No worries! I am also super busy and returned to this post a week later Oh, good to know about Duncansville’s festival! Much closer than Ohio’s festival!
3 Likes
I’ve been purposefully growing fruit trees since 2016 and most of my focus is on pawpaws, so I am far from an expert when it comes to growing apples, but I’ll try to help where I can. I only use organic sprays and try to minimize the amount of spraying I need to do.
With apples, I spray Sulfur in spring to protect against scab and Surround (powdered clay) to protect against plum curculio weevils. I sometimes use bags to protect apples from other insects or fungal issues over summer. Rots (bitter rot, black rot, etc.) can be a problem on susceptible varieties over the summer months. I don’t like spraying much over the summer months, but I may have to in the future due to marsonnina leaf blotch (a fairly new fungal issue to the U.S. that causes defoliation in mid-late summer) becoming an increasing problem. Some apples that I didn’t used to have to spray due to scab immunity (like Pristine) will likely need sprays over the summer to prevent defoliation. This was a very wet year in spring through mid summer, so I had problems this year with diseases that didn’t used to be an issue before (marsoninna, fireblight, brown rot in stone fruits, etc.). The apple that performed best for me this year was Liberty. It’s a very disease resistant apple and didn’t seem too badly affected by marsoninna either and it produced well fore me. Williams Pride is another disease resistant apple that did fairly well and wasn’t too badly affected by marsoninna. It did have problems with insects damaging the fruits close to ripening and can get watercore, but I don’t mind watercore. Goldrush seems promising. It is very precocious and productive. I was initially a bit afraid that it might ripen too late for our region, but they seem to ripen in mid-late October, which is nice. I’m not sure yet if rots or marsoninna will be a problem for it though. I grow McIntosh and several of its progeny (Spartan, Cortland, Empire, Summerred, etc.) and they all seem to do well provided I spray them for scab adequately in spring. Jonagold gives some great tasting apples but hasn’t been that productive for me overall, but it grows well. Golden Russet gets rots pretty easily and was a target for squirrels over the summer so I’m not very fond of it. Ashmead’s Kearnel is scab resistant and was the least affected by marsoninna leaf bloch of all my apples, but has been very shy to produce so far. I grow many other varieties besides what I mentioned but don’t have enough experience with them yet to say much.
I grow a lot of pawpaw trees and have more knowledge about growing them here, compared to other fruits. I like growing them a lot more than conventional fruit trees due to them being more low-maintenance. One of the biggest issues with them is summer droughts. You need to be able to water them during droughts or they will suffer. The issues with them are late frosts and ambrosia beetles. There’s not much you can do about late frosts, but it can cause lower production and delayed ripening some years. Ambrosia beetles are trunk borers that can attack trees that are stressed from late frosts and will kill a pawpaw tree down to ground level if it is infected. Every case that I’ve had was able to grow back from the roots, so it’s not a total loss. I am trying cold-pressed neem oil as a preventative spray against ambrosia beetles, since that is what Cliff England (prominent pawpaw seller/breeder) recommended, but can’t say yet if that is effective. If you can plant them in a more uphill area that avoids frosts better, that would probably help to avoid issues with ambrosia beetles and crop loss. My trees are all grown in full sun and fruit well for me even though my soil conditions aren’t ideal (low nitrogen and thin topsoil with a thick layer of shale 1-1.5 ft down). Mulch and high nitrogen fertilizer are very helpful for getting pawpaw trees established and growing well.
If you have any specific questions or would like see how I grow pawpaws and try some different pawpaw cultivars (the trees are almost done but I have lots of fruit in the fridge that will keep through October), feel free to message me.
2 Likes
I don’t know about this from personal experience- but I’ve been to a few conferences where I have met people either doing you-pick or commercial and I asked them a million questions because I find it very interesting. So definitely take what I saw and get a second and third opinion.
Either way, you should give some more thought to your goals and how long you can wait to make a profit. Look at some of the many extension websites that have commercial planting recommendations. Do this before thinking about ordering anything. You will likely need to do some preparation of your site. You will need to make decisions about spacing and rootstock and buy materials. You will need fencing or some way to protect the trees.
What I have collected from conversations with you-pick people:
If you want to do you-pick you should visit a lot of you-pick places.
Apples are indeed the most profitable for you-pick. Pumpkins are also very good but have a shorter window. People like apples that are red. People are still obsessed with honeycrisp. If you don’t have honeycrisp apples, choose apples that are red with names that sound like honeycrisp - I don’t think the guy who said this to me was joking.
Also, for you-pick it’s important that the fruits ripen all at once and not over weeks. People won’t know how to choose the ripe fruit.
You need to make a decision about being agritourism or a fruit producer. Agritourism is really about the experience. I see great things about both - so don’t think I’m slamming on either one - they just end up being different business models. I think you can do some small amount of each one with the other but it doesn’t really sound like you can do both in one orchard.
You probably will need to spray synthetics. However, you can do it minimally and especially as you get closer to harvest you can switch to organic methods.
To be profitable (and to do so in any not long time period) you will need to have short trees grown with one of the systems like tall spindle or something axis. There are a bunch of them (though I think 3 main ones) and you should look them up.
hoping some bit of this helps!
6 Likes
The neighbor had a bonus Belted Galloway/Dexter cross born. Part of a herd buyout. She weighed out 23lbs. at delivery. How does that compare to a Standard size Belted Galloway new born?
1 Like
Ours are born around 50lbs. First hefier calfing calfs are generally smaller though. 23 lbs is tiny, hopefully the calf will be able to suckle.
2 Likes
She is definitely reaching. Just so. But her belly is definitely getting the delivery. She noses in when they fed the bottle babies out there. But she does not like that milk mix. She is definitely a brat starting in the zoomie and hopping phase.
1 Like
Its vitally important she got colostrum from momma moo during during the first 30 minutes and breed dependant upto the first 24 to 72 hours of life. The calfs ability to absorb colostrum internally decreases rapidly in a short amount of time. Its how she gets the antibodies, transfer of immunity and protection from disease. And probably a lot of other compounds, we dont know about in order to thrive.
You can read more about bovine colostrum (first milk) here.
Calfs are a hoot… birthing season is my second favorite part of raising cattle. My first favorite is eating them, they are delicious 
3 Likes
Could not get a good picture as she would not stand still. She kept following our daughters around. Someone offered $15,000 for her today. Because black and white is hard to find in minis…
3 Likes
Thank you! I would say agrotourism. The main reason is there isn’t any near my house and we have to travel 45 min to go to one even though we live by the burgh. Also, we have to do something with our land, I suppose my goats can take care of it for a bit while we figure out logistics.
1 Like
I like the Boer females. Boer billies can get quite large. Our neighbor goat lady has been injured by her Boer Billies before. You should really treat them as you would a Bull. They can be quite unpredictable. And also injure you without intent too.
In a standard size goat; Nubians are tough to beat for docile-ness.