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Once they are brought into or restored to bearing, the pruning, feeding, and spraying of fruit trees vary little with their age. Hence our further discussion of fruit production will apply to all ages. So let us begin with the selection, planting, and rearing of young stock, which is what determined owners will come to eventually. And, since this book seeks to serve primarily those new owners whose land is limited, let a distinction be drawn between standard-size and dwarf trees, in favor of the latter. Standard-size apple and pear trees must be spaced 30 to 40 feet apart. Dwarf apples and pears can be grown at half those intervals or even less, as close as 6 or 8 feet in rows spaced 15 feet. Standard trees take from four to seven years to start bearing. Dwarfs take only two or three years. The standards are hard to keep less than twenty feet high, with consequent difficulties in pruning, spraying, thinning the fruit and harvesting it. Dwarfs are easily kept within arm's reach. Apples and pears are the fruits chiefly grown as dwarfs in America. Peach, plum, cherry, apricot, and nectarine are less available in dwarfed sizes, but standard trees of these stone fruits (except sweet cherries) can be kept semidwarf by watchful pruning. Apart from its handiness and economy of space, a strong attraction of dwarf culture is the decorative function to which dwarfs can be put. They can be grown "cordon" (single stem with spurs but no branches) in a close line to form a hedge; or formed in "espalier" patterns, flat against a trellis or wall. |
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