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Branching Young Fruit Trees

Categories: Fruit Growing

It is the practice in this locality to wrap all young trees to a point

24 inches above the bud, for the purpose of protection against rabbits,

to protect the bark from the sun and to prevent growth of sprouts. These

wrappings are kept on indefinitely, the rule being that no sprouting is

to be permitted below the 24-inch murk. Is there any virtue in this, and

why is it done?



The wrapping is desirable both to protect them from rabbits and from

sunburn, and either this or whitewash or some other form of protection

should certainly be employed against the latter trouble. It is not

desirable to have all the branches emerge at the same point, either 24

from the ground or at some lower level, as is preferable in interior

situations, but branches should be distributed up and down and around

the trunk so as to give a strong, well-balanced, low-headed tree. So far

as wrapping interferes with the growth of shoots in this manner it is

undesirable.



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