I might have a slight advantage in the weights department I have cast fishing weights for years. I use a flounder weight and hang them from Christmass hooks. the lead I use is from the local tire shop the melting pot from a bullet reloading store, a simple camp propane stove and the mold from ebay. sometimes when the pot is hot and I have a few extra min. I cast some weights for fishing and for shooting to but thats another thread.

I use festooning on excessively upright Euro plums and also some apples such as N. Spy to quickly turn vegetative vigor into fruit production.

Usually I only use it on upper tier branches as the lowest scaffolds would be misshapen by pulling them below horizontal. For these branches it's generally best to use spreaders (I like Treform). You can also tie them down by using any kind of stake and string but don't let the string girdle the branch.

I usually use electric tape to tie down festooned wood to a lower piece or weave it around a lower branch if the woods limber- whatever's quickest.

I use limb weights and pruning on same trees. Here is one of my cherimoyas for example with weights tied to the branches.
{{gwi:63175}}

As you can see. I use for weights whatever i find in the garage.
These trees I have to pollinate manually, so I don't want them to grow higher than 6-7'. In March, after they shed some of the leaves and all the fruits are gone I'm going to prune them.
Also I use weights on my Jap. persimmons on the branches that go straight up.

My old cherry tree has water sprouts. I pruned it a little last winter, opened the middle, cut dead wood, cut some water sprouts, and cut back over the path, but I didn't want to cut too much, so I still have a bunch of water sprouts. I kind of ignored it while raising the kidlet. If I put weights on a water sprout, so that instead of looking like a vertical whip it bends over, will it turn into a strong productive branch?

Yes, water sprouts are what's used to replace old branches. The longer you can hold back on spreading the quicker it will grow- just don't wait until it's too stiff.

You can pinch prune the tips during growing season to encourage lateral branches. Cut back all but one shoot (the straightest) during subsequent pinching to insure lateral branches are less vigorous than the leader (straightest shoot).

> If I put weights on a water sprout, so that instead of
> looking like a vertical whip it bends over, will it turn
> into a strong productive branch?

Very good question. I have read two sources that have said that using water sprouts in this way is a reasonable way to obtain needed branching where there otherwise wasn't any. I have no experience doing that but it does seem reasonable. I don't know why it wouldn't work, but then again I don't know alot of things. Anybody else?

A reasonable way? I've never done it another way when a vigorous shoot is available- why use a weak shoot when you can use a strong one? What you don't want is a replacement branch or any scaffold more than half the diameter of the trunk at the point it's attached to it.

I've taken water spouts and weighted them down to turn them into legit branches before. Seemed to work just fine. Though, I haven't really done any studies to analyse the productivity of those branches... but, I don't think there is a problem.
-Glenn

A water sprout is not genetically different from another vegetative shoot. Its vigor is the result of position on the tree and upright growth. It is partially because no competing leader can release hormones to slow its growth so it grows like a leader or a newly planted whip. As soon as it is spread to a more horizontal position it grows like a scaffold and not a leader as long as its diameter is not allowed to exceed before mentioned ratios.

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/422/422-025/422-025.html

Anyone interested in the mechanisms of vegetative vs fruiting growth can find it in this publication. Basically growth stimulators are produced by the roots and transported by transpirational pull uphill where they concentrate in the tips of shoots.

More upright shoots with better light exposure as well as greater diameter would determine higher levels of access to these growth stimulators. The auxens that restrict growth are manufactured in tips of shoots and are only transported by gravity so only move downhill where buds below are retarded in growth by their presence.

Shoots cut at the apex (stub cut) deliver the stimulators (mostly gibberellins) to a few buds below the cut, which then create a new apical dominance over the buds beneath and battle it out with each other for dominance.

Sorry about all the misspelled words but I don't have spchk. Probably better if you read through the publication anyway.