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Water sprout

Sprout from latent bud

Water sprout

Sprout from latent bud

Vertical water sprout on ''Prunus''
Water sprouts arising from epicormic buds within the trunk of ''Betula''

Water sprouts or water shoots are shoots that arise from the trunk of a tree or from branches that are several years old, from latent buds. The latent buds might be visible on the bark of the tree, or submerged under the bark as epicormic buds. They are sometimes called suckers, although that term is more correctly applied to shoots that arise from below ground,

Vigorous upright water sprouts often develop in response to various factors such as physical damage, heavy pruning (or pruning in general), sub-par environmental conditions (drought, overhydration, or improper soil conditions), and in response to pest and/or disease.

The structure of water-sprout regrowth is not as strong as that of the original tree, and the shoots are more subject to diseases and pests.

Species prone to water sprout growth

Water sprouts can form on many different types of tree. Some species are predisposed to them. Some of the most affected genera are apple (Malus), oak (Quercus), maple (Acer), and dogwood (Cornus).

Water sprouts for grafting

Young vigorous water sprouts can be used in grafting. Water sprouts are selected for this process due to their age and flexibility classifying them as a soft wood cutting ideal for the practice. This is especially prevalent in fruit tree production.

References

References

  1. Hartmann, H.T.; Kester, D.E. 1983. ''Plant propagation: Principles and practices''. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs.
  2. (2010). "The Kew Plant Glossary: an Illustrated Dictionary of Plant Terms". Kew Publishing.
  3. Parkes, Dr Heidi. (2023-09-22). "Water Sprout Removal – How To Prune Apple Tree Water Sprouts". Australian Society of Horticultural Science.
  4. C. A. Kaiser, M. L. Witt, J. R. Hartman, R. E. McNiel and W. C. Dunwell, 1988. Warning: Topping is hazardous to your tree's health. ''Journal of Arboriculture'', 12(2):50–52
  5. This type of shoot is undesirable on orchard trees because very little fruit is produced on them.Hall-Beyer, B.; Richard, J. 1983. ''Ecological Fruit Production in the North''. Published by the authors.
  6. (2021-02-26 ). "Can water sprouts and suckers be prevented on trees?".
  7. Michael Phillips 2005. ''The apple grower: a guide for the organic orchardist'' Chelsea Green Publishing [https://books.google.com/books?id=G0Faik1mSp0C in Google books]
  8. Lollar, Matt. (2021-02-18). "Fruit Tree Grafting Tips and Scion Selection".
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This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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