Ridge Road Garden Center Bareroot List for 2012
EZ-PICKŪ HOME GARDEN FRUIT TREES WHY EZ-PICKŪ?
Why have huge trees that overwhelm your yard? Do you really want to climb ladders to pick your fruit? All this can be avoided. Your home garden is different from a commercial orchard. Most people want small fruit trees that produce enough delicious fruit for the family and a few friends - not commercial sized trees optimized for high volume and tractors. Standard fruit trees naturally grow to 20-30 feet. Even if you use semi-dwarfing rootstocks, most fruit trees still grow 15-20 feet - larger than people expect. Through deliberate pruning, you can control the size and shape of your fruit trees regardless of rootstock. Why not keep it 6 to 12 feet tall with most of the fruit in the easy-to-reach 4 to 7 foot range? EZ-PICKŪ fruit trees have been started in the nursery with a very low branching structure giving you a jump start at maintaining a tree to a size that is convenient for you. There is another benefit to smaller trees - they give you room for multiple varieties of your favorite tasting fruits.
SUMMER vs. DORMANT PRUNING
Use summer pruning to train young trees and shorten the time to full fruit production. On mature trees, summer pruning involves mainly: 1) removing vigorous, upright shoots that are not needed to create permanent branches and 2) heading shoots to control tree height. Summer pruning is done in both spring and summer. When useful, bend and stake any shoots of young trees that you want to grow in a different direction during the spring and summer. Bending branches hastens branch development compared to removing or heading those in undesirable locations and waiting for a new branch to form.
If trees received appropriate summer training and pruning, far less dormant pruning is necessary. However, the absence of leaves provides a clear view of the framework of the tree, so thin or head any branches that were not adequately summer pruned. When you dormant prune, it is preferable to prune stone fruits in late February to early March rather than in the fall or early winter. Pruning wounds made late in the dormant season heal faster than those made earlier, allowing less time for disease organisms to infect the wound; also, there is less rain after February. Furthermore, spores of many organisms causing branch diseases are more prevalent with early season rains than later. This is especially true with Eutypa disease, which infects apricots (and grapes) and causes severe gumming and branch die back, so it is especially important to prune apricots late in the season. Apples and pears can be safely pruned at any time. From TRAINING AND PRUNING FRUIT TREES written by Cooperative Extension, University of California - Sacramento County. For more information go to: http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu U.C. Davis Pruning Guide.