[Scpg] [sbperm] No pruning may offer best roses, fruit crops?

[Owen Dell]

Excellent news! I suspected as much. There's another study that  
proved that unpruned trees (natives and ornamentals, not fruit trees)  
do better in winds because the leaves and branchlets absorb the  
energy of the wind. Traditionally pruned ornamental trees, thinned to  
"take the sail out," had problems with loss of major limbs and  
overturning, whereas the same kinds of trees growing in a natural  
unpruned state did not.

What makes us think we can outsmart millions of years of slow, steady  
evolution towards the optimal forms of organisms? Seems to me that  
it's a product of the human need to control everything, not backed up  
by good science. Much of conventional horticulture is of a similar  
origin, and is similarly unsupported by any scientific evidence. I  
applaud any effort to learn what really is going on, and to better  
understand our role in the care of our plants and garden ecosystems.  
I suspect that we have much to learn.

Pruning to control size is a similarly dubious idea, made necessary  
by placement of a plant in a space not adequate for its ultimate  
size. Under normal circumstances, the only pruning that really makes  
sense (off the top of my head) is 1.) removing crossing, damaged,  
weak or otherwise truly troublesome branches, 2.) minor corrections  
to young trees in order to develop a good branching structure, and  
3.) safety pruning to remove branches that might become a hazard.  
Pruning should be done from the inside, not from outside. There are  
exceptions to this information, of course, such as espaliered trees,  
sheared hedges (only where there is no other solution to the problem  
of screening), and perhaps controlling the size of fruit trees where  
we intentionally have placed them in too small a space on the  
principle that it's better to do so and enjoy the fruit that to have  
nothing simply because our land isn't big enough to accommodate fully- 
developed trees.

I love to prune and it's hard not to dive in and clean up a badly  
structured plant. I'm as much of a control freak as any gardener (we  
really do love to play God, don't we?), and I work to control my own  
instincts in this regard. I note that there is a call for volunteers  
to prune the roses at the Mission; I wonder what would happen if this  
information were made available to them? It's really hard to tell  
people that everything they know is wrong, but sometimes it's the  
best thing in the long run.

Owen




On Dec 24, 2008, at 9:46 AM, LBUZZELL at aol.com wrote:

> Before you do any winter pruning, please read this article!
>
> Gregg Lowery of Vintage Gardens in Sebastopol, CA has written a  
> very important article about the scientific evidence that now  
> contradicts traditional procedures for rose pruning.  This article  
> may also have relevance for how we prune fruit trees, since roses  
> are members of the rosaceae family which includes many fruit trees.
>
> In short, the British rose society did experimental trials on three  
> methods: traditional pruning, trimming with hedge trimmers and no  
> pruning at all.  The winner in terms of health and bloom was -- you  
> guessed it -- no pruning at all.  The British rosarians were in an  
> uproar!!!  How could it be possible that the plants know better  
> than people how to do their job?
> \
> We may still choose to prune for size, of course -- but we need to  
> know that we're not helping the health of the plant by doing so,  
> and a gentle hand is needed.
>
> http://www.vintagegardens.com/PDF/Vintage%20Newsletter%2012_19_08.pdf
>
> Happy holidays,
> Linda
>
>
>
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