News
Planting for the Future
Tue, 2007-03-27 14:51 — sosofsky
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
– proverb
This past weekend was definitely a good time to be planting trees. I had an incredible opportunity to help a farmer friend of mine plant a new fruit tree orchard. We’ve all enjoyed fruit and nuts from trees planted many years ago. Here was a chance to sow trees for the future. Planting trees gives one a sense of hope. Farmers take a big risk tying up their land and planting trees whose crops will take 2 – 4 years to come in. A freak hail or rain storm at the wrong moment can destroy the crop that’s already on the tree; or a 49-day rain-a-thon (such as the one that occurred last year) can ruin the pollination for the entire year’s crop. Or, in a good year when the weather works out well, local eaters will have the wonderful experience of biting into a delicious piece of fresh fruit on a hot summer’s day.
Back to Tree Planting….
We learned how to dig the holes deep enough and wide enough for the roots; how to face the top of the graft to the north to avoid sunburn; and how to work together with one person holding the tree while another person moved the soil back into the hole – carefully covering the roots while leaving the graft well above ground. The younger kids walked around removing the tags on the trees and picking up the flags which had marked the holes, and the adults enjoyed some good conversation while digging and planting. After lunch, my friend and I returned to the orchard with farmer Jim in order to prune the trees and place sleeves over them to prevent sunburn. Did you know that you need to prune bare-root fruit trees after planting them? It took me years to figure that out. In fact, the following day at a friend’s house in Sacramento, I looked at the two fruit trees that her husband had just planted. They were definitely in need of pruning (and one had been planted below the graft). I read the advertising on the fruit tree label. It read something like “Plant this tree and you will enjoy the luscious wonderful sweet plums”. The label might have said something about how big to make the planting hole, but it certainly didn’t mention anything about placing the graft above ground or pruning!
Back to Pruning …..
After the trees were lopped off at the marks on the jeans, I came through with a pair of clippers and clipped all the side branches to a bud near 1″. Yowza! It took me a couple of trees to get comfortable with this idea, and then I was buzzing along nicely until I had to return my friend’s Felco pruners to her and use my old pruners. I did sharpen my pruners, but they have never quite worked as well as the Felcos. Speaking of sharpening tools, it’s really great to have a file handy to sharpen your pruners or loppers as needed. If you don’t know how to sharpen your tools, take a class, or find someone who can teach you – it’s very liberating to sharpen your own tools as needed during pruning season. Eventually, all the lopping was finished, and the three of us worked on clipping the side branches and putting on the sleeves to prevent sunburn. At the end of a couple hours of talking and working, we finished off the orchard.
Grass Farming On the drive back to the house, we passed about 20 goats who were eating some grass. The baby goats are too cute for words, especially as they are all running towards you thinking that your truck is the food truck. Farmer Jim is transitioning his father’s walnut orchard into organic production. He plans on using the goats to trim the grass in the orchard. After the goats go through, he’ll bring in chickens to fertilize, spread the goat manure, and eat the bugs in the orchard. Then, he’ll be able to sell the chickens as pastured poultry. And, eventually, the walnut harvest will be ready to be harvested on neatly trimmed grass (courtesy of the goats and chickens).
Planting for the Future Farmer Jim is farming land that has been in his family since 1850. Hope and history are interconnected on this land as each generation helps the future generations by planting trees and taking care of the land.
Hopefully Yours,
Epilogue Upon returning to the house on Sunday, the tree planting continued as we had to plant our newly arrived bare-root trees and bushes, including a Weeping Mulberry (berries that grow on a tree!) and a Trebizond Date. The Santa Rosa plum went in a couple of weeks earlier, and the Bearss Lime will go in after the frosts have passed. A good weekend for planting trees, indeed!
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Early Saturday morning, a friend and I drove out to Wheatland, a small town situated north of Sacramento amidst the almond and walnut groves, to meet up with Farmer Jim, his wife, his parents, and a number of his CSA subscribers and Farmer’s Market fans. After everyone had arrived, we drove the long way out to the back of the property, and in a mere 3 hours, the group planted 139 bare-root fruit trees, mostly peach (Sun Crest and Flavor Crest) and pear with a couple of cherry thrown in as well.
My friend and farmer Jim drew lines on their pants at 24″ and 36″. The trick was to cut each tree back to a bud somewhere between those two lines. It takes quite a bit of guts to cut back a bare root tree to be 24″ high. But, really, it’s the way to go – and after you’ve done 20 of them, it gets easier to do the next 119. In the years to come, Farmer Jim will be able to pick the fruit from these trees while standing on the ground. Use this same trick in your backyard gardens – cut the tree back to knee high, and in the coming year, select the low shoots for the bottommost branches. It is indeed much easier (and safer) to pick from the ground than from a ladder.