Part 8

This tree is carrying over 200 fruits]

In conclusion it may be pointed out that the slower growing trees, pears and apples, are the better suited to the more elaborate forms of training. The more free and rapid growing species, such as peaches, nectarines, cherries, and Japanese plums, are better managed in somewhat simpler forms, preferably the fan. Such trees do well, however, in the U-form or double U-form.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT

The general management of dwarf trees is naturally very much like the management of ordinary standard trees. As dwarf trees are grown more often in gardens rather than in orchards they will receive garden treatment. Heavy tools and extensive methods of culture will hardly find application.

Good soil culture may be regarded as essential. Whatever some American fruit growers may be saying about the propriety of growing apple orchards in sod, no one has yet undertaken to adapt the sod system into the kitchen garden. The close planting which is customary with dwarf trees makes culture comparatively difficult, yet not unreasonably so. Apple and pear trees planted six feet apart each way can be worked for several years with a single horse and cultivator. In fact if the trees are kept carefully headed in, the time need never come when the cultivator will have to be abandoned. When cordons or espaliers are planted in a garden large enough to warrant horse cultivation under ordinary circumstances then the rows of trained trees should be set six feet apart, which will be enough to permit the continued use of the horse and cultivator between the rows.

With cover crop of hairy vetch]

However, the horse cultivator is certain to be definitely crowded out of some dwarf fruit gardens. Many of the men who have greatest reason for growing dwarf fruit trees are those whose backyard gardens were never large enough to justify the presence of a horse or horse tools. In such cases the spading fork and the hand cultivator are the ready and proper substitutes. Our extensive methods of farming in America have bred a strong prejudice against all sorts of hand labor like this, but experience will show that under some conditions it is quite worth while. A very common mistake in all kinds of agriculture is to allow prejudice to rule experience.

North fence (top of map), peach espalier (4); Row 1, bush apple (7); Row 2, pyramid pear (7); Row 3, currants and gooseberries (11); Row 4 and 5, horizontal cordon apples, with grass walk between; Row 6, raspberry bushes (7); Row 7, strawberries; Row 8, plums in bush form (7); Row 9, apples in horizontal cordons (4); East fence, apples as upright cordons (31); West fence, pears in espalier.]

Garden culture means not only good tillage of the soil, but good treatment in other respects. It means good feeding and good spraying. As for spraying we need make only two observations. First, the treatment to be given is almost precisely the same as that which is given to standard trees of the same species; second, the work is much more easily performed because the trees are smaller. If one happens to have a considerable block of dwarf trees closely planted. There may be difficulty, it is true, in driving in with a spray pump. This difficulty is overcome by having long runs of hose on the spray pump, so that the cart may stand on the borders of the garden while the operator carries the nozzle in among the trees. In case of large plantings of dwarf trees alley-ways should be left every one hundred feet, or better, every eighty feet, between the blocks. These alleys will be useful for other purposes besides spraying.

From Lucas' Handbuch des Obstbaues]

In the management of a small garden the gardener is expected to be liberal in his allowance of fertilizers. While it is true that dwarf fruit trees should be liberally fed there is a possibility of overdoing it. It has already been explained that the dwarfing of the tree depends in a certain way on its well-regulated starvation. If the tree top could get all the food which its nature calls for it would not be dwarfed. The rule in feeding dwarf fruit trees therefore should be to give enough fertilizer to keep them in perfect health and in good growing condition, but not enough to force unnecessary growth. Fertilizer rich in nitrogen should be especially avoided, and, as the object in view is to secure an early maturity of the tree and to produce fruit always in preference to wood, a larger proportion of potash would naturally be substituted for the diminished proportion of nitrogen. Of course the amounts and proportions of the different elements (nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid) to be applied will vary greatly with different conditions,--with the nature of the soil, the age of the trees, etc. As a sort of standard we may say that under normal conditions of good soil with dwarf apple and pear trees in bearing there should be given annually for each acre:

400 pounds ground bone 400 pounds muriate of potash 100 pounds Peruvian guano

Peaches and plums require more nitrogen during early growth, and more potash when in full bearing. For a new plantation of these trees the following amounts should be given annually for each acre:

300 pounds ground bone 400 pounds muriate of potash 150 pounds nitrate of soda

For peach and plum trees in bearing, the following formula may be suggested:

400 pounds ground bone 500 pounds muriate of potash 100 pounds Peruvian guano

Inasmuch as many owners of dwarf fruit trees will have so much less than an acre for treatment it will be best to repeat these formulas, reducing them to a smaller unit. Making this reduction somewhat freely, in order to avoid long and useless decimals, we may compute the quantity needed annually for each one hundred square feet of land as follows:

FOR APPLES AND PEARS IN BEARING

1 pound ground bone 1 pound muriate of potash 1/4 pound Peruvian guano

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS NEWLY PLANTED

3/4 pound ground bone 1 pound muriate of potash 3/8 pound nitrate of soda

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS IN BEARING

1/4 pound Peruvian guano 1-1/4 pound muriate of potash 1 pound ground bone

Cherries should be treated like plums; gooseberries, currants, and most other fruits, like apples.

In the home of dwarf tree culture, that is, in Europe, trained trees are extensively grown upon walls. The gardeners utilize for this purpose not only the walls of stables and outbuildings, and of the enclosed gardens, but long ranges of brick are built for the special and exclusive purpose of accommodating fruit trees. In southern Germany, in Switzerland, in Belgium, in France, and especially in the neighborhood of Paris, there are hundreds of miles of these walls. The walls may run north and south or east and west. Both sides of the walls are used, even when one side faces the north. Currants and gooseberries are expected to thrive on north walls. West walls are considered especially favorable for pears and plums. The walls are nearly always built of brick. They should have a height of ten to fourteen feet. Each wall usually has a coping at the top with a projection of ten to eighteen inches, which sheds the rain, protecting both the wall and the fruit trees. Where extreme pains are spent on the culture of fancy table fruits there are curtains hung from rods along the outer edge of these copings, and the curtains are drawn to protect ripening fruit from too hot sunshine, or to protect the blossoms in the spring season from late frosts.

Brick walls, with all their appurtenances, are less important in America than in Europe and the advantages to be expected from this particular method of culture are decidedly less. Walls would more probably be useful for peaches and nectarines in northern latitudes than for any other fruits.

Cordons and espaliers require some sort of support, however, and where walls are not used trellises are necessary. These may be of wood or wire. There is a belief current that the wooden trellises are better because they reflect less heat, but wire is so much cheaper and more durable that it will usually be chosen.

Five or six wires are needed to make a good trellis for upright cordons. These should be placed twelve to fourteen inches apart, with the lowest wire thirty inches from the ground. All wires should be tight, and to this end stout, well-set posts are necessary. The wires should be loosened in the autumn, before freezing weather begins, and should be tightened again in the spring.