Nashua Orchard Journal

Tune in next week for when blue jays have delicately extracted the seeds through the mesh.

@Hillbillyhort, I thought they might be, but I’ve done riskier things for less reward so I did it anyway.

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2 fruit trees in the ground! This apricot had already outgrown its pot, and the peach rootstock came in a pot, so in the ground they went!

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Pulled up the soil survey results for my property again today. I thought I’d share here for those of you who like the detailed info.

image

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Apricot tree today. It’s put on a solid 5" of growth in the last week.

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Planted my two surviving hybrid hazel seedlings today. Added a little armor to keep the squirrels from going after what’s left of the nuts. I still have a long way to go, but it’s starting to feel like I’m getting somewhere with my plantings.

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Some updates:

I planted my apple trees in ground and they’re doing well so far. Both are Harrison on B-118. I’ll pick one to graft over to another variety in the future. I also put in my Tomcot tree.

My pawpaw seedlings did pretty well, I think. One’s about 16" tall. I’ll plant them out next spring, and let them size up for grafting.

We had a very dry summer here, so I was pretty busy with watering. Managed to pull everything through, though. My persimmon grafting success was far better than I would have imagined with 19/21 takes. My fig trees also sized up well. We’ll see how I do over the winter. I’m not too worried about the in ground stuff, but there’s plenty of room for me to screw up the potted stuff. Fortunately, I’ve gotten some great advice here!

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Orange Red apricot finally stopped growing at 5 1/2 ft. This started the year as an 8" bare-root bench graft.

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Looking good Jay! Cheers

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Playing catch up on this thread. Everything is looking great :+1:

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@ruben @poncho65 thanks! I still have to figure out exactly where some of my trees are going. I have a pretty good idea, but I’m failing to adequately communicate my vision with my SO so that we can revise and negotiate. I started putting together a 3D model in Sketchup, taking measurements off of our city’s GIS and the oblique imagery I have access to through work. As you can see, I started working on the side yard first, then realized I should get the whole property and the buildings set before I got in too deep. I think this will be a fun winter project.

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Good luck on the setup. I usually just tell my wife what I am doing and she doesn’t usually say a lot thankfully :smile: I think she is just glad I am not asking her to help :rofl:

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I think if we had more land and I could tuck what I’m doing away somewhere, that might fly. We’re in a smallish urban/suburban lot, so there’s not a lot of room. Also, we want things to look good and be functional spaces. I have already found myself revising some of my preconceived notions as I put them in the model and see what they’ll actually look like.

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I think you’re on the right track! You actually using a blue print to create your garden/orchard landscape design.

Maybe just a little bit different way that what some of us did but it’s not bad actually is more organized by planing ahead.

Me on the other hand same thing like @Poncho65 said she doesn’t care where I planted as long as I don’t ask her to help😆 Even though I have enough space I went with the backyard orchard culture style for a few reasons and I still have way too much land to play with.

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My little patch of puntarelle chicory.

And my Opuntia fruits are nearly ripe.

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Putting the potted trees to bed.

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Working on Fort Diospyros with 1/2" hardware cloth. I have the bottom edge buried about 2" deep to discourage rodents. Once the trees are fully dormant, I’ll fill it with some insulation material. Not sure what would be best. Leaves? Straw? Wrap with Agribon?

Also, considering covering the while shebang with a trash barrel for good measure. Not sure if that will help anything, or just be overkill.

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My winecap mushroom bed seems to have developed robust mycelial growth despite the dry summer. Hopefully, I’ll get some flushes of mushrooms with all the rain we’re getting now!

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Finally added some more permanent labels to help keep track of things around here. I had some scraps of white oak from milling down a log. Shaped them into stakes and attached the tags.

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First wine caps! They made it through the drought! I think the squirrels are digging up a lot before I see them, though…

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the squirrels and bees like the mycelium also. the big ones make great seafood stuffed mushrooms!

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