Today I got to visit our private forest we call The Ridge to tend to the small orchard we started maybe 7 years ago.
Disclaimer time!
I am a retired engineer/physist/software architect and The Princess is an IT manager so... we don't know what we are doing when it comes to trees. All of my misinformation came from the internet.
We put in 20 trees, apples, pears, and peaches. The peaches all died so they got replaced with cherry trees. Then Ben got all excited by how well the apples were doing that he removed the wire fencing around the trunks. Then the deer that decided the orchard would be their rutting grounds started using the trees to remove the felt from their antlers and girdled some more trees.
So 10 of the original 20 are doing ok considering I have been learning as I go. In my clumsy attempts to shape the trees I THINK I have made at least 2 big mistakes. The first mistake was I was over pruning them taking off more than 30% of the branches. The second was I didn't know the difference between a bud and a fruiting spur. Both can explain why I have had poor fruit production.
Today I took a more subtle strategic approach. The pear tree I was most interested in taming was starting to reach for the stars. Here is the before picture.
The previous pruning had given me the sideways structure I wanted. Here is a closer look at the branch structure.
After removing the tallest 4 branches.
I had a nice spreading branch structure and a bunch of branches covered with fruiting spurs... I THINK.
I similarly to all of the other pear trees and did very little to the apples since had the bowl shape I was looking to achieve. I also have an apple and a pear tree that may date back to my mother's day when she and her sisters used to steal apples from when they were young. The fruit from them is decent but because they have grown unattended for decades, the fruit is out of reach.
Last year I trimmed away many small suckers and preserved the ones that I thought could form good branch structure about 5 feet off the ground. I was pleased to find the selected branches had developed well. For the apple tree I just notched the tree above the branches I want to develop. The pear tree which is about 50 feet tall got a more drastic approah and I girdled 3/4 around the trunk above where the select branches are located to encourage their growth and inhibiting growth at the top and hopefully not killing it completely. If things go well with those tree I return in a year or two with a ladder and a chainsaw.
Before I got involved with buying and fixing up houses I used to visit The Ridge 5 or more days a week. It is my happy place. So I took a couple of pictures to share with y'all.
Above is the view looking up to the orchard. The fence posts to the left is were I had planted seeded grapes for a walk through Arbor. They will be getting replaced with seedless grapes I have been cloning. At the top there are huegelcultures.
From the top you can see the hueggalcultures terraced into the hill side. The green patch to the left is the garlic patch that I left go wild last year.
One of my few indulgences this past year was to plant Egyptian Walking onions in one of the boxes.
As shown above it looks a good bit of them took. My hopes are that they will propagate and take care of themselves.
I should also mention that I have learned to only grow stuff on The Ridge that can take care of itself. Potatoes, onions,galic leeks. There is simply too much wildlife to contend with. Even the onions are not safe from the wild turkeys. They like the garden boxes to build nests. It gives them good cover while also offering a good view of the surroundings.
I final story to close out this lengthy post.
I challenged the eldest granddaughter to see which of us could grow the biggest pumpkin. She grew hers in a patch we dug in her front yard. I planted dozens and the orchard was covered with pumpkin plants. It was beautiful and I thought I had her beat until... the deer and groundhogs destroyed them all. She won the game and I learned that The Ridge was a place to grow sweet stuff.
As always try to behave until we meet again.
Ben
