ninnymary
Garden Master
I've always wondered how they prune those fruit trees on the way down to Fresno. They are all perfectly flat on top and all align with each other.
Mary
Mary
Chop off the top of pear tree?
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897tgigvib
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Along hiway 5 Mary? Some of those are Almonds, and some are Lemons, at least used to be. Beautiful!
ninnymary
Garden Master
Yep, those are the ones Marshall. There may be others. I'll pay more attention next time I go down there.
Mary
897tgigvib
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It's hard to go slow enough on that hiway to see much, lol. Somewhere around there, based on the aroma, is huge acreage of garlic!
bobm
Garden Master
Marshall, No leg pulling ... commercial orchard hand pruning is fast becoming so out of date as it is harder and harder to find immigrant/ migrant workers ( most of them now go to work in fast food restaurants, household - business, hospital/ hotel janitorial, lawn mowing, slaughter houses, construction- sheetrock / framing / carpet laying /cleaning, etc.. Also the labor costs are becoming prohibitive due to competition from other industries for their labor. Just go about 5 miles NE of Clovis, Cal. ... there is about 100 acres of orange trees that are all trimmed top and sides into a square. One can travel up and down the entire San Juaquine Valley and see thousands of acres of different tree orchards that are machine flat topped. 
897tgigvib
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So far they aren't doing that in Lake or Mendocino County's Pear tree orchards.
(Whew!)
(Whew!)
ninnymary
Garden Master
bobm, why are they doing that? Is it to make harvests easier?
Mary
Mary
897tgigvib
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One 70 year old couple prune 40 acres of pears just fine. They have all winter.
bobm
Garden Master
Yes ! The trees are topped so that more light reaches the inner branches therefore produce more fruit. Also, the workers do not have to use tall ladders on uneven ground to reach the fruit thereby lowering number of Hospital emergency visits then the lawsuits. The sides are trimmed to let more light and airflow into the tree's interior to lower the insect and mildew and other pest incidence, easier harvest, and tree rejuvination. Currently, many new orchards are being replaced with semi-dwarf and dwarf trees on decease resistant root-stocks that are planted much closer together so that it is easier for mechanical harvesting as timely manual labor is hard to find while keeping the yield the same or increased per acre. These new trees yield new varieties of fruit that can withstand the rigors of mechanical harvesting, shipping, and still are visually appealing at the grocery stores.
bobm
Garden Master
Well Marshall, a tree topping machine can top that entire orchard in a matter of hours. Being 70 means that in just a year or a few years from now when rhumatiz, stroke, heart decease, failing eye sight, fall off the ladder, etc. will catch up to them and they will not be able to climb that ladder much longer. What then ? loss of income , retire and hire someone to mechanically prune, sell ?
