Gardeners in Winn and Jackson Parish are invited by County Agent Donny Moon to take part in a seminar that will be held Monday, December 16, on pruning and grafting that will be held in the Winn Extension Office, LSU AgCenter.

Making the presentation at the 5 p.m. training will be Donald Boyett whose focus will be fruit trees.

“Grafting is significant because you can add extra varieties to your garden without adding extra trees.  With fruit trees, you’ll often graft to hardy root stock for disease-resistant trees.  For apples, for instance, grafting is the only way it will work.  You can’t grow them from seeds which are all hybrids.  Every seed will grow a different tree.”

Boyett noted on pruning that generally, any primary pruning to fruit trees should be done during the dormant season although general trimming can be done any time.  A gardener may was to prune for form, looking at light exposure.  For productivity, horizontal limbs do better than vertical.

“For peaches, you prune to spur new growth.  A limb produces flowers and fruit only one time.  The only production that limb will have the next year is in its new growth at the tip.  So you need to prune to generate new growth.  I hear people say their peach trees are losing productivity over time.  That’s the reason.”

Learn more on December 16.