Photo: Ashley Thompson
10-Minute University™ is the trademark of short classes on essential gardening information. All presentations are free and each is accompanied by a handout. Oregon State University owns the trademark and Clackamas County Master Gardeners develop and manage the program.

Fruit trees can produce for many years, even decades. To reach a tree’s full fruiting potential requires the gardener to select a variety that matches local climate, choose a good specimen and plant it with care, and nurture it with proper watering, disease and pest management, and pruning.

This session will cover the above for gardeners who are interested in growing apples, pears, cherries, peaches and plums in the Pacific Northwest. Among the important topics are:

• Climate implications: Chilling hours, heat units
• Selection: Relative ease to grow, based on pest and disease problems
• Tree: Root stock for grafted tree, own-root options
• Location: Sun, microclimate – wind, cold, heat
• Soil Preparation: Organic matter, pH, tilth, planting, mulch
• Watering: General rule for quantity and frequency
• Training and Pruning

SPEAKER: Ashley Thompson is an OSU Assistant Professor of Horticulture and Extension expert on sustainable tree fruit production. Dr. Thompson’s expertise includes soil fertility, root stocks and varieties, plant nutrition, and tree fruit viruses. She works with commercial pear and cherry growers in Wasco and Hood River Counties of Oregon.

This online seminar is free with advanced registration. Even if you cannot attend live, register anyway. A recording link will be sent 2 days after the class. Register at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e82cNkiKSkadDqvpxWbuGg