Stream Corner

The trees are about 12 feet high, like single-stemmed cordons, from which grow out one- and two-year-old lateral shoots.

There is no doubt at all that it does not pay to disturb the roots of peaches regularly. Therefore, one must sow the land down to grass quite early, especially as this fruit seems to make the least demand (of any grown in this country), on the soil water. Peaches can undoubtedly be grown on the straw mulch system as advised for blackcurrants or in small gardens could just be mulched with sedge peat, say, as far as the branches spread.

When the main stem is growing well, the laterals are cut back, starting with those over 2 feet long. In later years, the two-year laterals are cut back to within an inch of the main stem or at their point of origin.

The gardener will aim all the time at keeping the branches off the ground, for they always seem to tend to droop. If one can keep the bushes growing all the time, then they never look unhealthy. If you happen to take over a garden where the peaches are dying back, where the foliage is yellow, and where gumming is taking place, then it is advisable to cut out three or four main branches quite hard, so as to encourage new growth. Your aim should be the cup-shaped bush of a pin-cushion shape.

It is true that there are aphides which will curl the leaves and damage the blossoms, but these can easily be controlled by spraying the trees with a 5 per cent solution of a tar- oil wash in December. This will also kill Peach Leaf Scale, should this appear. Red spider sometimes does damage, causing the leaves to turn brown in the summer, but spraying with liquid derris overcomes the trouble very quickly. The big trouble is the Peach Leaf Curl, which causes the leaves to become swollen, red and twisted.

Wires are provided, spaced 18 inches apart, trained against the wall or fence 4 inches away. The young growths are tied to these wires in position. A good specimen would be one which has oneyear-old growths about a foot long tied to the wires every 4 or 5 inches, in the space allotted to it. It helps greatly if special attention is paid to the trees in the summer. On the length of fruiting wood one can leave three laterals: one right at the base, one half-way up and one somewhere near the tip. The other side shoots that tend to develop in the axils of the leaves are pinched out with the thumb and forefinger as they appear. Then when the tree is pruned in the winter, the branch can be cut back to just above the lowest lateral, which then takes the place of its 'parent' and is in fact tied up in its place.