Thinking of picking my butternuts, that I’d rather wait another month until frost, but the squirrels are into them
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I just got my invoice for my fall apple trees. I haven’t done apples before and I am soooo excited! They ship in November!
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What did you get?
the suspense!
We’re in Texas so asked advice what would be good here compared to what we would like. So we have a Bramley’s Seedling that is new this year and still in a pot and to go with it King David, Reverend Morgan, and Hunge.
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At lunch I ate a Wynoochee Early apple grown in full-blown desert. Most have been nice, but mild. I wonder if this is correctly labeled as these are all squaty bodies with deep cavity and basin, and most pix I’ve seen of WE are taller. They are also going soft fast, and Wynoochee is supposed to keep until Christmas. Whatever it may be, the apple at lunch had been in the shade - no carmine bush or pink stripes - and it tasted like the batch of Macoun bought several years ago: vanilla!
Can hardly wait to let the WE whip out back offer a couple sample fruits to see what they are like.
Hunt Russet dropped one of two sample fruits in the wind Sunday. Lovely red over half in the sun, deep green on the other side; light russet. I’ll keep this until the New Year, or longer if I can stand it, to see how it develops, as it dropped before fully ripe. The other one I’ll keep on the tree until at least October 21 and try it for comparison. Have never had the pleasure.
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I had some deep fried peanuts in the shell last year in south Georgia, you can eat the shell and all, they are additive.
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I’ve been playing with my new DJI drone. I bought it for work but can’t help using it for fun as well. Here is a picture of some of my young orchard.
And another picture looking down on a sugar maple in my yard. Starting to color up.
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Nice-looking orchard!
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Thanks Lois.
In the foreground of the top picture you can see one end of my raspberry and blackberry run. To the right just out of the picture are 4 potted figs, a couple of blueberry bushes, and a couple Nanking Cherry bushes.
I finally finished weeding and mulching the last of our apple and pear trees. Over the last week 11 apple, 5 pears and 2 peaches were done, quite a chore. Since I hadn’t done that since the spring the weeds had really gotten out of control. I’ll have to admit they look pretty good now.
Looking at the apples, next year I hope we can get some fruit off of maybe 2 or 3 trees, and of the pears, maybe 2 of them. None of peaches are big enough to fruit yet, they just haven’t grown that much in the last two years.
I’ll try to post some pics of the cleaned up trees soon.
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That’s odd about your peach trees. Every peach or nectarine I have, fruited 2nd year in ground, and have required alot of summer pruning to keep size under control. The exceptions were on citation, they fruited 2nd year but require no summer pruning, as they barely grow
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Subdood, Great job! You want to start on mine now?
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Yeah, from everything I’ve read, peach trees should grow like weeds the first few years. I planted a Redhaven and Coralstar last year, so they’ve had two seasons to grow. Both were 7/16" caliper bare roots on Lovell from Cummins. I headed them back at about 30" when they were planted.
The RH is maybe 3ft tall with several branches, and have some pretty sad looking leaves. The CS is a bit under 4ft tall, and looks a bit better with some nice branches.
My opinion is that they are not in a prime location on the farm. I had a soil sample done this year, and it is very acidic, pH about 5.0, and low nutrient levels. The soil is decent, a bit rocky, but a good loamy mix. I wish I would have done the soil sample last year, but never thought of it until this year. I would have amended and limed the plot if I knew then.
This year in June, I did add lime around each tree, and also gave them about a pound of 10-10-10, spread out along the drip line. They seemed to like it, soon they put on some good foliage and grew some new branches out. But, around August they seemed to run out of steam. I suspect the heavy rains we got this summer may have washed out the ferts too soon. I didn’t want to give them any more fert after August, because I was worried about that interfering with them going into dormancy too late.
I have 11 apple trees in that same plot, most have done well, maybe 2 or 3 have lagged behind the others. I read apples can handle a more acidic soil than peaches, so maybe that’s why they did better for me.
I have the rest of my fruit trees (6 apple, 5 pear, 2 peaches), down by the barn, and they seem to be doing better as a whole compared to the other plot. The barn area soil used to be pasture land for cows many years ago, and a horse up to a couple yeaes ago. So, it is a richer soil due to ‘natural ferts’. Plus, the soil is less rocky. The pH is about 6, and is high in P and K.
I planted two new peach trees this year in this soil, and they have done pretty well, but they were thicker caliper trees, too. One pear we planted there last year has just taken off, it is at least 12ft tall, with about a 2in thick trunk. It was about a 4ft, 9/16" caliper whip when planted.
Anyways, I am considering moving the two lagging peach trees, and maybe a couple of the puny apple trees down to the barn plots around next March. I will prob lose a year, but I want them to do well in the long run.
Like I said earlier, I’ll try to post some pics of the newly cleaned up trees soon.
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I am impressed also with your mowing!
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Those are some cool views. So, you have barbed wire fencing around your trees? How tall are those T-posts? Is your deer pressure pretty high?
Are you getting any fall rasps from your new plants? My two rasps that did come up have not got bigger than a foot. Looks like I’ll be getting new plants next spring. No big deal, they are pretty cheap, about $4 apiece.
Prime Ark 45 blackberries keep producing. We are getting about this amount per week, with a few weeks done and many more weeks of berries on the plant. Not bad for a pretty small plant. I prune regularly to give the other berries a chance – this one grows like a monster. We thought the taste was better on the first crop in the summer, although these are much bigger and more abundant. I didn’t know blackberries very well before I started growing them – now all the friends and family are fans. Fun stuff.
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So, girl is wearing a helmet, and boy, I guess, is a new future Newton? 
Sounds like the location of your peaches would be a excellent spot for blueberries
Can I ask how you did your blackberry trellis? It looks so nice, even (or especially) from the air. I’d like to build mine like that.