What's happening today - 2018 edition

Thanks Zack and @SpokanePeach . It really has been a long road and I think I’ve been a slow learner in addition to having lots of not-my-fault stuff happen. But I feel like I’ve finally (sort of) got peach growing figured out. I had lots of trial and errors with things like insects, brown rot, under thinning, pruning issues, and more. But I did get some really big, nice peaches this year that look really nice, and it feels good.

So hang in there. Hopefully you’re learning curve will be much better than mine and you’ll have a nice harvest just as soon as your trees will allow. Over all else my tip is to spray early and often! It’s soooo easy to put it off and procrastinate, but just a few days too long can ruin all or almost all your fruit.I sprayed every 7-10 days. That is a lot more than it sounds. Every time I turned around it was time to spray again. But for a harvest like this it was worth it. Good luck!

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The squirrels broke into the net supposed to protect the Shiro plums, which seem to be their favorite. Considered picking the survivors, but they’re not ripe enough.

In the meantime, the Mericrest nect remains unripe, despite it being the end of July. Isn’t Mericrest supposed to ripen before Shiro?

Thinking of adding a second layer of net

Mericrest ripens in august here, mine are still hard on the tree.

Good to know, thanks

Double jewel peach, 14 brix, very good flavor.

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I delivered 5 boxes that were almost identical to this one to 5 of my friends and their families. The all contained 3 types of grapes -white, red, black, some nectarines, peaches, and some nectaplums (spiced zee) or pluots. I usually have some asian pears to include but fire blight was brutal this year! Nectarines are the 2 in the lower left corner of box

As I’ve said, this is why fruit growing is fun to me- I love giving these little gift boxes and seeing the joy it brings folks. I had someone bring me a full peach cobbler, someone else brought me 2 dozen ears of great sweet corn, and another person brought me watermelon, cantelope, and squash. One good deed sometimes brings another!

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I would be your friend…

Katy

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Nice!

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What kind of peaches?

I have several trees I picked from, so it is sort of a mixed bag. The peaches in the box are mostly Contender, Diamond Princess, J.H. Hale, and something that was a mislabel so I don’t know what it is! The sweetest and best ones are the Diamond Princess. They are solid red all over. The largest ones are J.H. Hale.

I admire your Double Jewel, BTW. I have a DJ tree but for reasons I don’t know, it has been incredibly slow growing and just not a healthy tree. But boy aren’t those blooms beautiful!?!

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I’m way behind you on producing fruit but I have had enough to share small amounts. My plans have always been to give my extra fruit to other family members and friends. I also think it would be good to give fresh fruit to people in need. This is just a side note but I have ask them for a simple rating between different apples etc. This helps me direct my excess to the ones who like them by variety. Last year I gave one of my tennis buds three different varieties of muscadines Supreme, Black Beauty, and Lane. He overwhelmingly choose B.B.

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I’m sad that this year I won’t have sufficient fruit to donate to the food pantry, as I usually do

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Lovely and FANTASTIC!!!

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Blackberry cobbler

Into


Put some vanilla ice cream on top and you have the reason my wife let’s me spend all my free time gardening.

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The three of us are very like minded, and I suspect lots of other people here are too. I should have said so before, but in addition to giving these gift boxes to family, friends, coworkers, etc. I have another destination for larger quantities of fruit that I have in excess: The local Senior Citizen’s Center. I volunteer and serve on the Board there, and it has been very rewarding spending time there and especially sharing my fruit with them. They are more appreciative than most people I give fruit to, and they often send thank-you cards or call me or stop by city hall to say thanks and to tell me what they did with the fruit. I usually take it in boxes and the staff puts it on a small card table in the TV room. Some of the seniors just eat a piece or two there. Others Take some home. Best of all, the wonderful little senior ladies who do all the cooking for the Senior Center very often use my fruit and make some wonderful dishes (usually GREAT deserts). In short, donating fruit to the senior citizen center alone makes it worth growing fruit!!! The appreciation and love I get from those people really does makes all the work and money involved in fruit growing well worth it, even if that was the only thing I did with all my fruit.

BTW, Bill (@Auburn), how in the world am I ahead of you on fruit? You are quite a bit further south than me and in the past I’ve noticed you are usually quite a bit ahead of me. I suspect that the difference right now and how I a ahead of you is simply that the varieties of peaches I have coming in are just earlier producers than the peaches you have, don’t you think? No other reason I can think of why I wouldn’t be behind you!
(BTW…how is the wood I sent you doing? My pears you sent me are doing gang-buster!)

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Please ask your wife for the recipe for her topping❤️

My fruit does ripen a little earlier than yours but what I meant to say was that you have more fruit than I do at this time to pass on to others.

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Our weather is so miserable, it is dangerous. You cannot move in this humidity! The pollen, mold and whatever else is floating around makes it difficult to breath. You walk outdoors and you become soaking wet! Glad I lost my plums to frost as they would have been ruined by brown rot. Also, no rain. Every storm or rainfall has gone right off shore from Newport. Everything needs water. Grass is fried, peaches are small and hard as rocks. Blech!

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Sorry to hear Mrs G. We are getting drenched here which in a way makes things even more miserable.

I’m starting to get my first non-trivial rot, there is a bit on my Mericrest now. That nectarine I am getting less enamored with by the year, its very tasty but its also very sensitive. They look really ugly now due to spot on the skin. All my other nectarines look a lot better. Heres three Summer Beauts and three Mericrest, guess which is which :smile:

My Satsumas are coming in now, yum!! They are currently my favorite plum overall, I get a massive amount and they are delicious. They are similar to the Purple Hearts but a bit bigger and a week or two later.

These ones my kids picked and I would have waited a bit longer, I want them all deep purple.

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Hoping Mericrest does better here!