Saturday, March 15, 2014

Pruning Peach Trees

   This past week we've spent many hours pruning the peach orchard, and this will continue next week.  A couple of our workers helped with this big job last week due to college spring break, and other workers are off from school this week.  Peach branches can grow 6 to 8 feet longer each year, so peach trees need a lot of pruning to bear good crops of peaches.
Brandon Ledford used pneumatic loppers, powered by the air compressor on the tractor, to cut back peach limbs growing too tall, and cut longer fruiting shoots back to remove some excess fruit buds.
   First Bill goes over the whole peach orchard with a chain saw, cutting off broken and dead limbs, and heading back large limbs that are growing too far out in the aisles and would get hit by equipment or likely break from the weight of the fruit.  Then our workers and I use pneumatic loppers to prune back long branches that are too tall, too far out in the aisles, too low to the ground, or too dense.  We also cut longer fruiting shoots back to remove some excess fruit buds.  Finally, we use ladders to do follow-up pruning with hand loppers and hand pruners.
Abby Dominguez used pneumatic loppers to prune back long branches too far out in the aisles, too low to the ground, or too dense.
   Temperatures are expected to drop to 27 F early Monday morning March 17, but that won't hurt the peach fruit buds, which are just in the swollen bud stage now.  Full bloom will likely occur about March 26 this year, so we hope temperatures won't drop below 28 F from then on.
We still have lots of apples and pecans for sale, great for making apple-pecan pancakes, shown here, and many other goodies.  Recipes are posted as Notes on the Brenda's Berries Facebook page.
   We'll still have great-tasting 'Enterprise' red and 'GoldRush' yellow apples, and 'Kanza' and 'Pawnee' pecans, for sale for the next 3 months or so.  From Dec. 1 to May 31 we're open by appointment, so call or e-mail a day or so in advance and leave a message saying when you're coming to get apples and/or pecans.  The phone rings in the house, and I check for messages every few hours. When we're pruning the peach orchard, we can't see or hear cars coming in the driveway if people just drop by.  For highway detour directions, scroll down three posts.  For apple and pecan prices, scroll down four posts.