During January 2021, a local orchard hired a new farm manager. The new manager has previous experience working with grapes and vineyard management, but lacked knowledge of tree fruit management.  The orchard has over a 100 apple trees and 200 blackberry bushes that needed to be properly pruned to ensure years of production.  The Franklin County Horticulture agent coordinated with the Extension Fruit Specialist to visit the farm and teach the new manager how to properly prune the trees and shrubs.  The agent then spent the next two days helping prune the orchard to reinforce the information.  

The farm also has a quarter acre of hops. In past years, the hops have not grown-well and the owners tasked the new manager to prioritize this.  The Horticulture agent helped the manager to develop a fertility plan for the hops.  The plants are much more robust this year and are on-track for their biggest harvest to date.