Prepping and Pruning

Provided by Becky Nelson
The last couple of weeks have been busy at the farm. In addition to gathering and boiling maple sap, we have been prepping for summer. We are about a tenth done in the raspberry patch, pruning out dead canes and “topping” this year’s canes that will hold those beautiful, plump, sweet-tart berries. It is important to take the dead canes out of the patch to destroy any old wood that is holding insect eggs or disease and to make it more pleasant for picking as well as opening up the patch for better air flow. It’s amazing how the old detritus blocks both sun and breezes that keep the canes healthy and producing. WE also take any weak or crowding canes out, leaving the sturdiest and healthiest canes to bear fruit this summer. It will take another couple weeks or more to have them in tip-top shape so we can replace the supports and be ready for nature to take its course.

In the apple orchard, we are also cutting and trimming. We have mid-size trees, a lot shorter and more compact than the “old” standard sized trees. If left untended and unpruned, these trees will quickly grow out of control, with lots of upright growth called water shoots, water sprouts or suckers that does neither the tree nor our farm much good…hence the monicker “suckers”. Fruit is only born on the lateral branches. All of the upright shoots that reach for the sun and compete with other uprights competing to be the tree top need to be cut off the branches and trimmed back to a single treetop “leader” that is cut short to force the energy of the tree into producing new branches and lots of apples. Too much of a good thing can be an issue with an apple tree. All that beautiful new growth from last year can be a distraction, with branches that compete with one another blocking sunlight which is essential for making apples red and upright shoots with leaves but no blossoms doing nothing but sapping energy and nutrients.

Each tree needs a lot of attention. Until last year, we pruned the orchard using hand tools, with lots of shoulder and back power needed. We invested in battery operated pruners that cut with a lot less human energy needed and speed up the process significantly. Still, the process takes a lot of hours, and it will be another two or three weeks until our small orchard is done. We are also starting to peruse the seed catalogs, a little later than we like, but with plenty of time still to get our seeds before they can be planted.

Pruning is a good thing, both in your orchard and in your life. Prune out some of the extraneous habits in your personal life that do nothing but suck your energy and your time but bring you no joy. Open up your personal growth to make your whole being more productive and happier. If you have too many irons in the fire, cut a few of those extra limbs off so you can concentrate on the things that make you joy. The fruits of a happy life can be lost if your personal activities are blocking out your sunshine, just like the apple tree.

If you have a backyard raspberry patch or an apple tree, you can find a lot of help online or through the UNH Cooperative Extension office in your county in how to correctly prune your patch or tree for optimal growth. As for your own optimal growth, it may take more than a simple spring pruning.