That’s wild! I noticed today one of the trees is finally thinning out, I expect they’ll all follow.
I bench grafted 49 apples and 1 pear today, some replacement trees for the existing plantings, and some new varieties on various root stocks. Now I have to dig a few root stock varieties to complete my bench grafting and then it’s on to field grafting.
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As of today, this is what I think will bloom this spring:
OHxF97
- Japanese Golden Russet
- Moonglow
B.118
- 39 Parallel
- Almata
- Chestnut Crab
- Cortland
- Dolgo
- Golden Russet
- Haralson
- Harrison
- Hyslop Crab
- McIntosh
- Red Astrachan
- Red Vein Crab
- Reinette des Carmes
- Smokehouse
- Wagener
- Red Westfield Seek-No-Further
- Whitney
- Wickson
- Winekist
- Winter Banana
M.111
- 39th Parallel
- Arkansas Black
- Ashmead’s Kernel
- Black Twig
- Enterprise
- Fameuse / Snow
- Gloria Mundi
- Golden Delicious
- Golden Nugget
- Hewe’s / Virginia Crab
- Liberty
- Mollie’s Delicious
- Mott’s Pink
- Muscat (but what Muscat is it?)
- November Peach
- Roxbury Russet
- Suncrisp / NJ55
- Sweet 16
M.106
- Carrie’s Mystery
- Centennial Crab
- Chestnut Crab
- Connell Red
- Dolgo Crab
- Golden Delicious Spur Type
- Holstein
- Lady Sweet
- Niedzwetzkyana
- Porter’s Perfection
- Reinette Clochard
- Roberts Crab
- Sheepnose / Black Gilliflower
- Whitney
- Wickson
OHxF87
- Japanese Golden Russet
- Moonglow
- Spartlett
OHxF333
- Ayers
- Bartlett
- German A
- Japanese Golden Russet
- Kieffer
- Moonglow
- Nova
- Patten
P.18
- Baldwin
- Campfield
- Delcon
- Empire
- Golden Winesap
- Grimes Golden
- Le Bret
- Macoun
- Manitoba Spy
- November Peach
- Red Stayman
- Winter Banana
M.7
- Burgundy
- Clark’s Crab
- Crimson Beauty
- Crimson Gold
- Geneva Crab
- Hubbardston Nonesuch
- Lady Sweet
- Newtown Spitzenberg
- Oliver
- Prairie Spy
G.890
- Honey Gold
- Lobo
- Oriole
- Red Baron
- Richelieu
G.210
- Dudley
- Hawkeye
- Kidd’s Orange Red
- Mutsu / Crispin
- Paula Red
- Rambour d’Hiver
- Swayzie
- Wolf River
G.222
- Apricot
- Belle de Boskoop
- Breaky
- Cherry Cox
- Jefferie’s
- Lodi
- Nova Easygro
- Ozark Gold
- Orlean’s Reinette
- Rambo Red Summer
- Spartan
- White Winter Pearmain
B.9
- Jonagold
- Wolf River
Quince
- Clapp’s Favorite
- Luscious
- Moonglow
- Patten
- Spartlett
- Winter Nellis
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Blooms are starting, many trees with first year blooms, other trees that have bloomed before are loaded with blooms this year. I’ll try to photograph and label the varieties if people want to see them.
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Replacement Grafts
(replacing failed grafts or trees)
B.118
- Dolgo 1
- Niedzwetzkyana 1
M.111
- Calville Blanc d’Hiver 2
- Campfield 2
- Canadian Strawberry 2
- Centennial Crab 2
- Egremont Russet 1
- Muscat (which one?) 2
- Roxbury Russet 1
M.106
- Adam’s Pearmain 2
- Cinnamon Spice 1
- Elstar 1
- Lady Sweet 1
P.18
- Golden Nugget 1
- Manitoba Spy 1
G.890
- Nittany 1
M.7
- Oliver 1
G.210
- Rambo Red Summer 1
- Vixen 1
G.222
- Chenango Strawberry 1
B.9
- Andy’s Wild Seedling 1
- Hawaii 1
- Northern Spy 1
New Varieties
B.118
- Graniwinkle 3
M.111
- Opalescent 2
- Rubinette 3
OHxF87
- Flemish Beauty 2
- Maxine 2
G.222
- Freyburg 3
- King of Tompkins County 3
- Peck Pleasant 3
- Zabergau Reinette 3
B.9
- Jonathan 3
- Melon 3
- Ribston Pippin 3
G.214
- Frostbite 3
- Gravenstein 3
- Jonamac 3
- Snowsweet 3
- Starkey 3
- Trailman Crab 3
- Zabergau Reinette 3
- Zestar! 3
Mahaleb
- Montmorency Sour Cherry 3
29 replacement apple
57 new apple
4 new pear
3 additional cherry
93 grafts
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Any real standouts of the varieties you’ve tried, any real duds/disappointments?
Pumpkin Russet and Russet King (sport of King of Tompkings County) both on M.111 weren’t happy here, saw significant die back every winter to the point where the trees died (but there’s a Pumpkin Russet 50 yards from the orchard on wild root stock that’s doing well (?). Mullins Yellow Seedling (Original Golden Delicious) sees significant winter kill here as well, although this winter was mild enough it came through better than before. Golden Delicious and GD Spur Type do well. Redfield on M.111 isn’t at all happy here, but on P.18 it’s doing better. Calville Blanc d’Hiver keeps getting knocked back, but I have a tree at the house a mile away and it’s doing quite well. Campfield has been difficult to graft successfully, Dabinett and Doux Normandie are slooooow growers, but Dabinett has one bloom this year. Canadian Strawberry, Roxbury Russet, Enterprise, Mollies Delicious, Herefordshire Redstreak, Harry Masters Jersey, and Somerset Redstreak seem very prone to fireblight, but as the trees get bigger they’re doing better.
I have many varieties that haven’t bloomed or born fruit yet, but here are some of the trees I enjoy for various reasons: Cox Orange Pippin, Cortland, Wagener, Wickson Crab, Arkansas Black, Black Twig, Fameuse/Snow, Ginger Gold, Hewe’s / Virginia Crab, Mott’s Pink, November Peach, NJ55/Suncrisp, Sweet 16, Ayers Pear, Magness Pear, Nova Pear, Connell Red, Golden Delicious Spur Type, Golden Nugget, Red Stayman, Porter’s Perfection, York Imperial, Red Baron, Orlean’s Reinette, and Jonagold. Not much experience with them yet and I expect impressions will change as more trees begin to bear fruit.
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I was under the impression that King Russet was a russeted sport of King of Pippins. Are you maybe referring to Whitney King Russet as a sport of Tompkings County?
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You’re correct, King Russet is a sport of King of the Pippins, but Russet King is a sport of King of Tompkins County.
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I may have peaches on my China Pearl and Contender. Never had peach trees before, are the new fruitlets white?
Our Contender peach fruitlets are not as whitish as are those on a George IV tree, a white peach (like the China Pearl).
Contender
George IV
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Thanks John, yours are ahead of mine! Looks like I may have fruit set, my blooms weren’t much to look at, but I’ll take what I can get. My Carolina Gold isn’t a happy tree this spring, leafing out very late. I picked up a new Intrepid on different root stock from Cummins and still have the original seedling root stock from the first one that I can graft if I can find some scion, maybe I can bud it later this summer.
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I sprayed with the new (to me) sprayer today, I was able to do the entire orchard (660 trees). I used about 180 gals, more than what I was using before, but well worth it for the time savings. As I finished up, I had some engine issues, but it appears to just be a missing spring on the throttle. The spray gun is pretty nice, its spray pattern changes the further you squeeze the trigger. I caught myself stopping a couple times to adjust the spray pattern at the end of the nozzle, then remembered it’s all in the trigger. Glad I can get this done in a day, it was taking me two and getting old fast. As a $900 used purchase I’m very happy with this Kings Sprayer, but I’m not sure I’d want to pay $3,000 for this new, seems like that’s getting close to the cost of a 3 point pto driven air blast sprayer.
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Andy, I’m sure you’ve been asked this a thousand times but what are your plans for the fruit of 660 trees?
When I got to 50 I realized this was no longer a family and friends share solution. I can’t imagine how much work this is for you. Then again, considering all the labor and money to get you this far, how incredibly rewarding to finally get the fruit of your labors–pun intended. Congrats!!
Well, about 40% of the apple varieties I have are cider apples, the remaining 60% are eating/baking/storage/multi-use. I’m not sure if I can market anything to cider producers, I’ve got more of a “collection” than a commercial planting. I may not have enough volume of any one variety to interest them. For the most part I have 3 of each variety (just counted a couple days ago, I’m @ 176 varieties of apple, 20 pear, 5 peach and 1 cherry). Some of those varieties are on 2 different root stocks, so 6 of those trees. And some varieties simply have more than 3 each, and some less.
I really don’t want anything to do with a PYO, I worked in service industries for years and I no longer have the patience for the general public’s BS. If I can wholesale to local farm stands that would be good. I hope to do some of my own brewing, not sure how that will develop. I would be interested in selling specific cider or cider blends to personal brewers, but that would require significant storage space with refrigeration.
Although I may have had some significant fruit this year, two things have hurt production. We had temps drop to 16.3F during tight bud. I thought things fared well, but in retrospect I think I had more damage than I thought. Then I screwed up spraying. I had to change insecticides this year and one of the new insecticides noted its efficacy was improved if sprayed in combination with horticultural oil. Problem is, I was also spraying Captan. I was 3/4 of the way through spraying the orchard when, in the middle of spraying a tree, I realized Captan is not to be sprayed with oil. So about 500 of my 660 trees ended up with phytotoxicity, causing a lot of fruit drop, and significant stress to the trees. All is well now, things bounced back, but they sure did look like crap for a while. I still have some fruit, but I’m sure I lost a significant amount due to my stupidity.
I really need to do an update video on the orchard, I was looking at older photo’s / video’s and realized how much things have grown.
Regina, I was meaning to harass you! You really need to post your YouTube videos on the orchard to the public. You could post just 1x a month, and it would help market your business.
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I am amazed by the amount of work you have put into your project. I agree with you about PYO. I like sharing my orchard with others but have no interest in opening it up for that purpose.
Interesting comparison of some our issues. I sprayed imidan fairly close together but after one spray in particular, young fruit on pretty much every tree ended up turning yellow and falling off. I did add spinosad and indar and I know I measured correctly so I’m not sure what happened. It was heartbreaking because almost every new variety with first time fruit was lost. The trees looked like they had little yellow Christmas balls. The only ones that survived were those which had pollinated early and had some significant size on them. Many of those have unusual russeting I had some wooly apple aphids and I was determined to nip them in the bud. I nipped them alright.
I have considered posting videos but they are so amateur and perhaps would not hold any interest for others. I compare that to your amazing early flyover video and music and it’s night and day. I still watch yours now and then to inspire me. It always does.
Thanks for your detailed answer to me and others.
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I have a video out on mowing the orchard, you can skip the tractor prep and go to 7:37 time mark. It gives a few peeks at the current status of the orchard, and I’ll show more in some upcoming video:
Orchard Maintenance : Mowing (youtube.com)
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Little more of the orchard in this video on weed control in the orchard: Orchard Maintenance: Weed Control - YouTube
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