Pruning

When Doug Shaw was here the other day, he commented that I needed to get out and prune the orchard. It was a nice morning to do it.

Some of what needed to be done was attending to my apricot trees. The grafted trees died last year, but the roots for both of them evidently lived. Both roots sent up suckers.

I know that without the grafts, I won't have good fruit (or maybe any fruit at all), but my thinking is that if the roots are still good, I may eventually be able to graft something on that will replace the trees I lost.

So, I selected a strong sucker and pruned out the rest. I left the old trunk in place, thinking it would serve some purpose. As you can see in the photo, a fungus of some sort has already started to work on the old trunk. It's just an experiment. I'm in no hurry and time will tell. I had one apple tree die last summer and a pecan that never did take hold. I did the same for these trees that had sent suckers up because its roots were evidently still alive.

I also pruned the other trees in the orchard. Most of the apples needed just a little thinning. I'm no expert. My strategy is to simply take out branches the either point the wrong direction or cross over other branches. I did a little pruning on the pears, but not much, and minimal pruning on the plums. I left the peaches, the pecans, and the persimmon alone.

All the trees had signs of buds. The temperatures have been warm the past few days. All the flowering trees will soon be in bloom.