THE HANDLING OF THE PLANTS - Continued
Pruning.
Pruning is necessary to keep plants in shape, to make them more
floriferous and fruitful, and to hold them within bounds.
Even annual plants often may be pruned to advantage. This is true of
tomatoes, from which the superfluous or crowding shoots may be removed,
especially if the land is so rich that they grow very luxuriantly;
sometimes they are trained to a single stem and most of the side shoots
are taken away as they appear. If plants of marigold, gaillardia, or
other strong and spreading growers are held by stakes or wire-holders (a
good practice), it may be advisable to remove the weak and sprawling
shoots. Balsams give better results when side shoots are taken off. The
removing of the old flowers, which is to be advised with flower-garden
plants (page 116), is also a species of pruning.
Distinction should be made between pruning and shearing. Plants are
sheared into given shapes. This may be necessary in bedding-plants, and
occasionally when a formal effect is desired in shrubs and trees; but
the best taste is displayed, in the vast majority of cases, in allowing
the plants to assume their natural habits, merely keeping them shapely,
cutting out old or dead wood, and, in some cases, preventing such
crowding of shoots as will reduce the size of the bloom. The common
practice of shearing shrubbery is very much to be reprehended; this
subject is discussed from another point of view on page 24.
The pruner should know the flower-bearing habit of the plant that he
prunes,--whether the bloom is on the shoots of last season or on the new
wood of the present season, and whether the flower-buds of
spring-blooming plants are separate from the leaf-buds. A very little
careful observation will determine these points for any plant. (1) The
spring-blooming woody plants usually produce their flowers from buds
perfected the fall before and remaining dormant over winter. This is
true of most fruit-trees, and such shrubs as lilac, forsythia, tree
peony, wistaria, some spireas and viburnums, weigela, deutzia. Cutting
back the shoots of these plants early in spring or late in fall,
therefore, removes the bloom. The proper time to prune such plants
(unless one intends to reduce or thin the bloom) is just after the
flowering season. (2) The summer-blooming woody plants usually produce
their flowers on shoots that grow early in the same season. This is true
of grapes, quince, hybrid perpetual roses, shrubby hibiscus, crape
myrtle, mock orange, hydrangea (paniculata), and others. Pruning in
winter or early spring to secure strong new shoots is, therefore, the
proper procedure in these cases.
Remarks on pruning may be found under the discussion of roses and other
plants in subsequent chapters, when the plants need any special or
peculiar attention.
Fruit-trees and shade-trees are usually pruned in winter, preferably
late in winter, or in very early spring. However, there is usually no
objection to moderate pruning at any time of the year; and moderate
pruning every year, rather than violent pruning in occasional years, is
to be advised. It is an old idea that summer pruning tends to favor the
production of fruit-buds and therefore to make for fruitfulness; there
is undoubtedly truth in this, but it must be remembered that
fruitfulness is not the result of one treatment or condition, but of all
the conditions under which the plant lives.
All limbs should be removed close to the branch or trunk from which they
arise, and the surface of the wound should be practically parallel with
such branch or trunk, rather than to be cut back to stubs. The stubs do
not heal readily.
All wounds much above an inch across may be protected by a coat of good
linseed-oil paint; but smaller wounds, if the tree is vigorous, usually
require no protection. The object of the paint is to protect the wound
from cracking and decay until the healing tissue covers it.
Superfluous and interfering branches should be removed from fruit-trees,
so that the top will be fairly open to sun and to the pickers.
Well-pruned trees allow of an even distribution and uniform development
of the fruit. Watersprouts and suckers should be removed as soon as they
are discovered. How open the top may be, will depend on the climate. In
the West, open trees suffer from sun-scald.
The fruit-bearing habit of the fruit-tree must be considered in the
pruning. The pruner should be able to distinguish fruit-buds from
leaf-buds in such species as cherries, plums, apricot, peach, pear,
apple, and so prune as to spare these buds or to thin them
understandingly. The fruit-buds are distinguished by their position on
the tree and by their size and shape. They may be on distinct "spurs"
or short branches, in all the above fruits; or, as in the peach, they
may be chiefly lateral on the new shoots (in the peach, the fruit-buds
are usually two at a node and with a leaf-bud between them), or, as
sometimes in apples and pears, they may be at the ends of last year's
growths. Fruit-buds are usually thicker, or "fatter," than leaf-buds,
and often fuzzy. Heading-back the tree of course tends to concentrate
the fruit-buds and to keep them nearer the center of the tree-top; but
heading-back must be combined with intelligent saving and thinning of
the interior shoots. Heading-back of pears and peaches and plums is
usually a very desirable practice.
Tree surgery and protection.
Aside from the regular pruning to develop the tree into its best form to
enable it to do its best work, there are wounds and malformations to be
treated. Recently, the treating of injured and decayed trees has
received much attention, and "tree doctors" and "tree surgeons" have
engaged in the business. If there are quacks among these people, there
are also competent and reliable men who are doing useful service in
saving and prolonging the life of trees; one should choose a tree doctor
with the same care that he would choose any other doctor. The liability
of injury to street trees in the modern city and the increasing regard
for trees, render the services of good experts increasingly necessary.
Street trees are injured by many causes: as, starving because of poor
soil and lack of water under pavements; smoke and dust; leakage from gas
mains and from electric installation; gnawing by horses; butchering by
persons stringing wires; carelessness of contractors and builders; wind
and ice storms; overcrowding; and the blundering work of persons who
think that they know how to prune. Well-enforced municipal regulations
should be able to control most of these troubles.
Tree guards.
[Illustration: Fig. 156. Lath tree guard.]
[Illustration: Fig. 157. Wire-and-post tree guard]
Along roadsides and other exposed places it is often necessary to
protect newly set trees from horses, boys, and vehicles. There are
various kinds of tree guards for this purpose. The best types are those
that are more or less open, so as to allow the free passage of air and
which are so far removed from the body of the tree that its trunk may
expand without difficulty. If the guards are very tight, they may shade
the trunk so much that the tree may suffer when the guard is removed,
and they prevent the discovery of insects and injuries. It is important
that the guard does not fill with litter in which insects may harbor. As
soon as the tree is old enough to escape injury, the guards should be
removed. A very good guard, made of laths held together with three
strips of band-iron, and secured to iron posts, is shown in Fig. 156.
Figure 157. shows a guard made by winding fencing wire upon three posts
or stakes. When there is likely to be danger from too great shading of
the trunk, this latter form of guard is one of the best. There are good
forms of tree guards on the market. Of course hitching-posts should be
provided, wherever horses are to stand, to remove the temptation of
hitching to trees. Figure 158, however, shows a very good device when a
hitching post is not wanted. A strong stick, four or five feet long, is
secured to the tree by a staple and at the lower end of the stick is a
short chain with a snap in the end. The snap is secured to the bridle,
and the horse is not able to reach the tree.
[Illustration: Fig 158. How a horse may be hitched to a tree.]
Mice and rabbits.
Trees and bushes are often seriously injured by the gnawing of mice and
rabbits. The best preventive is not to have the vermin. If there are no
places in which rabbits and mice can burrow and breed, there will be
little difficulty. At the approach of winter, if mice are feared, the
dry litter should be removed from about the trees, or it should be
packed down very firm, so that the mice cannot nest in it. If the
rodents are very abundant, it may be advisable to wrap fine wire netting
about the base of the tree. A boy who is fond of trapping or hunting
will ordinarily solve the rabbit difficulty. Rags tied on sticks which
are placed at intervals about the plantation will often frighten
rabbits away.
Girdled trees.
[Illustration: Fig. 159. Bridge-grafting a girdle.]
Trees that are girdled by mice should be wrapped up as soon as
discovered, so that the wood shall not become too dry. When warm
weather approaches, shave off the edges of the girdle so that the
healing tissue may grow freely, smear the whole surface with
grafting-wax, or with clay, and bind the whole wound with strong cloths.
Even though the tree is completely girdled for a distance of three or
four inches, it usually may be saved by this treatment, unless the
injury extends into the wood. The water from the roots rises through the
soft wood and not between the bark and the wood, as commonly supposed.
When this sap water has reached the foliage, it takes part in the
elaboration of plant-food, and this food is distributed throughout the
plant, the path of transfer being in the inner layers of bark. This food
material, being distributed back to the girdle, will generally heal over
the wound if the wood is not allowed to become dry.
In some cases, however, it is necessary to join the bark above and below
the girdle by means of cions, which are whittled to a wedge-shape on
either end, and inserted underneath the two edges of the bark (Fig.
159). The ends of the cions and the edges of the wound are held by a
bandage of cloth, and the whole work is protected by melted grafting-wax
poured upon it. [Footnote: A good grafting-wax is made as follows: Into
a kettle place one part by weight of tallow, two parts of beeswax, four
parts of rosin. When completely melted, pour into a tub or pail of cold
water, then work it with the hands (which should be greased) until it
develops a grain and becomes the color of taffy candy. The whole
question of the propagation of plants is discussed in "The
Nursery-Book."]
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