Saturday, February 1, 2014

Nursing Our Orchard Back To Health And Looking Towards The Future

 When we first bought our property one of the aspects about which we were most excited was the 100 year old orchard near the site of the original farm house. Unfortunately, decades of neglect had led to broken branches and a significant moss problem.
This is one of our apple trees. In the background you can see the "old man's beard" growing on additional apple and pear trees.

 Over the past 2 years we have been slowly trying to nurse the orchard back to health. Last year was marked by some pretty intense pruning of most of the trees. Unfortunately, the moss remained a major problem. We really wanted to maintain organic standards if at all possible, but we also wanted healthy trees and worm free fruit. This year after much consultation with our local nursery we are armed with a plan. I will go into more detail in my next post, but through 4-5 sprays over this year we should be able to get our trees moss/worm free, but still meet organic standards.























This is one of our pear trees that remains to be pruned. This was one days work, but as you can see there is much more to do. We are excited to get this area into shape. We added a cherry tree and 2 apples last year, and this year hope to diversify with even more fruit.