THE ORCHARD.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 20 May 1925, Page 342

THE ORCHARD.

CLEANING-UP. The picking season now being over, the orchardist will be able to devote his attention to other seasonable work, and also to give the orchard, packing-shed, and surroundings a general clean-up. An important preliminary is the cleaning-up of all fruit unfit for sale. It is bad practice to allow half-decayed and rotten fruit to lie about either under the trees or around the packing-shed. This class of fruit is usually infected, or is liable to breed fungoid diseases which become harmful to both . trees and fruit. . PRUNING. This work will commence in real earnest in June. All stone-fruit's will have lost their leaves, and they should be the first to receive attention. Many different methods are adopted in pruning stone-fruits —some good, some indifferent. It is not possible to lay down any rule that will be applicable to all parts of the Dominion, but the foundation principles advocated by the Department from time to time still hold good. It is in detail that several different methods can be followed with satisfactory results. Some of the leading growers in America are carrying out very little pruning on stone-fruits, but it is quite an easy matter to go from one extreme to the other. While not being an advocate of non-pruning in this Dominion, I consider it bad practice to cut too severely. One should always be guided by local conditions, and, moreover, test several systems in order to ascertain the relative value of each. The commonest mistakeand a very harmful one— to prune trees hastily on a uniform method, which, however good it may be in itself, cannot but be harmful to a large proportion of the orchard. For example, the Sturmer, Delicious, and Jonathan apple-trees are of such diverse type that a one-system practice must do harm. The simplest way is to take one variety at a time, to remember its nature, and do all .that is possible to correct its natural bias where such is necessary. The Delicious tree is usually very , vigorous and inclined to become densely wooded, and to cut the leaders hard and stop the laterals back to young wood-buds would only intensify its habits, which are bad from a fruitgrower’s point of view. On a mature tree the leaders should be pruned lightly, if at all, and the laterals well thinned out, cutting them clean back to the leader from which they originate. If it is necessary to shorten remaining laterals, care should be taken to cut . to fruit-buds or small-side twigs, thus stimulating as little growth as possible. This, method has been found to check growth and encourage cropping. The Sturmer in most fruitgrowing districts is a type of those with just the opposite characteristics, and the pruner has usually to prune the tree, which is naturally a heavy cropper, to encourage a vigorous constitution. He has to cut the leaders harder than in the case of the Delicious, and, where laterals are inclined to fail, to cut them to young wood-buds so as to invigorate them. If the pruner studies his pip-fruit trees along these lines a great improvement will be brought about in many orchards. MISCELLANEOUS. . ■ When pruning, the opportunity should be taken of examining the trees carefully for disease, and any requiring special treatment can be flagged with a piece of cotton cloth carried for the purpose.

The best-cropping trees are usually well known —indeed, they are often the centre of considerable admiration. Suitable wood cut from such trees should be saved for any reworking that has to be done, carefully labelled, and heeled in damp, sandy ground in a cool place. The preparation of land for further planting may be proceeded with ; but so important is this preliminary work that if it cannot be completed satisfactorily planting should be deferred for this season. If fruit is sound and properly , stacked in a good, well-ventilated shed there should be little loss from decay, but it is always well to keep acquainted with the condition of stocks. Do not fail to market varieties at the right season. Heavy losses are incurred annually by overstoring. Do not be tempted to store cull fruit or market it either ; it is not wanted, and is much better fed to stock.

L. Paynter,

Orchard Instructor, Christchurch.

CITRUS-CULTURE. To control Lecanium Olece scale an application may now be made of either red oil, 1-40, or commercial lime-sulphur, 1-35, without fear of defoliation. Where there is doubt as to the condition of the tree being suitable to stand an application of the compound necessary, growers: will have to take a certain amount of risk of defoliation, as if the spray is not applied very shortly the scales will have become sufficiently matured to withstand the spraying to a considerable extent, and a maximum kill will not be obtained. Measures for control of brown-rot on citrus-fruits should now be put in hand. Precautions which would appear to be most important are : Firstly, to remove all bottom branches from the trees, so as to leave none that will hang any nearer than 18 in. from the ground. Secondly, to keep all matured fruits picked periodically. Thirdly, to keep the centre of the trees as open as possible, so as to allow free ventilation. Further, in cases where infection occurred last year the grower is advised to spray the soil beneath the tree, as far out as the spread of the branches, with pure bluestone, 1-15, giving a liberal dressing. It must be explained that the spores of brown-rot are motile, and travel chiefly by means of a thin film of infection taking place firstly from spores in the ground. By this means the source of infection through the branches sweeping on the ground and thus picking up the infection, or by heavy rains splashing the spores to the low-hanging branches, will be considerably lessened. Further, there is little doubt that the spores may travel up the trunk during very wet weather when the tree is saturated with water over a considerable period. Spraying of the . trees with bordeaux, 4-4-40, at the latter part of May, as a preventive, may, of course, be resorted to, but the adoption of the method outlined will tend to get right at the source of the trouble and kill the spores themselves in the ground before maturity. The soil is now in excellent condition generally for putting in hand the work of preparation of new citrus-orchard sites. Those growers who are intending to plant should place their orders as early as possible with reliable nurserymen.

. STRAWBERRY-GROWING. ; . Generally, growers are well forward with the preparation of sites for the new beds. Those who have so far not made the necessary arrangements for the supply of a reliable strain of Marguerite, Duke of Edinburgh, or Melba, are recommended to make early application, as it is anticipated that there will be a heavy demand next season. The variety Captain Cook was grown last season in fair quantities, and the fruit, though not surpassing the Marguerite in quality, carried in chips equally well, and generally opened up in a showy condition. In many localities the plant does as well as the Marguerite, but complaints have been received from some growers that it lacks constitution as compared with the latter variety. \

-J. W. Collard,

Orchard Instructor, Auckland.