We all like to have or own trees in the vicinity of our house. If we do have a larger area then we do plant some flowering any fruit bearing trees that are very useful. Likewise we can also have our own orchard. An orchard is actually planting of all certain types of “trees and shrubs” that are maintained and also can be benefited for “food production”. The trees that are “intentionally” planted in the orchard can be either fruit bearing or nut bearing and the shrubs can be used for flower production. While having a home orchard one has to carefully maintain his orchard and do proper home orchard management.
While having a private orchard one has to take lot of care and precautions from the start. The first very important step is the site selection for the orchard where the climatic conditions of that place should be taken into consideration. The trees or the shrubs that are to be grown in the field should be selected according to the type of soil of the site and the sunlight available.
Proper maintenance of the home orchard is very important. The cultural management of the orchard includes various activities like proper ‘care of the orchard floor’, ‘fertilization’, ‘irrigation’, ‘pruning’ and ‘tree support’. The plants must receive proper irrigation facilities. Along with this one must also carry out proper “cultural practices” of the trees. Pruning is also very important to get good quality of fruits.
Also pest management should be taken care of. It is very important to do pest control in the orchard, in order to avoid any damage to the plants. It should be always remembered that for home orchard management, the pesticides used are different from those pesticides that are used for “commercial growers”.
While doing this one also needs to take special safety measures for risky work, like that of spraying pesticides and for chemical storage. These harmful chemicals must be stored away from small children. Having your home orchard is a good thing but you also need to maintain this orchard with great love and care to get the desired “fruits”.
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