Sure, go for it. There is nothing inherently wrong with a watersprout. They tend to be in the dark interior and completely vertical so of the worst type for fruiting, but if you bend one off vertical and it gets good sun, then its a keeper. Scott

In all of my hort classes, I was always taught to remove water sprouts, as they are generally "useless." I did some digging, and couldn't find much directly related to pruning water sprouts. Here's an abstract that was published in HortScience in 1998: Effect of Upright Shoot Removal on Fruit Size and Maturity of Four-year-old `Braeburn' Apple Trees P.I. Garriz, G.M. Colavita, H.L. Alvarez and A.J. Alvarez Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Comahue National Univ., c.c. 85, 8303 Cinco Saltos, R.N., Argentina The effect of upright shoot removal on the progress of maturity and fruit size around the normal picking time were evaluated for apple fruits cv. `Braeburn' at the Experimental Farm of the Comahue National Univ., Rio Negro, Argentina, during the 1996Â97 growing season. The experiment was conducted on 4-year-old trees, spaced 4.0 x 2.3 m and trained to palmette leader. Average fruit load was 80 fruits per tree. Five trees per treatment were randomly selected; they were: 1) select cuts: water sprouts were eliminated entirely at 78 days after full bloom (DAFB) and additional removal of newly formed shoots arising from the scaffolds was performed at 120 DAFB; 2) control: trees received no cuts. From 158 to 184 DAFB, a sample of four fruits was taken from each tree at weekly intervals. Fruit size and internal quality were measured. Loss of leaf surface by shoot removal significantly decreased fruit mass by 4.74%, for all data combined (P So it appears there are some negative effects. I also found a dissertation from Cornell which addresses summer pruning, but it didn't specifically study water sprouts. From scanning it briefly, it appears that heavy to vigorous summer pruning can have negative effects on the trees. Here is a link that might be useful: Dissertation

More likely than not your neighbor cannot legally discharge that water in such a way that it affects your property. I would talk to them about it politely, and if that fails your local municipal zoning authority would probably be the next place you'd want to go to address what is in all likelihood an illegal drainage setup.

Dear Startingout, regarding watershoots. My mother who was a horticulturist and rose grower of some note here in W.A. always taught me that watershoots were something a bit special to be treasured and protected. Not all varieties of roses throw them. When they occur, just do a basic deadheading. Come winter, they should be strong and sturdy, and hardened off so you can prune them to the desired height and use them to structure the framework and therefore the shape of your bush. A bush that is a good producer of watershoots is plus. ( Just a note, my mother in law, (an older lady from Yorkshire, and confirmed rose lover) for some reason thought watershoots were like 'suckers' and should be pulled off A.S.A.P once you saw how they were growing. Consequently her roses never grew as vigorously as you might have expected. I was always puzzled, I knew she looked after her bushes well because I usually was the one to pick up all her fertilizers and manures for her and I also spray the bushes for her. What was happening? while the old love was blaming Bunbury's lousy sandy soil for the lack of advancement over the years of her rose bushes, all the time one of her roses produced a watershoot she'd rip it off. I didn't find out what was happenning till I rocked up one day on a unscheduled visit, in time to see her rip off a couple of watershoots of some of her newish bushes.I sort of went AAAGGGHHH what are you doing ? and she said 'don't you know you should always pull these off' suddenly ' The Curious Case of The Underperforming Roses' has been solved. Her roses are now assuming what I would call a normal growth pattern and rate). Best Wishes for every success with your roses and may the passion last a lifetime. Rosalie. Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Australia