Evening star., 1950-09-10

| require any more work than
growing roses in your yard. The
major points consist of: /. In
planting make certain that the
graft joint is above the surface
of the ground so that there will
be no opportunity for the top to
develop its own root system. 2.
Stake the tree with durable
strong stake which will prevent
heavily laden tree blowing over
during a rainStorm. 3. Prune the
tree each spring, removing most
of the new growth of the previous
season. Summer pruning is also
desirable and should be employed
without fear. Remove vigorous
growing branches that tend to
crowd the center. this is believed
to stimulate fruit bud formation.
Certainly it aids in keeping the
tree open to sunlight and to re-
duce the shock Of a heavy spring
pruning which tends to encourage
the formation of suckers.
Feeding Is Essential.
Dwarf fruit trees should be fer
tilted just as you would rose
bushes. The very small root sys-
TENS do not reach out for food
and moisture as do the standard
sized tree, therefore. feeding is
essential to good fruiting. An ap-
plication in the spring, second
in late June or early July and
a third in September is considered
good practice.
The spraying calendar for fruits
formerly was involved and most
gardeners seldom had the patience
to follow it. Today with the ad-
vent of all-purpose dusts one
material Will take care of most of
the insects and diseases, using the
same duster or sprayer that is
used in the garden. The use of
one of these materials will insure
reasonably good quality fruit, some
are so proud that they claim
better fruits than they can buy.
The problem of cross pollination
of fruits is well known to the
commercial fruit grower, but sell
dom recognized by the home gar
dener. The Delicious is one of the
best pollinizers for apples. If you
have one Delicious tree in your
yard it will take care of most other
varieties. Pears also have this
problem. Any of the following
varieties, Seckel and a Gorham,
Bueere Bose or Sheldon will fer
tiliZe each other. The Bartlett is
generally looked upon as the best
of the dessert type pears, but
unfortunately it is very suscep-
tible to the fire blight, a disease
for which there is no control. The
Gorham is reported as being re-
sistant to the fire blight but is
not always dependable in this area.
Plums Have Problem.
Plums also have a cross polli-
nation problem. The japanese
plums do not cross with the Euro
pean, hence we must use either
two japanese varieties or two
European varieties if we would
have fruit. Peaches are largely
self-fertile. The exception is the
j. H. Hale. The same is true of
apricots and the exception is the
Riland apricot. The sour cherries
are self-fruitful but the sweet
cherries require cross pollination.
Dwarf fruit trees normally be-
gin bearing much younger than
do the standardized trees, but
there Is some variation in this.
There are also differences be-
tween varieties as to the age when
bearing commences. II the gar
dener plants his tree in a we'll
prepared hole, prunes the tree
regularly and protects from in
sects and diseases, he may rea-
sonably expect to see one or more
fruits the second year and the
tree should produce an increasing
number of fruits each year unless
killing frost destroys the blooms.
Dwarf fruit trees normally may
be expected to bear a half -bushel
or more fruit when they reach
IS to 8 years of age. The dwarf
trees obviously do not have the
capacity to produce that a half
standard does. The fruits of dwarf
trees are as large or larger than
a standard sized tree.
~ ;zy7 -
-