Pruning is a common practice that’s used to maintain the health, shape, and productivity of trees. However, it creates wounds that can expose trees to infections and pests. To protect trees, it was once standard practice to paint fresh pruning cuts and bark damage on […]
The passionfruit vine (Passiflora edulis) is a vigorous perennial woody evergreen fruiting subtropical vine from the Passifloraceae family. It has three-lobed, glossy green leaves, and climbs by tendrils, reaching a height of up to 5m (15′), depending on the structure it’s climbing upon. The purple […]
Deadheading is a pruning technique for removing flowers once they’ve finished in order to encourage plants to direct their energy into producing new flowers and extend their flowering period, rather expending their energy reserves on old spent flowers to produce seeds. Removing spent flowers is also […]
After using pruning tools, such as secateurs, loppers, hedge hedge and pruning saws, it’s important to clean them to prevent rusting, and to avoid spreading diseases from tree to tree. It’s a good idea to sterilise pruning tools after use, especially before using them on […]
The goji berry plant (Lycium barbarum), also known as a wolfberry (gouqizi, 枸杞) in Chinese, is a scrambling deciduous shrub with long, sparsely spiny weeping branches. It’s a Lycium (boxthorn) species that is a member of the Solanaceae (nightshade or tomato) plant family, and is […]
Blackberries and blackberry hybrids, such as thornless blackberries, loganberries, boysenberries, youngberries, taybberries, silvanberries, marionberries and lawtonberries all belong to the genus Rubus, along with raspberries. Unlike raspberries which have vertical growing canes, blackberries and their hybrids have long trailing horizontal canes, which are usually supported […]
High density tree planting, where two or more trees can be planted in the same hole to form a single canopy with multiple trunks, is drawn from the system of Backyard Orchard Culture, developed by the Dave Wilson Nursery of Central California. In this system, […]
Mulberry trees are deciduous trees which are traditionally winter pruned when they’re dormant and have no leaves, with the pruning carried out in late winter. When spring arrives, the buds on the bare branches open to produce new leaves, as well as new branches which […]
Plant diseases, caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, can easily be spread from one plant or tree to another if pruning tools are not disinfected before use. Sap from trees and plants usually sticks to the blades of secateurs, loppers, saws and […]
Fruit trees flower and fruit each year, but some of them do so only on new branches, or specific parts of older branches. Why does this matter? If we prune off the wrong branches, we might lose our whole fruit crop for a year! By […]
Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) belong to the genus Rubus, along with other cane berries such as blackberries, boysenberries, lawtonberries, loganberries, marionberries, silvanberries and tayberries. What’s quite interesting is that the whole Rubus genus is part of the Rosaceae (Rose) family, to which almonds, apples, apricots, cherries, […]
Fruit trees are trained into particular shapes to make them more productive, easier to manage and better able to support heavy crop loads. Formative pruning (also referred to as framework pruning) is carried out in the first three years of planting a young tree to […]
Fruit trees are trained into particular shapes to make them more productive, easier to manage and better able to support heavy crop loads. Formative pruning (also referred to as framework pruning) is carried out in the first three years of planting a young tree to […]
Most fruit trees are pruned the same way, making winter pruning a fairly straightforward task, but there are a few exceptions. With some fruit trees, the ends of their branches shouldn’t be cut off, otherwise they won’t fruit, because they either fruit from the ends […]
Fruit tree pruning is both an art and a science. The art to fruit tree pruning is not something that can be taught in a short article or video, but basic pruning technique is quite easy to understand, and once grasped, almost anyone can maintain […]
Grapes fruit on new season’s shoots which arise from one-year-old canes. Once these canes have produced their fruit for the season, they will not produce again. To keep grapes productive, they need to be pruned to renew the young canes which will produce in the […]
The first step in pruning a tree, before making and cuts to change the shape or size of a tree, is to remove any dead, diseased or broken branches. If removing a branch completely, it’s important to make the cut correctly so as to not […]
Want to grow lots of tomatoes in limited spaces, even containers? Ever wondered how the commercial hydroponic growers pack in as many plants as possible in their growing areas? By understanding the way tomatoes grow, we can select the right plants and utilise their growth […]
If you thought that hedges and hedging were restricted to ornamental gardening only, you’d be seriously mistaken! Hedges are quite useful in a garden, and can serve many functions, such as: barriers for security, privacy and screening purposes shade for people or gardens – especially […]
