What's happening today - 2018 edition

Since we just rang in the New Year a few minutes ago here in the East, I thought I’d start a new daily happenings thread.

Feel free to post what’s going on in your world today regarding: ordering of fruit plants/trees, gardening, grafting, planting, pruning, harvesting, and whatever else is relevant.

I"ll start by saying pretty soon I’m planning to start ordering the fruit trees and plants I want to put in the ground for this spring. We’re going to just try a few trees, prob pluots, but I am planning on getting quite a few berry plants- namely raspberries and blackberries, along with maybe some hybrids of both.

It’s also time to plan on what kind of veggies we’re going to plant and where in our various plots. This will be our fifth season growing them. We have kinda figured out what works here and what doesn’t. So, I hope to really consolidate our plantings this year. Beans, corn, cukes and peppers did great last year, whereas tomatoes were hit hard by deer, and we got virtually no reg or sweet potatoes. So this year, we prob won’t grow as many cukes or peppers. Beans, corn, tomatoes and taters will be top priorities. Might try some watermelons this year, along with pumpkins and a few other veggies.

We amended all of our plots last year, and we just got back our soil test results last week, and it looks like we got the pH up on all the plots, all are now around 6.0 and above whereas last year some were in the 5.0 range. Other nutrients like P, K and Mg are all up, as well as Ca, so we hope that means a better harvest this year.

The only fruit we may get from our new plantings are strawberries and maybe a few apples.

Alrighty, enough of me, let’s hear it from the rest of y’all. Here’s hoping for a fruitful, bountiful, enlightening, prosperous and blessed year for everyone!

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I ordered a Romeo bush cherry from Hirts last week, thinking that they wouldn’t ship it until spring. It showed up on my doorstep Saturday. Now I’m wondering how I can keep this thing alive until spring, it’s currently -5F outside so I can’t heel it in. I guess I will leave it in a pot in the garage until everything thaws.

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That doesn’t speak well of them!

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We started the new year with new lambs born between 12 and 1 this morning.
Yesterday got three of the trees being replaced dug out and given to a neighbor.
I’m going over seeds that need to be ordered, and planing new grafting projects with pepers and tomatoes, and peaches.

Here is my youngest with the new babies. Boy has white on face, sis has all black head.

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Early blueberry flowers about to open up!

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honey berry USA did the same to me. i ordered a juliet cherry and they sent it to me mid dec. too late to plant. i did the same thing and wrapped the pot in a old blanket. as long as its dormant it should be fine. water it occasionally.

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Decided to go out in the 10 degrees and snow to check over the orchard and try to get a scion count. I learned something new. Triple tie the ID TAGS.

Here’s one that some critter wanted for lunch.

Also, should tuck inside the cage.

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That’s odd that a critter would gnaw on a metal tag. How much snow do y’all have? We have just a dusting on the ground, some of it has actually melted a little with the sun out.

About 4 inches.

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A photo of my methley

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Ordered 100 new strawberry plants for spring. I like the Mara de Bois, but I want a June bearing one so I can get enough berries to process. I chose Galletta.

Now I am moving on to blueberries, apple scions, plums scions, and pear. It never ends!!! LOL.

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I stopped using shiny aluminum tags because something was stealing them, think it was a raccoon based on my recollection of raccoon behavior from Where the Red Fern Grows.

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I had the same issue last year so I re-did them and secured the heck out of them. Now instead of stealing, they eat them. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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Today I discovered that on the coldest night so far, squirrels have managed to breach my greenhouse and the temperature has dropped to 31, sigh. From the window of the house it looks like I lost the lettuce and cabbage that I was going to plant out after the cold snap. I am going to have to go out there with screen and cardboard to seal it again until I have a more permanent fix.

Working on convincing my wife that we need a nectarine tree and that we have the space for it. She was skeptical so I’ll have to keep working on her!

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There’s always the, “Plant and hope they don’t notice,” method.

Not that I would know anything about that. :lying_face:

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Bob you might consider getting some inexpensive heavier gauge wire for those tags. You just have to watch them for girdling but you won’t find tagless trees.

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You could cover the tag with blue painters tape and write with a paint pen on the tape. In a few years when the paint or tape wear out, you will still have the info embossed on the aluminum tag and can do it again. This is still not a perfect system, but it may be a little better. FWIW blue painters tape holds up fairly well but sharpie writing will not last more than a few months on the tape in the summer. I assume a paint pen will last a year or two.

@Quill and @Ztom when the weather warms up a bit… I will get out and redo all of them. I have some stainless lock wire that I get in a spool at Harbor Freight that is really tough. I use it on some of my other tags… I should just redo all of them however, the blue tape might be a way to get them from stop chewing. I hope I can read what was on this tag… I know it was an apple with two grafts, lower being one and upper something else… I will figure it out… geeeeze… always something. Thanks All!

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Suggest you plant it when the ground thaws…be that mid January or in March. But, having said that, I have 20 or so apples in pots setting outside with no protection at minus 2 last night and don’t expect I’ll lose any of them. bb

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