Made a visit to the @39thparallel orchard and nursery today. It’s about 30 minutes away so not very far from my orchard. Lots going on! He is currently growing about 8 acres with roughly 4 acres of that at the location I went to. Anyway here’s a few pictures of the orchard! I got some gorgeous Chicago hardy figs and some really nice grape plants while I was there.
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Dang! What’s with the alligator?
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Looks great!
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Thanks for stopping by Clark! I always enjoy visiting with you.
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Great photos! Thanks for sharing. Its a lot more fun knowing that great looking orchard is operated by one of our own GF members.
@39thparallel , this has nothing to do with fruit, but I’m just curious in how you get your wires to stay so tight over such long distances, especially when it looks like you are only using t-posts. I have to to put huge wood posts at the ends of my wire runs, and even then I have to put T-posts much closer than yours appear to be all along the way for support. Just wondering if you (or anyone) has any tips for keeping wires nice and tight over distances. One thing I will note is that most of those shown in the photo didn’t appear to have much if any weight on them yet (IE grape vines, brambles, etc) so maybe they will sag and need more support once they are under more gravity pressure, but maybe not.
Whatever the trick, its a great looking orchard!
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The 6’ trellises are made using mostly 8’ T post high tensile wire. They are about 125’ long… the ends are anchored with a t posts drove most of the way in at a 45 degree angle. I use these tensioner to tighten up the wire.
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@39thparallel
Mike,
Thank you for having me out yesterday! You have a gorgeous orchard! I didn’t take many pictures but I got a couple of the Asian pears just because everything looked so nice!
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Thanks for Coming out Clark. I always learn something new from you. I’m excited to grow the rare pear varieties from your collection. I’m thinking the yellow pear is Shinseiki or 20th Century.
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That is a beautiful orchard.
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The 39th parallel orchard grows several seedling apple varities i created. It was nice to see them living up to their reputation. This is the clarks crabapple and @39thparallel does a great job growing it! Feel free to grow it it’s not patented so graft away. It’s a very heavy bearer that produces late and stores well. The apples grow in huge clusters like grapes but the branches do not break. Without cold storage we would eat these crab apples into February or later. He likes growing them and I like people to grow them. It will be one of the first apples to produce in Kansas. The apple is well balanced between sugary and sour that is a pleasure to eat. Most years if the snows not hitting your face your picking it to early.
Those are rare enough but I always try something new when I’m there I hadn’t tried before. Red cinnamon apple and York were my favorite apples from today but it’s a long list. See if you can identify these
The apple I like to eat the best will never make it in the bin. PC always mark up a couple when they are quarter sized. For some reason the marked up fruit draws me to it. Out of an entire orchard of perfect apples you know which ones I chose to eat. The taste was impressive of these. Mike is a great host so I could not leave the orchard without eating 10-12 different types of apples.
The orchard was buzzing with activity and the sweet smell of sugary home grown apples was in the air. Many loads of these are destined for wineries and others are headed to fruit stands. Fruit is not the main thing the 39th parallel orchard is known for. Selling scion wood of ultra rare apples and pears and bench grafting in the majority of his business. He has the largest rare apple business I know of. I’m very fortunate to taste apples Noone has ever heard of. My favorites like red cinnamon or York 99.99% of the world has never heard of. Appreciate the tour and tastings of so many different apples.
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Nice!!! 
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What a treat seeing Mike’s more mature producing trees !
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Yes Mike is a hard working master fruit grower. We have been friends many years. Long before many of these apple trees were planted had a feeling he would be pulling in a crop like this now. The funny part is I think in 10 years he will be getting twice as much fruit!
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Looks like he had a good crop of apples this year.
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@clarkinks Clark’s Crabapple is a winner. Prolific, easy to grow, has a really snappy taste. They are a choice snack fresh and would no doubt be the ticket for cider. Oh, and they keep in cold storage over a year. I’m going to do my best to distribute it’s scion far and wide. It will be part of your legacy because people will probably be enjoying that apple as long as fruit is cultivated.
Hey, check out this adjoined twin Red Cinnamon we picked today.
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Never saw that before with an apple! That red cinnamon is a great tasting apple! Surprises me how pronounced the cinnamon taste is! It looks like I have a few more apple trees I need to plant next year. Thank you for propagating the Clarks crabapple. It is prolific in marginal areas like it is from here in Kansas. The seeds were gathered in the wild from the best seedlings. The seedlings are grown from those wild seeds.
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I have 3 Clarks Crab I grafted on M.7 this spring from the scion you sent me, they’re doing quite well. They’ll get a hardiness test here in my Adirondack location.
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You will have to report back when it sets fruit. It should not take too long. I top worked a bunch of trees last Spring and they are already setting fruit. It does ripen just before the hard freezes roll in here so, some locations might not have a long enough growing season. I think it’s a seedling from wild apples collected up north. Is that right Clark @clarkinks ?
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