The sour or cooking cherries have to be dealt with separately as their culture is quite different from the sweet cherries. I find that they prefer to grow on the mulched system rather than in grass. They can therefore be surrounded by straw a foot deep or by sedge peat an inch deep. They bear their fruits largely on young whippy wood and they do well on a north, shady wall. In fact, the Morello cherry is the fruit for a north wall.
Planting can be done any time in the winter, but it is best to plant the moment all the leaves have fallen in November. I plant trees as two-year-olds; that is, two years from layering, for he invariably propagated his trees that way though they will strike quite well from cuttings.
As the short growths made each year are those that bear the fruits, the only pruning done should be a cutting back hard to form new branches as replacements. Figs seem to have wood buds almost anywhere on their branches and so one can prune to almost any point. For the first five or six years little pruning is necessary, but once quite big trees have been formed, about 25 per cent of the wood should be removed each November, this being done by cutting down one quite large branch almost to its base. This I find it gives better results than cutting out a number of widely distributed branches.
The great thing is to get the tree to produce hard, well-ripened wood. Some gardeners in the south-west of England do give their figs cesspool water in the summer, for though figs appreciate dry growing weather that goes with a drought, they do seem to appreciate water at that time and maybe, therefore, the cesspool water my friend gives in a droughty season does good from the point of view of moisture and not so much from the point of view of the plant foods.
Pruning is indeed a very difficult job because, as has already been said, the fruit is borne on the length of thin young wood which grew during the previous season. On a fan-trained tree, therefore, one has to be constantly cutting away the older wood and tying in the new wood. With bush trees, it is advisable to cut back some of the older branches each season the moment the leaves have fallen, and then, if there are any young growths in the centre of the bush, these will have to be cut back in February, the pruning cut being made just above a pointed single shoot bud. It is the double buds that are the fruit buds.
Anyway, it helps if the roots can be restricted, and so many dig out a hole a yard square and to the depth of 2 feet 6 inches, and then put into the bottom of the hole brickbats, trodden in tightly, to ensure good drainage and to discourage the growth of tap roots. Squares of asbestos roofing sheets cut to size can then be placed in position to line the sides of the square hole before the soil is put back.
Planting can be done any time in the winter, but it is best to plant the moment all the leaves have fallen in November. I plant trees as two-year-olds; that is, two years from layering, for he invariably propagated his trees that way though they will strike quite well from cuttings.
As the short growths made each year are those that bear the fruits, the only pruning done should be a cutting back hard to form new branches as replacements. Figs seem to have wood buds almost anywhere on their branches and so one can prune to almost any point. For the first five or six years little pruning is necessary, but once quite big trees have been formed, about 25 per cent of the wood should be removed each November, this being done by cutting down one quite large branch almost to its base. This I find it gives better results than cutting out a number of widely distributed branches.
The great thing is to get the tree to produce hard, well-ripened wood. Some gardeners in the south-west of England do give their figs cesspool water in the summer, for though figs appreciate dry growing weather that goes with a drought, they do seem to appreciate water at that time and maybe, therefore, the cesspool water my friend gives in a droughty season does good from the point of view of moisture and not so much from the point of view of the plant foods.
Pruning is indeed a very difficult job because, as has already been said, the fruit is borne on the length of thin young wood which grew during the previous season. On a fan-trained tree, therefore, one has to be constantly cutting away the older wood and tying in the new wood. With bush trees, it is advisable to cut back some of the older branches each season the moment the leaves have fallen, and then, if there are any young growths in the centre of the bush, these will have to be cut back in February, the pruning cut being made just above a pointed single shoot bud. It is the double buds that are the fruit buds.
Anyway, it helps if the roots can be restricted, and so many dig out a hole a yard square and to the depth of 2 feet 6 inches, and then put into the bottom of the hole brickbats, trodden in tightly, to ensure good drainage and to discourage the growth of tap roots. Squares of asbestos roofing sheets cut to size can then be placed in position to line the sides of the square hole before the soil is put back.
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An early spring brings the blossom of fruit trees in your garden before the air is warm and dry.
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