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Weekly Orchard Update Week of July 4th:
I guess I should try and keep up our “weekly” BLOG. I may have missed a week or two in there somewhere. The trickle system is finished and has been running for about three weeks. We had “minor” glitches in the system but nothing we could not handle. The system runs at night from about 6 pm til 10 am the next day. Each acre gets about 4 hours of water put on it per cycle. Trees are showing good response there is slight terminal reactivation showing.
Cherries were a hit this year but unfortunately there were not enough of them. Our first blueberries, U-Pick block, has about played out. The rabbit eyes will hit in another 10 days or so blueberries will be back in the market. Red Haven peaches have about another week, then the Red Globes will start one of my favorites. Fat, Juicy, and Sweet! We hope to pick our first big eating apple by the end of this week the Ginger Gold. This is also our first apple that we pack and ship to grocery stores. If you are growing at home keep an eye out for Japanese beetles they tend to set in at this time of year, nothing a little sevin spray won’t take care of or if you want to use an organic pesticide warm up your thumb and forefinger.
GOOSE UPDATE: They are still here and somehow another family has shown up. Now we have three more geese on
the pond. I guess they will be getting flying lessons soon, that should be interesting!
Weekly Orchard Update Week of May 2nd
We are putting the final touches on our trickle irrigation system. The filter and the pump are the last steps. All of the underground is done and the actual trickle tube just gets rolled out under the trees. The way summers are here this will be just in time. The average apple tree needs about 1” of rainfall per week(that is a bit over 27,000 gallons on 1 acre) and during our summers we don’t get that. The trickle system will help us better conserve our water here on the farm. Our old way of watering with the overhead system was a bit on the wasteful side it used twice as much water and it blanketed the whole orchard. We watered the trees plus the grass and the weeds and anything else it happened to hit. With this system we deliver small amounts (.25 gallon/minute) of water directly to the root system. We don’t waste any water on weeds or grass so we do not have to mow as much, saving us on diesel fuel! When completed this system will cover about ½ of the entire orchard and will include over 35 miles(184800 feet) of piping that includes above and below ground piping. It is a big project that we started back in November of ’10 and I hope will be done this month.
GOOSE UPDATE: This may be the last one, the young ones are getting fat and they may be ready to leave soon. They are still
holding strong at six babies(no turtle food yet). They spend their time in the tall grass eating I guess, I don’t
really know what they eat though. They even spend time up in the orchard between the rows. They are fun to watch.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of April 25th
It is a wait and see game for the next few weeks. After we apply the thinners we have to wait at least 10 days and maybe more to see how the fruit reacts. If we have done our job effectively we have removed the small fruit and kept the bigger fruit. If not well ….
Apples seem to be growing at a good rate, even though there has been little sunshine. I guess with the water we have had they couldn’t help but put on some size. Most all varieties have a crop, some like the Golden Supreme, are off a bit but will have enough to sell on.
Peaches look good, cherries are full, blueberries are the size of an English Pea, and we may even have a crop of plums. Keep your fingers crossed.
GOOSE UPDATE: I can’t believe it, but she still has all 6 of her little ones with her. With as many snapping turtles as we have in
Both ponds that is a good record. Let’s hope they can get to the age that they can fly and get out here!
Strawberries are getting fat and juicy, come out and pick a basket full.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of April 18th
Well we had to plant again this week……just kidding! We have made it through bloom, the weather was not very cooperative this year. It was cloudy, cold and windy. The bees did not like weather! Most blooms are off the trees by now, although there are some stranglers. For the most part the major weather worries are over as of the last full moon(4/17/11). We don’t get too many freezes or frosts past this point, but it has happened. The next worry now is thinning. That is right, we purposely take apples off the trees. The apple tree is by nature a bi-annual bearer. Most will have a heavy crop one year and a lite one the next. As growers we try to average the crop each year so it will stay consistent. That requires us to remove a portion of the more heavily loaded trees. As Tim says “this process is like going to Vegas and betting everything you have on black”.
On a brighter, note we started picking strawberries last Thursday(4/14/11). The first ones in are the SWEET CHARLIES and a few CAMAROSAS. The SWEET CHARLIES are by far my favorite. They may not last as long as the others because they are so sugary but there is nothing like eating a fresh picked, melt in your mouth SWEET CHARLIE.
GOOSE UPDATE: She finally hatched her eggs and what looked like three turned out to be six. The male now, will not leave her side or his little ones. They have moved to lower pond last I checked. If you can catch a glimpse of the two adults and the six (grayish yellow) chicks swimming in row, it is a sight to see.
Come get some strawberries, the season won’t last long. Before you know it we will be into fresh cherries.
Weekly Update Week of April 11th
Ok, I think we are safe in saying that we are done planting for the Spring. If anything else shows up, I am sending it back! We had a bit of a scare on the 5/6th of this month the mercury dropped as low as 27 or 28 in some parts of the orchard. We had the over head water systems on and they proved themselves once again. Apples and peaches outside the system had some burn and even a little kill in them, it wasn’t enough to cause us great concern but it was there. We may have another couple of nights coming up this week but let’s hope for the best.
Some of the lucky few (the Great Grand Children) have been able to pick a few early strawberries and they gave the nod of approval. Apples are starting to set and the bees will have done their job and be out of here by this Wed. or Thur. The blossom tours went well, folks were eager to get into the orchard and see how and where all this fruit gets its start.
We will be done with our pruning (that we started last Nov.) in the next couple of weeks and the crews will go to fertilizing, staking trees and harvesting. There is also plenty of grass to cut as I am sure everyone knows. Try cutting 200 acres worth. That seems to be it for this week. By the way, if anyone is interested, our Canada goose is back again this year. She has made a nest in the same spot on the upper pond. She looks to have maybe two or three eggs she is sitting on. She spends most of her time on that nest, and she has brought her mate back with her. You may not always see him but he’s there. Come by and take a gander(no pun intended).
Weekly Orchard Update Week of April 4, 2011:
Well, the one thing agriculture will do to you is prove you a liar. Last week we said we were done planting, this morning we were hooking up the tree planter again. We received notice from the testing program that we had an additional 200 test trees being sent to us. These are coming from an Ohio breeding program that are hand breeding the next great variety. They are sent to us with just numbers as names, but we get to try them in an actual orchard setting and give feed back to the breeders. We are not at liberty to discuss what the variety crosses are but one or two look very promising!
Full bloom is about 2 days away(should hit 4/6/11) but the air is full of the smell of apple nectar. The bees are finally getting some sunny weather in which to work. The wind has been playing havoc with them though. With gusts as high as 30 MPH on Sat and Sun only the fattest bumble bees didn’t seem to be having difficulty. The weather looks rough for tonight(4/4/11) with some severe storms getting here some time after dark bringing damaging winds, heavy down pours, tornados, and possible hail. Well let’s hope for the best….but plan for the worst.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of March 28, 2011:
WE ARE DONE, planting that is. As of last week we planted our last apples (a new variety called Blondee), and we planted some new blackberries(Natchez,Ouachita). Looks like we got done just in time with all the rain that has come in. The blooms are coming fast. Pink Lady is the leader it is in full bloom but Granny Smith and Zestar are coming on strong. Most peaches/nectarines are in full bloom and some are even in petal fall. We have hired about 2,000,000 more workers this week to work in the orchard. They have the very daunting task of carrying pollen grains from one flower to another. The BUZZ going around says these guys are some of the best at this kind of work. With the bloom comes the worry. We always keep one eye on the crop and one eye on the weather this time of year. Fruit in these stages are very susceptible to the cold weather (remember Easter ’07?). I walked through the strawberries yesterday(03/27/11) and some of the early berries have fruit on them the size of lima beans. Won’t be long now. That is all for now. See ya next week.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of March 21,2011:
Spring is officially here today but our trees thought it hit about two weeks ago. Every variety has begun to move except Romes. As of yesterday we have bloom in some like Pink Lady, Granny Smith and Zestar. The peaches are really getting it they are about 40-50% full bloom and the plums are mostly in full bloom, and this is why we don’t have too many plums every year. Some of our early variety strawberries actually have little berries on them so it may only be about 3 more weeks until we can pick a few. We haven’t finished planting yet we are still waiting on some test apple trees from a growers panel and the blackberries aren’t here yet either. We are putting the finishing touches on our overhead irrigation system(also known as frost protection) so we can crank them up to test them out. Let’s hope we don’t have to use them! That’s it for now.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of March 7, 2011:
The couple of weeks of warm weather have made the berries jump! We already have some bloom but this early stuff we give up to Mother Nature, it’s just not worth fighting for. But the plants look very healthy and we should, knock on wood, have a great early Spring crop. We are getting close to finishing our pruning and getting the orchard ready for this year’s harvest. As mentioned before, most of our trees have now been planted just waiting on about 500 more including a new early variety called “Blondee”. A very early sweet apple with a yellow to gold skin that comes in before Gala. And we are also adding a couple of new Blackberries to our mix this year which should be ready for U-Pick next year. That’s all for now.
Weekly Orchard Update Week of February 28, 2011:
Spring temps have come a little earlier this year. As you might know, we have been spoiled with some nice temps here at the end of February. These early warm temps start our growing season no matter what the date. All the fruit has had their chill hours for the winter and is sitting ready to go at the first sign of warm weather. The facebook page shows some great pictures of some fruit buds ready to pop.
We have started planting trees this year. We have about 2500 to 2700 already in the ground. We are waiting on about 500 more including some cherries, apples, and even some blackberries.
We are about 85% done with our pruning.
Talk to you next week.
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