residential weekend course pruning & care of old fruit trees

venue: Redfield Community, Bucks

This course is run by Bryn Thomas, an experienced trainer who has been pruning old and neglected fruit trees professionally for over 10 years.
No prior knowledge of pruning is needed, but the course will be of interest to experienced gardeners and professionals as well as the complete novice. This is a very practical course, and participants should be willing, and consider themselves physically able, ‘to have a go’, and also to spend most of the weekend outdoors. Most participants are likely to want to use ladders to gain access to taller trees, but access to some of the smaller trees is feasible without leaving the ground.

The course will provide participants with practical skills through hands-on experience of renovation pruning of apple trees. These skills are essential to anyone caring for mature fruit trees, but the expertise to carry out this work is not very widespread or accessible. Fruit trees that are not properly cared for often become unproductive and diseased, frequently causing them to die prematurely. Many of the techniques learned will have applications in the care of younger and newly-planted fruit trees, and other trees and shrubs.

A discussion about what participants want from the course will be followed by brief theory sessions and practical demonstrations. However, the majority of the course will be devoted to practical hands-on experience with guidance from the tutor. By the end of the course participants will have the practical skills necessary to carry out renovation pruning of old fruit trees without supervision.

more on fruit trees & orchards

the tutor leading a discussion on what to prune and why
photo: Daniel Holloway

to get a heavy, healthy crop of fruit like this, you need to prune carefully during the previous winter

course tutor Bryn in his natural habitat
photo: Daniel Holloway