Planting, Growing and Planning

By May 9, 2020Weekly Feature

May is a busy month at the orchard. Last week and this week found us planting our new strawberry fields and new blocks of Honeycrisp and SweeTango™ trees. It is always an optimistic time of year as we look forward to the growing season, and ultimately an abundant crop of strawberries and apples.

Once planting is underway, we’ve launched into the growing season. Tasks this time of year include laying drip line in the new strawberry fields for irrigation; mulching around the newly planted apple trees to help hold moisture and minimize weeds; as well as putting nutrients and fertilizer on all across the farm. This week, we also put in extra effort to minimize damage from a potential freeze this weekend.

This year we’ve added the complex layer of planning to welcome the public to our farm in a manner that is safe both for you, our staff and our family. Fortunately, we’re not in this alone and there are many, many resources available to guide us. We’ve had Zoom meetings with growers across the state and input from growers in the South who start their strawberry seasons in April. Their experience is invaluable to us as well as the guidance from the state, the CDC and others. We are confident we can take all this information apply it here so you can continue to enjoy the best of Pleasant Valley Orchard.

We hope this finds you and your family safe and well. We look forward to seeing you all again this summer.