Ok. We got about 8" and maybe half inch of sleet. I also had to try to get the AWD CX-5 down the hill without wiping out. But it handled it like a champ. We put new tires on it a few months ago and it pulled the hill very well going back up most of it. I left it on a side driveway for tomorrow.
I had to do a lot of shoveling to make it easier to get from the road to the lower driveway. Don’t think I’ve shoveled that much in a long time. The road was wet and slushy in spots, but decent shape. I work at MSU and have been off the last two days, but need to go back in tomorrow.
I have not been out in it yet… but we got what looks like 6 inches or so here in southern middle TN yesterday… Very pretty snow sticking to everything… tree limbs, bending over the red cedars.
Trout mostly, but many of the streams get too warm for them to survive any but the deepest pools. Higher in elevation there are lots of native brook trout year round
We got another 3-4" last night, but it was very dry and easily shovel-able. Got up and down the hill easily in the Mazda. Did a lot of shoveling and cleared the deck and solar panels. So in the span of a week we got about a foot of snow. Hope that’s it for a while.
Man alive it’s been wet. 12” in April, more than double the 30 year average. Despite that not as much fire blight as I expected, maybe it’s too soon and my trees are too young (not blooming prolifically yet).
June strawberries are almost done, raspberry primocanes are almost 2.5’ tall, blackberry floricanes are almost done blooming, and asparagus is huge. We had some volunteer lettuce and kale come up under the asparagus ferns this year. I just might turn it into an anual thing. We’re getting a ton.
@EmptyBadger … i am in southern middle TN, zone 7b. Sounds like you are just north of me in 7a.
Have you discovered any strawberries that do very well for you here in middle TN ?
Have you grown Evie2 before and had good results ?
I read up on Evie2 some… sounds like one I may want to try. I am looking for a everbearing strawberry that will produce a spring, summer and fall crop and can produce (at least some crop thru our hot summers).
I have tried eversweet here and they did a pretty good job of that. The berries were med to small and had good flavor… … just good… not great. But… they produced regular spring summer and fall.
Mine were grown in a mulched food forest bed with no irrigation… and we still got a decent crop. Late summer when 90-100 temps hit… they slowed down … but in Sept, Oct they picked back up again.
I have been thinking about trying them again in a raised bed like yours where I could easily water them… to see just how much better they would do.
Let us know how the Evie2 do for you. Sounds like one I may want to try.
I have an unknown June bearing strawberry from Nourse that I purchased years ago. I didn’t label and cannot find my invoice/receipt. It’s very prolific, from 25 plants it has produced thousands of plants. In one year just five plants filled in a bed about 2x15 feet. I grow it as ground cover. It produces a bumper crop of smaller strawberries in May and then it struggles through our hot summers. Some leaf spot but relatively disease free.
I wanted a day neutral to fill in the gaps of production. I was torn between Albion and Evie-2. Both are supposedly heat tolerant, but Evie was said to be more productive and easier to grow. Albion was said to be much more disease resistant but needs regular watering in the heat of the summer. I went with Evie.
I’m also interested in Chandler as a June bearer. I might try it next year. Extremely productive and somewhat disease resistant (in California…) We shall see.
@EmptyBadger … Surecrop has worked well for me for disease resistent june bearer… nice tasting med-large berries. I started some in a food forest bed in 2020 and they are still producing.
Earliglow are delicious and early… but started dieing of some kind of rot the first fall… (leaves all turn brown, crown dies)…and were all dead in year 3.
Seascape just did not thrive or produce here.
Eversweet produced berries spring, summer and fall… good flavor… not great… small-med berries. Good disease resistance.
FB ‘resistance’ may depend on strains present in your locality. ‘Korean Giant’ has been the most FB-susceptible pear I’ve grown. I’ve had it here (southern west-central KY - 70 mi NW of Nashville TN) on at least 4 different occasions over the past 30 years, and fireblight has killed it outright, each time, almost as soon as it begins blooming. I’ve given up on trying to grow it.
Chojuro, Shinko, Hosui have been unaffected, or have taken hits and shrugged them off. Ya Li was hit hard this spring… We’ll see if it bounces back.
I have too much to do to spend any time pruning FB strikes out, so a tree has to survive on its own or die, here.
Fireblight is so crazy. Goes to show how important your individual micro environment is. Even in this regional thread there are vast differences in disease and pest resistance.
I’ve been scouring the forum and regional extensions for information. The only resistant Asian pear that everyone seems to agree on is Shinko. Unfortunately it seems to be rather polarizing on flavor. I think that has to do with individual tastes and terroir. It appears to taste better to the southern growers.
For those interested @marten did a fantastic breakdown of his experiences with Asian pears.
Concord
