Pruning Our Way Into Spring

By March 17, 2020Pleasant Valley Orchard

As we move closer to spring, our winter work continues. We, like you, are looking forward to the promise that spring holds. For now, we just keep pruning.

Every winter, every tree in the orchard needs to be pruned.  Why?  Top quality, nutritious fruit doesn’t just happen.  We prune for optimum sunlight penetration and air circulation in our trees.  This way we capture the maximum sun energy to produce great tasting apples.  By having well pruned trees we allow our trees to dry out quickly after rains and morning dew which helps avoid a lot of diseases that can damage apples.  This is one of the best way to reduce dependence on pesticides.  We will be pruning almost every day from now until the growing season starts.  Thousands and thousands of cuts.  I like to say that in addition to producing quality fruit, pruning the orchard is good for character development and keeps us out of trouble—mostly!

Jim