A thousand cuts - Apple orchard pruning!

These days, we have been focusing on dormant pruning, taking advantage of every possible day the weather permits.  Pruning is an important part of orchard maintenance to maintain the structure, health and productivity of the trees. 

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A labour of a thousand cuts

​You may have heard the expression 'death of a thousand cuts' - an idiom describing a situation in which lots of small bad things add up to a slow and painful demise. Ironically, the thousands of cuts made when pruning an apple orchard serve quite the opposite - they collectively help rejuvenate the trees!  But the work is not easy! Even with air-powered pruning equipment...it takes time and persistance.

What we do with all those cuttings...

 SWhile pruning is important for the health of the trees, all those cut branches and twigs create a large amount of debris on the orchard floor! We maintain a dense cover crop of grasses and native 'weeds' in the orchard to reduce rain runoff and soil erosion and to help preserve moisture in the ground. ​In 2021 we invested in a new flail mower, a specialized mowing machine shreds biomass and prunings and distributes them in the orchard rows as a mulch. This not only keeps the orchard floor neatly mowed, it also recycles nutrients from the debris back into the soil. All part of sustainable farming. 

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The budding promise

And there they are! Still-dormant fruit buds waiting for the spring sun and warmth to coax them into developing lovely fragrant apple blossoms!  With good weather, proper pollination and further protection from pests and disease, they will grow into beautiful apples.  

There's lots more orchard work to come during the rest of the growing season till we get there...Be sure to come back and see us during the fall harvest to see how these little buds came along!

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