KELSEYVILLE – The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) invites growers and others involved in the commercial orchard industry to attend the Machine Topping and Hedging Field Meeting being held Thursday, Oct. 30, from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

Attendees are requested to meet at the Wildhurst Vineyards Winery parking lot at 3495 Benson Lane in Kelseyville. Sign in and refreshments begin at 8:30 a.m.

Topics to be addressed include the advantages and pitfalls of machine pruning, goals and expectations in different orchards, effects on light interception and return growth and cropping, and follow-up pruning plans and strategies. While the focus will be on pear trees, growers of all orchard crops considering machine pruning will find the information and discussion valuable.

Guest speakers will include Dr. Ted DeJong and Bruce Lampinen from the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, Larry Peltzer of Peltzer Enterprises in Visalia and Erick Nielsen of Erick Nielsen Enterprises in Orland.

Participants will carpool to four different locations to view various orchard configurations that were machine topped and/or machine hedged soon after the 2008 pear harvest.

There is no registration fee for the meeting and advance reservations are not required. Those requiring special accommodations should contact the UCCE office at least one week prior to the meeting.

For more information or directions to the meetings site, please contact UCCE at 263-6838 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The agenda and directions can also be downloaded from the UCCE Web site at http://celake.ucdavis.edu.

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