You won’t be too far from Ithaca, so Cummins Nursery’s orchard/farm is a good one. The orchard does business as Indian Creek Farm, 1408 Trumansburg Rd, Ithaca, NY. They have a website. @Lodidian would possibly know other orchards in the Auburn area. Just north of where you’ll be, right off lake Erie running from East of Rochester to Interstate 81 is a commercial apple growing region with huge farms, likely not open to the public, but there are surely some that are. That Finger Lakes region is also full of Wineries open to the public. Congrats to your wife on the exhibition of her quilt!
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@Toadham if you go to Ithaca you should definitely check out the farmers market, one of the most impressive I’e been to. Plenty of food stalls for breakfast or lunch, a number of good cider makers offering some tastings and a lot of orchard and farm produce.
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Thanks! They sure aren’t like my grandmother’s quilts. Show runs Oct 25-Jan 4 for anyone in the area.
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Always on the lookout for apples I haven’t tasted!
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I don’t go up north to Auburn often, so I’m not familiar with the orchards in that area first hand. But here are some ideas, including some a bit further afield.
Some orchards around here, and we are 50 minutes from Auburn, had bad harvests. Black Diamond closed early for the season, last week. Little Tree is open but announced there would be no u-pick this year. Kingtown had about a quarter of their normal harvest.
Indian Creek seemed not to have a problem, however. I see lots of cars whenever I drive by. They grow the most apple varieties of anyone around here, but for u-pick, they only make a small number available at a time. However, there is nothing to stop you from wandering anywhere in the orchard to see all the trees they have. I’ve been known to do that. More varieties of what they’ve picked are available than what is u-pick. North of Ithaca, it is about 50 minutes from Auburn. Open every day except Monday.
Owen Orchards is close to Auburn, about 12 minutes away from downtown. It has been in the same family for multiple generations. Like a lot of orchards around here, they emphasize family fun as much as the apples they make available. My guess is they wouldn’t have varieties you haven’t tasted. They are open 7 days a week and have u-pick and a barn for what they picked.
Beak and Skiff Orchards. Beak and Skiff is best known for its big cider operation. It supplies super markets all around with fresh cider, but they have a big apple barn with a selection of about 20 apple varieties, mostly modern. It is about half an hour east of Auburn. Open 7 days a week.
Grisamore Farms is about half an hour to the south. They have lots of fruits, flowers, and vegetables in season, including about a dozen apple varieties. We have friends who go there regularly. I haven’t been there since our daughter was little and before we had our own orchard. It has lots of stuff for kids, including farm animals on display.
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I tried to root several jujube cutting, most died, a couple rooted, but several are still alive but still show no roots. Today I checked a couple and the cuttings have developed a large callus but haven’t formed roots, what can I do to stimulate roots. Is there any point this late in the year?
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congrats to your wife. if youre ice cream fans check out cayuga lake creamery. they got some really weird flavors lol
montezuma winery is kind of cool just because they make a few fruit and honey wines which is fun, big fan of cranberry bog, plus you probably will see some bald eagles around since its right by the persevere. Finger lakes cider house is solid too for a bunch of different cider tastings.
I havent been to that region in quite a few years though, moved back to the island and never can get back out there.
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OK, this isn’t a question, but I don’t think it deserves a whole thread.
Last September, a bear broke off a scaffold branch near the top of my Honeycrisp apple. As you can see from the photo, this ripped pretty deep into the trunk. I was worried that if I just pruned off the branch it would leave an open wound and I might lose the top of the tree.
So, instead, I used zip ties to bring the bark back together and pruned back the branch about a foot out from the trunk (to reduce weight of branch on the wound). The wound looked like it hadn’t healed over the winter, but this spring/summer it did heal. I cut off the zip ties. Trees want to grow, don’t they?
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Use the poison worms for the raccoons.
This was an excellent suggestion. Lots of fun booths and yummy lunch choices. Paired with a visit to Indian Creek Orchard on a beautiful fall day.
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If I graft a scion on a tree that is already bearing apples and the scion is from a tree that is also bearing, will the graft bloom sooner than if I graft it on a semi-dwarf rootstock?
Glad you liked the farmers market. It is definitely an experience.
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Very cool. Thank you for sharing pictures as this helps me (and I’m guessing other newer growers) create a database of options for what to do when X happens!
I’ve done that a bunch of times on branches that deer broke. Most of mine made it as long as they still had some connected bark.
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