fruit trees

Less Time to Chill

By Pia Hinckle on April 23, 2015

Cherries are finicky trees. They don’t like it when it gets too hot, when there’s not enough rain, and when it doesn’t stay cold enough during the winter. For the last few winters, California’s …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: California, california drought, Central Valley, cherries, chill hours, chilling, drought, fruit trees, warm winters

Graft

By Chris Mittelstaedt on March 14, 2011

My daughter broke her pinkie when she was ten years old while battling to catch a football in a Hail Mary melee on the school blacktop. She had surgery to pin the bone together so it would grow back …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: crop diversification, diversify, farming rechniques, fruit trees, graft, grafting

The Sound of Cold at Night

By Chris Mittelstaedt on April 12, 2010

As a kid, I always looked forward to springtime. Winter didn’t just mean less sunlight and standing at a bus stop early in the morning in a red down jacket trying to quickly mound up disparate …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: article, crops, farming, frost, fruit trees, may full moon, spring, spring frost, Weather

Good Fruit = GoodWorks

By The FruitGuys on March 4, 2010

The FruitGuys GoodWorks Project includes our Farm Steward and Community Outreach programs which have donated thousands of pieces of fruit to charitable organizations nationwide. Our Farm Steward …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, GoodWorks Tagged With: bat boxes, bee hive, beehives, community outreach, donate-a-crate, donation, family farmers, Farm Steward, farmers, fruit donations, fruit trees, good works, owl boxes, small family farm

The Budding System

By Heidi Lewis on February 24, 2010

The first time I went to a Scion Exchange I didn't know what to expect—was it a science-fiction convention? As I drew nearer I saw people entering the building with little sticks under their arms—was …

Filed Under: Food, FruitGuys News Tagged With: article, branch cuttings, buds, cuttings, farmers, farming, fruit trees, gardeners, gardening, grafter, grafting, heirloom fruit, nut trees, rare fruit, scion exchange, spring planning, spring planting, swap, twigs, varieties, variety

Profile: Chaffin Family Orchards

By Heidi Lewis on January 22, 2010

Oroville, CA - Oroville is a gold rush town in Butte County, CA. Oro means gold in Spanish, and during the Gold Rush prospectors stampeded over the area in a greedy frenzy. When Del Chaffin came to …

Filed Under: Farms, FruitGuys News Tagged With: article, avocado, Chaffin Family Farm, chaffin family orchard, cherries, chickens, citrus, cows, eggs, figs, fruit trees, heirloom fruit, jam, land management, lemons, mandarins, olives, Peach, peaches, persimmon, pesticides, pests, Satsuma, satsuma trees, sheep, symbiosis, table mountain, wool

Fruit = Intelligence

By Chris Mittelstaedt on November 19, 2009

Fruit is so good that scientists think it may make chimps smarter. "Chimpanzees remember the exact location of all their favorite fruit trees," wrote Matt Walker on Earth News (A BBC.com website). …

Filed Under: FruitGuys News, The FruitLife Tagged With: article, chimpanzees, Earth News, fruit trees