PRUNING THE ORCHARD AT @BEATITUDES8

Pruning is one of those jobs that very interesting.

On the one hand, it doesn't make much sense. How could cutting off branches means more fruit? Shouldn't more branches mean more fruit? Well, interestingly enough, that's not how it works. Far too often, people will purchase fruit trees only to plant them, and never really prune them or take care of them. The trees grow random branches, which eventually become huge, and then often the whole tree splits apart and becomes diseased. I've seen it time and time again as I travel.

THE @BEATITUDES8 ORCHARD

Like many people that I know, on the Hive account@beatitudes8 homestead they want to grow a good amount of their own food. In their orchard they have a very nice variety of trees including Almonds, Peaches, Apricots, Plums, Apples, Pears, Asian Pears, and perhaps some others. While I was visiting Hive account@beatitudes8 recently, we decided to cross this chore off of the list and prune the orchard together.

Having help on projects like this can be beneficial. First off, there can be a lot of cutting, snipping, and sawing to do, so many hands make light work. Also, a second eye or second opinion is not a bad thing. Other people may see things that you don't, or suggest beneficial things that you would not have thought about on your own.

BEFORE

Before pruning, these young trees had a lot of branches growing in every direction. Since there are some common shapes that certain trees grow best in, pruning the trees to leave only the desired branches is a good task to complete, especially when the trees are still relatively young. Here are a few before photos.

AFTER

One joke when you are pruning is, "If it looks like you ruined your tree, you probably pruned it properly." This is the part of the process that is often hardest to deal with. At first, you may think that you have made a terrible mistake. You'll get a good idea what I mean from these after photos.

A LOT OF WORK, BUT A FUN TIME

Like I said earlier, more helpers can be more help. In the photo above, Hive account@beardo shows how large just one pruned branch can be. That one almost looks like a whole tree!

As a wise man should, Hive account@beatitudes8 has a map of his orchard, to help him keep track of which tree is which. This helps in many ways, but deciding how to prune a tree can be determined by what variety it is too.

In the end, we had a great time and the work got done. It was a blessing to be able to help out, and we enjoyed getting to know the family on the Hive account@beatitudes8 homestead better. I'm glad that he didn't have to do all of the work by himself, just look at how long it takes him to cut through one branch!