This was a very busy week for me, on Tuesday morning we met at the farm house on campus to go over our projects and talk about upcoming assignments and review pruning practices with Dave. I feel I have a much better understanding of the art and science that is involved with the winter pruning of apple trees. Dave led us in an hands on work-shop on the farm’s orchard, where we enjoyed the nice weather while pruning and removing diseased branches. After class I came home and pruned started pruning my young pear and apple trees. The review in class gave me a better grasp of my readings of Michael Phillips and Cass Turnbull, two authors who have written excellent texts on orchard management and pruning.
Fruiting buds
I plan to get to work pruning this old apple tree on my property, it has produced delicous fuit every year but needs some serious pruning done to open it up and maintain fruit production. Last fall Michael Dolan of Burnt Ridge Nursery identified it as King of Tomkins County while visiting my place for an onsite consultation, he recommended that I graft cuttings from this tree to dwarf rootstock.