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The greenhouse here at the PEAS Farm is turning into a two-inch high turf, but most of this week we have spent outside. We have been pruning the orchard, where there are about thirty fruit trees – apples, pears, plums and cherries. Ethan and Josh, the farm managers talked to us a little about orcharding in general before we got into the unruly trees.
Fruit trees are almost always the products of grafts – the delicate surgical synthesis of a rootstock of one type of tree and a scion from another. The rootstock will give the fruit tree its drought tolerance and general tree shape. The scion will determine what the fruit will look and taste like. For example, our pear trees have quince rootstocks, so that they will stay a small and pickable.
But right now, it’s only just spring, and the trees have tight little expectant buds. This is the perfect time to prune. Specifically, this is what we are cutting away:
Dead wood – often this is diseased, so it’s important to take it out of the orchard
Suckers – these are rampant new growths taking energy from established parts of tree, they’re lighter in color and growing straight up
Crossing branches – branches in a tangled mess are not very easy to pick fruit from
Branches pointing in – keeping the center of the tree open is important for air circulation
After this, we’ll use our oddly-shaped orchard ladder to lean into the treetops and “head back” all branches to about a foot to a foot and a half of new growth. We’ll carefully clip each branch just above a bud – a bud that is pointing away from the other branches and to the outside, because this is where the new growth will be directed.
“Orcharding is more in your head than in your back,” Ethan says. Indeed, pruning is very zenlike, inspiring a calm focus as we contemplate the history and future of each branch.
To be certain, in the summer, we will be battling insects, birds, deer and potential droughts, so I won’t romanticize too long. Josh did break it to us that, “Orcharding and tragedy go hand in hand.” We will spray organic dormant oils on the trees, and wind Tanglefoot tape around their trunks, to try and prepare our orchard as best we can, and we will be sure to let you know how it all goes.
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