Oeschbergschnitt

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The Oeschbergschnitt is a method for raising large-crowned fruit trees ( tall trunks , half- trunks ), which was developed by Hans Spreng at the cantonal fruit and horticultural school in Oeschberg in the late 1920s .

prehistory

Spreng's father learned the basics of fruit tree pruning at the beginning of the 20th century from Nicolas Gaucher in Stuttgart and contributed to the spread of his pruning technique (so-called old Württemberger pruning) in Switzerland. However, shortcomings in Gaucher's methodology soon became apparent: By raising up to a dozen equal scaffolding branches arranged on several floors, it was hardly possible to build uniform and stable crowns. The large number of branches prevented the individual branch from being able to gain sufficient strength. The motto could be: "Lots of wood, lots of fruit, lots of money!"

Due to the burden of the yields, the branches in such crowns soon sink, which leads to overbuilding in the upper crown parts that are difficult to control and endangers the original crown structure. Shading of the lower crown areas is the inevitable result. Umbrella-like crowns are usually formed, which are completely unsuitable for efficient fruit production: The “productive zone” is constantly shifting upwards, a high percentage of shadow fruits grow under the umbrella. A lack of light causes the lower areas to bald or even die. When the fruit yields are high, artificial supports have to take the load to prevent damage to the trees.

Development of the Oeschberg section

Schematic structure of an Oeschberg crown; Sectional view

By constantly raising three or four relatively steep, self-supporting leading branches and a central shoot, Spreng succeeded in developing a stable crown structure that enables the fruit trees to be kept in a state close to a well-built, youthful natural crown into old age . By cutting back the leading branches and the middle of the crown every year, these are strengthened and tilting is successfully prevented. Once the crown structure has been created, its shape is retained until the end of the tree's life, only the dimensions change.

The upbringing of further Leitastebenen in the middle was given up by Spreng, since this oppresses the lowest and suppresses it by shading. Instead, the central drive is built up like a spindle tapering upwards , on which there are only subordinate fruit branches and fruit wood.

Oeschbergtechnik pays special attention to the development of the fruit wood in the crown structure. In addition, at least three additional self-supporting scaffolding elements, so-called accompanying fruit branches, are built on the guide branches to the outside and conveyed through cuts. These accompanying fruit branches remain permanently. The productive fruit wood is located on the guide and fruit branches, which is regularly replaced by "fruit arch rejuvenation".

Spreng systematically differentiates the permanent, irreversible crown structure of the tree from the fruit wood, which is kept in a young and productive state by the cut.

The energy reserves that are particularly available in vigorous fruit trees are cleverly invested in the development of broad fruit crowns when pruning over the mountains. An Oeschberg crown enables harvesting relatively close to the ground, and the penetration of sunlight down to the lowest crown areas is guaranteed. The tree is equally productive in all crown areas, the percentage of optimally ripened fruits is high. The motto could be: "Few branches, a lot of light, and above all, only the light produces quality".

Publications

In 1938, Hans Spreng published the brochure Modern Crown Care of Fruit Trees - Oeschberg-Cut for the first time, a comprehensive description of the Oeschberg cut in Switzerland. Spreng updated this brochure, which he himself called “picture booklet” in the first edition, several times. The sixth and final edition of the brochure was published in 1953. The term picture booklet is so appropriate because Spreng depicts and describes a large number of pictures of cut Oeschberg crowns of different ages in his brochures.

An article by Spreng was published in Möller's Deutscher Gärtnerzeitung in 1942 . In 1947 the article Uniformity in the Crown Structure by J. Jans, fruit growing teacher in Gelfingen, appeared, in which the basic structure of the ideal Oeschberg crown is described in great detail and in great detail.

As early as 1949, the former Bavarian state inspector for fruit growing and horticulture, Rudolf Trenkle, rated this cutting technique very positively in his fruit growing textbook :

“If the Oeschbergschnitt is already used when building the young crown, then with this method you will undoubtedly achieve a tree crown that is very suitable for quality production and you will need little or no tree supports even with heavy fruiting. The latter advantage should not be underestimated. "

In 1966, Rudolf Metzner dedicated a separate chapter to the Oeschbergschnitt in the standard work Cutting the Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes, but the previous chapter on raising a "natural crown in a broad pyramidal shape" is largely based on the method from Switzerland, which is "exemplary" through several photos “Trees by Hans Spreng is underlined.

In the 14th edition of the aforementioned work from 1979

"[...] there is no longer any distinction between the Oeschberg section and another useful pyramidal crown structure."

The illustrations of the model trees are again from Hans Spreng.

Although many books on fruit tree pruning on the market today are strongly based on the Swiss method and, like Metzner, adopt its crown structure, the term Oeschbergschnitt is often avoided. Instead, the spongy term “pyramid crown” is usually used, or round crowns are used. Originally, pyramid crowns were understood to mean the shaped fruit trees with short fruiting wood, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The term was later transferred to all round fruit trees with a central shoot, in contrast to the "hollow crown", which is built without the latter. Incidentally, a pyramid is a geometric body with a square base; "Obtuse cone" would probably go better with the shape of a fruit tree crown.

distribution

Oeschberg crown in an idealized form

Occasionally the prevailing opinion is that the Oeschbergschnitt is contrary to the "official" doctrines in fruit growing. Sometimes the Oeschbergschnitt surrounds the aura of the revolutionary in Germany. This could be related to the person of the "Remstal rebel" Helmut Palmer , who after 1950 perfected this technique, which he was able to learn in Switzerland, in Baden-Wuerttemberg and continuously propagated it. Because of his not always diplomatic nature, he offended many experts, which was possibly not only beneficial for the spread of the Oeschberg technique.

It should be noted here that the development of cutting technology in Germany also followed similar paths early on as in Switzerland. This can be seen from the fruit growing literature from the 1930s and 1940s. The young trees shown in Friedrich Hilkenbäumer's standard fruit growing work from 1944 look relatively similar to the Swiss Oeschberg trees. However, persistence in the need for additional guide levels has severely hampered the development of high-performance canopy of older trees. There are convincing, large-crowned fruit trees in the German fruit growing literature of this time, among others by Hans Spreng (various publications from 1938), J. Jans (1947) and Helmut Palmer (various publications from 1952).

Even in the most recent specialist literature, drawings are mostly used to depict mature fruit trees, for example in Lucas' Instructions for Fruit Growing (2002) or Fruit Tree Pruning by Heiner Schmid (1979–2007). The two books by agricultural engineer Hans-Thomas Bosch are an exception here. In the works Kronenpflege old high-stemmed fruit trees (2010) and the expanded edition Natural crown care on high- fruit trees (2016), Bosch shows the development of large-crowned trees cut according to the Oeschberg principles using photo sequences over a period of up to 10 years. Further documentation on young tree training is currently being created by Rudolf Thaler and updated annually (as of September 2019).

It was Spreng's merit in decisively advancing the development of natural fruit tree pruning. Only the defined division of the crown wood and the functional separation between “permanently applied crown structure” and “constantly renewable fruit wood” enabled the development of a clear system, which is necessary to reproduce a natural yet rational crown design.

In commercial fruit growing, the cultivation of large-crowned fruit trees has been losing importance since the middle of the 20th century. The production of high-quality table fruit under intensive plant protection in monoculture low-stem plantations and small-crowned forms of training such as the spindle bush on weak root stocks are widespread. At the same time, a renaissance of long-stemmed orchards is taking place, especially in the recycling area. This is also due to the importance of the high trunk for nature conservation, the diverse old types of fruit and the landscape. The acquisition-oriented organic orchards in Germany exceeded the threshold of 25,000 hectares in 2019 - the Oeschberg cut is widespread there.

Remarks

  1. ↑ today belongs to Koppigen in the canton of Bern , Switzerland
  2. ↑ Rudolf Gugel: Full of respect for nature - In addition to everything else, Helmut Palmer was an enthusiastic pomologist. In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt. May 9, 2015, (PDF; 14.3 MB), accessed December 20, 2016.
  3. ^ Herbert Ritthaler: Crown structure according to the Palmer-Öschberg system. Online at Streuobst-rlp.de, accessed on December 20, 2016.
  4. ↑ Helmut Palmer: The key of nature 2000. Bacher, Sulz-Kastell 2002, p. 121.
  5. ↑ J. Jans: Uniformity in the crown structure. (PDF; 2.0 MB), accessed December 20, 2016.
  6. ^ Rudolf Thaler: Documentation of a young tree education in the Oeschberg-Palmer system , accessed on September 29, 2019.

literature

  • Gudrun Mangold: The Palmer cut: top yields in organic orchards. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-440-13029-2 .
  • Helmut Palmer: The key of nature 2000. Bacher, Sulz-Kastell 2002, ISBN 3-924431-21-3 .
  • Hans Spreng: Modern crown care of the fruit trees. 6th edition, Verbandsdruckerei AG, Bern 1953.
  • Hans-Thomas Bosch: Caring for the crown of old tall fruit trees, Competence Center Fruit Growing Bodensee, Ravensburg 2010.
  • Hans-Thomas Bosch: Natural crown care on tall fruit trees, Competence Center Fruit Growing Bodensee, Ravensburg 2016.
  • Eduard Eckl: Natural tree training according to the Oeschberg-Palmer method, fruit working group in the district association for horticulture and state maintenance Amberg-Sulzbach, Amberg-Sulzbach 2018.

Web links