went on. "As a nation we are fond of gardening, and, added to that, we have had for some hundreds of years that peace and quietness, so far as these islands are concerned, which has enabled horticulture to develop as it has done. Linked up with this is the peculiar character of the Englishman, who, above all things, is an individualist. The further North you go, the less you find people ready to take advice, and this has resulted not in standardisation of gardens, but in variety.” Sources of Our Plants Before showing to the audience the slides of the many lovely subjects we grow in our gardens, Sir William gave some very illuminating figures relating to the sources of English garden plants. Of the roughly four thousand trees and shrubs hardy in these islands, no fewer than 33 per cent, came from China and 22 per cent from the North American Continent. Of six thousand herbaceous plants (excluding Monocotyledons), nearly half came from the European Continent and 15 per cent from North America. Sixteen per cent, of the Monocotyledons we are able to grow were discovered originally in North America, and again nearly half wete introduced from European countries. Conifers have come mainly from Japan, China, and North America.