Orto di Casa Cecconi

My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…

Tag: pruning

  • Pruning

  • It’s because of the dry spell!

    Today I’ve been pruning Prunus (plums and cherries) for the first time since I’ve been here. To be precise, Prunus avium, or cherry trees, and P. domestica, the plums. To be even more precise, the plants I’m referring to here are P. avium ‘Sunburst’, P. domestica ‘Opal’ and ‘Blue Tit’ ; and this last was flowering…

  • Indoors trained vines – part 1: winter

    After tending to Vitis ‘Muscat of Alexadria’ as one of the first things when I arrived back in September, I have spent more time in the greenhouse, tending to the very demanding crops that indoors vines are. After all grapes are picked, the greenhouse’s vents were opened, so the chill coming in stimulates leaf drop…

  • The vineyard

    I still remember how pruning the vineyard was such a relief at the end of the pruning training week, as it was so straightforward and one could whizz through it, feeling rewarded at the end! Principles are really clear and so is the putting them into practice. We use the “double Guyot” replacement system, which…

  • Spindles

    Mature spindles A row of young spindles A kinky leader; on the side, a vertical branch Spindlebushes. A kinky leader at the top, not a permanent one; a layer of branches, slightly above the horizontal at the bottom (not the very bottom, about 75 cm), with a gap in the middle. This shape is widely…

  • Apple pruning season

    Sizeable canker on an apple tree It’s apple pruning season, and you know why? Because the fruits have gone (so no knocking about) and the leaves are down so you can see the shape of the tree more clearly! Otherwise, apples are pretty tolerant of pruning at any time between leaf fall and bud burst,…

  • Gooseberry aplenty

    … as over the last couple of months I have had several stints at pruning the cordon collection, and there are still a few to go. Cordon gooseberry pruning is, as of now, the only skill that I feel I really had time to practice long enough to master. I have also tried to time…