Are you fed up with pests and diseases harming your fruit trees or are you hoping to grow more fruit this summer, but don鈥檛 know where to start?

If you鈥檙e interested in taking proactive steps to improve the health of your fruit trees and produce higher-quality fruit, look no further than LUSH Valley Food Action Society (LUSH Valley).

With more extreme weather events, temperatures, and precipitation, our region鈥檚 fruit trees require increased care and applied knowledge to be resilient. To better support local tree stewards, LUSH Valley has expanded its popular Prune-Along program to include summer pruning and pest management.

鈥淢any people think pruning only happens in the winter months, but summer pruning is effective in reducing growth and vigor, helping to maintain the size of dwarfing and espalier-style trees and to stay on top of water shoots after a hard winter prune,鈥� says Griffin Wright, food access co-ordinator.

鈥淓mploying non-toxic pest management techniques can also reduce the impact of common diseases and pests such as aphids, scab, and codling moth.鈥�

LUSH Valley is offering one-on-one sessions where fruit tree experts will work with participating tree stewards to learn the essentials of fruit tree care, regrowth management, and common pest and disease control.

鈥淥ur hope is that by empowering community members to better care for existing fruit trees, LUSH Valley can improve local fruit quality, increase safety and ease of harvest, and better share the harvest with our community,鈥� says Wright.

Ninety-minute pruning sessions are available on Sundays and Mondays in June and July. Each session takes place on a homeowner鈥檚 property and is tailored to meet their needs and goals. All equipment and ladders are supplied and transported by LUSH Valley.

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