One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 11

Is it feasible to prune five-year-old apricot trees in August? They seem in good growth and have been irrigated three times this season, though they have never been pruned very closely.

Summer pruning would be perfectly proper and advisable. Summer pruning immediately after the fruit is picked, has become much more general, and winter pruning has proportionately decreased. Young trees are winter pruned to promote low branching and short, stout limbs; bearing trees are summer pruned to promote fruit bearing and check wood growth - the excess of bearing shoots being removed by thinning during the winter.

Wild Cherries.

Where do the Mahaleb and Mazzard cherries grow naturally? How large are the trees, and what kind of fruit do they bear?

The Mazzards, of which there are many, and some of them wild in the Eastern States, are counted inferior seedlings of the species avium, and are tall, large trees, the fruit being small and rather acrid and colors various. The Mahaleb is a European type with a smaller tree, fruit inferior to the Mazzards, and used as a root under soil and climatic conditions under which the Mazzard is not hardy and vigorous. Neither of the kinds are worth considering for their fruit.

Pruning Cherries.

I have some cherry trees that have not been pruned. They are beautiful trees, but it a requires a 24-foot ladder to get near the top limbs. The side limbs reach from tree to tree. They had a splendid crop this year.

People here tell me never to prune cherry trees. One man who claims considerable experience with fruit says prune them as soon as the crop is off.

Your cherry trees should have been pruned for the first two or three years quite severely, in order to secure better branching and strength in the main branches. If this is done, and the trees come into full bearing, very little pruning has to be done afterward, except removing diseased, interfering or surplus branches, if there are too many. It is perfectly safe to cut back the trees which you now have as you have been advised to do, after the leaves have fallen or after they have begun to turn yellow. The trees can be safely topped and thinned, for the cherry accepts pruning very readily. Even considerable amounts of the tops have been cut off at fruit-picking time from trees which have been running too high, so that the fruit could be secured, and this has not injured the trees, according to our own experience and observation. Cherries can be summer-pruned to check excessive growth and to promote fruit-bearing, but as your trees have already begun to bear well, this treatment does not seem to be necessary. You should do fall and winter pruning for the shape of the trees.

Training Cherry Grafts.

I have grafted a lot of seedling cherries, leaving two or three buds on each piece of grafted wood. In planting these out, shall I put the union under ground (they are grafted at the crown of the root) and shall I loosen the cloth a little later when they start to grow? How can I get the head for the tree? Should I let only one shoot form, and when it is as high as I want it, cut it off as I would a tree gotten from a nursery?

If you have used waxed cloth in your grafting, it will be necessary to loosen it after the tree gets a good start. Common unwaxed cloth could be trusted to decay soon enough, probably, but it should be looked at to see that it is not binding. The union should not be placed much below the ground surface, although it can be safely covered, and the future stem may look the better for it. One shoot could be allowed to grow from each graft, choosing the best ones and pinching the others so that they will stop extension and hold leaves during the first season. These can be cleanly removed at the first winter pruning at the time you head back the main shoot to the proper height.

Restoring Cherry Trees.

I have about two acres of cherry trees in Sonoma county said to be about 20 years old. They are in a very neglected condition and I am desirous of putting them in good shape for next year's crop. They are in a very light sandy loam sail which is easily worked.

Cherry trees under good growing conditions and proper care are very long lived in California and bear abundant crops when thirty and more years of age. In the San Jose district and elsewhere there are orchards considerably older than the limit stated and are still very profitable.

If your trees have been so neglected that the branches have died back, the trees should be pruned, of course, cutting out all dead wood and shortening weak or dying branches to a point where a good strong shoot can be found. Then a good application of farmyard manure plowed in during the rainy season, followed by summer cultivation for moisture retention. Although the cherry is very hardy, it is quite likely to suffer on light soils which become too dry. On such soils as yours there is little if any danger of too much water in the winter, unless the land lies low, but the injury to the tree comes from the lack of moisture during the summer time, and this, with your abundant rainfall, you can probably a.s.sure by thorough summer cultivation.

Renewing Cherry Trees.

We have cherry trees set out diamond shape about 16 feet apart. We cannot take out every other tree and have any order, so we ask you if it would be possible to cut the trees back and keep them pruned down to a smaller size. The trees are about 20 years old and are dying back quite badly.

If the trees are dying for lack of summer moisture it is idle to do much for them until you can give them irrigation right after the fruit ripens. The cherry tree takes kindly to cutting back and will give good new fruit-bearing shoots if the roots are in good condition. It is desirable to remove surplus branches entirely rather than to cut back everything to a definite height, the branches to be removed being those which show disposition to die back and those which are running out too far so as to reduce the s.p.a.ce between the trees or to interfere with branches from other trees. Branches which are failing above can in some cases be cut back to a strong thrifty lateral branch below.

Shortening-in branches high up is less desirable because it forces out too much new growth in the top of the tree and carries the fruit so high that picking would be expensive. All cuts of any size should be painted to prevent the wood from checking.

Pruning Cherries.

I have cherry trees in their third season which have been given the usual winter pruning. The trees are putting forth a great many more branches than are required, and naturally many of the branches are growing across the tree. In cutting these extra branches, I am informed that there is a way to trim them so that they will eventually form fruit spurs. I had an idea that in order to do this it would be well to cut about one inch from the main branch. Some one has told me that this would merely cause the little branch to sprout again.

Cherry shoots which are not required or desired for branch-forming can be transferred into fruit spurs, if the tree is of bearing age, by shortening them in. Do not, however, cut at an arbitrary distance of one inch from the starting point, but rather save one or two buds at whatever distance from the starting point these may be growing. If the tree is too young to bear, only growth shoots may appear from these buds, but they are likely to be short and will support fruit spurs later. This practice should not be carried to excess or you will have too many small shoots which will not get light enough to bear good fruit, even if fruit spurs should appear.

Pollination of Black Tartarian.

There are many old Tartarian cherry trees around our district that have only borne a few cherries in years. There are Bing, Royal Ann and Early Purple Guignes here with these, but they seldom, if ever, bloom with the Tartarian at the proper time to pollinate. What varieties would cause the trees to bear?

Sterility of the Black Tartarian is rather unusual. In the coast regions, Bing, Black Tartarian and Early Purple Guigne are all considered pollinizers for the Royal Ann. Inversely all these should be pollinizers for the Black Tartarian, if that variety requires such a.s.sistance, which we have all along supposed that it did not.

Treatment of Fig Suckers.

A few young fig trees are not growing from the tops, but are sending out suckers, in some cases above and others below the point of grafting. Had I better let these suckers grow and see what comes from them or plant new trees?

Graft near the ground all those which are sending suckers from below the graft. Suckers from above grafting point can be trained into trees by selecting the best, tying to stakes to straighten up and removing all other suckers but the one selected.

No Gopher-proof Fig Roots.

Is it necessary that figs should be grafted in some other roots to keep the gophers from destroying the trees? What root should I order?

Figs are not grown on any other than fig roots and are generally propagated by rooted cuttings for the purpose of avoiding the expense of grafting. The fruit must then be protected by killing the gophers rather than by an effort to get the tree upon a gopher-proof root.

Pollination of Bartletts.