Trees through the Seasons
People often ask us, “What do you do on the farm this time of year?” (especially in the winter) To
help satisfy that curiosity, I’ve put together a month by month list of our common activities. We’ll take
photos over the coming year to add to the list below.
January: Start pruning the apple and pear trees (both of these fall into the family of “pome” fruits).
We order our pumpkin seeds and seed potatoes for the coming spring. We order any new
trees for the following year (i.e. 15 months from now). Shovel snow as necessary. Cut into
firewood any trees in fencerows or wood lots that are in the way of our equipment. At the
end of the month is the annual convention in Hershey where we get to catch up on the
latest research and products in fruit and vegetable farming.
February: Continue pruning Pome fruits, cutting firewood and shoveling snow. Pruning removes
dead limbs and other branches that don’t fit the shape of tree we want. We take out
vertical limbs (besides the center trunk) and branches that rub or shade out those we want
to keep. The key is to allow sunlight into every part of the tree left after pruning.
March: Start pruning the peach, apricot, cherry and plum trees (these all fall into the family of “stone”
fruits). The basic concepts of pruning are the same as with the apples, but we are creating
a totally different tree shape. The peach trees have an open center or “open vase” shape.
The apples have a “central leader” shape. Peach trees can grow so much in 1 year that we
are cutting single uprights off now that are bigger than the whole bare-root tree that we
originally planted! Time to service the tractors: change the oil and filters and any other
routine maintenance before the season starts.
April: Continue pruning Stone fruits. When we finally finish pruning, we have to pick up the largest
cuttings and chop the rest into chips with the mower. Plant any new trees, typically on
Easter weekend because most of our volunteers have holiday from their day jobs on Good
Friday so we have 3 days to work. We use a tractor-mounted auger to dig an individual
hole for each tree. Then you set the bare-root tree in the hole (make sure to prune the
roots to promote growth) and backfill. That’s how we planted all 1,200 trees – sometimes
into mud and sometimes into dust. Pennsylvania Dutch legend holds that bull whipping the
peach trees on Good Friday will result in a bigger crop. Start plowing the vegetable fields if
the ground gets dry enough. April 15th is usually the last day to worry about frost and that’s
about the time our bumble bees arrive. By the end of the month, all the trees are in bloom
and the bees are very busy. We are watching the weather very closely – especially the
overnight low temperatures. Rainy, cloudy weather can keep the bees from visiting flowers
and a late freeze can destroy to tender flowers or newly pollinated fruit. Fertilize the trees
before the grass starts growing.
May: So now the pruning is all done, little bright green leaves are growing on each tree and if the
weather cooperated and the bees did their job, as the flower petals fall, we are left with a
full crop – with each piece of fruit being the size of a Tic Tac. It’s also time to plant our
tomatoes, potatoes and pumpkins.
June: If it wasn’t already done in May, mow the grass in the driveways between the trees. The
leaves on the trees are a dark green now. Hill the potatoes and hoe or cultivate the other
vegetables as dictated by weed growth. Any fruit that didn’t fully pollinate will fall victim to
the “June Drop”. It shrivels up and falls off the tree. This is normally a very small
percentage of the original crop. What’s left hanging on the peach trees will require
“thinning”. A peach tree sets up a lot more fruit than it can handle. If left untouched, each
peach will be too small, but the combined weight could still break branches. Thinning is the
manual process of picking about half the little fruits off the tree to allow the remaining
peaches to reach acceptable size and still be supported without permanently damaging the
tree. At this time of year, the peaches are hard green fuzz balls, only slightly larger than a
mature peach pit. We use thinning as a way to remove peaches that are misshaped or
have been visibly damaged by insects or disease. Thinning is the beginning of the busy
season, even though we are not open yet.
July: Finish thinning peaches finally. Get one more pass on the pumpkin field with the cultivator
before the vines spread out. Mow the grass one more time before we start picking. The
first cherries ripen with the 4th of July, followed closely by the plums. By the end of the
month the apricots are ripe. Now we are in the thick of it – the market is open and we are
picking fruit. All the hard work of the first 6 months is worth it now.
August: The Redhaven peaches ripen either the first of second weekend of the month which starts
the 5 week season with a new peach variety offered each successive week. Our vegetable
crops are planted so the peak yield is during peach season. The first pears are ripe by the
middle of the month.
September: Labor Day is the transition period – peaches are winding down, but apples are just
gearing up. The cool nights slow down our tomatoes, but give vibrant red color to our
apples. The brisk weather is a welcome change from the heat of summer. The pumpkin
vines start to die back, revealing the orange mascots of fall as they do.
October: The apples continue, but pumpkins are the headliners. Everyone wants to find the perfect
gourd for their jack-o-latern. An early frost can send us scrambling, gathering the nicest
pumpkins and stowing them in the garage. This protects them from a damaging freeze but
means we have to then lay them out in the field again the following day. Halloween marks
the end of the market for the year.
November: It’s time to get ready for winter. We mow the grass one last time. Tall grass gives
rodents a place to hide in winter and they have a habit of chewing the bark off the base of
tree trunks. We hoe weeds away from the little trees for the same reason. We get as
much of the equipment under cover as possible before any winter weather hits.
December: I guess this is our slow month. We take a break and look over the past year – what
worked and what didn’t. What will we do differently in the coming year? The seed and tree
catalogs come in the mail providing all sorts of new ideas.