Apple tree conversion to narrow walls via hedging, root pruning

Fruit trees are pruned to maintain a desired tree shape and size to increase light penetration into the canopy, thereby enhancing fruit quality and flower bud development. Most modern apple orchards consist of high-density ...

Do adult periodical cicadas actually feed on anything?

Every so often, cicadas emerge above ground and blanket the Earth with their exoskeletons while emitting a high-pitched chirp from sunrise to sunset. The periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada come every 13 or 17 years, ...

Climate change, farmers draining ancient Balkan lake

For millennia, Lake Prespa was pristine. But under pressure from climate change, unchecked pumping and pollution, the prehistoric body of water in southeast Europe is shrinking at an alarming rate.

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Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller non-commercial scale and may emphasize berry shrubs in preference to fruit trees.

Most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy.

Orchards are often concentrated near bodies of water, where climatic extremes are moderated and blossom time is retarded until frost danger is past.

The forest garden is a food production system that is closely related to the orchard. A move towards more ecologically-friendly coffee production has led to forest-garden production of coffee. Brazil nuts and rubber are produced in such a method in some areas.

Often, mixed orchards are planted. In Europe, quince is sometimes planted along with apples.

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