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05/29/2026

Why Your Apple Tree Doesn’t Produce Apples Every Year 🍎
Most apple trees, if not thinned properly, will produce a huge crop one year and very little the next.
This happens because the tree puts a ton of energy into producing all the fruit from the flowers that were pollinated.
As a result, many apple trees don’t store enough energy to form flower buds for the following season.
This isn’t true for every apple tree or variety, but if your tree produces heavily one year and barely anything the next, this is likely why.
Hope this helps 🌱
Grow Strong 💪

05/25/2026

This Will Kill Your Tree 🌳
Mulch is one of the best things you can do for a newly planted tree. That being said, if the mulch is piled against the trunk, it can cause the bark to rot.
Make sure to keep the mulch pulled back away from the trunk, and your tree will thank you for it.
Have a great day 🌱

05/21/2026

Why I train Fruit Trees into an Open Vase Shape
This method works great for a young whip like this. If the tree is older, it may require some different techniques.
You don’t have to grow your trees this way — it’s simply a training style that I think works really well for plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, and some dwarf apple trees.
After making the heading cut about 2–3 feet off the ground, new branches will begin forming from the buds below the cut.
These new branches can then be trained to become the scaffold branches for the open vase growing style.
You’ll want these branches growing at roughly a 45–60 degree angle.
This growing style allows more sunlight and airflow into the tree. It also makes the tree easier to harvest from and much easier to maintain long-term.
Better airflow and sunlight pe*******on help reduce disease pressure and improve fruit quality.
I also think they look pretty awesome around the homestead.
Any questions? Don’t be shy
Grow Strong 💪

05/21/2026

Why Mulch Makes Your Trees Grow Faster 🌳
Wood chips are the best mulch, in my opinion. That being said, use whatever you have available to you.
Mulch will:
* Prevent weeds and grass from taking over
* Help retain moisture and drastically reduce watering (my favorite benefit)
* Break down over time, creating natural compost and a healthy mycelium network
* Improve new planting areas — add cardboard underneath the mulch to smother weeds and grass. The cardboard will break down naturally within a couple of months
One important tip: keep the mulch away from the trunk of the tree. If mulch is piled against the trunk, the wood can stay too wet and begin to rot.
Hope this helps.
Grow Strong 💪

05/19/2026

New Fruit Tree🍎? Do This 🌳
Single-branch fruit trees are called whips. A lot of people don’t like them because they’re smaller and don’t have any limbs.
Here’s why I actually prefer them:
Most of the branches on larger nursery trees already have poor branch angles, which can cause major problems 5–10 years down the road after you’ve invested a bunch of time and money into the tree.
Buying trees as whips allows you to control where the branches develop. You can also train the branches to grow more horizontally, which helps create fruit faster.
Every large tree you buy at a nursery has had a big portion of its root system cut away when it was dug up. This also makes the tree easier to fit into a pot.
The more root damage a tree has, the more stress it experiences. If the tree has a huge crown and lots of branches, but the root system is now half the size it originally was, the tree has to work overtime to support itself.
That’s why I like whips.
You can shape them better, train them easier, and they experience less transplant shock. This allows the tree to focus on becoming stronger and bigger.
Any questions? Don’t be shy.
Have a great day
Grow Strong💪

05/18/2026

Planting Fruit Trees? Watch This 🌳
3 Things to Watch For:
Fruit trees don’t like compacted soil, so try to avoid stomping the soil down while planting.
Fruit trees are actually made up of two different trees.
The tree below the graft union (the bump) controls:
How big the tree gets
How well it performs in your grow zone
How quickly it produces fruit
How disease-resistant it is
It’s very important not to bury this part, or it can change the tree’s growth characteristics.
Mulch, baby 🌱
This is a huge and very important part of successful planting. Mulch can reduce your watering needs dramatically. It also helps prevent weeds from stealing water and nutrients from your tree, while slowly breaking down and feeding the soil over time.
Don’t overlook these 3 things when planting fruit trees.
Hope this helps!
Have a great day.
Grow Strong 💪

05/17/2026

Planting Grapes? Do This for Success 🍇
Grapes are awesome.
When planted and pruned correctly, grape vines can live for decades and produce huge harvests every year.
Grape vines are shallow-rooted perennials that need space to grow. They don’t like thick clay or compacted soil, and like most fruiting plants, they thrive in well-drained soil.
When Planting:
* Remove all sod and grass around the planting area.
* Put cardboard or a tarp down and place the soil from the hole on top of it. This helps prevent losing soil.
* Dig the hole to match the size of the vine’s root system, but make it slightly wider.
* If you have heavy clay soil, mix in some organic matter.
* Add soil back around the plant and water it in thoroughly.
* Repeat watering as needed.
* Add wet cardboard around the vine unless all weeds and grasses have already been removed.
* Add about 1 foot of wet mulch around the plant, but don’t let it touch the trunk/bark.
* If it’s a bare-root plant, prune it back to two buds.
* If it’s a potted plant with growth already on it, prune out all side branches and leave one main leader.
Next, you’ll need to set up some type of trellis system. This will depend on the growth style of your grape variety, along with your personal needs and goals.
That’s a whole other conversation and video.
Hopefully, this helps.
Have a great day 🌱
Grow Strong

05/15/2026

Want Stronger Plants ? Do This
Once your seeds come out of germination keep them close to the light. 2”
The further away they’re from light light the more they will stretch and become “leggy” meaning long and skinny and unable to hold themselves up properly.
Keeping them 2” from the light through this stage will create a thicker stronger plant.
That’s what you want
Have a great day
Grow String 💪

05/14/2026

Planting Raspberries
Raspberries are really easy to grow, but they can be tricky at the same time.
First, there are two types of raspberries: summer-bearing and fall-bearing.
Summer-Bearing (Floricanes)
* Produce a huge crop in the second year of growth, usually in mid-summer.
* Require more maintenance, including pruning out old wood.
Fall-Bearing (Primocanes)
* Produce in late summer to early fall.
* Can simply be pruned to the ground in the fall.
I prefer fall-bearing varieties because if I get a bunch of wildlife damage during the winter, it can ruin my crop. With fall-bearing raspberries, I just cut them down in the fall and don’t worry about them again until the following year.
What I prefer doesn’t really matter though — just make sure you plant the same type together so the entire row has the same maintenance requirements.
Raspberries Love:
* Well-drained soil
* Regular watering (I mulch mine to help reduce watering needs)
* Full sun — 8–10 hours is perfect, although extreme heat and intense sun can stress the berries
* Mulch
Raspberries Don’t Like:
* Compacted soil
* Thick clay
* Standing water or overly wet sites
* W**d competition
* Lack of water due to their shallow root systems
Grow Your Own 🌱
Grow Strong 💪

05/13/2026

Pruning a Young Pear 🍐 Tree
Pear trees are notorious for every limb wanting to become the leader. Here’s how to fix that:
Main Points on Pruning Young Pear Trees:
* Prune out the suckers.
* Train the limbs to grow more horizontally. This creates a stronger branch structure and helps the tree produce fruit more quickly.
* If the limbs have multiple leaders at the ends, select one or two to keep, depending on the structure.
* If the branches/limbs are really long and whippy, prune them back by about 30% to create a stronger branch, then train it horizontally.
If you over-prune pear trees, they can go into a vegetative response and start suckering like crazy, creating an even bigger mess.
Pretty well every limb on this tree was shortened (tipped) and trained.�Any branch that had multiple leaders (pretty much all of them) was pruned back to one leader.
Have any questions? Don’t be shy.
Grow Strong 💪

05/12/2026

Pruning old Fruit Trees 🍎🌳
Three main things to look for:
* Dead, diseased, or dying branches ( This may be your 30 percent the first year)
* Branches crossing over or rubbing against one another
* Branches growing straight up into the canopy
This video should probably be an hour long, but let’s chop up the basics in a minute.
Generally, you don’t want to cut out more than 30% of the tree.�More than that can send the tree into a vegetative response, and it will sucker like crazy.
The whole idea behind pruning fruit trees is to allow more sunlight and airflow throughout the tree to help reduce disease and pests.
When done properly, pruning also creates a stronger branch structure to better support fruit production.
Removing old branches that are diseased or no longer producing fruit also improves the overall health and productivity of the tree.
Depending on the tree, this can easily add up to more than 50% of the canopy. That’s why a lot of these old trees take 2–4 years to properly renovate.
It’s easy to get carried away once you start cutting, so be careful and try to stick to that 30% per year.
It’s not a rush.�Have fun.�Ask questions.�Grow strong 💪

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