Re: [nafex] Question about pruning pomes for fruit production

My experience in WI, MD, and NY is that the Lorette method does not work reliably. I either got dead stubs or vigorous regrowth, rarely spurs. Horizontal training does work. Lorette pruning was developed in northern Europe, which has, or had, a much more equable and consistent temperatures and rainfall than most of continental U.S. as well as quite different photoperiod. (New York City, for instance, is about the same latitude as Madrid.

All this depends, to a large extent, on the tree. Dwarf rootstocks increase the likelihood of spurs developing with any treatment, as do certain varieties. Asian pears are especially prone to making fruit spurs. Put a precocious variety on one of those dwarfing rootstocks and the plants can't help but make spurs.

Lee Reich, PhD
Come visit my farmden at http://www.leereich.com/blog <http://www.leereich.com/blog>
http://leereich.com/ <http://leereich.com/>

Books by Lee Reich:
A Northeast Gardener's Year
The Pruning Book
Weedless Gardening
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Landscaping with Fruit
Grow Fruit Naturally

> On Mar 29, 2015, at 1:58 PM, Elizabeth Hilborn <ehilborn@mebtel.net> wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I have a specific question about training and pruning pomes for fruit production.
>
> I recently attended a pruning workshop where the instructor told us that the way to achieve maximum fruit production was to train laterals to the horizontal.
>
> However, I have been practicing the Lorette method described by Louis Lorette and published in English in the early 1920s in this country. I have been able to produce fruiting spurs on my laterals by this method, but it is just my observation that the technique may be preferred, I have no real 'control' trees with horizontal training alone, so do not know relative success rates.
>
> Here is a description of Lorette method from : http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-312.html
>
> /"Typically, summer pruning is a selective training procedure aimed at weakening vegetative growth while promoting flower initiation. It consists of cutting current season's shoots back to three to five mature leaves after they have grown about a foot, and about the diameter of a pencil, and have started to become woody at the base. Flowering spurs often develop at pruning cut sites as a result of weakening the vegetative growth, but flowering is also increased throughout the tree because of better light penetration./
>
> /An alternative procedure, developed in France by L. Lorette about 55 years ago, is to cut the shoot about 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch above its base, leaving a short stub. This ensures regrowth will come from the less well developed buds near the shoot base. Growth from these buds is weaker and more readily transformed into fruiting wood. The Lorette method is preferable to leaving longer stubs, which not only produce more regrowth, but are usually stiffened in an upright position as a result of the pruning/."
>
> Does anyone know if horizontal training alone, the Lorette approach alone, or a combination of methods produce the most fruit?
>
> Thank you for any information you can provide.
>
> Betsy Hilborn
>
> 7a, NC
>
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