"I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture."
- George Washington
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Organic Orcharding Workshop Series
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A series of 4 day-long sessions, covering theory and hands-on practice in organic fruit tree and orchard management
Designed for beginner to intermediate orchardists managing backyard plantings to larger orchards
Sessions typically run from 10am til 3pm and incorporate hands-on, outdoor activities
Saturday, March 8: Pruning fruit trees and early spring orchard care
Learn to prune fruit trees to encourage vigorous growth, heavy fruit set, and quality fruit yield. Scionwood collection and storage will also be covered.
Three Locations:
Three Sisters Farm, Mt. Vernon (Instructor: Russell Libby)
Sweetser's Apple Barrell, Cumberland (Instructor: Scott Miller)
Clayfield Farm, East Blue Hill (Instructor: Phil Norris)
Saturday, April 19: Grafting fruit trees and spring orchard care
Location: Unity
Learn to propagate and reproduce your favorite fruit tree varieties. Several methods will be covered, from bench grafting (indoors) of rootstock to outdoor grafting (top working) of established trees of various ages. Spring orchard care, fertilization and more.
Saturday, May 10: ORGANIC ORCHARDING 101 with MICHAEL PHILLIPS
Author of The Apple Grower and proprietor of Lost Nation Orchard, Groveton, NH
Location: Unity
Michael will teach about everything under the sun as concerns the apple tree. Come learn about pruning, pest dynamics, soil health, good varieties, and apple pleasures. We'll spend our time together in the post-n-beam hall and heritage orchard on the Common Ground fairgrounds. We'll end this fun day with a rambunctious wassail.
visit Michael's website
Friday, August 1: Bud Grafting
Led by Delton Curtis at
Curtis Pond Nursery
Location: Thorndike
Bud grafting is a great way to start your own fruit trees as well as many ornamentals. "Budding" uses individual buds from this years new growth to graft onto rootstock already set in the nursery. Most of the nursery trade uses bud grafting to start all their trees. Some species can only be successfully grafted using budding. Please join us for a workshop to learn to bud graft on Friday August 1 from 10 AM to 2 PM at Delton Curtis' nursery in Thorndike. Delton grafts thousands of trees every year for Fedco. He has been bud grafting for many years focusing in particular on peaches. All major tree fruit species will be covered.
MOFGA will supply the buds and the rootstock. Participants should bring their own knives. Knives will also be available for purchase at the workshop.
Cost: $25.00 per workshop
register for the workshops online
or
download a registration form (PDF)
or
call 207-568-4142
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