Where have I been?

With the 3 young children, I just didn't have a whole lot of time to update this summer.  Everything turned out pretty good.  Still a lot of things to fix, remove, graft over.  The biggest surprise was probably the peaches (seed grown) that turned out excellent.  The apples, pears and plums all turned out great.  The squirrels were a big problem (trapped 10 or more).  Grapes were awesome as usual.  Raspberries turned out fine, but really late (Sept).   Blueberries had very few berries because of repotting.

Bugs were bad.  Chafers were horrible, Japanese Beetles were out there.

Been a long time

Really not much to report.  The apricots are just now ripe.  Strawberries have been done for a while now.  Sweet cherries have been done for about 2 weeks.  I need to chop them back and pot them all up for next year. The Hunza apricot is getting chopped down and grafted over with a Superior plum.  Peaches and nectarines are all in a pit hardening stage.   The biggest (oldest) of the 3 Tomcots will need to be removed....i think!

We went from dry to downright soggy and now right back to dry (very dry).  Its been a lot of upper 80fs and sun the past 10 days.  Humidity has been tolerable. 

Some updates

Lot of pest problems this year.  Plum Curculio knocked out a lot of peaches, plums, apples, and apricots.  Still finding drops with larvae inside.  Rose Chafers were out thick all last week.  Must have trapped and killed 1000+  of them.  Had to hand pick daily for the whole week.  They did some damage to the apricots and peaches.   They've been letting up the past 3 days and I've stopped hand picking.  The traps are still catching them.

The sweet cherries are ripening. 

 
Its been very wet lately.  We had been dry for most of the month, but Saturday night over 5 inches of rain fell!  This week there is a chance of rain every day. 

I'll be removing several peach trees after the fruit ripens and planting either a row of pines (boring?) or a row of seedling pears for use as grafting stock.

First post in awhile!

Lots happening in the past 10 days or so.  We had record breaking heat of 100F and several other days in the 90Fs and high 80Fs...  Today was a record high low...hitting 56F! 

Rose Chafers emerged last and I got my traps put out last Sunday.  They have done some damage, mainly chewing on a few apricots.  

Plum Curculio seem to be about done.  I ended up hand killing 5 of them, but they still hit a lot of fruit, even with 2 sprays on the apricots and plums.  The apples have already started falling (June drop).  They were hit pretty badly by PC.  I have to get an earlier spray on all fruit next year.  That first spray is very important.

I picked the first head of broccoli on Tuesday.  Turned out pretty good.  My Graffiti is forming a nice head too:

PC damage

Noticed a lot of new damage on plums, cherries and nectarines... I had sprayed the apples yesterday, but decided to skip the plums until today ...not good! I should still be ok, i put a spray on this morning. Sweet cherries had a few hits, nectarines got hit again... Think my sour cherry that I moved in March may be on the slow road to death. It flowered, fruited and it still just has small leaves popping out... Apricots are really sizing up...

Plums are the size of peas at the biggest. Need to spray sooner.

90F today

Surround WP

Stella sweet cherry

One last May post

Not much happening lately.  Its been cold (cool) the past week or so and growth has really slowed once again.  I'll try to take some pictures of all the fruit and the various stages they are in.  I did learn that the container peaches are actually nectarines!!  Oops!  Also the interior of my Puget Gold apricot dropped all of its fruit and the leaves started wilting...so i chopped it out.  It now has a nice open center.  The fruit on the outer branches are sizing nicely.

My broccoli and cauliflower are growing very quickly now.  I've even found one forming a head.  It looks like Romanesco broccoli.

Another fruit update

Weather has been warmer lately.  We had over an inch of rain yesterday.  I noticed my first plum curculio damage on Saturday.  I ended up picking up a bottle of Maxide to treat a few of the fruit that were damaged.  This evening I sprayed Triazicide which I hope is my last time spraying the apricots.  I will need to put a good coat on the apples and plums in a few days.

Schuck split

The apricots are really moving along and the trees look to hold a decent crop.  There have been a few Puget Gold dropping, maybe from poor pollination?  The bloom is about done now so its time to protect the fruit.  I put the first spray on the apricots for plum curculio.  This pest is a big time trouble maker in my yard.  The weather has been cool, but sunny (night lows in the 30Fs).  Today turned cloudy in the afternoon.  Temps look to warm,  especially overnight. 

Tomcot

Another chilly day

Most of the fruits are done flowering, just the apples and pears remain.  The apricots and some of the sweet cherries have small fruit, while the rest seem to be at petal fall.  With today and yesterday not making it out of the 50F's, I should be protected from Plum Curculio.  I will have to put a spray on by Monday (just the apricots). 

nectarine

89F today

The trees are humming along.  Everything is in bloom except the apples.   I'm seeing peach leaf curl on one of my peach trees.

Birds in the plum trees

I've never seen these birds before.  There were 3 of them jumping around the branches of the plums, sour cherries and sweet cherries.  They were eating the nectar and having a good time.





plum bird

First heavy rain this morning.  Around an inch fell.

Warm up in progress

So that past 2 days have been 70F+.  The trees have really come alive.  Some peaches, all apricots, some sweet cherries, plums and strawberries are all in bloom.  The sour cherries should open starting tomorrow as will the pear.  The apples need a few more days.  The bees have been very busy hitting all the blooms.  Hopefully I can get a good fruit set with this dry and warm weather.

Superior Plum

Peach (unknown seedling)

Apples making some progress

The McIntosh and the Cortland are both getting near flowering stage.  Probably less then a week should the warm weather arrive late this weekend/next week.  The plums are both near flowering stage (Alderman opened some flowers yesterday).  Peaches are still hanging back...  just the container peaches are starting to flower.  The sweet/sour cherries are both lagging, while the container Stella is flowering.

Sweet 16

McIntosh

This weather is beyond bad

Sunday/Monday and now Tuesday have been stuck in the low/mid 40F's with clouds.  A few peeks of sun here and there, but other then that it has been a complete turd.  Trees have pretty much stopped their spring progression.  I have put a bunch of potted plants in the garage, and the sweet cherry has start showing some white so it will be blooming very shortly, hopefully back outside!  The extended range finally looks like it SHOULD stay in the 60Fs.  This time of year the average high is almost 70F.   Tonite looks like the temp should drop to near freezing, but that shouldn't cause many problems.  It can't get any worse :)

Stella sweet cherry

 

My low tunnel

Took a pic of one of my vegetable beds.  This one has a few rows of broccoli and cauliflower.  You can see the low tunnel really helps the broccoli take off.  All plants were around the same size when put in the ground.  To the right you can see the plants that have been stuck outside this cold and dreary April.

Finally some bees

I saw at least one bumble bee, a few honey bees and some other very small bees around the apricots today.  They know how to pollinate a lot better then I do.  First sunny day since Monday.

The peaches are starting to show pink...  Should see open flowers soon.

My back hurts

I re-potted a seedling apple yesterday (I plan on grafting it with several different varieties next year) into a new 15 gallon pot.   I plan on getting very creative with the training of this apple.  I want to form a type of "step over" or two long lateral branches or possible some other shape.  We'll see how it looks in another year or two.

I used a lot of wood chips in my soil mix, so the pot wasn't too heavy.  I topped the soil mix with some wood chips to help conserve moisture when/if it turns hot :)

Another item on my tray is a dozen or so pear seedlings from last year, along with another dozen Seckel seedlings from this year.  I'll probably use the ones above as grafting experiments next year.  They were potted up in 7 gallon pots about 2 weeks ago.  I'll need to order various pear scion next winter. 

My pots arrived

I ordered a few 15 gallon pots for trees. The arrived very quickly having ordered them late last week.

Big box for big pots. Shipping is pricey when they get this big. Finding them locally is pretty much impossible, so I'm stuck forking out the cash.

My son has issues with making a "normal" face when dad is trying to compose a picture. I probably should have bribed him with more then a piece of chocolate.

Just another wet Tuesday

After a cool, but dry weekend, and a beautiful 66F and sunny Monday, Tuesday dawned with heavy rain and thick clouds. Over the past few days the apricots have started flowering, with the Puget Gold and the oldest of the Tomcots flowering first.

By late Monday evening there were a lot of flowers opened on the Puget Gold and a few more on the Tomcot. With all the rain in the forecast, I decided to try hand pollinating with a very fine paint brush. I have no idea if it worked, but I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.

I would guess that the container sweet cherry, and the two container peaches will be the next to flower.

Musser Forests Inc tree purchase

Thought I'd show what an order from Musser Forest looks like.

The order consisted of Balsam Fir, Canadian Hemlock and Norway Spruce. 25 of each.

I was impressed. For the price its a pretty good deal. I guess we'll find out in a few years how they perform. Some had to be potted up because I ran out of room and some are being given away.

Best smelling flowers?

Sweet cherry blossoms smell like heaven.  If you haven't smelled them, give them a sniff sometime. 

You can see the Stella sweet cherry is nearing bloom. 

Here is another sweet cherry (Kristin) that I moved this past fall to a new spot.  This picture was from April 29th, 2009. 

More typical April Wisconsin weather with temps in the 40F's and clouds.  Yippee!

Pink peaches, white popcorn, and an orange pumpkin?

I've been growing peach trees in containers for a few years now. A couple of tips would be to use large pots (at least 15 gallon), fertilizer/water often during the growing season and protect the tree during winter (I move mine into our attached garage). The nice thing by doing this is that you can guarantee yourself fruit every year and not have to deal with dead blossoms, peach leaf curl and bad tasting hardy type peaches (Reliance just isn't a good tasting peach in my book).

Peach bud flower...showing some pink.

Of course we have to have some popcorn (Puget Gold apricot) to go with our peaches.

Pumpkins in April?  Not what you normally see growing this time of year...

Cold, cloudy and the snow still hasn't melted completely

After watching 3 inches of snow fall yesterday, today ended up being not much better. Think we managed 40F or so and maybe 10 minutes of sun. Spring really needs to show up soon.

This picture from a few days ago shows a few different trees.  In front would be the Seckel pear, behind that are two Evan's Bali sour cherries, behind that would be a seed grown apple (small), a McIntosh, Sweet 16 and Cortland are the 3 trees in the far background.  The Seckel, McIntosh and Cortland are all from spring of 2006.  The Seckel has been moved once, so that may have set it back some.  That ghetto metal fence in the backyard needs to go...a new wood fence is planned. 

Here is the Seckel flowering on May 4th, 2009.

I hate snow

Mother nature has other plans for spring this year.  Starting early this morning the snow started falling and it has slowly started building up on grass surfaces.  Give me 70F and sunny any day!

Extended forecast does show a little warmer weather a week from now.  Maybe some 60Fs will be back by then?  Wait and find out.

Snow in the forecast

Did I mention I hate snow?  The forecast doesn't look too appealing.

A late bloom is almost assured now. 

This was what the apricot blossoms looked like yesterday.