(Antigo) Growing fruit crops for your family and for other families is a very tasty venture, but there are potential pitfalls that can impact your enjoyment of the process.  Langlade County Land Conservation is offering a series of workshops that will help you better understand the opportunities, challenges, and necessary activities of successfully managing fruit crops.

There will be three events in this free series, all on Thursday’s starting at 5:30 p.m.  The first two will take place in the Eau Claire River Room in the basement of the Langlade County Resource Center building located at 837 Clermont St., Antigo.  On February 12, the discussion will focus on fruit selection, planting and early stand management, and soil/fertility management.  Attendees will have the chance to learn about some fruits they probably have not grown but are hardy in our region.

The March 12 discussion will feature pest identification and management of the various insects and diseases that negatively impact fruit crop plant health and fruit quality.  There are many pests that impact the various fruits.  Some of them are very specific and will only impact one species or family of fruits, while others seemingly eat them all.  Knowing what the different pests are and the management opportunities will allow you to harvest more, better quality fruit.

The final session in the trio will occur March 26 and feature hands-on learning of fruit pruning practices, with the focus on fruit tree crops.  This session is being hosted by Ron Pregler at his fruit orchard, located at N1915 Cty. Road X, Antigo.  At least part of this session will be conducted in the orchard so make sure you dress appropriately for the weather.  If weather is questionable, contact one of the organizers to see if the session has been moved to the Resource Center.

Leading the discussion at this series of events will be UW-Madison, Division of Extension Crops & Soils Educator Scott Reuss.  The events are free and open to anyone.  Pre-registration is not required, but is appreciated to help ensure that sufficient materials are available for all attendees.  Pre-register by contacting Audrey Gossett at 715-627-6385, ext. 385 or agossett@co.langlade.wi.us or by contacting Scott Reuss at 715-701-0966 or scott.reuss@wisc.edu