To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bending branches to induce early fruiting
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 14:27:30 -0600
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