What did you do in your orchard today?

[R2elk]

Merry Christmas!!!​

 

[CrealCritter]

Sowed saved peach pits into a 7 gallon pot. The ones that sprout will eventually become rootstocks for named peaches, plum, plumcots and aprocoits.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

More on Monty's Surpise, I have a whip coming this spring. Monty's Surprise originated from New Zealand as a chance seedling found growing wild. Reseach has been preformed on the health and medical benefits of Monty's Surprise apple (contained within the following link).

Monty's Surprise Apple

Introduction In April 2000 Mark Christensen and friends discovered a unique seedling apple tree in a remote part of central North Island New Zealand. Mark and friends were on a road trip and came across an apple tree with apples that were big, clearly disease resistant, crisp and had a...

www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz

From my further research... I discovered its suitable for my USDA 7. It's a tip bearing apple instead of the more common spur bearing type. It's also a triploid, meaning it's self sterile and needs two unique suitable pollinators close by. Suitable pollinators are Pinkabelle, Leprechaun, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Crisps Pink (Pink Lady tm) and Red Fuji. I'm going to stick it inbetween a Crisps Pink and a Granny Smith and hope for the best.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Set out 4 cherries I grafted onto mazzard root stocks early this spring. One each bing, stella, surecrop (tm starkbros) and northstar. I need to set out one montmorency to complete the row. But I ran out of hardware cloth that I use for trunk guards. So much rain lately, dig a hole the bottom fills up with water, muddy mess... But they should wake up this spring in their permanent location and if I get mulch on them I won't need to babysit them near as much as if I planted them in spring.

Here's is a very good article on grafting and propagating fruit trees from penn state.

https://byfg.org/grafting_and_propagating_fruit_trees.pdf

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Finished cherry row. Nice because most of them were grafted by me, so I saved some $$$ for sure.

Last montmorency, ground is saturated. No need to water when you dig a hole and the bottom fills up with water.

Best part of waking up

Planted in its final location.

13 Cherry trees in this row, spaced 18 foot apart. Mazzard root stock grows a full size cherry tree. I wanted vigor, so I plan to keep them manageable by hatchet, axe and saw.

Next row will also be cherries, need pollinating partners.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Recieved some utah giant sweet cherry scions today from a friend. I asked for 2 but she sent more than that. Suitable utah giant pollinators are bing, van, and stella, which I have all three. It's known for it's high yield potential and disease resistance. I know my friend really enjoys cherries from her utah giant. I tired to find a link with more infomation but it seems there is a lot of conflicting information so I didn't bother.

She doesn't graft or have a desire to learn. Or else I would send her some scions.

More than two. Looks like I'll be bringing I some potted root stocks to break their dormancy.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[LaurenRitz]

I trimmed peaches, apricots and grapes yesterday. I'm afraid most of my grapes are dead. Again.

My baby peach trees (two years old) are absolutely thriving; far more new growth on them this year than the grafted trees.

The baby apricots are doing great but not as great as the peaches. The grafted almond is struggling, with barely an inch of new growth.

A bunch of the trees and bushes have been "trimmed" by the resident rabbits. I don’t know how we got so lucky in the survival rate with those voracious monsters around.

No seedling apples or seedling pears yet. Mostly my own neglect. I am beginning to think that I need to keep the baby trees for at least a year before planting them out, but that negates most of the purpose.

This is an adaptation project. I would much rather lose a seedling to heavy clay soil, drought, insect attack or disease than carefully care for it for a year and have it die on transplant.

I planted dozens of apricot and peach seedlings to get five survivors of each. No plum, cherry or almond survivors yet. Still working on those.

 

[CrealCritter]

I purchased a new backpack sprayer, from my4sons. I wanted something that would get to the top of our mature bartlet pear. I talked with the owner and he said it would, with some upgrades. I've been waiting for a day and a night to remain above freezing to spray the entire orchard with organic horticulture oil and liquid copper again. Two dormant spray are probably the most important sprays for an orchard all season. Copper as a fungicide to kill off dormant fungus spores and oil to smother insect eggs. Some people also include lime and sulfur in the mix. But I haven't got that far yet in my spray program.

6 gallons is a lot of weight to carry around on your back. So I doubt I'll fill it up and put it on my back. But I have a dolly I can strap the sprayer to and wheel it down the rows, when the trees mature more. But for now 3 gallons will spray the entire orchard minus my mature pear tree, it may take 2 or 3 gallons on its own.

Here's a link to the sprayer I purchased. I upgraded it to 160 PSI pump, lithium battery, Aggitator pump, 15 foot of hose and 14 foot extention wand.

M6 Backpack Sprayer (6 gallon capacity)

The M6 electric backpack sprayer design is based on feedback from our 40,000 clever MY4SONS customers. Due to a space efficient (square) design, the M6 has virtually the same dimensions (22x16x8 inches) and empty weight (13 lbs) as the M4 but offers 50% more tank capacity (4 vs 6 gallons). With...

my4sons.com

Happy spraying

 

[Mini Horses]

I have a smaller, battery sprayer. Bought for garden to spray more, longer at one fill...3 gal. I use all organic but some days you just need the speed, amount & help these little things bring.

It's also good to spray water on small areas plus if burning trash, wood, etc. I keep it full and out for that....sometimes a big hose isn't there.

 

[CrealCritter]

I have a smaller, battery sprayer. Bought for garden to spray more, longer at one fill...3 gal. I use all organic but some days you just need the speed, amount & help these little things bring.

It's also good to spray water on small areas plus if burning trash, wood, etc. I keep it full and out for that....sometimes a big hose isn't there.

The midwest is a fungus haven, the east coast is even worse. My mature pear has rust, which is common. Not to the point where it drops leaves. But I would like to try and get it under control over the next few seasons. Right now, rust shows up in to high of a percentage of it's fruits, which makes them unusable.

There are so many other funguses that have popped up on my other species also. Cedar apple rust, stone fruit shot hole, brown rot, scab and the list goes on...

If I want healthy fruit trees with usable fruit, I have to spray. I don't like it, but I have to much time and effort invested to not spray. And I didn't even mention damaging insects and wildlife.

I like to think of the orchard like a complex garden. I spend a lot of time and effort to plant it. Then if I dont take care of it when it needs it, it won't be healthy and won't produce, it might even die.

It'll take me some time for me to figure out all these differnt funguses and develop a spray program specific to them in my area. I'm pretty determined so it'll come together eventually.

Jesus is Lord and Christ