Jujubes have actually ruined “average” apples for me. I gave away all the apples picked yesterday. Of what is ripe right now, the only ones I’m at all interested in are Zestars. The William’s Pride is a large tree with a number of old grafts. I’ve been putting tape on the branches that are WP, to make sure I know what I can remove this winter.
I’ve got way too many apple trees as things stand now, so I’ll need to figure out which to graft over this winter and what varieties to use (Goldrush, Golden Russet, Evercrisp, Honeycrisp, maybe Sweet Sixteen and Kidds Orange Red, etc). I can probably graft over half my trees without issue.
Thankfully, the peaches aren’t bad. At 12-13 brix they could be higher, but they have good flavor and enough acid to be interesting. As several people in this thread said, I should have thinned more, as I’d rather have 20lbs of 16 brix peaches than 65lbs of 13 brix. Maybe I’ll go out and thin the Carolina Gold more, which is about 2 weeks from ripe.
I think it may impact the size as well, not just the brix. When I was putting the tree back together again, I knocked off a lot of fruit (both intentionally and by accident). Now, 3 weeks later, the fruit on the damaged part of the tree is much larger (over half a pound each), while the fruit on branches that were never broken (and not thinned as much) is much smaller- maybe baseball sized.
Of course, it may not just be the thinning that increased the size. The broken branches could be similar to girdling to speed ripening, and increase size and brix. At least of jujubes. I came across studies which talked about this and have been experimenting with it this year. Maybe ~40 girdled and partially girdled branches, spread over ~100 jujube trees at half a dozen sites. So far, it has increased both the size and number of fruits, though that varies by cultivar. It also increases the incidence of broken branches, as more fruit-set and a weaker branch isn’t a good combination.
I’ve only picked about 1/3 of the fruit, as it doesn’t look to be taking much damage or getting swiped by anything. So far, the brix has varried from 13-16, so I’m not in danger of an orchard invasion by Alan. But, the 16 brix one was pretty good, especially the texture being non-melting. It was an especially nice change of pace from all the other peaches I’ve had recently which are melting (soft & juicy).
While I’m not thrilled that the tree broke, it, along with the flood of other peaches from trees which were barely thinned enough, is a good lesson in quality vs quantity. I’ve been giving away a lot of perfectly serviceable peaches (and summer apples, though I don’t get so many repeat requests for most of them), but I’d really prefer to get half as much fruit, but at higher quality. Do you think it is too late to markedly improve the quality of apples? I’ve got some heavily laden trees…
I suspect the same rule applies to apples- why wouldn’t it. If they haven’t reached full sweetness than they are still being served sugar by nearby leaves, right?
One reason I’m a lousy scientist is that when it seems obvious something worked I don’t bother to test it, I give the treatment to all my trees.
I’ve been thinning apples in orchards I manage every working day and will continue to do so as long as branches are threatened by the weight. I believe I’m also increasing the brix and size of the fruit that remains.
16 is not sweet enough for a low-acid fruit to thrill my palate, so yeah, you are safe.
I haven’t been doing measurements of my fruit this year- nothing has blown me away but since the beginning of August, quality has been adequate- although a point or two below a really good year. I’m harvesting Messina right now that are up to a pound in weight which looks amazing or silly. The tree is fully loaded but never required much thinning this year. Most of the peaches are perfectly clean due to my summer sprays every other week.
Of course, people not jaded by years of growing great fruit often claim that even the peaches I’m growing this year are the best they’ve ever tasted. The problem here is way too many split pits which has led to wasting a lot of fruit that rots from the inside out. I don’t think I’ve eaten a single peach or nect from my orchard without a split pit.
@alan That’s because they have all moved to Chesapeake VA. LOL
They got almost ALL my Goldrush apples. ALL my peaches. Some of my pears.
Next year . . . Early Spring . . . TRAPS.
Are you sure it was coons doing all the damage?. In 60 years of growing fruit (well there were 15 years in the middle of that when I lived in NYC and didn’t), so in 45 years of growing fruit in coon territory I’ve never had them eat green fruit- only rodents have done that to me, mostly squirrels.
If you tire of killing them you can also use baffles. I’ve started a new orchard with trees all trained to be baffled because of war fatigue. If I ate the meat, it would be another thing.
I’m only guessing it was the raccoons. Haven’t seen a single deer this summer. Or any other animals, for that matter. Just raccoons. And a fox. We don’t have squirrels this year - (because we have lots of hawks, I suppose.) Could be possums, I guess. ??? I’ll need a game camera to verify.
Whatever stole the fruit was exceptionally neat. No broken limbs. No half-eaten fruit on the ground. It’s very odd.
Bigfoot?
Raccoons and possums enjoy dining out and don’t do to-go. They are also sloppy and tend to leave some partially eaten fruit, or in the case of possums, unripe fruit on the ground. Raccoons always seem to break some smallish branches. It only takes one sneaky squirrel and my guess is that’s what’s happening. We’ve lost most of our squirrel population as well, but a client just lost a bunch of pears to one. However, we seem to have acorns this season, so any out there will likely soon be focused on gathering, eating and burying them. Next year they will be rebuilding their population- if food supply permits.
When racoon takes peaches you should see number of peaches laying on the ground with significant scratch marks. That’s a sign to watch for!
I guess racoons are using their claws to grab and take down peaches. Usually peaches have small twigs still attached to them.
I was able to pull the tree partway up from the top of the deck with a metal cable, but it wasn’t until I used an old hose tied to the tree that I was able to get it mostly upright. I tied the hose to the tree, then ran it over the frame of the deck. At that point, I hung from the hose and my body weight gradually pulled the tree up, at which point I tied it off.
I was then able to straighten the top, from up on the deck. Normally I wouldn’t want a tree to get this tall, but having it stick up about 6 feet above the deck is perfect for picking. And I can spray down onto it from up on the deck.
While this has worked out pretty well, I didn’t actually plant the tree there. It is a seedling from a White Lady peach, which I had in a nearby pot about 10 years ago.
