Philadelphia Orchard Project

Thanks for having us out for an early Spring workday Lea Elementary!

Thanks for the shout out @phillymag ! 🍎🫶🏾

Registration is now live for our Public Pest and Disease Management Workshop! We are excited to host you all at the POP Learning Orchard! Now that the orchard is 6 years old, we have many pest and disease issues to show for it. Come get an up close look! This workshop aims to skill up participants in: 🐛Identifying common orchard pest and diseases 🥽Understanding management options for several common orchard pests and diseases. We will work in small groups to complete a progressive monitoring walk throughout the orchard to observe, identify, and discuss how to manage different pest and disease issues. There will be demonstrations and hands-on practice of management techniques where possible! Please check out our POP Events tab in our link tree or website to register!

Join us for POP's annual Spring Open House & Plant Sale! 🌳 on Saturday, May 16, 10am - 1pm, at the POP Learning Orchard at @woodlandsphila . SWIPE FOR PLANT LIST AND PRICES! Connect with us and the community while you pick up some edible and useful plants, and meet POP's new executive director. Stroll through the POP Learning Orchard at the beautiful and historic Woodlands Cemetery in West Philly. Explore the food forest and berry garden on your own or take a guided tour at 11am and 12pm. — POP’s sale will have a range of fruiting trees, shrubs, vines, and some perennial flowers and herbs… including figs, pawpaws, blueberries, rhubarb, strawberries, and more! — Bitter Kalli from @starapplenursery  will also be joining us to sell a wide variety of seasonal heirloom vegetables and culinary herbs, with a focus on Caribbean and Southeast Asian heritage crops (some of which include: Plate de Haiti and Indian Curry tomatoes, shiso and cubanelle peppers, Filipino talong eggplant, collards, and Jamaican pumpkin. — We'll also have seed packs from @seedkeeping and cut flowers from @lunariagardens . — @letsgooutdoors123  will be facilitating a kid + family friendly cyanotype activity. 🔗 Link in bio for more info!

POP is thrilled to announce our newest orchard partner, True Love Seeds @seedkeeping farm! This is a partnership very long in the making, with a history of friendship and collaboration that dates back over 20 years. Truelove Seeds is a farm-based seed company offering culturally important and open pollinated seeds, grown by more than 70 small-scale farmers across the country, committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture. After many years and multiple locations, TrueLove has found a long-term home at the @schuylkillcenter , one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country. Dreams and pathways align at long last! Planting day on April 30th was a blast and a celebratory gathering. Helpers included apprentices from @sankofacommunityfarm , students from @lankenau_esmhs , workers from @weaversway , and new and longtime volunteers from across the city. In all, 17 fruit trees and 18 berries and vines were planted with care, attention, and truly a whole lot of love! Read more on our blog! 🔗 Link in bio

Dear friends, so much has changed in the few short months since I joined POP as the new Executive Director. As the ice and snow melted to reveal orchard landscapes and the first hints of spring, our team and volunteers jumped into a busy schedule of fruit tree prunings, orchard cleanups and our first workshops of the year. With spring finally here, I’m excited to get to know POP orchards and the dedicated people who care for them. We hope you’ll support our 🍓 Spring Campaign 🍓 to help us achieve our goals for this year, which include delivering more public workshops, completing two new orchard plantings, and expanding our reach across Philadelphia. For POP’s programs to be successful and sustainable in the long run, we support community leadership and, in turn, rely on community support. Please also join us for our 🌳 Annual Open House and Plant Sale 🌳 on Saturday, May 16th! We’ll have a variety of fruit trees, shrubs and pollinator-friendly perennials at affordable prices, we’ll be giving tours of the POP Learning Orchard, and I hope to meet and chat with you as we begin planning POP’s next phase of growth. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Also, if you made a donation of $50 or more in 2025 or since, we have a gift plant waiting for you at the upcoming plant sale to show our appreciation for this amazing community. You make Philadelphia our country’s leading orchard city. Thanks for all you do to support POP, and I hope to see you on May 16th.  Happy planting! Vikram 🔗 Links in bio

Check out our newest guide - Orchard Basics! Orchard Basics is an orientation to ecological orchard care. It aims to quickly skill up folks just starting out or needing a refresher on some of the most critical and constant needs of the orchard including: 🔎Orchard Monitoring Walk-Through 💦Watering! Knowing when, how much, and how to create systems. 🌿Weeding! Weed identification and techniques. ☑ Monthly Orchard Task List Check out and download guide for free via POP's bio or phillyorchards.org

What a day! We explored the fruit trees at One Art, learned how to make compost tea ☕, got our hands dirty weeding and mulching, and discovered the importance of thinning fruit for better yields. We also learned about tree health and loved having new volunteers join the crew! ✨ Thank you for sharing wisdom @phillyorchards 🍎

Join us for POP's annual Spring Open House & Plant Sale! 🌳 on Saturday, May 16, 10am - 1pm, at the POP Learning Orchard at @woodlandsphila . Connect with us and the community while you pick up some edible and useful plants, and meet POP's new executive director. Stroll through the POP Learning Orchard at the beautiful and historic Woodlands Cemetery in West Philly. Explore the food forest and berry garden on your own or take a guided tour at 11am and 12pm. — POP’s sale will have a range of fruiting trees, shrubs, vines, and some perennial flowers and herbs… including figs, pawpaws, blueberries, rhubarb, strawberries, and more! — Bitter Kalli from @starapplenursery  will also be joining us to sell a wide variety of seasonal heirloom vegetables and culinary herbs, with a focus on Caribbean and Southeast Asian heritage crops (some of which include: Plate de Haiti and Indian Curry tomatoes, shiso and cubanelle peppers, Filipino talong eggplant, collards, and Jamaican pumpkin. — @letsgooutdoors123  will be facilitating a kid + family friendly cyanotype activity. 🔗 Link in bio for more info!

May Volunteer Work Days — Visit us at the POP Learning Orchard and volunteer to support some of our partners around the city. 🔗 Visit the EVENTS link in our bio to sign up. Don't forget to subscribe to our Volunteer mailing list to get email notifications.

Late April orchard updates! 1. Some apricots survived the spring frost season and are already 1”+ in size! Sadly, this fruitlet is also showing the small crescent shaped scar of plum curculio, our most challenging orchard insect pest. 2. Peach leaf curl in full effect! This common fungal disease impacts most peach trees in the city, although there are some resistant cultivars. Best control is a dormant season copper spray. 3. We have noted web worm in a few orchards this spring. Although not usually a major orchard pest, they can defoliate parts of trees. Physically removing with a stick is a pretty easy control method if they are within reach. 4. Our unusually cold winter caused some significant winter damage on some figs depending on their location. Many are now starting to sprout and regrow- cut off the dead wood above where they sprout! 5. Microclimate makes a huge difference for figs. Those in protected locations are showing some early Breba fruitlets forming despite the harsh winter.

It’s always a fun work day with the Orchard at Freedom Greens + Garden @getfreshdaily team! We’re well into spring workdays across the city at POP partner sites and last Friday POP Staff, Hannah and Sharon, spent some time with Jiana Murdic and Jenny Dunker of Freedom Greens Garden and Get Fresh Daily to plant some new additions, apply compost tea and check-in on the progress of the small West Philadelphia orchard located at Global Leadership Academy on 52nd & Pine. If you’re in the area, keep an eye out at this special site, things are blooming and it’s one of the best places to be in the summer! Image Descriptions: Image 1: from left to right, Sharon, Jenny and Jiana pose with the orchard’s newest male kiwi berry vine (RIP to the original vine, thank you for your time with us and all your efforts) Image 2: Sharon and Jenny with the kiwi berry vine before planting Image 3: Jenny planting the newest kiwi berry vine Image 4: Elderberries leafing out after a fresh prune just a couple of months ago! Image 5: The small, bead-like green clusters of an elderberry that will soon develop into creamy-white flowers that will eventually become the elderberry fruit Image 6: Currant berries pending… Image 7: The newly planted pomegranate that will surely become an orchard favorite in years to come! Image 8: Jostaberry bush that is finally producing this year! Image 9: Jiana digs a hole that will be home to the newest persimmon tree <3 Image 10: Strawberries expertly planted by Hannah in a raised bed