Savage 
Awesome! Good job! Been there, and it’s so cool. You know I’m still amazed every year.
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The squirrel plead the Fifth, and excused himself from the canine court. Hastily.
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Pick reliance and mid-pride today. About 3 weeks or more early for those.
My first year mid-pride set a dozen or more fruit. I pull them all off and left one for fun. To my surprise there were two fruits on the tree sizing up nicely. Flavor was good also.
Ozark premier plum sizing up - they are sitting on an iPhone. I believe this is also the earliest I have picked them.
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Yes in my area coke was a general name for several soft drinks. I had never heard of the other references like soda/pop until my military days.
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There’s been a subpoena issued but they simply refuse to turn themselves over to officers of the court.
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I picked my first peaches of the year today!!! YEAH!!! These were off my often touted mystery peach tree that was here when I moved in. THey are the best early peaches I’ve ever had, and here on the KY/TN border they always are ready to pick by the second week of june- pretty amazing to me. In fact, they are almost a week ahead of my Florida King peaches which are widely known to be one of the earliest peaches there are.
I’m very worried about this incredible tree. It’s extremely old and it shows…it looks worse every year. Out of desperation I did omega grafts of it onto 8 seedlings this spring and not a single one of them took. I did them too early I think, but I just stink at peach grafting no matter how good I get at other fruit grafting. I’m going to try bud grafting this year. I’ll just die if I loose this incredible tree!
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First pick of Venus grapes today. Much sweeter than last year – the bees loved them more than I did last year. Unfortunately, the sheer weight was too much for my trellis. Time to get out the shovel…
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Those grapes look delicious!
Wild blackcap raspberry season is here. It is by far my favorite thing I grow. 4" of rain in the last week mean that the flavor is not quite as good as years past, but they are making up for it in production.
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So jealous!!! Besutiful!
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Today I ate the first and only berry from the white mulberry I planted last year! It took major frost damage, the dead growth I removed took it back to the size before I planted it, and I moved it to a more protected spot into a smaller pot. It was pretty special to get to eat this today, I’ve been discouraged since every single melon seedling, tomato, and carrot I planted was decimated by the local wildlife. They got my first ever peaches as well. Can’t blame them, it’s a nasty drought and they’re desperate.
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My trees are frustrating me. After seeing the birds eat my unripe cherries, my stone fruit getting molested by PC, and all of my potted figs dying I needed a break. It’s been a week later and my trees look like hell. I still have some pears and apples but not much else. Time for summer pruning and probably a bit of rethinking about the varieties I grow. Even my berries look bad. Its becomming harder and harder to motivate myself. I’ve put an ungodly amount of time into researching my plants, growing them and maintaining them. Not to mention money that I’ve invested in them. Urrggg.
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Sorry that sux. Dont give up on all of it. Pick what aggravates u the least - its gotta be enjoyable not just toil
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Speedster: I completely get what you mean. It’s been a very discouraging year for me as well. Everything seems to be going wrong growing fruit wise. I’ve been complaining a lot here lately, but not about everything. I got a lot more issues going in my backyard orchard than I’ve mentioned 
. Very disappointing indeed. But I try to enjoy taking care of the trees that haven’t rewarded me (yet). Since that’s what I love to do. I’m hoping things will turn positive soon. Keep thinking, next year definitely next year I’ll be eating my own fruit! So hang in there.
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Dave,
Hang in there. I can empathize. I was about to give up a few times. I’ve learned to rely on what has done well (relatively speaking) for me. This means fruit trees that can survive cold temp, swing temp, have some disease resistance and are not killed by diseases or voles/bunnies, etc.
So, pears and apples are for me. I gave up on blueberries and about to on figs, two fruit trees that other people said “ carefree, easy, etc”. Good for them.
Also, it’s a lot of work to deter birds, squirrels, groundhogs, opossums, deer. I have a couple of years of no fruit because of nature and/or diseases.
Take this season to re-group. Spend more time and energy on what work for you. It is more rewarding that way. Best of luck.
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Tonight’s dinner is going to feature some tiny partially tree ripened plums in a plum and onion chutney on some pork :
I may need to add some sugar, but the ones I tasted were very flavorful just small, with a distinct tartness to the skin, which I peeled, ate and found delightful, and my wife found repulsive.
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Me too. Seems like most of my posts are about my disappointment and the negative aspects of fruit growing. Wish I had more positive things to report. I am having pretty good luck with tomatoes this year so that’s positive 
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Thanks for the encouragement Tippy. Like you, apples and pears seem to be the best growing things in my region. I guess there is a reason there are no cherries orchards, or plum orchards, or peach orchards around here. I believe blueberries can be successful here as I have a couple of relatively healthy bushes and also live about 20 miles from a huge blueberry u-pick.
I am going to regroup this summer and have a better spray plan in place for bloom time next year.
It does make it easier in regions where they grow fairly well. I happen to live in one. Far from a perfect year, lot’s of problems, but I will have plenty of fruit. It’s started already with strawberries, and honeyberries. I saw today the first raspberry turning red. Stone fruit is decent. Some new plums to try this year from grafts.
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