The 42 trees Bath Middle School students planted at High and Lamont streets last Friday won’t bear much fruit in the next year or two.

But given the proper care and a little luck, the trees will produce plenty of apples and pears, and there’s even a persimmon and a plum tree in the mix.

No fewer than 70 seventhgraders from Bath Middle School’s “black house” planted the trees. They will tend to the trees over the next two years as part of the Regional School Unit 1 Apple Classroom for Outdoor Education project.

“They’ll always be able to go by this orchard and say, ‘That one’s mine,’” said Laurie Burhoe, co-director of the local C.O.R.E. garden and an educational technician/substitute teacher at the school. “They were very enthusiastic about this. They owned the trees.”

Produce from the project will go to the school cafeterias to promote sustainability and healthful eating.

City arborist Tom Hoerth, who was instrumental in planning the tree plantings, will help the students care for them. Individuals and businesses and organizations such as Sunrise Rotary and Skillins Greenhouses of Brunswick made donations, Burhoe said.

Meanwhile, Hoerth has applied for a $5,000 Project Canopy grant that would help fund another student orchard on the other side of town. Culinary arts students from Bath Regional Vocational Center want to plant fruit trees on the south end of the city, Burhoe said.

Student Hannah Walker and her friend, Amelia Marsh, planted two apple trees. They dug the holes, then made sure the trees were straight because they were on the side of a hill, Walker said. Then, they just covered the roots with dirt.

“I thought it was really fun,” she said. “I think it’s a really good idea to have the trees there so we can get apples from right here.”

Hannah said she and her classmates will be proud of this project for years to come.

“There’s going to be a sign that it’s from our class,” she said.

The students will use the orchard as their own outdoor classroom and laboratory. It has the potential, Burhoe said, to educate other visiting classrooms for field trips and various special projects.

Students will be responsible for maintaining all aspects of the orchard through the seasons as well as monitoring fruit quality, spring frosts, pest management and using a weather station that will be built by a technical education class.

During the winter, Burhoe said, they will tamp down the trees to provide barriers to voles. During the spring, they will learn how to protect the trees while they’re in bud.

Hoerth will show them how to do that.

“He’ll show them how to guard against a late frost,” she said. “If you can predict it, you spray them with water. We got Tom on board with us as a resident expert in all that.”

For those first two critical years of growth, the students who planted these trees will indeed have “ownership.”

“They’re going to care for them and prune them and be stewards of these trees,” Burhoe said.

lgrard@timesrecord.com

¦ CITY ARBORIST Tom Hoerth has applied for a $5,000 Project Canopy grant that would help fund another student orchard. Culinary arts students from Bath Regional Vocational Center want to plant fruit trees on the south end of the city.