Pruning Fruit Trees with Knives
More apples are grown in Great Britain than any other fruit. The reason of course is that the climate suits this fruit particularly. Apples can he grown to start the season in August, and to end the season in June by an eating variety like Easter Orange, which keeps perfectly in store. Thus with the exception of about six weeks one can be eating one’s own apples all the year round.
On the other hand, it is useful to have a short clasping budding knife in addition. The budding knife is not only used for the actual operation of budding, but can be used for summer pruning, pruning the laterals of vines, and for removing the unwanted shoots of peaches, in the summer. The budding knife usually has a white bone handle, it is about 4-1 inches long when closed, and is about 61 inches long when opened. The blade will be short, sharp-pointed and strong, and the make I prefer is known The Saynor. The handle purposely tapers towards the end, so that it can be used for opening up the cuts made in the bark of the wood at budding time.
In these modern days of ‘do it yourself’ and ‘time and motion study’ many gardeners prefer to use secateurs for pruning. There are two good types: the Rolcut and the Wilkinson’s Sword. Both of these do very little damage indeed to the bark when the cut is made, and the blades can be kept sharp with the whetstone.
There are two main kinds of long-handled pruners. The first consists of a pair of Rolcut secateurs fixed to the end of a long, light, smooth pole, with a suitable wire operating one of the handles. A movable wooden handle is then fixed near the base of the pole, with the result that it is possible to cut off a shoot quite high up while the pruner is standing on terra firma. It is often used for pruning half- standard trees.
When there are more than three shoots the weakest of them can be cut back to within one bud of its base, in the winter, while the three strongest, which should be well distributed around the top of the tree, are cut back by about half to just above an outward-pointing bud. It is important to try and leave the head of the tree level when doing this.
The main cuts are made with the U teeth, while the V-shaped teeth are used for smaller wood or for sawing beneath a branch before a main cut is made above, so as to prevent there being any tearing of the bark.
