Friday, August 31, 2012

Reparing Broken Fruit Tree or Peach Tree Craft Rescue!

We live on a 1/4 acre lot in a small town and we have jam-packed our yard with a lot of beautiful fruit trees, berries, a garden, and a chicken coop. My husband, Steve, and I both grew up on large farming properties so our dream is to have that kind of environment for our kids.
So last week when we walked out and saw this broken branch on our lovely five-year-old peach tree, we were pretty sad. Read on and you'll see how this CRAFTY gal rescued/repaired the branch.


There was a storm brewing in the distance and we knew we needed to remedy this fast, if we wanted to save the branch. First we picked all of the softball sized peaches from the branch. They weren't quite ready, but should ripen nicely.


I should mention that my husband thinned the peaches on our tree in June, removing over 200 peaches to increase the size of the remaining peaches and to try to prevent this very problem.
I think our peaches were just too large, beautiful, and tasty. That and we're learning as we go with our backyard orchard.

I had supported the branch earlier with 4X4's and twine, but the fruit was just too heavy and the branch found its breaking point. Luckily, this was just a split branch and still had a lot of fibers holding the branch together.

As I mentioned, there was a storm approaching and I didn't have time to go research how to rescue a peach tree, but I did have a bit of crafting inspiration. My hubby wondered if we should just cut off the branch, and I said, "No, let me try to save it!"
So I thought for a minute and then pulled out my handy Stampin' Up! Twill Tape and went to work. I know you can laugh, but this crafting Mama has learned the art of improvisation!

I wrapped the twill tape carefully around the branch while Steve held it in place.
 
 Secured it with a handy bit of duct tape and put a support under the branch.


 A few days later, the wind blew the support out from the branch, but you'll see that it is holding steady.


 

The branch is still alive with glossy, green leaves and we have now harvested about 4 boxes of fruit from this one tree.
We're hoping with some careful pruning next year, the branch will be strong enough to hold more fruit. I'll have to take some pictures in a few months when I take the twill tape off the branch!
And I have had time to google a few fixes for broken fruit tree limbs. Here's one article: http://www.ehow.com/how_7561182_repair-broken-apple-tree-branch.html
For not knowing what I was doing, it turned out pretty good, I guess.
What do you think? Are you ready for a few peachy recipes?

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