Well, I am growing bloobs in a plot about 100ft from the apple plot. They started out well after being planted in April. I put some fert on them in June, and they did pretty well, but like the peaches, stopped growing in August or so. I prob should have ferted them again. The leaves on them now are turning red, I don’t know if it’s from them being dry, or the fact it is fall now.
That’s not barbed wire. Its electric fencing. I don’t have it electrified but I can if I have to. I think those t-posts are 8 foot and driven in 2 feet. Over the year they developed a lot of play in them and aren’t working very well. Deer pressure is pretty high.
I’ve been getting quite a few raspberries for first year plants. Its been my most prolific producer so I can’t complain. Caroline has been my favorite raspberry so far.
I posted some information on my rasp run in a thread her about help starting raspberries. Its basically two 4x4 square posts about 25’ apart. I tilled the area between the two posts and ammended it with compost and cow manure. I ran 3 wires about 2 feet apart across the run. I planted 2 types of blackberries along with 6 types of raspberries. Triple crown didn’t make it and I pulled Brandywine already. But Anne, Caroline, fall gold, double gold, and Heritage are all growing well.
Yeah, after I looked closer to the pic, I noticed the insulators on the wires. Why don’t you have them powered, do you think the deer just won’t bother trying to get through?
I like your berry run setup, I think I may try that next year. I just planted mine in the ground, without clearing or tilling out an area for them. That may be why some didn’t come up, and perhaps caused the ones that did sprout to not thrive.
How would you rank your rasps, as far as flavor, and although it is their first year, their productivity? What blackberry do you still have, and did it produce anything?
Since I MUST wait weeeks before trying Hunt Russet, I persuaded my better half to allow me a photo or two of the remaining sample fruit on this little tree. It stands on P2.
![IMG_0487[1]](https://d55v7rs15ikf5.cloudfront.net/original/3X/d/b/dbc2bc6bda84b9a35df05d2c218d978198e7693c.JPG)
![IMG_0491[1]](https://d55v7rs15ikf5.cloudfront.net/original/3X/c/0/c023494c07c2422540fe99668029068d8edee468.JPG)
If it is as good as hoped, I may need to get it growing on a larger root stock.
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Beautiful! How old is your tree?
This is its fourth leaf since buying the bench graft from Maple Valley Orchards. P2 is very dwarfing. I’m now thinking I must top-work anything that fails in future to Hunt, and haven’t even tasted it! (Let’s hope it comes up to expectations.)
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In terms of flavor I’d rank them from best to worst. Caroline, double gold, fall gold, Anne, and Heritage.
As for productivity, Anne is easily the most vigorous and has set the most fruit. I’m really amazed at how much fruit I’ve gotten from it. Followed by Caroline, fall gold, double gold, and Heritage. I’ve only gotten a handful of berries from heritage and its my worst growing rasp. So that might be due to its small size. I removed Brandwine before it ever fruit. It was an absolute mess as far as growing habit. It was all over the place and spread out in all directions.
The only blackberry I’m growing is prime ark freedom and its incredible! Berries are huge, sweet, and the plants has a really nice thornless upright growth habit. I like the rasps but I love the blackberries. I’d be context in growing a dozen of these plants becuase I could eat a quart at a time. Lol. Unfortunately I’ve only had about 15-20 of them this year. Hoping for a large crop increase next year.
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Thanks for the report. I have Caroline and Double Gold planted but nothing, along with a Killarney and Prelude. My Anne is a puny little 8in plant. The only other rasp I got to do anything was an AAC Eden.
Anyways, you’re not the first to say that PAF is a great variety. I think we might have to try that one next year. We lots of wild BB canes on the farm, but I have never liked them. We wild black rasps in smaller amounts, and they are tasty, but not big producers.
I was curious why you have nothing but everbearers. Is it that you don’t want to have to deal with floricanes on summer bearers only? I guess if the previous year’s canes on a summer bearer get winter killed, then you’re out of luck on getting any fruit.
Primarily because I wanted the option to cut them down at the end of the summer. I don’t think I will but at least I have the option.
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I thought I would share my view of my orchard with you… You might get a kick out of this…
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That was neat, following your shadow
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Not familiar with this plane. Is it considered an ultra-light?
It is a powered paraglider. Sort of like a parachute with a motor but the wings is more of a glider than a parachute.
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Wow!
Wow bob! Fantastic PPC. Is it yours and is that you flying? I’ve wanted one of those for a long time
Yes it’ mine and it’s me. It is actually a PPG a powered paraglider. A PPC steers with your feet and has more of a square wing.
Don’t wait to put this in your bucket list!!!
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Lovely country you’ve got
Thanks, that is very cool, Bob. Definitely a unique view of yer property, and the surrounding area. I was getting a bit of vertigo watching that…
So, do you need to have a license to fly one of those things? What is the max recommended altitude for that machine?
Well, today we took a road trip. My wife had an eye checkup today, and we thought we’d go on over to Reed Valley afterwards. The doc is about 50mi from here, and the orchard was about another 50mi from there.
We got there about 1:30 and left around 5:00. Just about all their apples are ready to pick. The only variety to need some more time is Pink Lady. My wife and I both got our own pull wagon, and headed out.
We ended up with about 50lb of apples when we got back to their barn/store. We got a bunch, maybe 15lb of Goldrush, and smaller amounts of the following varieties: Stayman Winesap, Suncrisp, Fuji, Golden and Roxbury Russet’s, Jonagold, Winecrisp, and Lady apples, and a few small Harrow Sweet pears. Their HS trees were basically picked clean, so we didn’t get many of those, unfortunately. It was quite a haul, but I don’t think we’ll be back this year. It’s a cool place to go, but it’s a 90mi one-way trip.
They also had a lot of various shapes and colors and sizes of pumpkins, and other assorted fall veggies.
It is still an amazing place, to see those hundreds of trees spread out over the hillsides. I walked almost to the far north end of the property, and noticed they had some peach trees that I hadn’t seen before. I hope they produce for them next year, their peach blooms was hit hard by a late spring freeze this April. I bet it’s about a half mile from that part of their property back to the barn, I was wore out, bet I walked almost two miles, and it was very warm, about 80 today.
Anyways, we left here about 9am and got home about 10pm, so we are wiped out, but it was worth it. I’ll post some pics of the trip soon.
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