The new orchard going in on the Andrus property, owned by the City of Boulder and managed by Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), for 63rd Street Farm is well underway.  Working with 63rd Street Farm, we developed the orchard plan over the past 9 months and have reach two major milestones.  First, the orchard blocks were measured and plotted, using several different colored flags to outline the blocks and locate individual trees, by rootstock and wild/domesticated varieties.  Second, the holes were dug/bored.  The OSMP agriculture team was kept in the loop, ok’d all of the plans as well as provided a work team with bobcat to bore the holes.  The team was composed of the bobcat and operator and a work crew from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.  Thanks to both organizations, OSMP and Sheriff’s Office for boring the orchard tree holes.  This happened about a month ago, giving plenty of freeze/thaw cycles to work on the sides and bottom of the holes before the trees are planted in a few months.  This process, the freeze/thaw cycle, is important for this type of soil when holes are bored instead of hand dug.  The boring compacts the clay in the soil on the bottom and the sides.  If the bottom and sides are not broken up prior to planting, the hole tends to form a clay pot, constraining the tree roots and severely compromising the long term health and productivity of the tree.  Had we bored the holes in the spring, immediately prior to planting, we would have had to manually break up the bottom and sides of the holes.

The OSMP/BCSO team bore trees holes on the Andrus Property in late January 2016, they are nearly finished, working on the last of the holes in the western block of trees.  Photo is looking NNW

The western block of the Andrus Property, where the wild apple trees will be planted.  Photo is looking close to due south

The orchard as planned will be 231 trees, with a mix of dwarf, semi-dwarf and full sized rootstock, and a wide mix of wild, dessert and multi-purpose apple varieties.  First to fruit will be the dwarf trees, which will be taken out as they are shaded by the full sized trees, in 10 to 15 years.

Next big step, grafting…