AFTER THE WIND & PRUNING THE ORCHARD

Blown open previously covered beds

Last night we woke up to big winds and some odd scraping rumblings that I thought might be thunder.  Looking outside I saw it was raining.  In the morning we learned the noise was our metal deck chairs being blown across and off the front deck!  Our covered beds also blew up in the wind.  The ends all blew open and more than half of the pvc pipes blew out and got tangled.  Good thing it was warm;  right around 50 degrees all night long.  We got a good rain through mid morning and it's sprinkling again now.

Things got really tangled!

THE PRUNING ADVENTURE BEGINS:

Starting to prune the yellow peach tree

First we had to remove the deer fencing, then assess the before picture.. then we have the after picture.  This is Nancy, the Semi Dwarf Fantasia Nectarine before, before and after.  We cut a lot off but she still looks pretty full!

This morning was the pruning and dormant spray workshop with Dustin at Chalfant Big Tree.  It was really good.  We came home excited to put all we had learned to work pruning the orchard.  It all seemed so clear in the workshop, but when we came home and started assessing our trees it was a lot more confusing.  Thinning cuts vs. head cuts seemed so clear in the workshop but then when you have super long rogue branches and you cut them above a bud hoping to promote that bud to become a new branch... that should be a thin cut right?  It sure looks like a head cut in some cases.  Hmmm I think we did okay but it is a bit mystifying still.  Over all the orchard looks better and feels healthier.  I'm sure we could prune much more but we are still learning and there is always next year.  

Paula Plum before and after... kind of hard to see the difference but again, we cut a lot off this one!

Preying mantis eggs at Big Trees... I know we've seen these before and not recognized them for the gems that they are!

A couple of spots of concern, the first on the white peach tree.

Peach tree borer?

The second on one of the cherry trees.



Maybe some kind of scarring in all the forks?

We finally got chilly and tired and had to quit.  We still need to spray... hopefully tomorrow?