MISTER PRUNE-RIGHT

(Music: MISTER MOONLIGHT, Roy Lee Johnson) (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)

Mister Prune-Right

Winter and summer, come prune the trees
Remove dead wood and what's diseased
Cut off all suckers and water sprouts
Take away branches that cross or crowd

And as for all the new growth
Head it back by two-thirds
And we will love you
Mister Prune-Right

Mister Prune-Right, come again please
Thin the fruit bunches
Dip your pruners in bleach

Open center or central leader
You determine the way
Because we miss you
Mister Prune-Right

Air and sunlight penetration
Better fruiting and shape
Our trees sure need you
Mister Prune-Right
Mister Prune-Right
Mister Prune-Right

Comments: Once again making the best of adversity, the Beetless use Mister Prune-Right's absence as an opportunity to review some basic pruning theory and practice. On many trees, winter pruning is done to influence shape and growth, summer pruning to stimulate better fruiting. Bleach is used to sterilize pruning shears between cuts to avoid the spreading of disease. Open center and central leader are two pruning styles, in which the center of the tree is, respectively, left open or filled with a “central leader” from the main trunk.

 
Excerpted from The Beetless' Gardening Book: An Organic Gardening Songbook/Guidebook, copyright 1997 by Chris Roth (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)