Fig. 64. Bud entering matrix.
In two or three weeks after the bud is set it will have “stuck” or united to the stock. The bandage must then be removed or cut. It is the common practice to draw a budding-knife over the strings, on the side opposite the bud, completely severing them and allowing them to fall off as they will. If the strings are left on too long they will constrict the stem and often kill the bud, and they also have a tendency to cause the bud to “break” or begin to grow. The bud should remain perfectly dormant until spring, for if it should begin to grow it will be injured and perhaps killed by the winter. It should remain green and fresh; if it shrivels and becomes brown, even though it still adheres to the stock, it is worthless. Advantage can be taken, when cutting the tyings, to rebud any stocks which have failed. If the bud should begin to grow, because of a warm and wet fall or other reasons, there is little remedy except perhaps to head the shoot back if it should become long enough. If the stocks are protected by snow during winter, some of the buds at the base of the shoot may pass the cold in safety.
Fig. 65. The bud tied.
The next spring the stock should be cut off just above the bud ([Fig. 66]), in order to throw the entire force of the plant into the bud. If the root is strong and the soil good, the bud will grow two or three feet the first year; or peaches and cherries will grow from two to three times that height. All sprouts should be kept rubbed off the stock, and the bud should be trained to a single stem. In some weak and crooked growers, the new shoot must be tied, and some propagators in such cases cut off the stock five or six inches above the bud and let it serve as a stake to which to tie. The stock, of course, must not be allowed to grow. Late in the season the stock is cut down close to the bud, as in [Fig. 66]. Peaches and some other fruits are sold after having made one season’s growth from the bud, but pears, apples, and most other trees are not often sold until the second or third year.
“June budding” is a term applied to the budding of stocks in early summer while they are yet growing rapidly. It is employed mostly at the south where the stocks can be grown to sufficient size by the last of June or first of July. Small stocks are usually employed—those ranging from one-fourth to one-third inch being preferred. A few strong leaves should be left on the stock below the bud, and after the bud has “stuck” the whole top should not be cut off at once, else the growing plant will receive a too severe check. It is best to bend the top over to check its growth or remove the leaves gradually. The bandages should not be left on longer than six to ten days if the stock is growing rapidly. To prevent the constriction of the stem, muslin bands are sometimes used instead of bass or raffia. In hot and dry climates the bud should be set an inch or two higher in June budding than in the ordinary practice, to escape the great heat of the soil. June budding is used upon the peach more than any other tree, although it can be employed for any species which will give large enough stocks from seed by the June following the sowing. In peaches, the bud will produce a shoot from three to five feet high the same season the buds are set, so that marketable budded trees can be produced in one season from the seed.
