The honey crisp in the foreground was planted last summer, the one in the background is going on 6 years and just started flowering last year. There is a juneberry bush next to it. The apple tree in the foreground is called an Oldenburg (my wife’s maiden name) and is going on 3 years. In this group I have a liberty, granny smith, and another honey crisp. A 15 year old honey crisp A 15 year old haralred. These are all a mix of bare root and potted trees and represent 8 of my 10 apple trees in our orchard. I prune to an open center which allows enough sun for strawberries underneath them, It is looking like we will have a lot of apples and berries to eat, can and give away this year.
Is it common for honeycrisp to not have flowers for so many years? I have one that has been in the ground for 7 years (2 year bare root when I got it) and it has never flowered. The other varieties planted have been flowering for 4-5 years now. I was debating pulling it out, but if this is common with honeycrisp, I am willing to wait 1 more year.
I planted 4 Pawpaws late last spring and it will be several years before they bloom. I may have to pollinate them to get a fruit set, if I can remember which one is genetically different. They are currently getting a month’s worth of rain, so they should double in size this summer.
The small tree above had some blooms last spring on it when I got it in its pot at the garden center, and even produced a couple apples after planting it. On the other hand the bare root honeycrisp in the background was a very small bare root whip when I planted it, and it produced a few flowers on one fruit spur last year (year 5), and really exploded in blossoms this spring. During this time I was pruning it pretty heavily to shape it. Now I can just maintain it with a mild summer prune, and then again in late February. This honeycrisp is my favorite. It was girdled all the way around by rabbits 5 years ago. I thought it was a goner for sure but I wrapped in grafting tape and it somehow survived. I re-wrapped it a few years ago and I assume that the capillary action of the sap from the roots can pass over the damaged area. I am not certain it will make it another 5 years, but I will just keep nursing it along. This liberty apple tree also was heavily damaged the same winter by rabbits, so I cut the whole thing off below the girdling, and It really made a spectacular recovery. One thing you could try would be some summer pruning by topping the branches just above an out-facing bud. This technique has stimulated the production of fruit spurs on some of my trees.
Go stand next to the trees and ask your wife which on looks most like you...That will 100% be the genetically different one!!
2 peach trees (Frost and Reliance) and a nectarine tree (Hardried) added to the garden this year. I'll take pics when they bloom. The Elberta peach tree already bloomed.
Two years later and my one black walnut is about 6’ tall, growing fast, and has very good form. I’m thrilled. For the last 2 autumns I put a couple shovel fulls of chicken poop around the base, letting it slowly break down and dissolve over the winter. The tree seems to be getting what it needs.
With the snowpack finally receding, I discovered voles girdled one of my young crabapple trees over the winter. Between that and the deer decimating six of my young apple trees last fall, there is going to be some serious varmint control this year. I've never seen vole activity as bad as this winter.
Yeah. Same tracks/tunnels here from under snow. I've lost numerous flower bulbs over the past few years. P.ease share what you tried to control, when you get to it. Bastids
Voles wiped out a whole 35x4 foot patch of carrots one Winter. Every single last one. They moved right into the patch. Little vole home right in the middle. I haven't planted carrots there since. Black walnuts come up here all over. Everywhere but where I might want one. For some crazy reason the deer don't bother them unless they are in a pot. I have 7 white oak seedlings from last Fall in tall solo cups inside my front porch so the animals don't eat them. They have long roots but not sprouting yet. I've been planting norway spruce (where convenient) to replace some of the eastern white pine that is in decline. Lost about 30% of the pine here. They have borers getting in, but there could be environmental reasons they can't/aren't fighting off the borers. I buy some spruce, I transplant some that are coming up in the wild from some real old ones here planted 65 years ago.
Well s**t. I had forgotten to check my peach tree and today noticed the sun shining off the lower part of the trunk. Sure enough, the buggers girdled that tree as well. I lost so many trees to the caterpillars in 21-22 (including half a dozen fruit trees) that now losing these two to the voles this winter really bites. Really sad to lose that peach tree. About six years ago the tree had a couple dozen peaches ready to be picked and the day I was going to pick them, I looked out the window to see a bear rip the main branch off and drag it into the woods. I didn't think the tree would survive but it did and finally produced fruit again just last year. So after all that I lose the tree to a bunch of dang rodents. The young fruit trees the deer hit hard last fall haven't budded yet so that may be another six that are toast. Not going well for my fledgling orchard.
That's a pretty brutal punch to the gut. Maybe 5' steel fencing for the deer until they can grow above browse height, and also 1/2" hardware cloth at the base to keep the rodents out?
This is exactly what I did with my apple trees. The deer stand on their hind legs and can still can get apples that hang over the fence line. We have a ton of different rodents and the hardware cloth has kept them from getting to the trunks.
