What did you do in your orchard today?

[CrealCritter]

Hmmm. Any bee keepers in your area? Maybe offer them a site for a hive. Flavors differ with available nectar.

I have a new neighbor close. This yr, I've seen a lot of orchard starts going in Next time I am out & see them working there, I'll stop & express my delight that there is "farming" being added. Besides, I'll be a customer when it's producing the property has been sitting dormant for several years. House had some residents off & on but, just mowed grass on the acreage.

Anyway, I think of your orchard posts every time I go by & see the new plantings

The orchard is still very young, most of my trees are immature, and i'm adding babies every season until I run out of room. Currently it's probably not enough to keep a hive happy. But a hive or two is in the plans in a few years.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Tank and I mulched last year's grafted apples with old nasty hay rounds. Tank really did help he would scratch at the hay to loosen it up for me. We did a pretty thick layer of mulch. I don't want to weed, I want to retain soil mosture around the young tender roots and hay decomposes pretty quick. Didn't find any snakes, just one mouse and lots of night crawlers

I have two old nasty hay rounds left, hopefully it's enough to mulch in cherries and peaches. But I do know where there are many more old hay rounds. I'm sure if I asked they would give a couple to me. But I'll ask only if I really need them.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Sprayed all the stone fruits, except cherries which are still in bloom yesterday evening. Woke this morning to dense fog. The fog did nothing but help distribute the spray even further

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

I checked the remaining peach grafts that have not broke bud yet. I checked by cutting a ultra thin flap of bark to expose the cambium layer on the grafted scions. All the scions' cambium layer is still green. This a great sign and means all the scions are all still alive, so there is still hope. I'll wrap the scions in parafilm and set outside them outside, in the kiddie pool tomorrow. Being inside climate controled, they may just need some variation in temperature and real sunlight instead of LEDs to break bud. I'll check them again in another week or so.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

Its been over 5 weeks since tank and I grafted these peaches. Just now breaking bud, busting through the parafilm Don't Loose Hope

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

One of the problems with growing peaches in a cold climate is that even if you manage to keep the trees alive, late frosts and freezes tend to wipe out the blossoms.

Intrepid is listed as being hardy into zone 4 and is a late blooming peach whose blossoms are hardier than most peaches.

Got 2 Intrepid Peach trees today from Cummins Nursery. Got them both planted.

 

[CrealCritter]

Got 2 Intrepid Peach trees today from Cummins Nursery. Got them both planted.

Intrepid is a great choice.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Wanted to show progress on the cherry grafts. I find grafting fruit trees fascinating. Perhaps I'm easily amused, no... I am easily amused. But not so easily amused to entertain clows. Because when you entertain a clown you become part of the circus.

Everything above the black treecoat is grafted scionwood. You can see the buds breaking well now. My hats off to Fedco Trees for sending me very good quality mazzard rootstocks.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[flowerbug]

a lot of the shrubberies and trees are just now finally budding out. it's gone from mostly gray/brown/tan to slightly green in one day. the plenty of rains will speed things up, plus warmer temperatures too coming (up into the 70s next week). a few days of sunshine too...

 

[CrealCritter]

First fruit set on this moonglow pear. The tree showed signs of iron deficiency at the start of the growing season last year. So I sprayed the tree and the soil with minor element spray twice. It looked pretty pathetic throughout the growing season. But it's come back strong and wanting to give me pears I guess the iron needed winter to get into the soil around the roots.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

Planted 3 Sassafras trees today. Highly unlikely they will survive next winter but you never know if you don't try.