Fruit Trees

Did you know that peaches and nectarines are of the same variety? Nectarines just lack the gene for "fuzz." A neat fact! Thinning peaches, plums, and apples kept me busy this week. The photograph above is from a peach tree in the Up Garden. Orin Martin (the Up Garden Manager) says to thin between fruits: 5-6" for peaches/nectarines, 3-4" for plums, 5-6" for apples, and 3" for apricots. Thinning the fruits will reduce damage to the fruit skin, reduce weight on the branches, eliminate habitat between fruit for pests, and help the tree to produce yummy fruit.

Happy Mother's Day!

Compost in the Chadwick Garden

I've been spending the past two weeks in the Chadwick Garden (also known as the "Up Garden" because it's up on main campus, removed from the rest of the Farm). This garden was first created by Alan Chadwick in 1967 as a student garden project at the University of California at Santa Cruz (then a new university and campus). At the time, the soil was a heavy clay, capable of supporting little vegetation. Today, after years of integrating compost and cover crops, the soil is the texture and color of a dark chocolate cake! The lesson is: compost, compost, compost. As our first project in the garden, we built our own compost piles. Layering straw, bell beans and other greens, coffee grounds, horse manure, and lots of water. The pile has been hot - which is a good thing for compost - it's temperature has been around 145 degrees F since it was built.