Soil microbes play an essential role in releasing nutrients from the soil in a form that our fruit trees and other plants can access. So, if your soil doesn't have a healthy and diverse microbe population, your fruit trees will not thrive. The problem is that microbes are so tiny that we can't see them with the human eye. How do we know if we have a good microbe population? According to the Soil Conservation Council of Canada all you have to do is bury a pair of 100% cotton underwear in the topsoil of your garden. Leave your undies in the ground for a couple of months. Then, when you dig them ..read more

Jack Legg, an agronomist from SGS Canada, talks about soil and tissue testing and how that can help ensure that your fruit trees and plants have the nutrients they need. Click here to see a video excerpt from this show. The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website www.orchardpeople.com.  Tune into The Urban Forestry Radio Show LIVE by going to RealityRadio101.com on the last Tuesday of every month at 1.00 pm Eastern Time ..read more

What is the secret of growing blueberries successfully? In this episode of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast we speak to Kathleen Demchak, Senior Extension Associate at Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences about blueberries and how to grow them successfully.    Click here to watch an 8-minute video excerpt from the podcast.  Download Kathleen's PDF on growing blueberries, Keys to Establishing a Successful Blueberry Planting. The prize for this episode's contest includes two tools from Dramm. It includes a 10' soaker ring, which directs water to the roots of you ..read more

Sam Van Aken is an award winning artist and an associate professor in the Art Department of Syracuse University who uses grafting techniques to create his "Tree of 40 Fruit" art installations across North America.  His trees will grow multiple different types of fruits including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries and almonds. The prizes for this episode's contest include The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2021 Garden Guide valued at $5.99. To see a 10-minute video excerpt from the show, click here. The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tre ..read more

When is the best time to fertilize fruit trees? In this episode Tree Fruit Production Extension Specialist Robert Crassweller, Ph.D. from Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences talks about how fruit trees' nutritional needs change throughout the seasons. Listeners that sent in questions or comments during the live show were entered into this month's contest to win Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden (affiliate link) by Jessica Walliser.  Watch this 10-minute video excerpt from this episode on when to fertilize fruit trees.  The ..read more

Most apple trees that we grow in our gardens and orchards are not native to North America. DNA tells us that these trees originate in the mountains of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. But there are some crabapple trees that are native to North America. In this episode wie talk to Paul Kron, Research Associate at the Plant Population and Evolution Research Lab at the University of Guelph about native apple trees. The prize for this episode's contest is a copy of Preserving Wild Foods: A Modern Forager's Recipes for Curing, Canning, Smoking, and Pickling by Raquel Pelzel valued at $19.95.  Clic ..read more

 Yael Hickok is a volunteer who cares for Boyer's Orchard in Alaska. Each year she has an apple tasting party or gathering in which she and other volunteers are able to taste over 120 different varieties of apples planted on the site. But how do you evaluate the taste of an apple? Join us for this live apple tasting party to learn some key apple tasting skills.    To prepare for the show, buy these three apples which we will taste during the show to fine tune our tasting skills.  * Gala * Granny Smith * Honeycrisp Click here to watch a video excerpt from the show. Click h ..read more

Old fruit trees may be hollow but they can still produce fantastic fruit and they provide invaluable habitat to wildlife. In this radio show learn how to prune old apple trees and how to care for them with UK-based orchard educator Bob Lever. The prize for this month's contest to win Deerproofing Your Yard And Garden by Rhonda Massingham Hart valued at $14.95 USD. For lots more detail about how to prune old apple trees, including a video version of this podcast, visit this page. The host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast is Susan Poizner of the fruit tree care education website ww ..read more

Growing fruit trees can be very difficult in extreme climates and no one would understand that better than Greg Peterson of UrbanFarm.org, who grows his fruit trees in Phoenix, Arizona. There, the summer temperatures can soar above 100 degrees F.  Greg also sells over 5,000 fruit trees a year to residents of the Greater Phoenix Area and he educates the public about fruit tree care to ensure that their fruit tree growing experiences will be a success. The prize for this month's was Tom Robert's book "100% Natural Organic Pest Control for Home and Garden" valued at $12.95. The host of The ..read more

In this episode of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast, host Susan Poizner interviews Lewis McNeill of The Orchard Project about how they help nurture and support groups that want to start community orchards in the UK and the lessons learned can be applied to community orchard projects in North America and other countries as well. The prize for this month's contest was  a copy of Susan Poizner's award-winning book Growing Urban Orchards valued at $19.95. Watch a video excerpt from this podcast here. In the full interview, Lewis covered many of then ten steps to establishing a comm ..read more