fruit growing

570 Pages·2003·8.81 MB·English

FRUIT GROWING
FRUIT GROWING

MODERN CULTURAL METHODS

Edited by
N. B. BAGENAL, B.A.(Cantab.),
Technical Assistant, East Malling Research. Station, Kent

8 PLATES IN COLOUR
60 PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS
and NINNY DIAGRAMS

WARD, LOCK & CC., LIMITED
LONDON AND ELBOURNE
COLOUR PLATES

NECTARINES-Pine-apple and Pitmaston
Orange
PEACHES-Waterloo and Royal George Frontispiece

Facing Page
HYBRID BERRIES- Veitchberry, Lowberry
and Wineberry 14
CURRANTS-RED, Laxton's No. I, and
BLACK, Baldwin 80
GRAPES-Muscat of Alexandria and
Black Hamburgh 97
APPLES-Belle de Boskoop and Cox's
Orange Pippin 176
CHERRIES- Kentish Bigarreau and
Early Rivers 193
PEARS-Doyenne 'du Cornice and
Durondeau 272
PLUMS-Bryanston Gage and Giant Prune 289
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page

1. Standard Apple Tree " Lord Derby "-
Young Standard Cherry Tree 16
2. Bush Apple on Malling Number
IX Stock-Bush Pear Conference " 17
3. Influence of Rootstock on Size of Tree:
Sixteen-year-old " Worcester Pearmain
"Apple on Malling Number IX,
a very dwarfing stock-Sixteen-year-old
"Worcester Pearmain" Apple on Malling
Number II, a semi-dwarfing stock 32
4. Influence of Rootstock on Size of Tree:
Sixteen-year-old "Worcester Pearmain"
Apple on Malling Number XVI, a very
vigorous stock 33
5. Whip or Tongue Grafting-Rind Grafting 48
6. Dwarf Pyramid Apple before and
after pruning 49
7. Espaliers: Fan-trained trees of
Apricot and Greengage 64
8. Branch of a "Worcester Pearmain"
Apple, showing "tip-bearing" habit-Branch
of a " Cox's Orange Pippin," showing
close self-spurring habit. 65
9. Apple Sawfly: Adult Sawfly-Larva-Attacked
Fruit-lets-Apples scarred by larva 112
10. Spraying Machinery: Knapsack
Spraying Machine Four-gallon tank
hand pump-Small wheel-barrow type hand
pump 113
11. Thinning Fruit: Apple "Lane's Prince Albert
"unthinned, and thinned to 6-8 inches apart 128
12. Apple Capsid: Apples attacked by
Apple Capsids 129
13. Apple Capsid: Foliage attacked by
immature Apple Capsids-Attacked fruitlets
(early stage) 144
14. Apple Blossom Wilt: Infected trusses
of blossom-A dead spur and canker which
has half girdled a branch, taken in, winter
and showing spore-pustules on spur 145
15. Winter, Truning: Bush Apple "Lane's
Prince Albert " (six years old) before and
after pruning 160
16. The Rootsystem of a ten-year-old
Apple Tree on a vigorous stock excavated
from medium loam and reconstructed to
show the actual positions occupied by the
roots in the soil 161
17. Red Currant Bush before and after
Winter Pruning 208
18. Shoot of a Black Currant showing
typically distorted leaves-the chief symptom
of "Reversion" 209
19. Fig: Leaf and Fruit 224
20. The Rootsystem of an eight-year-old
Gooseberry Bush excavated from sandy
soil and reconstructed to show the positions
occupied by the roots when in the soil 225
21. Loganberries 240
22. Raspberry " Lloyd George," fruit and
leaf 241
23. Pear " Durondeau "-Pear " Doyenne
du Comice " 256
24. Pear "Conference"-Pear " Beurre
Hardy " 257
25. Winter Pruning: Apple " Cox's
Orange Pippin " Bush Tree (three years
old) before and after Winter Pruning 320
26. Winter Pruning: Apple " Cox's Orange
Pippin " Bush Tree (six years old) before
and after Winter Pruning. 321
27. Cherry " Bigarreau Noir de Schmidt " 336
28. Cherry " Bigarreau Napoleon " 337
29. Pruning and Training the Grape
Vine: A vine spur before pruning-After
pruning-A vinery cleared and pruned ready
for starting 368
30. Grapes: "Black Hamburgh"-Bunch
before thinning and after thinning 369
31. Influence of Stock on Growth of Tree:
"Victoria" Plum (thirteen years old)
on Common Plum Stock--" Victoria "
Plum (thirteen years old) on Myrobolan
Plum Stock 384
32. Nectarines-Peaches in Blossom and
Figs 385
PREFACE

EVERY effort has been made to render this .book a
comprehensive and practical guide to the culture of all
kinds of fruit, in the open and under glass. The aim has
been to give both to the amateur , and to the professional
fruit grower accurate and up-to-date information which will
enable him to produce fruit successfully.
The principles of fruit culture apply equally to fruit
growing in the private garden, and to production on a large
scale for market; it is only in certain practical details that
differences are to be found.
The methods advocated here are those that have
been tested over a long period and found to be of proved
value.
Special attention has been paid to the selection of
the best and most suitable varieties of each particular fruit
for the form in which it is to be grown, and for the purpose
for which it is needed. The pruning of each particular fruit
has been dealt with in considerable detail, pollination and
the correct practice. in regard to propagation, planting,
training and staking, grading, packing, and marketing are
all fully but concisely explained. Finally, with regard to that
important subject the checking of diseases and pests, the
latest methods of control are given.
Here, therefore, is a work that will, I hope, prove of
the greatest value to the novice and even to the
experienced nurseryman; to both student and instructor;
indeed, to all interested in the subject of fruit growing.
In editing this book I have drawn largely from the
information-' contained in the reports and bulletins
published by the Ministry Agriculture, East Malling and
Long Ashton Research Stat and the Imperial Bureau of
Fruit Production. In the descrof varieties of fruits with which
I am not personally have consulted the two Handbooks of
Hardy Fruits by Bunyard. Most of the information on
diseases an' their control has been supplied by W. Steer
and East Malling Research Station.
The fruit illustrated on four of the eight reproduced
by courtesy of Messrs. George P Maidstone.
CHAPTER I
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Hardy fruits can be grown over a wide range of
soils and of climatic conditions in England. Success in
growing them is based on two main principles, the first to
maintain in the tree a balanced and steady rate of growth,
and the second to keep the tree free from diseases and
pests. If growth is too slow; the tree becomes stunted and
crops prematurely; if growth is too fast, the tree becomes
unbalanced: it produces more leaf and wood growth and
less fruit than it should, and as a result of growing too fast,
it becomes more liable to certain functional and parasitic
diseases. Selection of soil, site and aspect, choice of
kinds, varieties and forms of trees and bushes, and
methods of planting, pruning, cultivating, manuring and
spraying, are important in so far as they help to keep the
trees in a state of balanced and healthy growth.

SOIL

The soil, naturally, has an important part to play in
the life of any plant whose roots are growing in it.
Moreover, for fruit trees and bushes, the subsoil, no less
and sometimes even more than the surface soil, needs to
be carefully considered. It has been shown, for instance,
that the roots of a comparatively weak-growing variety of
apple tree 'on a very dwarfing rootstock (Plate facing p. 32)
can penetrate ten feet below ground in as many years
under certain soil conditions, and in a sandy loam the roots
of gooseberries (Plate facing p. 225 may penetrate more
than eight feet.
This shows that fruit soils cannot be judged by the
same standards as those employed in choosing a site for
flowers and vegetables. There are, for instance, many
shallow soil series overlying solid chalk or sticky clay with
as little as 9 to 12 inches of surface soil which in the