Gauteng Smallholder Gauteng Smallholder August 2017 | Page 41

From page 37
season, as flower collectors
will inevitably be more
interested in the beauty of the
bloom and the length of its
stem, rather than what their
harvesting will do to the
shape of the bush.
If you are a new smallholding
owner there is a good
possibility that the fruit trees
you inherit may have been
neglected. And you may be
new to the niceties and skills
required in running and
maintaining a productive
orchard.
Fear not ~ the skills are easily
learned.
Assuming your trees are well-
established (a look at
the bigger branches
will give an idea of
how many times
they have been
tended by the
number of scars
where limbs have
been previously
removed), but
From old trees you can remove two-thirds
haven't been well
because it is sunlight that
causes the fruit to develop
good sugar levels and to ripen
uniformly. A further aim
should be to prevent the tree
becoming diseased, and the
fruit being attacked by worms
and flies.
In the case of roses, the aim
of pruning should include
shaping the bush into
something that suits the
overall look of your garden.
Particularly on a bush that is
used to provide blooms for
arrangements in the house
this often entails quite drastic
reshaping each pruning
of the growth.
IN THE ORCHARD
pruned for a season or two,
of buds on each, and,
here's what you will find:
K Many shoots pointing
K Suckers, growing up from
straight up into the sky, some
ground level, around the base maybe even a metre tall.
of the tree (and below its
Your aim should be to cut
original graft),
away half to two-thirds of all
K Some dead branches and
of this, either by removing
old shoots, identifiable by
the entire shoot or by
their colour and wrinkled
trimming off two out of every
skin.
three buds you find.
K Old shrivelled fruits still
In so doing you should be
attached, and,
aiming to limit the height of
K Shoots and limbs rubbing
the top-most branches (so
up against each other, or with that fruit is not impossibly
the potential to do so when
high to pick) and also
they bend under the
Continued on page 40
weight of fruit and leaves
in summer.
Using clean sharp seca-
teurs, lopping shears, a
pruning saw or even a
chainsaw if necessary,
summarily remove all of
this before doing anything
else.
Now walk around the tree,
viewing it from all sides.
You will see:
view from above: smaller
K Many shoots at the ends Vertical
branches should radiate from larger
of branches with a number branches and end-shoots should
radiate from smaller branches.
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