Cherry Picking

[Farmfresh]

Really either way will work, but there is nothing like a dead ripe apricot plucked warm from the tree!

 

[~gd]

I picked cherries today! Just had to share. I got 13 lbs!

They are dwarf Montgomery's.. I think.Montmorency cherry from dwarfed trees is what I think, I spent a few years on a fruit farm...
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/854_002.jpg




Anyone else picking fruit lately?

 

[~gd]

We picked only a drinking cup full of cherries this year, but then again it is a young tree and last year our total cherry harvest was 3 cherries!

My apricots/nectarines are just coming good. I hope to pick some of them today. They are tiny this year, but I have a ton of them. If you want to increase the size next year thin out some of the fruit while they are still tiny. This will not increase the total yield, the tree has just so much juicy sweetness from the leaves, it can do many tiny fruit or fewer bigger fruits. ~gd

I did get about 3 gallons of black raspberries picked as well this year and the blackberries are thick, but just not quite ripe yet.

 

[Farmfresh]

The fruits WERE thinned.

It has just been an odd year with so much rain. I have been fighting fungus as well due to all of the moisture. Normally the fruits are very nice sized indeed. At least I have some fruit. Last year all of the blossoms froze off!

My peach tree is only producing very few fruits as well (but bigger that the apricots at least). Last year I got over 60 pounds of peaches off of this tree. This year wind and rain storms tore off many of the blossoms and really nearly wrecked the whole tree.

My grapes are LOADED, but again one variety of them Reliance is succumbing to fungus. The other varieties seem more resistant.

 

[Wifezilla]

Montmorency cherry from dwarfed trees is what I think

http://www.willisorchards.com/product/Montmorency+Cherry+Tree?category=247
Hummm...these will grow in my zone. Now I just need a bigger yard!

 

[~gd]

Montmorency cherry from dwarfed trees is what I think

http://www.willisorchards.com/product/Montmorency+Cherry+Tree?category=247
Hummm...these will grow in my zone. Now I just need a bigger yard!

They are a truly great pie cherry! I eat them out of hand but I like things tart. Might I suggest drawf trees. Like most fruit these days great producing tops are grafted onto superior Root stock. The old commercial rootstocks produce large trees which will require a ladder to pick. Drawf trees usually top out at 10 feet, new orchards are being planted in solid rows of drawf trees to allow mechanical picking this is sometimes called Pleaching or Espalier depending on if individual branches are controlled or not. Such a roll along a fence or in place of a fence can return lots of fruit for little space.

 

[~gd]

The fruits WERE thinned. Sorry I did not mean to critize your methods, just let you know of a common fruit growing method if you were not aware of it!

It has just been an odd year with so much rain. I have been fighting fungus as well due to all of the moisture. Normally the fruits are very nice sized indeed. At least I have some fruit. Last year all of the blossoms froze off!

My peach tree is only producing very few fruits as well (but bigger that the apricots at least). Last year I got over 60 pounds of peaches off of this tree. This year wind and rain storms tore off many of the blossoms and really nearly wrecked the whole tree.

My grapes are LOADED, but again one variety of them Reliance is succumbing to fungus. The other varieties seem more resistant.

 

[Blackbird]

Hm.. Perhaps I have my varieties mixed up.

It isn't a Montmorency, but I'm not sure what it is. The cherries are the size of a dime at the largest, but most are smaller. The leaves are furry too.

Glad everyone's fruits are doing well. That's a LOT of black raspberries FF! I usually get about a gallon wild each year, love those things!


I'm really hoping our apricots produce well, a couple years ago they were absolutely loaded, but since then they haven't been doing well. Last year one got sick from something and died, and half of the other fell in a storm.. So we have the germination tree which produces almost nothing, and half of another.

 

[Woodland Woman]

A month or 2 ago I got some sour cherries off our bushes. Unfortunately there were not very many, birds had gotten some, but we managed to pitt them and get a batch of cherry jam, my favorite! Yours look delicious!