Orcharding 101 set for June 13

SANGERVILLE — A favorite activity for many homeowners in Maine is gardening. This time of year, greenhouses and farmers markets are full of customers searching for seedlings and plants to brighten their home gardens and eventually fill their plates. More and more, people are expanding what they grow at home and becoming curious about new options – including fruit trees.

In addition to home gardeners, market gardeners are often adding to or expanding their offerings by adding fruit trees to their farms. As many farmers will tell you, caring for fruit trees differs in many ways to caring for vegetable crops.

The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) in partnership with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) is offering a workshop that will help any fruit tree grower, large or small, experienced or new, to learn more about how to support and maintain healthy, productive fruit trees on their property.

The PCSWCD will be hosting an Orcharding 101 workshop with MOFGA’s Orchard Specialist CJ Walke on Saturday, June 13. Walke has years of experience teaching and mastering organic orcharding practices, and has worked alongside many orcharding experts including John Bunker of FEDCO Trees and Michael Phillips, author of “The Holistic Orchard”, among others. Walke has taught orcharding workshops covering topics such as grafting, pruning, pest management, renovating old trees and much more.

In this workshop, Walke will cover the basics of how to properly maintain fruit tree varieties using organic practices. Topics will include pruning, pest control, disease identification and treatment and much more. The workshop will take place at Mossflower Farm in Sangerville on Route 23. Owner Leigh Wiley grows a variety of fruit trees using organic practices. At this location setting, workshop participants will not only get to hear and ask questions about orcharding topics, but they will also see examples of them first hand.

Pre-registration is required to attend this workshop and the workshop is limited to 45 participants. This event will be held rain or shine and will be an outdoor event, so registrants are encouraged to dress appropriately. For more information and to register, please contact the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District by calling 564-2321 ext. 3, emailing tinfo@piscataquisswcd.org or by stopping by the USDA Service Center at 42 Engdahl Drive in Dover-Foxcroft.