Applicants commit to the full one-year course of the Guild training with the intention of continuing as a long-term Guild member. 

 

HANDS-ON CLASSES:
• First- and second-year Trainees are expected to attend EVERY Hands On class. 

• To advance from first-year to second-year Trainee status and from second-year Trainee status to JP, Trainees may not miss more than three HO sessions over the course of the PG year (July 1 to June 30) without completing one or more qualifying make-up sessions. 

 

LECTURE CLASSES:
• Trainees are required to attend a lecture class on each topic only once, but are strongly encouraged to repeat classes when offered.
• If you miss the Woody Plant Biology, Intro to Pruning, or Pruning Fruit Trees classes,  please make them up by viewing the PG videos.
• Trainees who miss other lectures are expected to make them up during their two-year training program and may do so with Merritt College Horticultural Program classes or similar comparable classes. 

 

TRAINEES NEED THEIR OWN:

- Hand pruners
- Pruning saws
- Gloves
- Tool belt

- Tarps no later than the first HO in October of training year one.

- Trainees must be comfortable working on a six-foot ladder. 

 

Strongly encouraged:
- Eye protection

- an orchard ladder that is six feet tall or higher for 2nd-year trainees. Pruning material will be trees and woody shrubs and vines to 15 feet.