Session teaches apple tree pruning and grafting

    CAMBRIDGE — Ten would-be apple tree pruners and grafters gathered at Sam Brown’s orchard in Cambridge Saturday morning, March 30 for a few hours of hands-on instruction by Heron Breen of St. Albans. Breen has spent years learning the complex biology and agricultural implications of apple growing in central Maine, and deftly conveyed many of the fruits of that experience to the small group, a task made even more pleasant by the gorgeous early spring day out in the blue sky and bright sun.

Photo courtesy of Sam Brown

    APPLES TO APPLES — Heron Breen demonstrates cutting a grafting scion as Will Vandermast, Shawn Sherburne and James Sherburne look on during a DDATT workshop on March 30 in Cambridge.

    The workshop, sponsored by Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT), attracted learners from West Corinth, Garland, Dover-Foxcroft, Cambridge, St. Albans and Dexter.  “I never knew there could be so many things to consider!,” commented Cambridge resident Carol Gardener, as Breen described the importance of understanding how a fruit tree grows and responds to injury (such as pruning branches) before doing any cutting. The pruner needs to know the difference between a fruiting bud and a branching bud.
    Breen explained that dwarf, semi-dwarf and standard rootstock trees available from nurseries each have positive and negative qualities for the apple grower. He prefers the standard rootstocks for their strength and longevity and superior adaptation to the local conditions; even though they take a few years longer to begin producing fruit than the dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstocks, they require significantly less pest control and other inputs over a much longer useful life. 
    Participants got to snip, clip and saw various sized branches on a few trees in the young (13-year-old) apple orchard, and then watched as Breen cleft-grafted small cuttings from one variety to the stem of another variety, as a demonstration of how to increase the numbers of different types of fruit in an orchard and improve the chances of pollination as well.
    Since the first settlers in 1830s started their own trees, apples have been a staple crop in the area and promise to be an increasingly important food source for Maine and the rest of the Northeast as fuel costs for transportation rise, and food from out of the region becomes more expensive.
    DDATT sponsors many workshops throughout the year, emphasizing food, energy, and local economics.  Call 277-4221 or e-mail info@ddatt.org for more times.