Welcome

 

TheMaster’sFruitTreePruning

   

Welcome to The Master’s Fruit Tree Care Blog!  

I will attempt to record our home orchard care activities as we perform them as well as various learnings from our fruit tree pruning biz.  I am excited about this biz as it allows me to let home owners with fruit trees see for themselves what their trees are supposed to do!  As stated in our flyer, fruit trees need special care to grow ‘fruitfully’ and not  grow untrained into a shade tree.  

We have about ten fruit trees all around our small property in Reno, NV.    

 I will introduce a few of our trees and also some of the trees we encounter in our fruit tree pruning service.

The first tree in our mini-orchard was a Golden Delicious Apple:  

   

This tree has about ten seasons in it.  Last year it produced a great crop of large apples like many in our area.  The codling moth traps have reduced the wormholes slightly over the two years I have used them.  This next season will be the first where I will apply the organic sinosad fungus spray from Monterey Products.  A client in Palomino Valley has used it to great success:  no more codling moths in 2009! Interestingly, our neighbor over the fence has a red apple tree and the top apples from our Golden Delicious had a reddish tinge -  some cross-pollination going on?  

I have tried to get lateral branches going on this tree and preserve a leader.  Apparently, the more horizontal the branch, the more productive it is.  Apple trees benefit from a modified leader system where one keeps a top branch from the main trunk each year, pruning it back as needed.  As you can see from the photo, I have been slightly successful.  Apple trees do whatever they want and the home orchardist must exercise due diligence in training.  

One year I noticed a rather vigorous shoot coming up from the bottom of the trunk.  Rather than pruning it back like I should have, I let it flower and fruit.  It produced red apples!  What I had (as you may have guessed already) was a sucker from the more hardy rootstock that the golden delicious was originally grafted to.  If I had let this sucker grow further, it would have taken over the tree to the detriment of the golden delicious graft.  The moral of the story?  Keep a good watch on suckers wanting to grow below the graft line and rub them off as they bud in the early greening out of the tree each spring.   

You will notice that the trunk is whitewashed.  In the winter the sun’s low angle hits the trunks of the fruit tree’s very strongly, causing the sap temperature to rise as much as 40 degrees F over the non-sunny side.  This can result in bark splitting, as well as premature spring bloom.  The key for the high Sierra home orchardist is to delay spring blossoming as much as possible. If I had my way I would keep the trunk refrigerated until May!   

Spring frost damage is exacerbated by our location. Our property is situated in a cooler microclimate due to the presence of mature trees all around our yard and our neighbors yard to the left and right.  The original owner of our home planted at least 20 juniper trees that have topped out at 30 feet.  Thus our low temperature for spring frosts can bottom out to 27 degrees F.  Two days at this temperature can decimate fruiting blossoms. Two years ago this golden delicious produced one, maybe two apples. In future posts I want to share frost-fighting techniques that have worked for us.  

 

Hello world!

TheMaster'sFruitTreePruning

Welcome to the Home Orchardist’s Blog based in Reno, NV.  We run a Fruit Tree Pruning Business for the greater Reno/Sparks area.  If you want us to prune your beloved fruit trees, now is the time as Spring could be just around the corner!

Call us at 775-843-5432 or leave a comment with your name and phone number.

I will post tips and trials from our prunings both at home and on the job.  This area can be a trial to get fruit to grow as our springs are fraught with surprise frosts.  Last Spring was a pleasant surprise as the temperature in the south Reno near Huffaker Hills stayed above 28 degrees.  I did run some misters-  but I think I may not have needed them.

By the way, I wanted to explain the name of our business (The Master’s Fruit Tree Pruning).  “The Master” refers to the Lord Jesus- (Luke 5:5). In John 15 Jesus makes an analogy to the agrarian world in which He inhabited while here on earth; 

¹“^(A)I am the true vine, and My Father is the ^(B)vinedresser.

 ²“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He ^[a]prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

 ³“^(C)You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

 ⁴“^(D)Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

 ⁵“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he ^(E)bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

 ⁶“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is ^(F)thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

 ⁷“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ^(G)ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross to pay for the sins of those who are His people.  The proof of those who are His?  They bear fruit in keeping with who they are:  the fruit of Love-  sacrificial giving of themselves.  Call out to Him today for Mercy!

Thanks for visiting !