Apples All Year Long: Blossom Time, Now What? (Adults)
Friday, May 4, 2018, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
$16 Adults; $12 Nature Center members
Paid reservations required by Wednesday, May 2.
Limited enrollment.

Apple blossoms turn into delicious, multipurpose fruits, but only if they actually bloom and are pollinated. Learn about disease prevention, tips for helping pollinators find your trees, and other quirks about apple blossoms and their journey from flower to fruit.

Blossom may be the most cheerful time of year for an apple tree, but it is also a precarious period. Blossoms that get too cold might not produce fruit, but there is a science to exactly how cold is too cold. Learn the science as well as some ways to protect those blossoms, encourage pollinators and pollination and even protect the tree at one of its most vulnerable states – blossoming.

Al Yelvington is a fairly recent transplant to the area after retiring from 33 years in the Coast Guard. Al started a cider orchard (Happy Dog Farm) outside of Russell, PA to provide juice specifically for hard cider makers. He is in his second year in the Virginia Tech Online Masters in Agriculture and Life Sciences (OMALS) focusing on pest and weed management. Happy Dog Farm includes a community cider mill that is registered with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Photo Caption: Apple blossoms turn into apples but only with the right pollination and sometimes protection. Learn more at Apples All Year Long at Audubon on May 4.