What's happening today - 2018 edition

We finally got rain today - welcome after a hot dry July. I have to take credit for it, since I spent the whole morning dragging hoses across the place. Murphy saw me.

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Its usually not so ugly, its been raining much of the time for the last two weeks and thats clearly been hard on it.

Your plums are superior! Wow!! Thanks for your sympathy, we’ve all been in this seat one time or another! I feel sorry for my poor radishes too! :relaxed: I know that Indar would not have helped my plums this year as my black knot is returning to my plum trees. What is interesting is that the peaches I have only have bird pecks, and no rot. This time last year my peaches all had rot but not my plums. So goes growing fruit. To preserve my berries, I have netted my blackberries this year as they are favorites of catbirds too.

I could hear the squirrels in the trees yesterday chattering as I picked my only 11 Pristine apples. They were so unhappy!

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I was about to say that your Satsuma coloring was a lot lighter than mine when they ripen :smile:

One of my nects dropped today. Bruised. Looked like my gentle touch to check its ripeness was a bit too harsh ( again).

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Hey Stan,

Where did you acquire the Anya?

I have the exact same problem quite often. I squeeze a plum or peach to see if it is ready, and sometimes even give a VERY gentle tug to see if it pulls free. I decide it isn’t ready and then a few hours later I find it laying on the ground, bruised from the fall. Very frustrating!

@scottfsmith Thank you for posting those Mericrest photos. I (and likely others) tend to only show my fruit when it turns out really well and is attractive. That may be good for my ego but doesn’t do much for helping us learn from each other. I had a lot of nectarines that looked just like your Mericrest, and knowing that someone with all your experience and knowledge also had some “ugly” (your words, not mine! ha) fruit helps me feel a little better and learn that it isn’t just me.

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How do the Mericrest taste? The ones that don’t look good but are rot free.

They are excellent! Nearly all nectarines are excellent though … its a low bar. The Summer Beauts have a more perfumed/creamy flavor than the Mericrest which I like a bit more, but they are a bit more mushy in the flesh which I like less. I think there is something very weak about the Mericrest skin, not only is it getting more spotting and rot, the birds and the fruit flies are all over it whereas the Summer Beaut just has a couple pecked fruits on it. Some micro-cracks have formed in the rain and then the fruit flies can swarm in to that.

Next spring I will probably topwork some other nectarine like Summer Beaut on to the Mericrest. Those in less hot-n-humid climates can probably still do very well with Mericrest, but its not making it for me any more. Often when its ripening there is no rain, and its much better those years, but I want varieties that are good every year (or, that are really unique so they are worth suffering through).

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My first nectarine is the Arctic Jay, should be ready by Aug 15th. Can’t wait to try them :blush:

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Kevin,
The bruises on my nects were from my “ gentle squeezes”. I could recognize the marks and the location of the squeezes :grinning:

To add insult to the injury, it got bruised from falling, too.

My wife decided to make 3 pies from all the Desert King figs. We can’t eat enough fresh. I usually eat them fresh with plain yogurt of squeeze drops of lemon or lime because otherwise the flavor is too sweet and not interesting enough. When my single friends taste the pies, they always say, "I guess being married isn’t so bad after all. "
John S
PDX OR

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I thought the 17 ounce krim was a large mater but this nearly 2 pound Mortgage Lifter is my new personal best.


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Hosui Asian pear needed to be tied up. Probably more appropriate to thin at this early age of the tree but I’ll take the chance and not remove more.

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I don’t grow Anya, I had access to an orchard in Modesto area before they replaced it with almonds.

Officially picked my last plum of the season today -Emerald Beaut. I had about dozen set and I harvested most of them. I harvested first few 2 weeks ago and they we just at the beginning of ripening. As documented, these things hang forever and just get softer and sweeter in time. Wanted to leave the last two until they got more orange and more soft to touch but a squirrel pulled one (out of the bag it was in) so I decided to pull the last one before it met the same fate.

Brix hovered 20. Was very sweet and favor was good but was still a little firmer than I was wanting. Tasted too much like a good grocery store plum. Maybe next year I can experiment more with this variety. Plums in August are rare treat around here.

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Harvested Carters Blue apple moments ago. Good apple that hangs well in the heat and is perhaps the prettiest apple I grow. Really don’t spray much and these apples turn out picture perfect most of the time. Apple was founded in Mount Meigs, Alabama. Apple taste really good as well.

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Nice! Where does it stand on the sweet-tart spectrum? Does it get fireblight bad? I think we are in the same area.

More sweet than tart. It gets some fire blight but I don’t have a tree that doesn’t. It’s more manageable than pink lady, fugi or gala. But, as any apple tree, fire blight gets worst with age and amount of bloom. You have too manage fireblight with early sprays and pruning.

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Ok thanks. I lost 6 of 7 trees that I planted in fall 2014 due to FB in 2017. I made the mistake of thinking I could do apples here without agrimycin.
All that’s left is a half of a goldrush tree that I cut back due to fb, and it is showing signs of possibly a stealth infection in the lower trunk. Which other varieties have worked for you?

Dorset Golden, Williams Pride, Gala (fruit taste the best of any apple I grow but it is a FB magnet). Ana and red delicious are good also. I have many others but it’s hard to recommend much of those. Zone 8 - Alabama is limited for apple growing.