Just checked and my gooseberries have gooseberries, not many but a few. Why am I excited? Two reasons 1- I have never grown them before and was not sure of winter hardiness, and 2- (the most important reason), my 90 year old mother talked me into buying these plants last spring because she had fond memories of eating fresh gooseberries back in the old country as a child. She is still with us and going strong so I do believe she will get a taste.
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I cut back my P americana hard a few weeks back so all my grafts could grow out and i’d get some new bud wood to attach more varieties to it…right now its just some donut peaches, an apricot (not sure which////the fruit all fell off), Satsuma, Hesse, Lavina, Spring Satin…and maybe a pluot or 2…
Here is Satsuma and Saturn peaches…there are also (not pictured) good sized Hesse, SS, and Lavina fruits growing.
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Yes, this will be our 3rd season of PYO. Our berries don’t start ripening here until around July 20 through August.
http://www.besseyridgefarms.com (will re-direct to our FB page)
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When I moved my raised bed into the back of my yard I knew that I wanted a second bed for symmetry. I couldn’t afford to build a matching bed, so I took yard waste from tree cutting and layered it with logs and compost from the pile. It’s been a chaotic hot bed of branches and weeds for the last couple years. Last years compost top layer must have had potato scraps in, because I have had volunteers pop up in the bed. Today I was just feeling around in the top layer to see how my irrigation was doing back there and found these:
Guess that bed is going to be ready for a fall planting!
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Great find. Nothing taste better than a new potato.
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Thanks for sharing! The page looks good, hope y’all have a good season. Always cool to see members on here who actually do this for a living.
When do your Killarney ripen up?
Seems like y’all are about 2 months behind us with the bloobs, but we are in zone 6b, and you’re in 5a.
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Some updates on my apricots. Ate today my last three Tomcot apricots along with the first Harcot. It’s a nice ripening sequence. This was my first ever tasting of Harcot — I grafted it last year on a Tilton tree, and the graft grew into a large branch that now has about 8-10 fruits on it. Harcot fruit is large and juicy, very nice flavor. Another graft from the last year on the same tree is Afghanistan, it’s very vigorous and grew into a huge branch. I think it will start ripening pretty soon. Moorpark seems like it will ripen unusually early this year (most other varieties are a bit late due to cool spring), maybe because fruit set is light.
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Here is the fruit off of the mystery tree that was sold to me as a Double Delight nectarine but the flowers were definitely not double flowers. Super tasty yellow nectarine. Semi freestone I think.
Anyone have a Double Delight that is ripening this early? Trying to figure out what this is still.
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Was just up there on the ladder myself today!
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Picked up two very nice Montmorency cherry trees on clearance today for just $13 each. I’ll keep them in pots and baby them till fall and than plant them out at my property. 
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Anyone else here have a fruiting Kidd’s Orange Red? Mine is fruiting for the first time this year. I’m amazed how much of it’s shape it takes from the Delicious parent.
Very dry here. We haven’t had rain for 2 weeks now, and this is the season of the mesoscale convective complex in normal years, with storms usually hitting at night and dumping 1"+. My yard is starting to go dormant. It never did that last year. We had so much rain it grew right through July and August.
When do folks start thinking about watering trees? I have watered my new trees, and my Redhaven that got hammered by leaf curl. When do folks start watering semi-dwarf and dwarf apples?
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My rule of thumb is to hope for the ideal of 1"/week and to supplement when it goes to < 1/2"/week.
Established trees can handle some water stress, but best to avoid that especially if they have fruit this year or you want some next.
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Drip tape is out and running, hot and dry here too. Snap peas are short podded and not as tasty as wet years.
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Same here…we went from epic rains/flooding to very dry the last 10 days…today was like a dust bowl with the 40mph winds… Rain chance overnight, but looks north of here…same for tomorrow. Hit 96F today…which was a record. Dews were lowish (60F) so didn’t feel that humid. I’ll be watering all my potted plants daily in this heat.
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Irrigating my apples is a hard call for me. Since I have a perennial spring/creek that runs right through the edge of my backyard/orchard it is unlikely that the lower trees need any water. The bluegrass is still doing fine there. The call I have to make is whether the higher trees and those on more dwarfing roots need water.
I’m contemplating digging a bucket into the creek/spring and borrowing a 1" 2-stroke water pump that my grandpa has to irrigate the (south and west facing) trees and, if it can hack it, the front yard. Not sure if there is enough flow in the creek to keep up or not.
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As hot, dry and windy as it is, I think I’d err on the side of watering them. Supposed to stay this way for the next week. Put the mower away, mowing heat and water stress bluegrass will kill it.[quote=“warmwxrules, post:1678, topic:8428”]
Dews were lowish (60F) so didn’t feel that humid.
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This afternoon here the sky changed from a sharp cobalt blue to a milky light blue and visibility dropped. Don’t know the dew pt here but when the chickens are all holding their wings out. Still a good breeze but humidity is rising.
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I was at my cottage and took a photo of the leaves of my tri-color beech. I’m a push over for variegated plants.
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Spent many minutes this morning picking strawberries that I planted on a whim in the spring last year…
Home grown strawberries have strawberry flavor/aroma that store bought ones lack.
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It’s dry here too. My well water has to much lime. I’m going to start treating it so the plants and trees don’t turn yellow. I ordered a liquid ph testing solution, and ph down acid. For now I am adding two tablespoons of vinegar to a 2 1/2 gallon bucket and hoping for the best. I normally have stored rain water but forgot to turn my drip irrigation off and it dump my barrels. I have received my acid yesterday, but the tracking says between the 14th and 24th on my testing solution. They added rain to the forecast for Tuesday Wed, and Thursday. So far every little system has gone north or south of me!
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