Really doesn’t seem as if your bad year was so bad, except for the working part! Great going on your grafting!
Late May and early June don’t seem quite as bad when you see them from an early November cold snap!!
Standing in your metal barn, not being able to think because the hail is so loud, with 500 tomatoes and 1000 peppers and your orchard getting pounded with hail, gives you a sick feeling you don’t soon forget. Like others on the forum, good riddance to 2018 growing season.
On the grafting thing, I’m not that good, divine guidance??
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Do you remember the accession number for this variety? I see two RdR crosses in the USDA database:
PI 279325 Reine des Reinettes x 82
PI 279326 Reine des Reinettes x 1700
For me, Macoun is perfect when it drops, but a few other varieties have a tendency to overripen on the tree here. I start sampling them a few weeks before the expected ripen date. When they seem ripe, I force them off the tree. They get mealy and tasteless if left on too long. Also, a lot of my apples have produced lousy first crops, sometimes even second crops. I try to give them at least 3 crops before judgement. Surprise turnarounds have forced me to change my opinion a few times.
The thing that frustrates me most is a healthy Empire that drops most of the fruit by june. The remaining fruit is excellent, but I never get more than a bushel. I’m not sure what to do with a tree like that.
Stan, I have both. I think 82.
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I have 2 Margil grafts from ars, same banded bundle, one is weeping and one is upright. Both should bear this year. What one is the real Margil?
According to Hogg, Margil’s tree has “small and slender habit of growth”. I hadn’t seen anything in the literature about the growth being weeping vs upright.
I don’t go by shape much as an identifying tool. The rootstock, location, and how it was pruned can have more of an effect than the variety. The color of the wood is a better indicator if you are trying to tell apart dormant trees. I grew two Margils (from the same scionwood), one (M9) was small and slender like Hogg’s description and the other one (M26) was upright and vigorous.
Hail got all our melons this year. The vines were beat to the ground. Our tomatoes and peppers survived, but took a beating. Persimmon trees had lace for leaves…so did squash.
Great report! Glad things did rebound a bit. Hope you have a better 2019!
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Me too!