Summer On the Farm
Summer is spent managing weeds, picking cones, and shaping trees. The last three years we have had a particularly large amount of cones on our trees. the production of cones can come as a stress response from the previous season while the tree was putting on new growth. With the drought last June a lot of trees produced cones as a result this spring.
Cones take energy away from the growth of branches and leave a mess in the tree once fall has gone. So the cones need to be removed each season.
We have nice soil in wright county which means weeds grow fast as well. Much of my energy in the summer goes towards what seems an endless pursuit of weed control. Weeds slow down in most places
once things heat up in July.
Tree shearing is the whole reason I became a tree farmer in the first place. I have been shearing trees every year since I was 15 years old (21years now). Trees are sheared with long handled knives to remove The outermost buds on the tree to guide the shape and increase density.