Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation

Hello WWFRF friends! Last week Gary Moulton gave a 1 hour pruning course in the WSU auditorium. It was free and open to the public. Many of us garden veterans attended. We were already familiar with many thoughts about pruning but some concepts were nicely refreshed.

At the end Tom invited all attendees a chance to practice on our trees. And, we did get a couple new volunteers for Thursday morning.

The last 2 weeks we have been busy into pruning. Some concepts of pruning apply to all trees such as allowing light to penetrate or removing dead wood. In our fruit garden we only have a few identical trees. We enjoy a wonderful variety of fruit and cultivars. (It would be interesting to count just how many varieties of apples we have.) Since each tree is a little different each one requires its own plan of attack. Fortunately we have pruners willing to help any novices.

This tree pruning will continue for several more weeks. Soon we will begin blueberry pruning. Then we start thinning the tree fruit. Busy, busy, busy.

Please contact Ira if you can help out.

The Winter Field Day and Open House “All About Pruning” 2012 schedule is now available.  We’ll have specialized pruning workshops and lectures, fruit garden tours, rootstock and scion wood sales and much more!  See the full schedule here.  We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, February 8^th from 12pm to 1pm.
Main Auditorium, NWREC,  16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon, WA

Gary Moulton will discuss Dormant Pruning for Fruit Trees.

This presentation will include the basics of pruning with an emphasis on the techniques and goals of dormant pruning. Participants will learn what issues can be addressed or exacerbated, the physiology of a tree’s response to pruning, along with what to look for when deciding to prune, or not to prune.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the snow. Now we will have to check if it and the recent winds damaged our trees. We will also continue to check for disease and start to fight same.

Remember that the Country Living Expo is this Saturday in Stanwood. For more information and a schedule of classes go to http://skagit.wsu.edu/countrylivingexpo.

Brad and Gary Moulton will be among the instructors.

See you tomorrow.