Dispatches from Chile: Pruning the Orange Trees

 
There are hundreds of orange trees here at ChileFarms. Maintaining them - water, fertilizer, chemicals to thwart insects, is part of the cost of growing them. Pruning the trees during growing season is a never-ending job.
 

One of the main reasons to prune the trees is to prevent infestations by the dreaded chonchito blancos, the fuzzy white little insects that can ruin the fruit if left to multiply.

Before pruning

 The chonchito blancos thrive in the dark center of the orange tree and in places, dark and moist, where leaves touch and moisture collects. The biggest job for several weeks is to find the portal, in which large branches have been pruned away to gain access to the center of the tree close to the trunk, and prune out the ‘suckers,’ new shoots of branches that block sunlight from entering the center area of the tree.

After finding the 'portal' and pruning the center

Once cleared of these new shoots, more sunlight pours into the center and less chance for the chonchito blancos to begin feasting. Once the bugs get a head start in the shady center area, they move outward on the tree where most of the oranges fruit, and begin to infest them.

 
pt at large has spent some nights and days in the orange grove learning what to look for, and how to prune efficiently. Some of the trees have prominent thorns, which an expert like Ricardo Ceriani knows how to avoid. Gringos like pt learn the hard way. This morning, Jose Pablo, one of the managers for the farm, laughed when he saw my arms and asked Ricardo if I’d been in a fight with a big cat.
 

The best time to prune is between 7 pm when the temperatures lower down from the 80s until 9:15 or so, when dusk settles into night. It’s a good feeling to look back one hundred yards and see the path littered with thousands of green suckers that we’ve pulled from the trees.

Pruning away

Pulling out a handful of new shoots in the middle of the orange tree

Susaan, Ricardo, Paul at 9:15 pm. Ricardo's nephew Cristhaim was on the crew and took this photo.

Cristhian and Ricardo

Comments

[Gerard M. McMahon]

PT,

I wish there was some way to get those clippings back to the U.S.A. . I would love to try some of it in my Smoker.
Orange smoked duck perhaps...
Gerard

[Carolyn Liesy]

Very interesting. Are those conchitos blancos "white flies"? Glad you helped with the pruning. Looks like a big job.

[Bambi]

I hope it will be a good feeling as well to pick the oranges straight from the trees and suck up every last bit of juiciness. One of my most vibrant memories of being in Israel in the spring of '67 was arriving at a moshav with grapefruit trees and plucking one, warm from the spring sun, and eating it. I wish I could ever have a grapefruit so delicious that I could have a Proustian experience.... You are clearly savoring every moment.... Bambi