I spent today on my parents farm covering for dads store man who's off. As I was there for the day I took the time to prune the orchard that I planted around 8 years ago on my parents farm.
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| A small mixed orchard I planted around 8 years ago on my parents farm |
Before we brought our little smallholding I never thought I'd be able to afford any land of my own so I planted this small mixed orchard so we'd have a good selection of fruit every Autumn. It also meant I could enjoy growing fruit trees on a slightly larger scale than in my back garden. I've now got the start of my own orchard but I'm still going to make sure this one is productive for my parents (and for us until my trees start producing!).
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| Before - Lots of branches crossing over |
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| After - The centre is much more open. The old saying is that I should be able to throw my hat through the middle of the tree |
I used a "silky" type saw for the pruning today. I was mainly looking to lift the canopy of some of the trees (by removing lower branches) and to open the centres to let light in as well as removing any branches that cover each other.
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| Not a lollipop tree in site! |
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| Bit of a bigger pile of brash than when I did my orchard! |
These trees seem to becoming on quite well and some of them already have a great "goblet" shape to them. I had quite a pile of branches after an hour of pruning.
Anyone else been working on their fruit trees yet this season?
I need to work on my peach trees, they keep wanting to send up a main branch like they were some kind of lumber tree. I have some unknown variety that I rescued from my great grand parents orchard before it was destroyed. I really have to stay after them to keep them opened up and within reach.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great to keep old varities alive. Peaches dont really do that well here unless you can give them a bit of protection - maybe in the future I'll have a walled garden to grow them in!
Deletewe are in the process of planning an orchard and putting in our order for trees, I have been planting and pruning soft fruits though.
ReplyDeleteThese were from a number of different nuseries. Trees for life are really good (their trees always seem to be bigger than when you buy them the same age from somewhere else, and Adams Apples - the trees are quite small but if you're ordering a lot of trees they work out quite cheap.
DeleteWe need to prune our trees, but are letting them get a bit bigger first so they set some root down. Our summers are very hot here, and the roots need to be substantial. I probably would have trimmed them though, but am banned from doing so by my husband, the fruit trees being his project!
ReplyDeleteYeaH my wife wouldn't even dream of pruning them! The ground where these are planted is clay so it took these trees a long while to get established.
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