WINNEBAGO COUNTY- For orchardists, backyard growers, and novice fruit growers seeking to enhance yield, quality, and consistency, proper pruning is crucial. Proper pruning is the difference between a productive orchard and a disappointing harvest. Local Foods and Small Farms Educator Grant McCarty is helping you get the most out of your fruit trees next growing season in his program, Fruit Tree Pruning Fundamentals. This class will teach you the science and artistry behind proper pruning, empowering you to maximize your harvest while maintaining healthy, beautiful trees for years to come. The skills you learn in this course will prepare you to prune your fruit trees in the dormant season of mid-December to late February, when pruning should be done in Northern Illinois.
Since 2017, Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Educator, has taught fruit tree pruning classes for Northern Illinois growers, both commercial and noncommercial. His approach uses a color-coding system to help you visualize the cuts you need to make this season, the shape your tree currently is or is heading, and the confidence to take his suggestions and put into action. This unique approach combines education with consulting and coaching without setting foot in your orchard.
Fruit Tree Pruning Fundamentals will be offered on Saturday, December 6th as an in-person workshop at the University of Illinois Extension-Winnebago County, located at 1040 N Second St., Rockford, IL 61107. The workshop will take place from 10 a.m. to Noon. For more information about the in-person class or to register, visit: go.illinois.edu/pruningwithgrant or call U of I Extension at (815) 986-4357. Fruit Tree Pruning Fundamentals will also be offered as an on-line class on December 17, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. For more information about the on-line class, visit: go.illinois.edu/pruningonline. If you need reasonable accommodations to participate in this program, please contact the Winnebago County Extension Office at 815-986-4357.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.