North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

My husband has been a target competition handgunner for years and reloads 
most of his ammo.  He melts down lead into ingots, and I steal them to use a 
branch weights.  They are about 4 ounces each, and I use several in a cloth 
or cheesecloth sling.  I attach the sling to the branch with the cloth ends. 
The strips are about 2 inches wide and spread the weight so the bark isn't 
girdled.  I bent the branches on a Montrose apricot seedling from Del Stubbs 
in its early years this way, and now I have a 5-foot tree with scaffold 
branches parallel to the ground.  I'm doing the same with Asian pears and a 
Saturn peach.
Doreen Howard