Today in the orchard
Propping up the plum crop, July 25, 2025
It’s time to prop up branches in danger of breaking under the weight of this year’s fruit crop. Peaches in particular are notorious for breaking branches in Maine. Although we have a light peach crop this summer (several nights well below zero last winter), we do have some plums and apples in danger of branch-collapse. Bracing branches with saplings, miscellaneous lumber or even random old broom sticks is definitely worth the effort. Just a bit of artificial support here and there can keep a fruit tree from sustaining serious damage when precious branches break under the weight. Every summer we cut a few piles of saplings (white birch, red maple and red oak) with “Y-shaped” branch structures suitable for propping up sagging branches. Then we custom cut each sapling to length with a small pruning saw or an axe. Today we propped up plums that were seriously drooping and one Frostbite tree that had branches dragging on the ground. The trees look bizarre with all the props, but the props definitely help.
We also continued our inventory of fruit. This year’s apple crop appears to be better than I had originally thought. What’s particularly fun is seeing what’s fruiting for the first time. We even have a few cultivars fruiting for the first time anywhere, ever. Excellent!
