Education & Stewardship: Notes From the Field
What We're Learning on the Land, in Santa Cruz and the greater South Bay
Stewardship is a practice, and practices are meant to be shared. This journal gathers what our crews are seeing and learning across the orchards, gardens, and landscapes we tend: seasonal know-how, growing wisdom for this coast, and the occasional dispatch from a project we loved. For our library of evergreen growing references, visit our Cultivation Guides.
How Fruit Tree Pruning Shapes the Canopy for Production, Not Just Size, in the Bay Area
The homeowner with a backyard fruit tree usually prunes for one reason: the tree is too big. The branches are hanging over the fence. The canopy is blocking the sun from the garden. The height has grown past the point where the fruit can be reached from a ladder. So the homeowner cuts it back. Hard. And the tree responds with a flush of vigorous, vertical water sprouts that produce no fruit, crowd the interior, and put the tree right back where it started within two seasons.