Create Your Own Orchard: Make Fruit Trees by Grafting with Dan Sheild

April 6

Create Your Own Orchard: Make Fruit Trees by Grafting
with Dan Sheild

Have you ever wanted to grow fruit trees in your own backyard and harvest home grown fruits or start a small orchard? This class will give you the skills and hands-on experience to learn how to hand make your own fruit trees, repair damaged trees, and add on different fruits to existing trees to save space.

Grafting is the ancient art of how to attach a specific desired cultivar of fruit onto a rootstock to make a customized fruit tree. Students will learn the reasons for grafting, the skills and materials needed to dormant graft, bud graft, and summer graft, and how to nurture trees to maturity. Basic biology of the tree, and why this works will also be covered. Resources also will be given that will help you find desired rootstock and scionwood for the specialty tree of your choice.

This class is about two hours of instruction, an hour break for lunch, and then hands-on practice afterwards. Each student will take home four trees of their choice that they themselves have made. Among the four types of trees will be apples, pears, plums, and apricots.

What to Bring: Bring a utility knife with a new blade that has been washed in soapy water to remove any factory oil, thin multipurpose garden gloves, a garbage bag, a 5-gallon bucket to bring your trees home in, a rag for wiping your hands and something to take notes on. Please bring a lunch and preferred drink – and snacks if you need them.

Instructor bio: Dan Sheild is the co- owner of Stone Creek Farm, an orchard that specializes in stone fruits, including plums, apricots, and peaches. With organic practices, Dan developed a system that would allow sweet and juicy peaches to grow and fruit consistently, as well as manage his orchard and farm for commercial fruit sales and research. Dan is on the board of the Organic Fruit Growers Association, has memberships in Land Stewardship Project, Minnesota Fruit and Vegetables Growers association, and NAFEX, North American fruit explorers. Dan has grafted most of the 1200 trees on his property.