Pruning Workshop
Date of workshop: February 15, 2025 (Rain date - Feb 22)
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Careful pruning ensures a more bountiful harvest. Find out how much to prune, where to make the pruning cuts, and when it should be done.
This class is structured to take orchardists from the planting of the nursery tree, through the early years of training and pruning, into lifetime maintenance, rejuvenation, and even bringing old or feral trees back into production. We'll go over basic pruning cuts and strategies, do's and don'ts, and tool selection and maintenance, all peppered with anecdotes from lifetime practitioners. We'll touch on pruning for stone fruits as well. The first portion of this class will be conducted indoors, followed by a foray into the orchard for live demos. Sign up for this workshop to have your name entered in the drawing for the classroom demo tree!This is a classroom workshop, followed by demos in the orchard.
Michael Lechance instructs.
Cancellation Policy: For refund, cancellations must be received 10 days prior to event.
Instructor Bio: Michael Lachance first became interested in orchard and vineyard production while an undergraduate student in his native Missouri, balancing schoolwork with various work experiences on historic farms located along the Missouri River there. He has both a BS degree in horticulture and soils, and a MS in entomology from the University of Missouri. He came to Virginia in 1986 to research pests in fruit at Virginia Tech.
Michael retired in 2017 from Virginia Cooperative Extension after a 26-year career, providing pest management and horticulture programs for farmers and homeowners in central Virginia. His work in Extension allowed him to also address small farm business management, intergenerational land transfer, forage production, and resource conservation. Michael has held statewide positions for the Virginia’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension (SARE) program, the Virginia Master Naturalist and Master Gardener Programs and is past president of the Virginia Natural History Society.
He now teaches as an adjunct for horticulture courses offered at J Sargent Reynolds Community College, continuing his advocacy or pesticide use reduction, and designing protected habitats for beneficial insects & pollinators in public use areas, homes and agricultural landscapes. He is the current educational committee chairperson for the Rockfish Valley Foundation which operates natural history center and park in Nelson County. He is also vice-president of the Elizabeth A. Nolting Charitable Foundation, a 550-acre historic farm in Louisa County that dates back to 1790.