Amen to cane fruit. no mater what they always produce .
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Thanks Karen!
A few more apricots today. Third Hargrand (the three at the top in the photo). They still have a greenish cast to them and are really firm, so I haven’t tried one yet. I think they dropped early. Two Orangereds in the middle. One Sugar Pearls at bottom. I ate the other Sugar Pearls, without my wife, she would not be pleased - I’m not going to tell her, but it was amazing - 29 brix!
Ok, a couple of days later I tried the Hargrand. These are suprising. Maybe that little bit of green cast is normal? The pits are small and the flesh is a little thick as a result. A little firmer than the others but very juicy. Slightly milder flavor than Orangered, but very sweet. Brix was 22, 23, and 25 on these three.
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Picked some apricots today, not sure which cultivar, could be Robada. It is on dry side , not as juicy as I love. Not very sweet neither. In my childhood memory, apricots tasted better than plum but in my yard the plum tasted better than apricots. I may have grown the wrong apricot cultivar.
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Lumps of sugar!
PeachyKeen peaches. Nice size, finally got the thinning right this year - 10-12 inch spacing. As I mentioned elsewhere, lost some due to a fungal issue (likely anthracnose). Even a few of the unblemished ones showed some signs of uneven ripening. However, the good ones are better than previous years. Today’s fruits hit 18 brix with balanced flavor.
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Katy,
Deer got mine too, in the late spring. They preferred the pears. Especially my grafts! Thank goodness they grew back - but it is disappointing when you go out and find a beautifully growing thing - trashed.
We built cages out of tall metal posts - wrapping the entire circle with chicken wire or deer netting. It stopped the deer nibbling here . . . but maybe our deer are smaller than those that you have. It’s worth a try - especially for just a couple of trees. We wrapped them close enough to the tree to keep the deer from having somewhere to land, if they tried to jump in . . . but far enough away from the outer branches to allow us to go in and do what we had to do. We left a door, by using wire to close the ‘wrap’ at one post - cable ties to ‘permanently’ attach to posts elsewhere.
It worked. We threw bird netting over the tops.
And to keep the raccoons out - we used long landscape staples to keep the bottom of the net closed at the ground. We also set a Havahart trap and relocated 2 raccoons. Didn’t get any more than that. We watched our trail cam - and saw the little boogers walking around and trying to find a place to get in . . . and then seeing that there was a ‘nice square door at the bottom, just waiting for them’ . . . even had peaches inside! And in they went!
Have you tried growing peach trees in pots? I know others on the forum that have good results with that.
Sorry about your peach. 
As a rule the deer don’t graze us very often. I think we don’t have as much pressure because we are so rural and there is sooo much on offer……especially this year with all the rain. They do like mulberries and will eat the leaves of those occasionally. They robbed my almost ripe pears last year but as a rule they are not too bad. I just thought this little tree showed so much promise. I’m not good with peaches. I don’t think I’ll replace it. 
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Gorgeous! What are you doing to protect those from varmints and birds? I got maybe 4 berries that the birds/rabbits didn’t. But my main issue was just lack of production, I hope because this is only my second season.
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I lose quite a few to bugs and not as many to birds. I have 6 cats roaming the place so it’s not a really friend bird environment. I’m also very rural and there is lots of native berries, seeds, etc. around. And most importantly I have more canes than I want or need so I don’t mind losing some of them. I’m not a lot of help to you. 
. But encouragingly if you want more plants than you have now you will have them. They spread like wildfire and are invasive to other things I grow—I cannot keep them out of my asparagus bed.
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@Bradybb ---- just noticed your blackberry pics this morning… and you are growing a couple of varieties that I have considered adding to my collection. I see where you provided the brix values for those and appreciate that… but my (need for change in blackberry varieties) is SWD related… I have some berries that I really like, but found them to be infested with SWD this year, had to bag them to get good fruit.
So one of my main goals now is to find earlier ripening blackberries… blackberries that ripen in July/August are just going to be difficult for me going forward. I will eventually replace those with berries that ripen earlier…
I have seen the Obsidian blackberry listed with several other trailing berry types as one of the earliest ripening varieties. I hear the flavor is good too but the canes can be a little difficult to work with. Your obsidian berries look great to me.
Below is your list with the brix values… that halls beauty with 17 brix… wow.
The new Ponca Ark Variety… comes in around 10 I hear.
Hall’s Beauty-17 brix
Columbia Star-12 brix
Newberry-11 brix
Obsidian-11 brix
Wondering if you collect any data on your blackberries that you could share like when they first ripen, how long they bear fruit, how productive they are, flavor rating. Looks like they are all plenty sweet, but how would describe the flavor of each ? Your favorite, least favorite.
I am looking for blackberries that taste good, have decent sweetness, with tartness, and hopefully in my Zone 7a, will ripen late May, June… but not so much into July.
Appreciate much any details you can give.
Thanks
TNHunter
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Obsidian is the earliest to ripen and finish,which it is doing now.Very thorny,but by wearing leather gloves,is no problem.I planted one of each variety and the others are better at making new canes.This one may be my least favorite in flavor for fresh eating,but not by much.
Columbia Star is good flavored and has peak ripened,about a week ago.Big fruit.
Newberry is a little different in flavor,kind of fruity,difficult to describe.Thorny,but not like Obsidian.Ripening about now.
Hall’s Beauty,yes,probably my favorite.Very good flavor and sweet.First ones ripened over a week ago and stopped flowering in the last few days.
There is another one,Columbia Sunrise,that I have in a small pot,which is suppose to ripen before the others,sometime in July.This may be put in Obsidian’s spot.Here’s some info.‘Columbia Sunrise’ Thornless Trailing Blackberry in: HortScience Volume 53 Issue 2 (2018)
Also,Tayberry is a very early one,but tastes more like a Raspberry to me.Thorny and was done before any others.
Our climates may vary,so things could ripen earlier there,than here.
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Thanks for the details @Bradybb !!!
Loganberry ripens first fruit May 24 here and continues into July a bit.
I found a guy on YouTube growing logans and tayberry and he said his tay ripen a couple weeks b4 logans. I plan to add some tayberry here.
Considering sylvanberry too… not sure exactly when they ripen compared to logans… if they are much later I may need to avoid those.
For a more true blackberry may have to try those Columbia star. Sounds like they should be early enough.
TNHunter
Arctic Glo Nectarine, very tasty! Very sweet, but also very acidic. This one had some damage so it ripened a bit early. I definitely prefer this over Arctic Jay. I do tend to like acid though. Anyway, look forward to more of these.
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One of my fall gold raspberries thinks its fall already… 5 or 6 others no blooms yet. Guess this is my “early” fall gold.
TNHunter
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Looks fabulous Phil!
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My last (NO spray) early McIntosh apple of the year.
A really nice one. May pick it this evening.
I have been checking it daily the past few days… hoping all this rain we have been getting does not cause it to split open.
When there is only one left… well you know how that is.
TNHunter
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