Dwarf Fruit Trees

<h2><SPAN name="XI" id="XI"></SPAN>XI</h2> <h3>BUSH FRUITS</h3> <p>The bush fruits, so far as I know, are never cultivated as dwarfs. To speak more exactly I should say that no dwarf stock is ever used to reduce the size to which the plants grow. On the other hand, bush fruits are often systematically pruned back in order to restrict their size, and are sometimes trained in elaborate forms as dwarf fruit trees are. To this extent they are managed in the same way and might properly be treated in the same general category. What is more to our purpose, they are almost always included in the plan of any private fruit garden on a restricted area, such as we have had chiefly in view in this discussion of dwarf fruit trees. These reasons make it appropriate, if not indeed essential, that something should be said regarding these fruits here.</p> <p>All bush fruits can be grown in such forms as cordons, espaliers, etc. Anything of this sort which the gardener wishes can become a part of his garden of little trees. Gooseberries and currants offer the most entertainment and remuneration when subjected to special pruning and training, and indeed they should not be omitted from any garden scheme of this kind. Raspberries are less amenable to this kind of education and should be introduced with some care. Blackberries are necessarily difficult to handle and no very complicated schemes of pruning and training can be successfully applied to them. Such other fruits<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</SPAN></span> as Loganberries, strawberry-raspberries, June berries, etc., may be introduced "at the owner's risk." Any of them will submit to a certain amount of correction with the pruning knife, and may add to the variety of fruits grown in the amateur's garden. Of course, it is distinctly understood that these special methods of treatment are not commercially recommended for any of the bush fruits in America.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i0112" name="i0112"></SPAN><div class="figborder"> <ANTIMG src="images/i0112.jpg" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FIG. 38&mdash;CURRANTS AS FAN ESPALIERS ON TRELLIS, HARTFORD, CONN.</p> </div> </div> <p>Probably the most interesting and practical way for handling gooseberries and currants in dwarf fruit gardens is the form known as standards. This form consists of a small round fruiting top of almost any desired variety grafted high upon a straight clean trunk or stem. This stem may have any convenient height from two to ten feet, the most common and practical height being about four feet. The stock used is the flowering currant, <i>Ribes aureum</i>, which forms a sufficiently strong and upright growth for this purpose. Nevertheless it is almost always necessary to support these standards with a convenient stake apiece. For the present these standard gooseberries and currants can be obtained only of the European nurserymen. At least the writer knows of no one who propagates them in America. There are several importers, however, who make a business of supplying European stock and who are always glad to import these on order.</p> <p>The finer varieties are especially chosen for growing as standards. This applies particularly to gooseberries, which are more widely grown and which are more highly prized in Europe than in this country. The varieties grown in Europe are usually finer table<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</SPAN></span> fruits than the American varieties. It is generally understood that the finest fruits for eating fresh out of hand are secured from the standard gooseberries.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i0114" name="i0114"></SPAN><div class="figborder"> <ANTIMG src="images/i0114.jpg" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FIG. 39&mdash;GOOSEBERRY FAN ESPALIER</p> <p class="ctext">Variety Industry, trained on wire trellis</p> </div> </div> <p>Gooseberries and currants are also adapted easily to the espalier form. The most elaborate palmettes and other geometrical designs can be worked out. Nevertheless the simplest and most practical form for trained gooseberries and currants is the fan shape. If a suitable trellis is provided, the vines may be easily tied out upon it in very attractive fan forms and these are found to be quite satisfactory, both as regards their looks and their product of fruit. They are also easily sprayed, which is a consideration worth mentioning when one has to fight the currant worm. In general, it is best in our latitude to run these espaliers north and south, because they receive too much sun when the trellis runs east and west. This rule, however, is not absolute.</p> <p>Probably the most convenient and practical way for growing these fruits in the dwarf tree garden is to plant standards at regular intervals in a row, say six feet apart, and to plant a certain number of fan shaped bushes between each pair of standards in the row. If these standards were six feet apart, two plants for fan training would be enough between each pair. The top of the trellis on which the fan forms are tied, would not be above four feet high, better only three. The heads of the standards then rise well above the top of the trellis. This furnishes some support for the stem of the standard and economizes space. Economy of space is one of the first principles<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</SPAN></span> of this style of gardening.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i0116" name="i0116"></SPAN><div class="figborder"> <ANTIMG src="images/i0116.jpg" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FIG. 40&mdash;TREE FORM GOOSEBERRY</p> </div> </div> <p>No list need be given here of the varieties of gooseberries and currants to be recommended for this class of planting. It may be said that any of the favorite varieties of currants grown in this country, as for example, Fay, Victoria, Red Versailles, etc., may be chosen, and that these are indeed the varieties usually preferred in Europe. With respect to gooseberries it may be remarked that the English, French, and German<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</SPAN></span> varieties are mostly very different from those grown in America, and that while they have some shortcomings in our climate, they are for the most part to be recommended for the purposes which we here have in view.</p> <hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />