The emergency system is much better in Kansas. This means the storms in Kansas that develop quickly we now are notified about. Power was restored in half a day and internet today. The storm hit June 30th. If you noticed my being slower to respond than normal to the forum that is what i have been doing. Replaced the refrigerator that had failed as well most likely due to the earlier storm. All together, the storm gave us 1 1/3" of rain we badly needed. Many nearby places were missed by this storm. Anyone else get hit by this one? Many pears like abate fetel were completely shaken from the tree. There are thousands of small pears laying in the orchard. Fortunately only about 30- 50 grafts were snapped off. There would be no way to prevent it from snapping off full grown trees .It did snap off some trees at neighboring properties. At a nearby town it destroyed a fireworks stand. Mostly trees blocking roads was the problem. It did flatten some hay and wheat in thr fields. i was blessed that i lost no full grown trees. Stay safe everyone!
This storm must have been well over the expected 80 mph it ripped a 2 year old cleft graft out. Never saw that before. The top is gone completely even though i scouted 100 feet in all directions. It literally tore out half a 4" tree thats scion was over 2" in diameter.
Sorry to hear, appreciate you sharing that. Given the same tree size, one of the downsides to grafting on higher caliper trees is the union isn’t as strong as a graft done on smaller caliper tree.
Wind is powerful. Especially in soggy soil, I believe even less than 100mph, it could uproot huge decades old seedling tree that have no graft union.
The best way to view it is we needed the rain. The loss of things were part of Kansas, it has a different rule book when it comes to farming. This is the best part of the state to grow things!
Consistently documenting some kansas weather would run everyone off from moving here. It is still fairly pleasant most of the time. Friday July 14th 2023 another round of storms hit Kansas hard. They did not hit me particularly hard. Winds in my area were only around 30 mph this time with occasional gusts. The strongest part of the storm missed us thankfully.
I’m not sure about that. My crop is still very heavy even after the wind storms. Think Orcas was shaken off the trees. Seems like longer pears get it the worst.
I was hoping that when each of your pear variety ripens, I could figure out when mine will, esp. first time pears (for me) like Warren, Magness and Abate Fetel.
How would you rate Orcas @clarkinks. I was thinking of getting an Orcas pear tree, as it originated not many miles from where I live (Canadian side of the Gulf Islands).
They are nice trees. I have never had problems out of mine. The pears get shaken out of the trees every year which is a reason not to plant more in Kansas. That happened with potomac for a number of years but eventually i built up enough of a wind break around it to make it work.
farming is tough
. I take a blizzard over a tornado any day.