New York and New England region

I’ve always wondered if that business model would be viable. Do you advertise or do you get customers through word of mouth? Do you also maintain the trees for your customers? Not thinking of starting anything similar, but I once considered it.

I’ve used vinyl electric tape, at least a bit. But I don’t like that I need to come back to vinyl tape and cut it. I’ve had both vinyl tape and (more often) the green garden tape (non sticky) girdle/deform grafts after being left on for a long time. The rubber tape stretches and often rips by the end of the first year. Though it often stays on, which helps me find the grafts later,

I took a look to see if rubber splicing electrical tape comes in other colors, but don’t see any like that. The closest I see is silicone rubber, but I’m not sure if it would have the same physical characteristics. And for most grafts, the black is fine- the ones it might help with are the late peach/persimmon ones when it starts to get hot (80F+).

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Central Connecticut.

Blue Hill is a nice place! I have a friend that lives in South Blue Hill and we go to visit most years. You’re in a great part of the world for growing very high quality apples. The cool summers and stony ground seem to agree with them.

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Hey Jcguarneri,

Appeciate the comments - you are very kind. Yeah its a nice climate for apples - as a drive along most of the roads here will illustrate - you are never far from a wild apple tree - its also a nice climate for porcupines unfortunately, and they don’t agree with my trees - looks like I have another set of Ashmeads and a Harry Masters with the branches/upper trunk stripped in the last couple of days. They are canny climbers and can climb over the tubing i use for the first 3’ of the trunk. My attempts with the humane traps proved unsuccessful, so the next investment is probably an air rifle. :frowning:

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porky’s are tough animals. id recommended at least a accurate .22 and do head shots. those quills are tough to penetrate with a bullet. ive taken my fair share of them in the last 35 yrs. they will cost you dearly if your dogs find them 1st! not fun!

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David, I completely forgot to look at the co-op for apples last year when I was in town. I’ll have to check if I’m up around the right time this year. I was busy searching for good ones as we drove all over the place though (I think I mentioned my favorite find).

I staple aluminum flashing to the trunks, which stops even squirrels if you paint it with a combination of axle grease and oil. But squirrels can jump at least 5’ (depending on which squirrels and how hungry, apparently). I shape my trees to allow this protection- no low branches. You have to make your decisions with peaches and nects early. Other trees as well if you are going for an open center shape.

Thanks for the advice guys. Yeah - seems like killing the critter is the last option. Its young, barely has quills and is small enough to get through the fence gaps - I know a full size Porcupine could easily climb an 8 foot galvanized fence (I see them up my standards often enough) but probably wouldn’t bother with the effort - given the number of wild standard apple trees in the area. This bugger has got a taste for hard cider apple bark and has to go - thankfully the bottom 3 feet of the trunks seem intact but it will strip framework branches.

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I had left trap trees uncovered - essentially MM111 rootstock, but it has no interest in those - its basically going through the cider varieties one at a time. Has good taste, as its singled out the Kingston Blacks, Yarlington Mills, Ashmead Kernels and Harry Masters for this treatment, and ignored all the trees (without guards) I don’t’ plan to keep.

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I’m seeing signs of an early spring coming to New England this year.

  1. The blue birds have been back for a week and are all paired up and scoping out my bird houses in the orchard.

  2. The native willow buds have begun to swell…

Are others seeing similar signs in the region?

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I bet they were as far along this point last year, did you notice? We haven’t had a long warm spell and the short ones have been interrupted with abrupt drops in temp. My apricot buds are not swelling yet. The last too early spring we had, peach flower buds were quite swollen by now. I knew the crop was endangered, and sure enough, was mostly lost. Year before last as I recall- and recalling is becoming increasingly difficult. .

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I’ll admit I don’t have as good a handle on the average willow bud swell, but I do have a pretty good read on the local bird populations. This seems a few weeks early to me for my area…now wether the flora follow the faunas lead will remain the be seen I suppose.

Not that far.

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Just saw daffodils about to open their blooms in Framingham. They were along a south facing masonry wall. Mine are not along a wall and have not even shown their leaves. Same for my crocuses.

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I used to catch them at night in the peaches. I’d herd each one into a steel trash can, flip it upright and put on the lid. Next day they would be dropped off miles away. Once I slipped and got a handful of quills. I pulled them all out with little pain, but my hands were pretty callused. Not like a dog that gets a mouthful.

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Yesterday I saw a crocus blossom in northern Westchester county and the dafs were pretty far along. However, I believe that trees have a different system of timing their own spring. The lack of snow cover makes the ground less stable in temps so bulbs probably are affected by that in a much different way than trees, that have “thermometers” below and above ground.

If daffodils come out too early and are frozen it won’t much bother me, but if we lose our stonefruit or even apple crop due to an early spring followed by late hard frost it would be another matter. So far, so good- no long warm spells predicted. March is always dicey and if spring comes early, it can be dicey until mid-May. The last time we lost our apple crop the very hard freeze occured around Memorial day.

Extreme cold winter threat has declined as spring frost threat has increased, I believe.

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We just got another 6" of snow, no signs of spring here. However, a classmate of mine about 50 miles south just had a flock of redwing blackbirds at his feeder. March will be interesting, the past couple years it seemed March came in like a lion and went out like a lion.

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Only about three inches here. We haven’t seen redwings yet, but several friends near us have.

Thought I Heard a Red-Winged Blackbird by David Francey

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I heard the first red-winged blackbird in the first week of February and was seeing robins and bluebirds before that even. That’s early for us. We had some deep freezes without snow cover early in the winter. Subsequent snow/ice cover has kept the ground frozen 2+ inches deep, despite a few quite warm days (up in the 60s). I’ve been seeing some bud swell, but the only bulbs I have seen make any hint of appearing are iris reticulata. No sign of crocus or snowdrops yet.

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