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Pruning


Last month we took on the task of pruning our 3 mature apple trees, our mix of young apple, peach, pear, and plum trees, and our blackberry bushes. Although I've taken a few workshops, I was still hesitant to start hacking away at our trees all by ourselves, especially with the mature apples that were way overgrown. So we enlisted the help of Aaron and Graham from Walking Onion, whom we met at a Dave Jacke event last year. They came over with all the right equipment and showed us step by step what to do. It is very much an art trying to base your cuts off what you envision the tree to look like years in the future. So while I do feel more confident when it comes to pruning the fruit trees, I'll let Jose handle the decision on which cuts to make. Otherwise, I'd be there all day wondering if it's the right cut or not.

After pruning. Sorry forgot to take a before shot!

Pile of prunings

On the other hand, the blackberry bushes were a breeze. It's very obvious which canes have already fruited or are old, and we have so many that it's no big deal if I accidentally cut back a live one. But definitely remember to wear thick gloves because their thorns are super sharp!

Before shot of blackberries

After 1 row:

Both rows finished:

We probably could have cut more back since you should only have 3-5 canes per foot, but there's always next year. This was a fun task that took a total of about 2 days. It will be even easier next year now that the overgrown apple trees have been taken care of. We still need to space the pear branches since they have a tendency to grow straight up instead of out, but that will be added to the list!

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