The Shape of Trees

Gene editing of trees has been around for a long time, at least since the 1980s. Some of the trees on Kristof Farms were modified to turbocharge growth, while inhaling carbon dioxide as they grew at a faster rate than their conventional comrades. But not all aspects of growth can be manipulated in a lab or nursery. Friends who come to the farm sometimes are puzzled by wooden slats in our apple trees holding the branches out. That’s because some of our young trees want to grow straight up, like poplars, but we’ve planted them 18 feet apart and we want them to grow out as well as up. So the wooden slats are training the branches to go out and not just up. We turned to this in our latest newsletter!

Thanks for reading…And try this if you’re interested in cider from one of our lovely dwarf trees