Have you ever felt like you’d like to grow better fruit, but are unsure of how to start? Do you have a few old trees that are such a mess they seem hopeless? Maybe there’s a monster avocado tree in your yard that makes crappy fruit, or none at all? Have you always wanted a productive, well curated orchard, but just need a little help with where to begin, what to plant and whether to put the citrus in front of the peaches or vice versa? Maybe we can help.
We end up working with a lot of old trees; avocado trees to be sure, but apple, pear and stone fruit trees as well. Sometimes it’s just some serious therapeutic pruning, to compensate for years of neglect, incompetant landscapers, bad cuts that haunt and hinder otherwise productive trees. Other times it’s a size control issue, wherein a tree has overrun its space and needs to be brought down or hemmed-in.
The operation we are most fervent about involves cutting back large, unproductive old trees and top-work grafting new varieties that are more suited to the site and the owner’s tastes. We might be the only service in the area repurposing massive old root systems. In as little as one year’s time, a lousy tree that’s previously only squandered precious water and space can begin making great fruit. Grafting is the ultimate form of recycling, quickly turning old trees around, and past mistakes into future favorites.
Our more than 30 years of fruit collecting, 20 years supplying and curating the CRFG annual apple tasting, 15 years developing our commercial rare fruit orchard, and 12 years running our specialty avocado nursery has endowed us with a deep, broad, localized experience base, making us uniquely qualified to help central coast homeowners and would-be orchardists fine-tune their fruit plantings. Our orchard and fruit tree consulting service is aimed at saving our clients from repeating the endless series of missteps we committed. Our intent is not to spare them the process of unraveling the mysteries of fruit growing in our climate, but rather to save them years of time by guiding them through the chaos of conflicting advice, and set them on a solid path toward fruit tree proficiency.
Our specialties include:
Avocado re-grafting, culture, varieties, year-round fruit, trouble-shooting
Apple, pear and stone fruit culture, variety choice, pruning, and trouble-shooting
Citrus variety recommendations, culture, pruning, trouble-shooting
Established orchard top-working, grafting all types of trees
Pruning, grafting, orchard-care instruction: We can teach you while we work.
Neglected tree renewal/Restoration pruning
Fundamental restructuring to manageable height.
Matching any given site to appropriate fruit varieties, factoring in:
drainage/soil-type, sun orientation, heat units, chill accumulation and cold exposure, year-round or extended-season harvest, custom, palate-tuned collections.
New or renovated orchard planning, layout, installations and maintenance.
Our one hour minimum charge is usually enough to cover a site assessment, or large avocado re-grafting job.
$100/hour plus travel fee for out of Santa Cruz County projects.
