Urban Orchard Designs

Seminar Description:
Food security is a growing concern after the past pandemic. At the same time concern about urban heat island effect and extreme heat days are on everyone mind after a scorching summer.
This seminar is about sharing lessons learned on commercial scale at orchards in California’s Central Valley. The goal is to answer some of the puzzling questions on tree spacing, water requirements, seasonal maintenance practices, tree trash, crop harvest time and yields to expect. The food yields can be used when calculating the wellness of a building/landscape and reduction in greenhouse gases (locally produce food has no transportation cost and organic practices are applied)
We will go over three main types of crops:
Avocado (all types) – Evergreen
We will review the canopy size and height to maximize shading on the southside of a wall or in a parking lot. We will also review the watering requirements of only 10 gallons per day, when using a new irrigation technology called Virtual Water Table Irrigation to achive transpiration only irrigation. This water use is below MWELO allocation, and orchard trees are considered Special Landscape Areas. More landscapes should be designed as food forest in urban areas, this seminar will give you the knowledge to do just that. Suggested Attendees: Landscape Designers, Commercial Landscape Maintenance, City Parks and Recreation, City Street and Maintenance

Learning Objectives:
1. Designing an urban orchard using low water use, transpiration only irrigation methods
2. Design for maximize food production, shade, and ease of maintenance
3. What to expect with crop types: Nuts (Almonds, Pistachio, Walnuts), Citrus, Avocado & Kiwi