Harvest times / plant growth is strange in Kansas this year. Typically my seedless concords ripen in July and yet we are in September and the concords are not ripe. The Aronia’s are ripe on time this month. Throughout the year I’ve noticed erratic plant behavior such as this. I spoke with a gardener on another forum that reported his concords are ripe but stayed green this year in California. Anyone else have unusual things like this happening?
On the East coast, in RI I am amazed every year as to how different the weather is. My Concords, are just starting to turn purple, right on time. Last year they were very late. My plum trees are starting to lose their leaves. (the trees that did not produce fruit this year).
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My peach harvest time is off. In the past, my red haven ripes in mid August, Elberta just a few days behind red haven, then a week or two or even longer later, my Georgia bell.
This year I harvest red haven in August, Georgia bell after that. even after I finished harvest Georgia bell, Elberta was still not ready.
I did notice Elberta’s fruit development was behind schedule the whole season.
Don’t know why this is the case. My Elberta and Georgia bell are side by side, so even microclimate should be the same.
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Sara, my Elbertas are way behind too this year. They are very large, very green and like small boulders. I’ve never seen them this green this late in the summer. Guess we’ll have really end of Sept. peaches this year.
That’s very similar to my experience. Some things should have been ripe over a month ago still are not whereas things that should not be ripe are. I’ve also had trees not bear this year that typically would have and others produced fruit normally. The oddest thing is late in the summer I got fruit blooms that are producing a second crop that will not have time to ripen. What’s odd is the trees producing the second crop never did that before.
Clark,
My Concords were very unproductive this year. But the few I did get ripened right on schedule, Aug 15 here.
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I’ ve noticed smaller than average fruit this year also. The biggest mystery which may be attributed to weather is lack of certain insects. Im seeing very high numbers of praying mantis ,no lady bugs, high numbers of ants , high mosquito numberd,low grasshoppers,low squash bugs,and low japanese beetles.
For the second straight year, Japanese Beetles were TERRIBLE here.
Clark, My seedless Concords (which again are 100% seedless yet again), aren’t ripe either. Even more telling, is that my old school seeded Concords also are not ripe. They’ve been smelling great and looking ripe for nearly a month, but they are way, way behind. They are still sour and the weather should indicate a good year for super sweet grapes. Keep in mind this is Z6 here…I just can’t get a logical grip or explanation for what the hell is going on here.
I should mention it’s been a fabulous year…I got LOADS of them, and bigger and fatter than ever before. If they don’t sweeten up (and I’m nearly certain they won’t) it will all be for nothing. Crazy!!!
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I have very few this year as well. I will miss making grape pie this fall!
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Appleseed,
My seeded concords,niagra etc ripened in july.My seedles concords as i think you know know always have seeds and did this year. They are ripening in reverse order. I must admit im alarmed by the strange behaviors of the plants. We have had plenty of rain this year but the grapes sre small.
Matt,
Why do you think the jp numers were up?
Matt its clear we are living in the same state, my JB have also been way way up for the 2nd year in a row. Maybe they like colder winters. I finally put down milky spore, I bought it several years ago but the JBs were never bad enough to bother putting it down.
I am also having some odd harvest dates, the weather didn’t follow the normal pattern of heat/rain. Purple Heart has always been several weeks ahead of Satsuma plum, but this year they overlapped. Some apples ripened way way early.
Clark, I have no idea.
@scottfsmith I just put down another application of milky spore. Should be a good time as weatherman says the rains are coming tonight.
Summer In NY has been hot and dry. I’m still waiting for my Dapple Dandy to ripen. Anyone in the Northeast have rpie ones by mid September?
I’m already eating Liberties! They should be a month or so later, but they are right on the heels of the Ginger Golds. State Fair came off three weeks ago. Pixie Crunch are still holding on to the tree.
I need to start watching my pears more closely, but I think they’ll be OK for another week or so. In the meantime, prunes are coming along without a frost or even much chill. If memory serves (always a question) even my garlic was early.
We had a very hot two weeks in June, but other than that it has been a reasonably temperate summer. I don’t know what’s going on.
As suspected many of you have confirmed its not just Kansas experiencing very unusual weather. My entire life i’ve been accustomed to the destructive swarms of grasshoppers that plague most of Kansas in July that never arrived this year. My test pears crops were blemish free without spray. Our vegetable crops were smaller than normal yield. My goal is not to figure out specifically why this unusual weather is occuring but rather plan crops based on current weather. If JB for example are less of a problem over time here berry yields will increase and become more profitable to grow. Perhaps we can chalk these weather patterns up to el nino.
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I wish it were as straightforward as that. Making plans that worked would be so much easier. There is an ebb and flow to insect populations. Sometimes there is a clear explanation, but sometimes the reasons are unknown.
As an imaginary example, Perhaps the predators for the grasshoppers and JB’s were there earlier or more numerous last year and reduced the amount that matured this year. So, the beneficials, whether insects or insectivores, got their bellies full and reproduced well and thus became even more abundant this year. Then this year the # of predators is up, but food source is down. They don’t reproduce so well. Two years or so down the line you wind up slammed by the ones you don’t want.
Of course, that’s not all that goes into it. There’s weather, migratory pattern changes of some things, how much and what kinds of treatments are used in your surrounding areas and even farther, and even variations on what crops are grown where (which changes feeding availability). The variables are too broad and numerous for me to be able to account for the annual outcomes. But together they wind up creating an ebb and flow in the individual pest populations.
This year I happen to have grasshoppers like I’ve never seen before. Not swarms, but in damaging amounts. It’s an issue I haven’t dealt with before.
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Muddy,
Good points some of the variables that go into making wise planting / growing decisions definitely change.
