Winter Field Day – Saturday, March 11th, 2023

Our annual Winter Field Day was held on Saturday, March 11, 2023, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.  Registration began at 9:00 am.

This year’s theme was Spring Care in Your Fruit Garden.  This one-day event combined classes and panel discussions on grafting, pruning, pest control, and best fruit varieties for our region. The afternoon featured in-field demonstrations on pruning and grafting techniques as well as tours of Northwest Fruit’s fruit garden.  Morning classes and panel discussions were held indoors. 

Morning classes
Grafting
Bench grafting onto new root stocks
Top working fruit trees in the orchard with cleft and bark grafts
Pruning
Starting and maintaining a new tree
Pruning older overgrown fruit trees to bring them under control
Pruning grapes and berries
Principles of pruning that you can apply when pruning all trees and bushes.
Stool Beds – Learn to make a stool bed and grow your own root stocks
Organic Pest Control – Learn about the pests of various fruit trees and how control them

Afternoon in the Orchard Pruning demonstrations in our six acre fruit demonstration garden.  Note that there will be a noon time lunch break.

Root stock, scion wood, and grafting supplies will be available for sale

Scion wood $3 each
Custom Grafting $4 per graft
Root stocks $5 each

Root stock  There will be a three-per-variety purchase limit until after 12:00 noon to allow all participants the opportunity to purchase their desired root stock.   Root stock will be approximately 1/4 inch in diameter except the Mazzard cherry root stock which will be approximately 3/16 inch in diameter.

Scion wood We’ve collected many varieties of apple, almond, apricot, cherry, pear, plum, and quince scion wood from the orchard.  You can purchase ours or bring your own scion wood for onsite grafting.

Admission: Field days are free for members.  Non-members pay $15 for an individual day-of-event pass, $25 for an annual individual membership, or $40 for an annual family membership.

You can pay for your membership at the event if you do not have a current membership, or pay ahead of time by PayPal.

Winter 1
Dr. Bob Norton teaches about pruning at the Winter Field Day.