Fruiting walls with windows

摘要

In Italy, where mechanical pnining is being used to form fruiting walls, researchers and growers are already looking at the next step beyond mechanical pnining. It is called window pruning. Dr. Alberto Dorigoni is studying this approach at the Istituto Agrario Di San Michele All Adige in Italy's South Tyrol province. He described his work during the International Fruit Tree Association conference in Boston in February. Think of window pruning as a tool to make several openings in a fruiting wall. Theouter, smooth face of tliei/vall is formed by a sicklebar hedger positioned about two away from the tree trunk, and slanted slightiy inward toward the tree, making the top of the tree thinner than the bottom.