De krypande fruktträden - en historisk undersökning av odlingsmetoderna för krypande fruktträd under 1940-, 50-, och 60-talet

Abstract

This bachelor's thesis is a study of the phenomenon “creeping fruit trees” and their methods for cultivation in the North of Sweden during the 1940s and 1950s. The cultivation of these trees were part of state experiments to find hardy fruit trees to replace approximately a quarter of the fruit trees in Sweden which froze to death during the cold winters of 1939-1942. Today there are few people who remember these experiments and those who worked with it directly and knew the craftmanship are all gone. At the time it was believed that the method would revolutionize the market for growing fruit trees in the northern parts of Sweden. The local newspapers as well as the national press reported extensively on the experiments during the years 1946-1954. Most important were the state owned experimental sites, Odensala in Jämtland and Öjebyn in Norrbotten. The state experiments were a result of national curiosity of the first Swedish experiments with creeping fruit trees which were carried out by Älvsbyn’s garden society. Älvsbyn learnt how to grow creeping apple trees from the Russian professor Schitt and made multiple experiments. In the papers it was reported that there were in total more than 400 creeping trees planted in Älvsbyn. The papers reported on the process and the correspondence with Russia, but it’s hard to follow what happened after the initial ten year period. The documentation of creeping fruit trees at the different state experimental stations varied a lot. At Odensala experimental station, only the beginning of the experiments is documented and we do not know whether the experiments were successful or not. How it went at Vittjärvsgårdens is documented because all of the trees died after the first year. Only Öjebyn has detailed documentation about the growing site and a reasonably detailed description of the craft itself. The experiments in Öjebyn were successful and the trees gave a larger harvest than the upright trees, but what happened after the experiments ended is not documented. Today, there are no trees left at the experimental station and the method never reached the public. To understand the cultivation method in depth, I have also examined what is available of Russian research and source material. The Russians have documented the development of the cultivation method in great detail. As the Russians have continued to grow creeping fruit trees since the 1930s, today the trees are found both in commercial orchards and in gardens of amateurs.