Northern California Continuous Harvest

It’s been a few weeks recovering personally from the baby loss. We’re still recovering but I have been wanting to post this article on the blog for a while. Help others understand what I learned.

8 pictures of fruit trees displayed on a piece of wood8 fruit trees displayed on back

How we chose our trees

I grew up in the area, so the researching of what can grow here (mostly). Luckily for me… Citrus, Cherries, Peaches, Apricots and many other kinds of fruits grow well out here. I researched some on Dave Wilson’s website about backyard orchard culture. Here is a great article from Dave Wilson

So much information! And I think all of it is vital. I realized if I am responsible for the tree’s size I do not need to worry about what root-stock it has. I can get a semi-dwarf tree and keep it a dwarf tree size. I had difficulty deciding how wide to space my trees. I ended up going with about 20ft spacing, since I have the land.

Morris Nursery trip

We went to Morris Nursery to pick up 10 trees that I purchased as bare root. Here is my list of trees that I am planting or have planted in a google doc. I planted them in my front yard

A little girl in front of a newly planted bare root cherry tree

And here my drawing of how I planned to lay them out.

At the Morris they had a class on pruning fruit trees. I thought it would be an hour, and I took my whole family out there for it. It turned out to be closer to two hours. I was lucky there was a cat there. They taught a lot of things, here are the notes I took:

  • Peach limbs only produce 1 peach per limb
  • Fireblight affects apples and pears. It is transferred via insects. It looks random on trees leaves
  • Hole twice as wide and 6″ deeper than the hole
  • Put 1/4 Dr earth bag at bottom and 1 cup Dr earth fertilizer
  • Don’t prune apricots or pluots in the winter
  • Apricots you want to prune so they grow up. Keep inward facing bud
  • Cherries prune toward outward growth. Keep outward facing bud
  • Space peaches out so they grow big
  • You’ll thin the fruit so trees do well
  • Oranges like a deep soaking every 10-14 days
  • Farmers water each 10-14 days

Also, I scanned their handout for my future reference. Here is the first page, and the full document.

One other thing I learned is… Don’t be afraid to prune a tree. It’ll grow back, and depending how you cut it. It may appreciate it. If you make a mistake, it’ll grow up still.

Thoughtful Tree gift

Some friends of Hannah and mine back in Utah sent us a tree and this very sweet message. It’s one of the sweetest gifts! And of course, it came on a particularly dark day. Thank you!

That tree is front and center in our yard. I apologize for not getting any pictures yet… But I could never remember when it was daylight out. I’ll put one up soon.

Scriptural thoughts

As I’m doing this, I realize that if I take care of these trees early on. The work will become lessened as it grows. And if I don’t, it’ll be a lot of work to get it the way that is best for me. Reminds me of the bible verse Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Or as Davel Wilson put it

“It’s much easier to keep a small tree small than it is to make a large tree small.”