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
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.
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.
A LOT OF WORK, BUT A FUN TIME
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!
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.
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:
proof-of-pruning
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
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!
Espalier them all.
Awesome idea. Easier to manage trees.
In the long run, yes.
Makes you wonder how did the trees even survive without us humans pruning them?
environmentalists hope that your planting is beneficial for everyone, continue ...
looking much better and more "ruined" lol- that part made me laugh : ) Perfect time to prune and it's so much more enjoyable doing it with friends. just pruned some of our apples... the rest we just planted and they came "pruned"... can't wait for the orchard to start bearing! well done!
Very cool! Gotta love growing your own fruit!
job well done,great team work @papa-pepper with @beautitudes8
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com . But without internet , online how we will able to log in Steemit.com . answer plz .
@papa-pepper
He is saying that to those who already have internet and waste their time on other social media websites like twitter and facebook. If you don't have internet and don't waste your time online then that is a good thing.
You got it! Thanks for being helpful!
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! @redfishpclef
I mean that many people spend a lot of time online and never get anything tangible in return, so if you are going to be online, being online on steemit.com is a good choice.
I love to do it! Ever year I do it with my boyfriend in Croatia, for fig trees, grapes, olives and tangerines...You can just kinda feel that you give tree more oxygen through the process of pruning...and the outcome is - more fruits and nicer shape :)
Cool! Glad to hear that you enjoy pruning too!
to keep the trees that always clean it and always cut the branches so that the tree is not defective, your post is very motivating very good for us all
@papa-pepper pruned trees grow better known my area
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.
all it takes the process to achieve success, so even with the trunk of the tree must be treated really well in order to bear fruit with many, I like the post of father @papa-pepper 😊
That's right!
this is good work @papa-pepper.
but still be careful in all the work, all will be successful.
That's really wonderful of you, it's been a blessing
agriculture also there is such a treatment to prune so that the nutrients do not become produce leaves or neat branches of flowers for the fruit.
Good post @papa-pepper
Great and very value job . congratulations👏
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?
"WOW" I have learnt about this in the school for the science lesson.But I have never tried to do it practically.Here you have shown everything very nicely.I learnt it better today than I learnt it at school.Thank you
-cheers-
That's why God gave us dominion over them.
Growing up my father taught us kids how to prune back trees and shrubs. I always thought we had butchered them, but he reminded us to be patient and wait. The trees always produced more fruit and the bushes always blossomed brilliantly and filled out. It's amazing!
They do look butchered at first, don't they?
In Florida our first year we lived here we noticed these certain trees were being "mutilated"... all at once EVERYWHERE! We asked our neighbors what was happening and they chuckled and said, "It's Crape Murder Season." Come to find out everyone butchers their crape myrtles back so the new growth comes in during the summer. Its crazy!
That's true for lots of things in life. Having someone else give us a little perspective can go a long way.
My mom has a few apples trees that we didn't prune for a few years. When it got done, it was painful to watch all the branches go, but the trees have been much healthier since then. And those branches that just go straight up, but don't produce fruit are gone!
It looks drastic for sure, but it benefits the tree and the people eating the fruit!
Now I understand why my papa cut some branches of the Mango tree. Hmmmm
Now you know.
In my first year of gardening, it looks like I pruned at the right time (I went round loping parts off my roses and my plum tree on Monday), well, going off the fact you've just done yours, @papa-pepper :). Some think you prune in autumn but late winter makes the most sense to me. The plant will have had all year to translocate nutrients from the branches down into the roots. When the reverse journey will shortly be happening ie. the sap begins to rise, get hacking away. At least, that's the theory I'm putting into practice.
Good work @papa-pepper. I hope you / your friends get your fruit. The plum tree in my new house had a terrible harvest last year. Hopefully, I'll have fixed all that, this year. Plums are the best but when you harvest half a dozen misshapen, insect-attacked ones from a tree you were told had had amazing harvests in the recent past, you're left with a pretty bitter taste in your mouth, aren't you!
I like late winter myself. I miss my old plum tree at our house up north, but I've got some cuttings from it grafted in down here, so I should soon taste that fruit once again.
We will be pruning near the end of February. I try to do it the last weekend of Feb. every year but don't always make it ;) Have a wonderful sabbath.
Great Post!
Can be a tedious process.. patience is the key.
Great to help a fellow out.
Thanks for sharing & Steem On :)
Just look at all that kindling you got free while pruning the fruit trees! You could make some tasty venison sausage with the smoke from these. Waste not, want not!
Yes you could! And older varieties could be grafted onto new rootstock!
Exactly!
I can't wait to see what they grow! Harvest time must be amazing with all that variety. Jealous.
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! @redfishpclef