As we move into a new season, I wanted to give y’all a few updates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I encourage everyone to keep an eye on the forecast going into next week. It’s fluctuating quite a bit, but it does look like we may drop down into the low-mid 30s. Over the last few days, the lows for Monday night\/Tuesday morning have ranged from 31F to 37F. Hopefully we won’t sit at these lows for too long. We’ll continue to monitor the weather and see how\/if this potential cold snap affects our new growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On that note, we are starting to see new flush emerge on most of the trees throughout the southern half of the state. Which means now is the time to start up your fertilizer programs. Now’s also a good time to start pruning trees. When pruning, the focus should be on removing any dead wood from this past winter. Removing that dead wood will help promote regrowth. When pruning dead wood, make sure to cut into living\/green wood to help encourage regrowth. From there, we can focus on shaping the tree. We want to remove any low branches that would allow fruit to touch the ground. We can also remove excessively tall\/vertical sprouts throughout the season to help keep the trees to a manageable size. Removing rootstock sprouts throughout the season is also important as they can quickly take over, especially in young trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n