Planting campaigns

On 30 October 2021, our orchard in Eldena was completed in a final joint planting campaign and 10 new apple trees were planted. In addition to the 'Doppelter Prinzenapfel' new varieties such as 'Pinova', 'Russian Ice Apple' and 'Pommerscher Schneeapfel' were planted. An overview of the distribution of the varieties on the area of the orchard can be found here.
We thank all the helpers and supporters and look forward to future rich harvests.

The mixed orchard in Hainstraße in Eldena has been expanded further by trees of different species and varieties. In a joint planting campaign as part of the "A tree for my university" initiative, the motivated supporters of the fundraising campaign planted a total of 17 additional trees in the area.
The mainly old varieties have melodious names such as "Schöne von Löwen" (plum), "Cacacs Schöne" (plum) or "Frühe von Trevoux" (pear). Planted were mainly plum varieties but also apple, pear and quince trees.

For the sixth time now, committed supporters of the fundraising campaign have gathered on our mixed orchard in Eldena to plant new fruit trees. Meanwhile, the back of the orchard is filling up and most of the 27 new arrivals had to be put into the ground on October 25th between firs that still had to be felled.

Once again, Thoralf Weiß contributed self-collected scions which came from historical old fruit stands in the region and were grafted onto suitable rootstocks at the Zetelvitz tree nursery. Among them is the 'Apfel von Akerö', the Swedish national apple, which was cultivated in Eldena in the 19th century under the synonym 'Schmidts Junkerapfel‘. With other apple varieties such as 'Klinckowström', 'Schwedischer Rosenhäger' and 'Stafsund's Kleiner Streifling', the region's historical connection to Sweden is now reflected in our orchard.

On 9 November 2018, another planting campaign took place on the orchard meadow in Eldena as part of the fundraising campaign "A tree for my university".

Eleven new fruit trees now enrich the variety of varieties on the area established in 2015. In addition to "Geheimrat Dr. Oldenburg", "Winterbananenapfel", "Großer Katzenkopf" and "Dönissens Gelbe Knorpel", the tree of the year, the sweet chestnut, was also planted.

Future forest = mixed forest: under this headline a tree planting campaign took place end of April 2018 in an existing douglas fir stand near Hanshagen. Sebastian Erkel and his team from the University forestry management had cleaned a plot from branches and other remains from a recent thinning operation and so everything was perfectly prepared for the planting.

It showed up the most international brigade of tree-planters the University forest has ever seen. The participants of an international conference on tree-ring research (TRACE2018) were given the opportunity to offset their CO₂ emissions resulting from conference related travels by planting trees. And that’s what many of them did- people from Mexico over the Netherlands to Slovenia grabbed a spade and planted young beeches. With their help and the money from the donation project more than 1000 beech trees could be planted. Planted in groups, these trees will transform the homogenous coniferous stand into a more structured mixed forests which is hopefully better adapted to future climatic challenges. Over a lifetime of 50 years one beech can sequester about 1000 kg of CO₂ in its woody biomass and thus help to compensate for unavoidable carbon emissions of daily life.

On 17th of November 2017, another planting of fruit trees took place at the Eldena orchard. This is the 5th planting withing the campaign "a tree for my university". 

Eight apple and pear trees will be planted. These trees were collected from Thoralf Weiß who is the directer of the arboretum. He found young tress from old and rare species in the surroundings of Greifswald city, on the side of roads or at public areas and brought them to the tree nursery Zetelvitz where they got provided with the appropriate subrate. This is a way how old and regional species are being preserved and increase the biodiversity of the orchard. 

An additional pear tree is donated from the Allgemeinen Studierendenausschuss (AStA).

You can see the location of each tree right here (information in German only).

On Friday the 11th of November 2016, the 4th planting of additional trees at the newly established orchard in Eldena took place. Ten new fruit trees are going to be increasing the range of already planted apple, pear and cherry trees.

It is still an ordinary meadow but will soon be meadow with plenty of fruit trees. Within the campaign "a tree for my university" an orchard was started being established. The first 20 apple, pear, plum and quince trees were planted on the 6th of November. This was supported by pupils of the 6th grade of the Martinschule. They helped this cause not only by donating 10 trees themselves but by planting them as well. 

The meadow at Hainstraße is going to be planted with various fruit trees over the next years to increase biodiversity - when donations are being made.

On the November 7th, the second planting of trees took place. This time eight fruit trees were planted at the Ellernholzstraße 1-2. 

Additionally, there were two trees of sour cherries were planted at the arboretum. They now complete the orchard which was established within the campaign "a tree for my university". 

On March 29th 2014, the very first planting of trees with the help of various donators, friends and supporters took place. About 20 people came to help plant 13 fruit trees in the arboretum of Greifswald University.

The choosen tree species were seven different kinds of apple trees, two pear, two plumb and two sour cherry trees. It will be interesting to find out what kind of taste the ripe fruits will have - and everyone who is visiting the arboretum is welcome to find out when the fruit are ripe. 

The arboretum is going to be supported in order to transform the "Heidegarten" into a "Heide- und Kulturlandschaftsgarten". The objective is to enhance the "Umweltbildung" (environmental education) in regards to research and teaching at the Greifswald Universitiy, to conserve old and rare tree species and to utilize these planted trees in the future for reseach and teaching purposes. This is how the students of the biology and landscape ecology courses are profiting as well: they will be learning how to determine different tree species and what it takes to grow them properly.

What kinds of species to choose for the campaign was highly influenced by their nordic origin as well a their history and their utilisation at the former academic tree nursury Greifswald.  

Although Western Pomerania is not typically known for their orchards, there is quite a long tradition. During the 18th and 19th century, state regulations determined how many fruit trees one had to plant and for what kind of purpose they were used later on. The University of Greifswald became a role model in regards to the many orchards there were on various estates. In 1800, Professor Quistorp established the academic fruit tree nursury in the moat of Greifswald at the main building of the university and it was pursued until 1830. In 1809, about 243 apple tree species could be found, 138 pear, 37 cherry and 44 plumb species. But the location was not the best in order to be successful for a long period of time: there was too much shade and the moisture content was too high. The area soon changed into the botanical garden which used the trees for teaching purposes. One pear species can still be found in the old town of Greifswald today which has its origin in the 19th century. 

In the 1830s, the Academy of Agriculuture in Eldena was established. The local fruit tree nursury was used by the academic gardener F. Jühlke (who was well-known for describing the regional apple species "Pommerscher Krummstiel") to practice. After the dissolution of the academy, the tree nursury was able to continue until after 1900 and provided the botanical garden with plants. Some of these old fruit trees are still today in Eldena.

During the 1950s, professor Rothmaler supervised the growth of the woody plants in the fruit tree nursury to make sure they could get planted in the arboretum. Eventually this location was then known to be the fruit tree plantation Koitenhagen.