Master Gardener Fruit Tree Pruning with Eric Oesterling

Eric demonstrating how to prune grape vines. 

Eric pruning a blueberry bush.

An unpruned blueberry bush.

Eric demonstrating how the branches of an apple tree should be trained.


Pruned apple trees on Eric's property.

Eric demonstrating on how to prune an apple tree. The left side of the tree is pruned and the right is unpruned.

Eric talking about peach trees.

Pear tree

Apple tree with rootstock suckers.

NOTES: 

Grapes fruit on 1 year old wood. Keep moderate sized branches and cut big ones. Shredded bark branches are 2+ yo. Leave 5 nodes on smaller branches. 6-12 nodes on main branches. Keep pencil thin branches.

Apple fruits on 2-3 year old branches. Wider at bottom than top. More horizontal branches = more fruit. Cut all vertical growth or downwards growth and root suckers. 

Blueberries: prune off old less productive branches at base. Likes consistent moisture, does not tolerate fluctuations. New plantings, cut weak shoots & strip flowers for first 5 years

Peaches fruit on year old branches. -12 degrees kills fruit buds. 

Pears fruit on 2-3 yo wood. Grows like apple, but with more branches. 

Progress & New Plantings

Flower tree my old neighbor created, which apparently my clematis likes!

Black berries ripening up! There are SOOO many this year!

Sweet potatoes tubering in the cell packs already!

Sweet potatoes 'Beauregard' planted finally and some Sugar Baby watermelon seeds! Planted some Blue Lake Bush Beans on the other side also.

Patio tomato ripening up! Big fruit for such a small plant!

A wee baby apple growing at the new house.

Preying mantis egg cases

This morning I spent it planting new grass seed in the bald spots that we had created for the down spout diversion project. Got the one side all done and viola! Rain happened! How sweet was that?! I had planned on watering it before sunset so the grass nearby it wouldn't get burned. Thanks nature!