Illinois Extension Local Foods and Small Farms Educator Grant McCarty will teach Intro to Apple Tree Pruning: The Older and Neglected on Friday, December 6, 2019 from 3:00-5:00PM at the Winnebago County Illinois Extension office located at 1040 N. 2nd Street in Rockford. Registration cost for this program is $5 and pre-registration is required by Wednesday, December 4. To register or for more information on this program, visit us online at web.extension.illinois.edu/jsw or call us at 815-986-4357.

You may have inherited property that has a number of mature apple trees. You may also have ignored and neglected your apple trees for a number of years. Whichever category you fall into, it is not too late to get your trees on the path towards productive yields.

 This course will go into the decisions you need to make when it comes to getting mature apple trees back into shape over the next couple of years. Topics to be covered include when to let go of trees, basics of seasonal/older pruning, disease/insect management, choices of tools, making the first cuts of a multi-year process, apple tree grafting options, and working through visual examples of trees that have been neglected.  McCarty will also discuss pruning cherry, peach and pear trees.  In addition, he will cover newer tress (less than 3 years old).

If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, please contact your local Extension office.