I’ve been whittling away at my 1000 apple bench grafts and it occurred to me before I get much further (I’ve done about 150) that I might want to tap into the wisdom of the folks here on the forum to get ideas for what might be interesting to know years down the line.
Basically, the situation is that, in addition to regular labels, I have added a tag to each tree with a unique ID number. Then this number is used to track the tree in a spreadsheet. So far, for each tree, I am keeping track of
Variety
Rootstock
Name of grafter
Type of graft
Date grafted
Notes by grafter
Date planted in nursery bed
Other notes
Date moved from bed to final location
Once the trees are in their final location I plan to track when they are pruned, what they are treated with, diseases/pests observed, and exact location using GPS data. If anything interesting happens with a particular tree that will be added to the ongoing list of notes about it (its life story). Who knows? Maybe someday I will start to give them each a name based on their stories and character.
I’m a programmer/math nerd so I plan on potentially using this data for future analysis/projects. Examples might include
Going back and aligning dates with historic weather data to look for trends in graft success, disease, etc.
Creating an interactive digital map of the orchard from GPS data where each tree can be selected and read about (story, name, data, my personal thoughts about the variety/rootstock, a link to orange pippin/pomiferous, etc.)
Creating QR codes for each tree for visitors to scan to see the above info/ask questions (Q/A forum for each tree)
So many stupid things like randomly generating a “favorite number/band” for each tree
I’m sure I will come up with plenty of other uses for this juicy data but, while I haven’t gotten too far, I thought I should put out the call for more ideas for things to record about each tree.
What are things you guys would like to see measured/tested? I’m planning to try some sketchy grafts and note what I did to see what I can get away with. I know this is not particularly scientific but it is still better than nothing. I will of course share the data with anyone who cares.
I am no numbers whiz, but keep notes of frost each day starting in April. I also note first frost in fall, which is much easier to determine. My own observations have shown a lengthening of the growing season.
Besides that, I keep notes on when bloom commences (10%), full bloom (90%) and end of bloom (90% petal fall) along with harvest dates & Brix. Numbers of fruit are also noted, easy since my trees are still so young. In years to come I may note pounds of fruit.
All sounds good…but if you start more than you can keep up with, it isn’t going to be all that great an endeavor. You are much more youthful apparently, so if you have time and energy, go for it.
Brix is a good one! I need to start measuring that now that I am getting a decent harvest this year.
Bloom dates have been really hard for me to track consistently since its so different for each variety. Makes it even more difficult when you have a dozen species of fruit, lol. I only track the 10% bloom now.
“The growing season here typically lasts for 5.4 months (164 days), from around April 26 to around October 8, rarely starting before April 8 or after May 18, and rarely ending before September 21 or after October 24.”
It’s saying that on average you have 164 days of non-freezing temperatures.
The black line I believe is growing temperature probability. So after May 18th its 90% certain that you won’t have frost and around mid-September you can begin to expect freezing temperatures.
Sorry. I just meant what I should use this information for? Like should this govern when I graft? Is there any advice someone would give based on this? etc.
The weatherspark.com graphs are accurate for this region. Thank you for the link.
I’m glad to have gotten a refractometer from a retired orchardist for about half the going price. I also try to remember to measure the sugar levels of apples when eating the last of the season/storage for comparison to freshly picked.
Beginning bloom dates can be hard to determine even when checking only a dozen kinds of trees. Any record within a day either way is better than none year by year.
It just gives you a break down of your local climate info, kind of like knowing your growing zone (5a, 7b, etc.) except way more detailed.
You can use it to make rough plans - with a margin of error of a week or so. But when it comes to more temperature and weather sensitive things like spray schedules, grafting, etc. you need to pay attention to the actual weather 7 day weather predictions.
Good question. I’m still trying to figure that out. I’m mostly trying to test things, learn about operating on this scale, and reforest a lot of sandy land for grazing miniature sheep under. I’m planting 1000 trees but that is mostly because of bulk discounts. I started grafting this weekend and I’ve so far only gotten through 235. I think I’ll stop after around 500 and do the rest next year.
Our farm is somehow a bit of a tourist destination which is partially why some of these ideas make a bit of sense but you are right that most of them are pretty out there. In reality, I just like to make things like the GPS map. Likely nobody would use it.
I don’t think this is out there at all. In fact, this is pretty much what major university breeding programs do. It may be wise to reach out to a few of them. I’m probably nowhere near your computer skills, but I use Power BI at work for analyzing production data, and it seems like I find a new use for data every week. Gather as much as you can, but think about clever ways to either simplify or automate data collection. I’ll bet those programs have undergrads do all the grunt work.
Imagine writing a little program where you barcode each tree then carry a clipboard with a list of barcoded operations (prune, different sprays, fertilizers, etc). Scan your tree then scan all your operations into it. Dates are automatic, so is temp, wind, etc. You’d have so much useful information the rest of us would be drooling! Maybe those university programs need what you’re about to develop and would buy it.
