Could be. Or caterpillars. Usually they get pear fruitlets, but only the cots have enough substance so far this spring
I feed them to the cats, makes them recognize rodents as food
I didn’t know anything about canning until a few years ago. I had heard accounts of my grandma pressure canning, with the dial gauge. I didn’t want to deal with the gauges, they need to be calibrated occasionally, and they have to be constantly monitored.
We use the one with a weighted bobber, which rocks back and forth, while slowly venting steam. So, if you hear it make a “pish-pish-pish” sound, you know it’s working right.
Of course, the prep work getting the jars ready, chopping up the food to be canned, salting, acidifying, etc has to be considered. We’ve canned lots of beans, corn, chicken, cushaw, pumpkin, pickles, and so on. We’ve canned lots of chicken because we lost some meat during a long power outage, and we wanted to be able to just pop open a jar, and throw in on the propane grill or whatever if the power goes out again. Or, it can now be eaten straight out of the jar, even tho we usually heat it up.
I got our tater patch limed and fertized today, so all we need to do is wait for a little rain, till it in, and we can at least plant some of those soon.
Also mowed the back yard, and orchard. It looks so nice when the grass is trimmed, and the trees are all leafed out now. I used to mow it with the tractor/bush hog because there was a lot of small rocks there, but I’ve worked to get rid of them and be able to take the rider back there.
1 Like
It is a necessary carnage! 
1 Like
I drive that highway every time we go home to OK. Is that damage caused by that flooding river? Which river is it? Is this the worst flooding you’ve seen there?
1 Like
My cat’s gots no teef.
3 Likes
Do immature apples make good pickles?
Yes that was caused by the river going over the bridge, closed the interstate down. Not sure which river, it’s up by Lebanon. The last time I saw it flood this bad here locally was 1993
My three young apricots have a total of 10 cots that are holding on. I’m holding my breath!
5 Likes
Zestar, like its U Minnesota cousin Honeycrisp, can get quite big if the tree is carrying a light crop. I’m going to let my tree carry a lot more fruit this year than last. It is a vigorous tree and needs some calming.
2 Likes
I remember that “pish pish” sound and seeing that bobber rocking way back when I was a very small kid and my mom would can things. First time I’ve had that memory in 30 years or more…thanks for that. I still remember how my mom wouldn’t even let me in the kitchen when using a pressure cooker…she always acted like it was a live bomb ready to go off at any moment! haha.
I cannot believe you can CHICKEN!!! WOW…you really have a lot of confidence in the process. I’d be terrified of food poison…I even worry about canning the veggies that don’t have acid (I know you can add it, but still). I guess all that stems from the fact that I’ve had food poisoning twice in my life and both times was horrendous. But I love the idea of being able to keep things without refrigeration- especially chicken. I do kill and freeze my own sometimes, and I do like the idea of canning, but boy it makes me nervous! I may have to pick your brain more on this whole canning thing at a later time. Thanks
2 Likes
Thanks. I will be spraying the trunks from now on. There are only a few entry holes. Do you think I can inject one of the pesticides they mention in the holes to kill the beetles?
From this morning’s walk around:
Unknown apricot graft. Should have marked it. It is a 12 inch branch yet it has 5 apricots on it. I have an 5 foot tall aprium tree that has yet to produce fruit.
I’ll have about 200 apples on this tree if I don’t do more thinning. Anna, Dorsett Golden, Fuji, Red Fuji, Pettingill, and others I didn’t label.
It looks like I will have my first Satsuma plums ever (fingers crossed). It only took 7 or 8 years…
Splash Pluot - a super heavy setter in my area, outgrows and outproduces my other pluots by a HUGE margin.
Tropic Snow Peach - small but super tasty, this one will probably be ready in about 2-3 weeks.
16 Likes
According to the website, it doesn’t seem like there’s a pesticide that will work after they get into your tree but I guess it couldn’t hurt.
I bagged my peach tree today. Well, not whole tree, but a part of it with minimum count of bags - one.
This is to test how it works. Last fruiting year( 2015) I had tones of peaches, but they all where affected by something, that made them very unhealthy looking. (That was discussed in this thread Bacterial Spot resistant peach for zone 5? - #5 by galinas). I still don’t know what affected them, but want to see if bagging will help.
4 Likes
Galina,
Is that made of tulle?
No, I bought fine plastic netting this year. So far I like it both in the garden and in the orchard much more then tulle. It is much stronger, easy to work with and they promise multi-year use.I do not believe that much in multi-year, but if it holds at least one full season on my cabbage I will be happy. Tulle is gone by August and needs to be replaced for fall crop.
It is not that cheap though.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HYRLUKA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1