What did you do in your orchard today?

30 already . Oh, no! No, no. No. I'm not ready to even hear that.

Mini Horses said:

30 already . Oh, no! No, no. No. I'm not ready to even hear that.

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we don't use four letter words like S**W around here.

flowerbug said:

we don't use four letter words like S**W around here.

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Normally I get the white dandruff covering things up early in September.

R2elk said:

Normally I get the white dandruff covering things up early in September.

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Is this a possibility for your new peach trees until the get 1 growing season eastbished? You may need the extreme version.


Jesus is Lord and Christ

CrealCritter said:

Is this a possibility for your new peach trees until the get 1 growing season eastbished? You may need the extreme version.

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Jesus is Lord and Christ

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Nah, that looks like a haven for voles. Anything similar would need to be staked down or it would leave for the east coast on the first big wind.

R2elk said:

Nah, that looks like a haven for voles. Anything similar would need to be staked down or it would leave for the east coast on the first big wind.

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Comes with stakes and the say to shovel some dirt around the bottom to make a seal.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

Pretty happy that all 10 of my air-layered MM111 apple rootstocks are growing new leafs. Even the one on the right that had no visible roots when I potted it is putting on new leafs. That's 100% success rate, it doesn't get any better than that


The one that had no visible roots at potting is in the center. These root stocks get a quarter of air-conditioning condenser water every day.


I learned something new with this air-layer go around, that I'll continue to follow. Since it improves the takers sucess rate. Looks like that's 10 less root stocks I'll need to purchase for apple grafting late winter / early spring

Jesus is Lord and Christ

I picked the last of the peaches from the orchard, just one tree left to pick. I wanted to get them picked as were are expecting 3 to 5 inches of rain for that hurricane in Florida. They would split for sure with that much rain.

I have no idea the variety of this tree since, I grew it from a peach pit. It produces smaller late season yellow fleshed semi cling stone peaches. Not very attractive and not all that good for eating out of hand. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the a 2.5 to 3.

They are however great for canning peach halves in a light (low sugar) sryup to be eaten over winter. They also hold up nicely during canning. As canning peach I would rate them a soild 8. These were grown strictly organic.


I was debating on grafting over this tree this spring. I probably won't because it seems like a consistent producer and some fair quailty peaches are better than no peaches at all. Plus it grows pretty well here and for a peach tree, it seems like it does fairly well with a organic spray schedule. Once my other varieties start to produce, I'll most likely graft over this peach tree though.

None of the pits from this tree will be grown into a tree on its own roots. The fruit is already of marginal quality, no sense in trying again. I'll grow these pits for stone fruit rootstocks and graft on some high quaility varieties instead.

I started counting fruit trees I have growing in the orchard and in pots, then I stopped myself. It makes no sense to count trees. A fruit tree orchard makes even less sense than chicken math does. My plan is to keep on growing and planting until I run out of room to plant any more. Then I reckon I'll be done messing around with saplings for our orchard.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

R2elk said:

Speaking of Fedco, their Garfield Plantation Cherry is currently available.

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I was looking at Garfield Plantation last year. It's a good cold hard pie cherry variety. I don't recall exactly why didn't order it from fedco. Instead I ordered starkbros surecrop instead. Starkbros probably had a flash sale with free shipping to make room in the cooler or something like that.

Garfield Plantation stones are available fairly inexpensive. In all honesty Garfield Plantation would probably be best in cold zones on it's own roots.

Jesus is Lord and christ

CrealCritter said:

Garfield Plantation would probably be best in cold zones on it's own roots.

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I got 2 originally. One winter killed the first winter. The other grew poorly until it froze back the same winter I had -27°F in early November followed by a major January thaw followed by -20°F temps followed by a major February thaw again followed by -20°F temps. It was the same year that killed mature Russian Elm trees.

When it came back from the roots, it grew much better than it had before. It is now about 20' tall but hasn't produced that well here. Too many late frosts. It will do better in an area that is not as inhospitable to fruit trees as here.

The Garfield Plantation cherries sold by Fedco are on their own roots and can grow into full sized trees. .The cherry is different than most tart cherries and is not fully red when ripe. They do have shades of yellow on the cherries and are tasty.