B24—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 7,1984
Prune now for fruit end flower
As spring approaches many
gardeners take a strong interest in
their woody landscape plants,
County Agent, Joseph H. Way said.
However, berry plants, fruit
trees, grapes, and roses also need
attention to perform their best.
Here are some things to keep in
mind to prune for flower and fruit.
Berries
As a rule, berry plants like
raspberries, blackberries,
blueberries, and currants produce
best on young wood. Removing old
and weak growth will improve
your crop. Berry pruning is not
difficult, but you may be more
likely to do a good job of it if you
understand why seasonal pruning
is important.
Cutting away less productive
portions of a plant allows more
water and nutrients to enter
remaining strong buds, stems and
branches. The whole reason to
plant berries is to-enjoy the fruit,
so why not take the time to manage
your plants for the best crop
possible?
Pruning berries means
removing, shortening and thin
ning. Weak slender wood bears few
fruit. Long unbranched stems
grow out of reach and produce few
fruiting side shoots. Crowded
stems are very poor producers.
Dormant season pruning will give
you time to get your berry patch
ready for spring growth. Apply
these pruning specifics to each of
the berry groups.
• Red Raspberries Keep canes
or stems 8 inches apart and narrow
each row to 12 or 18 inches wide
so you will have about two and one
half canes per foot of row. Remove
all suckers that grow out of the soil
and around the base of the plant.
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Shorten remaining canes that grow
from the crown of the original
plant by cutting 20 to 25 percent
from the top.
• Fall-bearing red raspberries
(such as Heritage) These
produce very late-season berries
on wood grown the same season
and are easy to maintain. Cut all
canes to the ground in the fall after
harvesting or in March, before new
growth begins. Later this spring,
once growth begins, prune canes to
the same spacing as outlined above
for regular season raspberries and
remove suckets. Do not shorten
any stems during the spring or
summer growing season.
• Black Raspberries Shorten
the lateral or side branches to
eight inches to encourage more
flowering and fruiting stems. Don’t
be afraid to take out some of the
stronger stems to prevent
crowding as canes will fill out in
the spring. Pinch new stem growth
when it reaches 18 inches by
removing the tip or the stem. This
will encourage lateral shoots that
will flower well.
• Purple Raspberries Shorten
the lateral canes to 12 inches and
keep crowding to a minimum.
• Blackberries Shorten
laterals to about 12 or 18 inches to
make plants more compact. Cut
out all laterals close to the ground
since shade from upper stems will
reduce their flowers. Fruit from
pruned lateral will be far larger
than fruit from unpruned weak
wood. Thin canes to 10 inches apart
and pinch new canes when they
reach 30 inches long to stimulate
fruiting side shoots :
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• Blueberries (plants throe
years and older) Remove small,
bushy growth near the base of
plants. Each year remove one or
two of the fruit bearing branches
with the overall goal of main
taining plants with wood no older
than five years.
• Currants On 2-year-old
plants, leave six to eight of the
strongest shoots. On 3-year-old
plants, remove weakest wood. On
plants 4 years and older, maintain
a cutting schedule to have three
shoots each of 1,2, and 3-year-old
wood. There should be no wood in
your plant over 3 years old.
Fruit trees also need some at
tention at this time of year for the
same reaons you prune berry
plants. Uniform branch spacing is
important. Remove crowded
branches and ones with narrow
crotch angles. Water sprouts, the
long unbranched stems that often
grow straight up, should also be
removed. Shorten long branches in
the main portion of your tree to
encourage slower growing spurs
that bear the flowers and fruit. Do
not remove all the twig growth
from the main stems and branches
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or you may have problems with
sun-scald on the bark.
Grapes
Grapes grow from shoots or buds
on canes or branches grown the
previous year. Some recent
research suggests that heavy
priming is associated with high
sugar content in grapes, while light
pruning which leaves many buds
on each arm or cane is associated
with higher juice yields. Whatever
method you use (and there are
many), keep these points in mind:
• Prune every year in late winter
Spray pests with dormant oil
have to breathe, that is why it is so
widely effective..lt will clog the
breathing power of leaves as well
as insects, so it should not be used
on plants after the leaves come out
or evergreen needles expand.
April is a good month to apply
dormant sprays. The air tem
perature should be above 40
degrees (50° is better), and there
should be no danger of frost for 24
hours. Make sure that your
thoroughly cover the twigs,
branches, and trunk so that the
dormant oil can do its job.
A number of insect pests that
spend the winter in shells, cocoons,
or as eggs can be eliminated by
spraying with dormant oil.
Dormant oil is especially ef
fective against scale insects, mites
that spend the winter in bark
crevices, and the eggs of several
caterpillars. It is especially ef
fective on fruit trees, ornamental
cherries and crabapples, and
deciduous euonymus.
Dormant oil works by suf
focating and because even eggs
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or early spring while plants are
dormant.
• The best fruits are borne on
pencil-sized canes.
• Most methods recommend
keeping plants pruned to four
lateral canes with IQ to 15 buds on
each. Train two sets of parallel
canes on supporting wfre fence and
tie loosely.
• When you remove other canes,
be sure to leave at leqst two buds
on four canes to develop into
healthy canes for the next season’s
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