PRUNING THE ORCHARD AT @BEATITUDES8

in #homesteading7 years ago

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Pruning is one of those jobs that very interesting.


On the one hand, it doesn't make much sense. How could cutting off branches means more fruit? Shouldn't more branches mean more fruit? Well, interestingly enough, that's not how it works. Far too often, people will purchase fruit trees only to plant them, and never really prune them or take care of them. The trees grow random branches, which eventually become huge, and then often the whole tree splits apart and becomes diseased. I've seen it time and time again as I travel.

THE @BEATITUDES8 ORCHARD

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Like many people that I know, on the @beatitudes8 homestead they want to grow a good amount of their own food. In their orchard they have a very nice variety of trees including Almonds, Peaches, Apricots, Plums, Apples, Pears, Asian Pears, and perhaps some others. While I was visiting @beatitudes8 recently, we decided to cross this chore off of the list and prune the orchard together.

Having help on projects like this can be beneficial. First off, there can be a lot of cutting, snipping, and sawing to do, so many hands make light work. Also, a second eye or second opinion is not a bad thing. Other people may see things that you don't, or suggest beneficial things that you would not have thought about on your own.

BEFORE

Before pruning, these young trees had a lot of branches growing in every direction. Since there are some common shapes that certain trees grow best in, pruning the trees to leave only the desired branches is a good task to complete, especially when the trees are still relatively young. Here are a few before photos.

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AFTER

One joke when you are pruning is, "If it looks like you ruined your tree, you probably pruned it properly." This is the part of the process that is often hardest to deal with. At first, you may think that you have made a terrible mistake. You'll get a good idea what I mean from these after photos.

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A LOT OF WORK, BUT A FUN TIME

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Like I said earlier, more helpers can be more help. In the photo above, @beardo shows how large just one pruned branch can be. That one almost looks like a whole tree!

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As a wise man should, @beatitudes8 has a map of his orchard, to help him keep track of which tree is which. This helps in many ways, but deciding how to prune a tree can be determined by what variety it is too.

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In the end, we had a great time and the work got done. It was a blessing to be able to help out, and we enjoyed getting to know the family on the @beatitudes8 homestead better. I'm glad that he didn't have to do all of the work by himself, just look at how long it takes him to cut through one branch!

We will see when our paths cross again. Until next time, "Papa out!"

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:


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Until next time…

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Oooh! I should try that next time!

hehehe... no:) better not:)

But it looks so fun!

Please Don't try that. we cant afford to lose you :P

Another task completed. You can't argue with success.

I think I peed a little haha

it is SOOOO important to try to be ready for what you believe in. I am not a huge christian, but I am a christian if that makes sense? I remember seeing a powerful poster in my Sunday School classroom, it was set at the time of the rapture and a man and his daughter was walking down a street as everyone was getting "beamed" up into heaven while this man did not. He watched as his daughter got sent to heaven without him.
This poster spoke so many words to me and i'll never forget that. I don't think anybody would want to experience what that man did in the poster.

On a side note, completely off this topic of the rapture.

My sister loved going to church Sundays and even more going to the youth group that took place Thursday nights. She would invite her non-christian friends to come on Thursdays as it was more of a service for the younger crowd with more up to beat music and more of a discussion then a sermon. This one girl started to go every Thursday and Sunday with her, and eventually got saved because of my sister. But eventually that one girl started to bully my sister inside the church and at school which ended up giving her no place to go to feel "safe".

It's sad that those things happen when you do so much for some people. It is even more sad that it's probably happening right now somewhere else in the world.

Anyways, thanks for spreading the word @papa-pepper! You rock!

all of your post is always so informative,so i regularly follow your blog. love to read it.These pictures are beautiful and lovely... I truly love seeing this kinda things, thanks for feeding my eyes with these amazing beauties...thanks for sharing. you are a great guy

Cool! Thanks for checking it out!

Awesome idea. Easier to manage trees.

Makes you wonder how did the trees even survive without us humans pruning them?

I finally got my pruning's in water hopefully we can both get a couple of "new" fruit trees.
Thanks a lot for your help @papa-pepper !
World class Arborist !

You should see the scions that I just got in the mail. I'll post about it later!

Interesting......
cheap and easy?

@papa-pepper pruned trees grow better known my area

environmentalists hope that your planting is beneficial for everyone, continue ...

It's a very nice job. A lot of science can take from this post. Because I really like to plant and care for trees. Thank you very much @papa-pepper.

As far as i know they need pruning once every fruiting cycle. Right?

It depends. Everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. It depends on how the tree is growing and what the person wants the tree to look like including size, shape, and fruit production.