Lots of serviceberries blooming today. The first few flowers opened up on Early Gold pear. Am. Plums should be starting to bloom in a few days.
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weve had a cool spring so far so things are behind schedule by a week or so. serviceberries are just budding and my pears are still dormant despite the snow being mostly gone.
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The raspberries are about ready to bloom for me. I left some canes from Caroline last fall and they look to have a pretty good summer crop this year. Most years i just whack everything back. I have some grape tomatoes in the greenhouse that are sizing up//lots of blooms–i think i have 3 plants in the ground in there and a few cucumber plants. Looking forward to picking ripe tomatoes.
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my raspberries are just breaking buds in bismarck… I planted another 1000 caroline raspberries last week and put in drip irrigation over the weekend. Its a bit of a project!
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I’m a bit excited to see tight clusters on my KAZ 96 07 03 for the first time this year. I grafted it in 2018 on b118, so it’s been a wait. I hope it produces a few fruit this year.
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Hey there, I just saw this note you wrote 2 years ago about plots being hardy. Could you please share more about varieties you’ve had success with? I’m in MN 4b now, but I used to live in California and I used to really enjoy pluots there.
I’m not 100% sure but i feel like at least 1 or 2—one called splash/maybe flavor grenade– from one of those Dave Wilson 4 in 1 pluots i had going for many years thru some pretty rough winters. I only lost the one because the whole tree it was grafted onto (some sort of peach) died. Another option you can try is a Japanese plum that seem to do fine thru some pretty rough winters. I want to say i had satsuma for a few years (i think i removed the whole tree at some point). I wouldn’t graft to peach or apricot–probably stick with some type of plum for rootstock.
I ordered a Flavor King from Burnt Ridge this spring and i potted that up but it doesn’t look that great so we’ll see what it does.
We just got the oriole and hummingbird feeders out. I’m guessing we’re a bit early due to the cold temps this spring, but the last few years we had sightings of each right about now
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A few apricot blossoms popped today, first fruiting tree blossoms to do so. Have several more days with highs in the 50s, then looks like it will warm up.
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My favorite bird. I don’t see many of them. I should put out a feeder for them. I threw a big piece of sub bread for the birds and one of them picked it up and put it in the birdbath. We’ve got a crow the size of a small turkey that hangs around so it was probably him.
All the tomatoes are planted outside. I’ve got some cherry tomatoes already formed but nothing ripening yet. My cucumbers are cruising along (both cherry/cukes in the greenhouse). Not sure what else to plant in there for the summer. Apricots are getting their first spray of insecticide tonite. Curculios are going to get real active this week i think==they are sizing up quickly.
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My mom saw one this week, they usually don’t stay here in Southern MN long. So they will be heading up North soon!
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I have had one stopping by my house for the last few years. Normally they do not seem to stay very long here. Although one year I did find a nest at the end of the fall season.
About ten days ago the first Orchard and Baltimore Orioles showed up at the grape jelly feeders. There are nearly twenty of the two varieties sucking down about a jar a day. They also invade the hummingbird sugar water feeders. This will last another week or two before they have replenished themselves from the trip north. Then some will move on farther north and some will stay and nest and reproduce. While in that mode the Orioles that stay change feeding habits to eating bugs and things and quit the jelly feeders. We still hear the song but rarely see the birds.
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Hummers and Orioles both started using the feeders this morning.
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no blooms yet on my indigo honeyberries. hopefully they arent around yet as theres nothing blooming. i gave up on maintaining feeders years ago. hopefully someone else has some out locally.
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My sweetheart texted me that she saw our first “bumblebird” today as well. They usually show up within a few days on either side of the 10th. About half the honey berries are in bloom, so they have something to eat.
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