I love Maine, I go there once a year, but I’m not sure I can take the cold in the winter.
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Every season I buy 6 3lb bags of cherries because I don’t like the hassle growing them. $ 10.00 a bag, Washington cherries. I am good till next year.
I would prefer homegrown peaches, the fancy ones only, than finish with my homegrown mandarins and Pomelo’s.Good enough for me, oh forgot pomegranates from Karen orchard, in return mowing her yard with my zeroturn machine.
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Not mentioned is the measuring stick for success. As far as learning, adding new varieties, and building infrastructure, it has been a splendid year for me.
I did cheat and most of those new varieties were bought at retail but also most of them are already being propagated, I should get my money back next year.
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just put in 4 10in. aurora honeyberries grown from seed that a friend gave me. they were only 2in. and very fragile when i got them. hit them a few times with fish/ kelp emulsion and they took right off. they were crossed with indigo gem so there should be some interesting distinctions between fruits.
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7A Greater Philadelphia Area here…
The good:
- Persimmons didn’t drop all their fruit like last year so the tree is absolutely loaded, we’ll see if the squirrels figure out this fruit
- My war on voles was successful so raspberries and melons are doing well so far
- Apples and pears look good so far, I think I did a good job pruning and thinning this year
- Muscadines are loaded, expect a good harvest if nothing bothers them
- Got to taste my Juliet sour cherry and very happy with the flavor, just need to net it better next year
- Got to taste my Tomcot apricot for the first time this year
The bad:
- Even with my extra effort in spraying plum curculio did a huge amount of damage on my plums, and then birds came in to peck holes and finish off the fruit
- Didn’t have the time / motivation to do a good job netting so all berry crops got decimated by birds: blueberries, currants, gooseberries
- I really suck at growing strawberries because my Mara Des Bois are all very bland and diseased
- Did a terrible job at starting my tomatoes and melons this year so most of my seedlings died, had to buy replacements
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It has been hotter and dryer this year than the last 4 or 5 years… but…
Had great harvest of strawberries goumi raspberries logans blackberries and blueberries this year. My blueberries and blackberries are about done now.
In the veggie garden okra and tomatoes galore…
Got figs and jujubes to look forward to and fall raspberries.
Not much happening on apples this year… my 3 yr old gold rush has a few small apples on it… my other 2… 3 yr olds did not bloom this spring (akane and hudson gg). My early mc had a great year last year but deciced to skip this year.
I yanked 3 peach trees and 2 honeyberry bushes… it was just time for them to go.
Better things will replace them… eventually.
TNHunter
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It’s middle of the road here in coastal CA. This is not one of those rare >1000 CH ones like last year but still enough to make most of the varieties bloom (may be with the exception of Baby Crawford). Although, only a few set fruit. I still don’t know if that’s due to a couple of late frosts or because the grafts/trees are 1-2 years old.
I’m having a bumper year with plums/pluots with around 20 varieties ripening. Peaches - everything was going great - No OFM or peach curl like last year, but when they finally ripened they were watery (brix ~10-12). I realized the roots are more extensive than I thought and got the water from nearby trees. Hoping the late ripening Kaweah makes up for mid-season bust.
Apricots are the worst. Good set on Cot-N-Candy and Losse Blenheim but both suffered pit burn. TastyRich and Moorpark teased with good number of blooms but not much set. Same with other new nectarine grafts - Samarkand Gold, Silk Road, Honey Diva and Mirabelle plums.
I saw late frost for the first time in my rather short gardening experience. It froze part of the mulberry and passion fruit vine, but didn’t really kill the plants or significantly affect the harvest.
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We had a cold spring, so bloom was late, avoiding frosts, but fruit set was mediocre. It saved having to thin. Now we are in drought. For those able to water, it is probably a great year. My Romance series cherries produced about 35 gallons of cherries! Honeyberries also did well, but I lost some by not netting them soon enough. Hardly any plums setting fruit except Waneta. My apple grafts must have toasted in hot weather, as very poor results. Overall a good year if we get rain soon. At least very few mosquitoes.
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I had no plums set and a few pluots that did all got PC so bad because the PC had nothing to attack this year. Lots of pears, no apples (removed them all), some tri lite peach plums (maybe 20) but they have spot. Lots of Reliance grapes. No frost damage here. I would say its been a good year overall…just enough rain, but not too much. Temps have been fine. Not an A, but i think if i would have had more trees producing it would have been good year that is until the squirrels show up and destroy everything.
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…And not to mention,Stephen King.
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Here in Ontario (6A near Lake Ontario) it’s a mixed bag so far, apples didn’t set much fruit, however raspberries have been pumping and the grape harvest looks promising (Verona, Marquette and Petite Pearl all looking strong, Frontenac has some disease).
Tomatoes and peppers had a super late start as my seedlings failed to thrive (cold spring weather?) but seem to be catching up. On the other hand I’ve nearly given up on my corn (I think the soil was too cold when I planted), maybe got 20% germination rate.
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