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51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
Winter‐Lab Work The winter months are typically our busy season for lab work. It is
a me for us to lab evaluate all of the fruit we picked through the
summer. We typically test for size and weight was well as sugar
levels, acidity and flavour. We also some mes do product
development like making jams, muffins and ice cream.
Greenhouse Plan ng The winter months are also busy mes for greenhouse plan ng.
We take all of the seeds that we have extracted from harvested
fruit during the summer and plant them in the greenhouse. This is
how we generate the seedlings that will be planted during the
year.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
Winter‐Tissue Culture
(In‐Vitro Propaga on) During the winter me we really ramp up our ssue culture pro‐
duc on. In a typical winter about one full day a week is dedicated
to being in the lab doing ssue culture
Any promising selec ons that are slated for release all get put into
ssue culture either during the summer from cu ngs of field
plants, or from cu ngs of greenhouse plants in the winter. Most
of the companies that sell and propagate our varie es do it via in‐
vitro propaga on so it is necessary to know if the selec on grows
well in that se ng. Once a variety is released it is sent out to propagators in this form.
It is a lot easier to get it over borders and such as there is no soil
and the plants are considered to be sterile Plants in ssue culture grow on an agar medium that is tailored to
that specific plant. We give them the exact nutrients and hor‐
mones that they require to grow. The majority of the medium is
made up of sugar and water. As the plants grow they are cut into
sec ons and put into new medium. This is how they are
propagated. The old mother plants are kept and they will con nue
to grow un l they run out of media.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
April‐Pruning In a typical year April is pruning me. Of course that depends on when
mother nature decides to give us spring. The best me to prune is once
the snow has melted in the spring. The pruning needs to be completed
before the trees begin to leaf out.
Pruning dead or diseased wood can be done at any me of the year. In
regards to disease it should be done whenever it is first sighted.
As a general rule of thumb never remove more then 25% of a tree in one
year.
Different fruit trees require different types of pruning
1) Haskap‐requires li le to no pruning. Can be shaped to suit your
yard or rejuvenated once the plant gets old and unproduc ve.
2) Raspberries need to be caned. This can be done in the fall or spring.
Typically it is done in the spring once the canes have leafed out. It is
then easier to tell which canes are alive
3) Sour Cherries‐can be selec vely rejuvenated. Some of the older less
produc ve stems can be removed every year to promote new growth,
suckers can also be removed
4) Saskatoon berries can be pruned similar to the sour cherries.
Saskatoon berries can be rejuvenated all at once as well. Suckers can
also be removed
5) Apples, Pears and Plums should be pruned to a single leader when
they are young. Branches with narrow crotch angles should be re
moved and well as criss‐crossing branches. Water sprouts and suckers
should also be removed.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
May‐Flowering Some years depending on the spring some flowering can begin in
April. When flowering happens early it is important to make sure
that the bees are out and pollina ng.
May is usually when most plants flower. It is the fruit program’s
busy month as we are out playing bee and pollina ng flowers on
certain plants for controlled crosses.
1) Hazelnuts‐these wind pollinated flowers arrive in March
2) Haskap‐These plants typically flower in very early May
3) Saskatoon Berries flower in mid May. These plants flower
while the leaves are s ll expanding
4) Dwarf Sour Cherries flower in mid to late May. These trees
can be quite stunning as they flower before the leaves emerge.
5) Plums flower in mid May. The flowers are prolific and very
aroma c.
6) Apples flower in mid to late May. The flowers are produced
simultaneously with the leaves.
7) Grapes these wind pollinated vines flower in mid to late May
8) Pears usually flower before apples in early to mid May.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
June‐Plan ng As soon as flowering is done we being to do field plan ng. Late
May and June are great mes to plant as typically that is when we
get the most rain. Fruit trees need to be well watered un l they
get established.
When you are plan ng large trees it is important to pack the soil in
around the root ball very well. This will help the tree from falling
over. If you chose to stake your tree, make sure you remove the
wrap or strap once it is established. If you don’t do that you may
run the risk of strangling your tree.
Most fruit trees should be planted a li le bit deeper then the
original nursery container. Strawberries are an excep on to that
rule and need to be planted at crown level.
Fruit Thinning Plants like apples and pears benefit from fruit thinning which can
be done late June. Proper fruit thinning will reduce the number of
total fruit but increase the size of the individual fruit. A general
rule of thumb is one fruit per hand width apart.
Thinning in some degree can also be done during flowering. This
will prevent biennial bearing (a heavy crop one year and none the
next). This can be achieved by removing the flowers in some way.
Brooms and rakes work quite well.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
Harvest: Haskap Since Haskap flowers so early it is the first fruit that is ready to
harvest. The birds also seem to know when the Haskap fruit will
be ready so we frequently net our bushes. The other common way
to eliminate the threat of birds is to plant enough fruit for the birds
and yourself. That will eliminate the labour of ne ng your bushes
every year.
We harvest our Haskap plants with a mechanical harvester but the
hand pick beau fully. The berries can be picked a berry at a me
or the en re bush can be shaken off into an umbrella or child’s
paddling pool
Haskap is ripe when the middle of a cut berry is a red purple; no
green should be present.
Harvest: Saskatoon Berries Saskatoon berries are typically ripe immediately a er the Haskap
has finished. The birds also seem to know that and move from the
Haskap to the Saskatoons once they have had their fill of Haskap.
Saskatoon berries also benefit from some sort of bird ne ng. We again mechanically harvest our Saskatoon berries using the
same harvester as we do on Haskap.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
August‐Harvest: Dwarf Sour Cherries Dwarf Sour Cherries are usually ready to be harvested early to mid
August. Usually around August 8‐12 is prime me.
Some of the U of S cul vars ripen earlier then others. Since we
mechanically harvest our fruit we like to make sure that all of the
varie es are ripe and therefore we harvest a li le later.
It is important to note that most of the U of S varie es excluding
Valen ne are ripe when they are dark red, Carmine Jewel is almost
black. The longer the cherries remain on the bushes the sweeter
they get.
Harvest: Raspberries Raspberries are typically ripe late July and early August. We hand
pick all of our raspberries. In our research plots we have a variety
of different kinds including the primocane types which will not
ripen un l late August.
Harvest: Apples Some apples are ripe at the end of August. Norland and Adanac
are two apples that ripen quite early. In the case of Norland the
tree sheds its fruit when it is ripe so it is very important to pick
those apples before they are fully ripe.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
September‐Harvest: Apples and Pears
The majority of apples and pears are ripe in early‐mid Sep‐
tember. At the U of S we pick apples for juicing experi‐
ments as well as storability experiments. We also do a fair
bit of taste tes ng of selec ons that we are monitoring.
Harvest: Grapes
Grapes are typically ripe in mid to late September. When
picking grapes the easiest way is to cut the cluster off of
the vine. Make sure the seeds are dark brown as that
means the fruit is ripe.
Harvest: Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts are typically ripe mid‐late September. At the U
of S promising selec ons are picked separate from the
rest of the nuts and are evaluated during the winter. The
bulk nuts are saved and planted in the field. It is im‐
portant to pick the nuts when they s ll have the bracts in‐
tact. Otherwise you will be crawling on your hands and
knees compe ng with the squirrels to find the nuts.
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon Sk
S7N 5A8
Phone: 306-966-7286
October‐Harvest: Seabuckthorn Seabuckthorn is technically ripe in late September. However the
best me to harvest the fruit it when it is frozen onto the tree. The
branches can then be cut off and the fruit banged off and re‐
frozen. The other alterna ve is to cut some of the frui ng branch‐
es off in the fall and freeze the branches immediately. Then once
the berries are frozen they can be banged off of the branches.
Winter Field Prepara on Tree wraps get placed on the young gra ed seedlings. This is done
to cover the gra s and protect the young trees from the hungry
rodents and other creatures.
White paint also gets put on the south side of mature apple trees.
This is done to prevent sunscald during the winter.
All of the irriga on lines are drained or removed from the field
Pre‐emergent herbicides are laid down in order to prevent the
spring flush of annual weed growth.
Seedlings that will be planted in the spring are covered with tarps,
leaves or buried to help them get through the winter.