Here we are in the heat of Summer with Autumn beckoning to us from just around the corner. The blossoms of Spring have fallen and are long gone, trees are flushed with new verdant growth, and hopefully laden with the developing fruit crops of the season. With as much excitement that comes with the anticipation of harvesting the first ripe fruits its easy to forget about some of the tasks of keeping our orchards in check. Caring for your home orchard is a year-round endeavor, here are a few tips for summer care for your fruit trees.<\/p>\n
Mid-June, July, and August are ideal times to be implementing Summer pruning. The goal of Summer pruning is to shape our trees but also to cut back and limit the energy of excess vegetative growth (water shoots and suckers) that would be otherwise going to our fruiting wood and root systems of the tree. This is especially important for highly vigorous trees. Summer pruning also helps to ensure better air flow and light penetration into the interior canopy of the trees to help mitigate pests and disease and to ensure better ripening for fruit. Be cautious in how much is taken from the tree. A good rule to go by is to cut no more than 30% of the entire tree. Excess pruning can lead to sun scald on the fruit and interior limbs and lead to diminished health.<\/p>\n
From Spring onward it\u2019s also important to be mindful of thinning the developing fruit on your tree. As you may know trees tend to produce fruit in excess which is the tree\u2019s way of ensuring their chance of reproduction is more successful. This doesn\u2019t necessarily help when it comes to the size of fruit we want to see on our kitchen tables. Thinning helps to ensure that more energy is being put into less fruit in exchange for larger size and better eating. On the tree, fruit should be no closer to one another than fist\u00a0length and never touching. Also take into consideration the bearing weight of fruiting limbs. If overburdened with fruit, branches will snap, try to imagine what the weight of future fruit will be and how that will affect the limb. Don\u2019t be shy about your thinning.<\/p>\n
For more information, check out Michael Phillips’ work<\/a>, or get involved with the Home Orchard Society,<\/a>\u00a0or a similar organization near you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here we are in the heat of Summer with Autumn beckoning to us from just around the corner. The blossoms of Spring have fallen and are long gone, trees are flushed with new verdant growth, and hopefully laden with the developing fruit crops of the season. With as much excitement that comes with the anticipation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[154,152,153],"class_list":["post-3808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-orcharding","tag-fruit-tree-care","tag-home-orchard","tag-pruning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/fruit-tree-summer.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jEWD-Zq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=446","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":0},"title":"Summer Task List","author":"Concentrates Staff","date":"October 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"July Harvest From the field: peas, lettuce, mustard greens, chard, kale, cabbage, beets, carrots, salad turnip, salad radish, fennel, edible flowers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, strawberries, early potatoes, fresh onions, scallions, asparagus, celery, broccoli, woody herbs From the orchard: early blueberries, cherries, raspberries For storage: garlic, shallots Grains: Most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Task lists"","block_context":{"text":"Task lists","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_4223.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=442","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":1},"title":"Winter Task List","author":"Concentrates Staff","date":"October 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Winter is a time for maintenance on many levels. Self-care, cleaning and restoring tools, fixing up infrastructure, mucking stalls, perfecting your crop rotation and planting schedule, studying up on recent publications, reading seed catalogs, tractor maintenance, etc. December Harvesting From the field: Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, chicory, radicchio, carrots, parsnips,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Task lists"","block_context":{"text":"Task lists","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Pig-digging-photo-e1508440906256.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Pig-digging-photo-e1508440906256.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Pig-digging-photo-e1508440906256.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2934,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=2934","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":2},"title":"A Review of Michael Phillips’ Literature on Pure Neem Oil in Orchard Sprays","author":"Concentrates Staff","date":"December 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Phillips, Michael. The\u00a0Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way. Chelsea Green, 2013. Recently, there has been discussion between the benefits of using neem-derived insecticides versus pure neem oil. Michael Phillips' opinion on this differentiation is interesting and worth looking into if you are invested in his methods of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Soil health"","block_context":{"text":"Soil health","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=98"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/apple-tree-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":3},"title":"Spring Task List","author":"Concentrates Staff","date":"October 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"April Harvesting Along with March, April is often-times referred to as the Hunger Gap. This is the time in the PNW when our winter stocks of squash and onions have run out, we have harvested the last storage roots from the field, and the greens we seeded in the greenhouse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Task lists"","block_context":{"text":"Task lists","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8577-e1511999329237.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2396,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=2396","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":4},"title":"Phosphorus and the Spoils of War","author":"1debys@gmail.com","date":"November 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Greg Westfall (https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/imagesbywestfall\/5855284480) Phosphorus can be a limiting factor in crop yield here in the Pacific Northwest, as in agriculture globally. But OSU is now broadly recommending that organic farmers watch their phosphorus inputs. In consulting with our local farmers, they often find that phosphorus has routinely been kept\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Soil health"","block_context":{"text":"Soil health","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=98"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image: Greg Westfall (https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/imagesbywestfall\/5855284480)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bones-on-poor-soil.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bones-on-poor-soil.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bones-on-poor-soil.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bones-on-poor-soil.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2168,"url":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?p=2168","url_meta":{"origin":3808,"position":5},"title":"Managing nutrients for soil health","author":"1debys@gmail.com","date":"November 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of us from Concentrates were recently at a public workshop with Dan Sullivan and Nick Andrews from OSU, about nutrient management for organic farmers. It helped us dial-in some of our soil test interpretation, something we commonly help our customers with. Turns out that most veggie farms are maintaining\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Soil health"","block_context":{"text":"Soil health","link":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/?cat=98"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.concentratesnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6877.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3810,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3808\/revisions\/3810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.concentratesnw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}