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.