What's happening today - 2018 edition

Desiccation, it looks like, maybe freeze damage too

Nice pics Bob. Boy that looks like some heavy soil you have at your place!

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Thanks, I always like to share pics of the place. Plus it’s a good reference to compare with later pics. I probably go overboard with all of them sometimes. I took a lot more than this, but these were the better ones.

Our soil is actually not that heavy, it just looks that way with all the rain we’ve had. With it being mostly sandy loam, and a bit of clay, it drains pretty fast, but it’s super saturated now. We got another 3/4" last night, grrr. It’s very easy to dig and turn, especially in the areas further down the hill. And, it’s also pretty fertile in those areas. Up here on the upper hillside, it’s quite poor and acidic, so I’ve had to really add the amendments, especially lime to get the pH up.

This keeps happening in my zone 7. No sign of spring weather. No open buds. No forcast change from highs in 40s and 50s. 30s today.

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Ohio this morning.

!

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We’re getting rain and snow for the next two days, then a high of 28 on thursday. I think it’s good with no open buds but I am anxious for Spring too. It will probably be a good year for fruit.

Good Grief, @BobC . . . We are going to be at close to 80 tomorrow. Today was 55. It’s that time of year . . . temps all over the place.

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Took this picture yesterday of some peach blossoms.

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Love your neat square borders. Easy to mow around. I think I’ll square off my mulch mounds . . . to make it easier to mow, also. They are out in ‘the field’, but never the less - it will be easier to deal with.

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Discovered red spots on both my pear trees’ leaves. Apparently Pear-Juniper rust is thing here. I pulled all the spotted leaves and disposed of them in the trash. Hopefully it doesn’t come back much.

I do believe I saw that on one of my Brand new Peach trees…Wonder if it is something on Peach trees too?

My children planting the okra and black eyed peas


In Lubbock you must always carry a sword to the garden

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Looks like you might have some thinning to do later…:joy::joy::joy:. Nice to have helpers!

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As I posted in another thread, I potted up my 3 apple bench grafts today.

Since they’re still dormant, I thought I should get my orchard apple trees pruned today. I don’t know if I did it right, but they needed to be cleaned up. I tried to get rid of waterspouts, any extra central leaders, rubbing branches, and trim back any unusually long low scaffolds that were reaching for the sky. I dipped my pruners in a water/bleach solution after each cut. I ended up with a 5gal bucket almost full of cuttings.

Later this week, I’m going to try to do some hinge cuts to pull down some upward sweeping scaffolds, and perhaps do some notch cuts to induce some new branches.

It seemed brutal doing all that cutting, but it needed to be done. It was first time doing any large scale pruning, so I hope I didnt butcher my trees. We’ll see how they turn out.

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starting some of my new plants and cuttings in my front grow room. most were still frozen in my garage. i want them growing well before putting them out in mid/ late may so i can get fruit sooner.

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Fantastic to have a pirate and beauty queen!!!

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Trying 3 trees in 1 hole. 2 are from seed growing in my garden. They are probably either Red Baron peach, Red Gold nec, or All-In-One almond. One has a July Elberta graft that is growing. I tried bud grafting several O’Henries last year, but none took, so I bought one from Costco to add to this hole.

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Yes it is. Thanks

Did any of our SoCal folks notice the 5.3 earthquake yesterday? Saw that it was off the coast near the Channel Islands, but still, kind of a sizeable one.

Got my 3 trees from Cummings Nursery yesterday. I’m very excited to try apple cordons with them. They are Cox Orange Pippin, Spitzenburg Esopus and Newtown Pippin.

I’ll be staking today and planting out tomorrow I believe.

I suppose if anyone has experience cordon’s these varieties I’m happy to listen to advice but am very excited!

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