On this very hot end of summer day I walked my little orchard (with no fruit) and took a few pictures.
My lop sided pear tree. Originally a Moonglow, has few varieties grafted on to it. Some grafts didn’t grow too well, only about 6 inches. Some grew really well and put on more than 3 feet of growth. So the tree looks like the way it does now.
This is my newest peach tree. Last year I Found a volunteer seedling that didn’t get killed by the lawn mower and made it to 4 inches or so. This year I moved it and grafted several varieties to it. They all took and grew nicely. I haven’t seen many second year peach trees so I can’t compare but I think this is some tremendous growth. It’s about 6 feet now and the trunk has at least trippled in size. Here’s the tree and few graft unions on it that I’m happy about
Finally Chicago Hardy that finally rooted for me. Harder than I’ve read that it is. It’s growing slowly. Only about 2 feet of growth since April. Trunk is very green hopefully it will harden enough in next few months to make it through the winter.
Your trees look healthy even though some didn’t grow as much as you wanted. Some of my new plantings take off the first year and I have a few that start growing fast the second year. They all end up growing into good trees.
The Korean Giant that didn’t grow looks just like my Ubileen that didn’t grow. I bet they both make it through the winter and put on better growth next season. I wish I had planted KG after reading all the good reviews. I have one small branch grafted on and plan to put a few more on next spring.
My first pawpaw. This is a Pennsylvania Golden pawpaw. I found it on the ground under the tree last night. It has a little squish to it but I thought I’d let it ripen another day on the counter. Is this okay? I’ve never tasted a pawpaw before.
I have always grown cacti. Down to 4 of them these days. This one has 3 flowers open on one day. This may not seem significant, but these only stay open for one day. Today is that day! They will be wilted by tomorrow. I thought it best to take a photo. Might not even happen again. So behold a rare sight.
So I placed my first order with Cumberland Valley Nurseries. I ordered the following peaches trees in varying quantities:
Desiree
Garnet Beauty
Challenger
Contender
Redskin
China Pearl
Parade
Fairtime
I hope they have not sold out yet for these varieties,
This will be my last major order for some time- I will be maxed out on the number of peach trees I want to handle, at least until I start getting consistent crops. So far I have learned how to overcome tree runting due to poor soil, plum curcilio insect damage, limited fungus damage and I am starting to get a grip on varmint control. New challenges this year are gummosis and peach tree borers. Of course frost is always an issue in the Piedmont - that one you leave up to mother nature. Eventually I am going to get peach growing right!
I have been picking a lot of Asian pears over the last 3 weeks. Hosui and Shinko both good varieties. On Betulifolia rootstock Asian Pears grow in some of the worst areas of my yard.
Picked the last of my baby crawfords today…I think these might be the best fruit I have ever had. Good mangos, strawberries and cherries and right there, but man these are good…
Don’t keep us in suspense…let’s hear how you liked your first pawpaw!!!
@Susu I enjoyed seeing your trees very much. Isn’t it fun having an orchard to walk around in and experiment with grafts and so on? BTW, that was a neat cake and I love your daughter’s name- hadn’t seen that before. What’s the genesis for Seya?
Just finished making up apple gift boxes for delivery tomorrow to friends and family. These are all Rome Beauty. Its my first apple harvest of any size at all to speak of. I like peaches so much more than apples so its hard for me to get too excited about apples, but after asking around to my facebook friends I was surprised how many said they preferred apple to peaches! All these apples shown are from one 6 year old tree. The only problem is I didn’t thin enough so several are small(ish). I finally did thin peaches enough and they sized up really well, you would think I’d have been smart enough to thin apples better. But no! Oh well, they look pretty clean even if they are small. I’m those who receive a box will be happy. This is the fun part of fruit growing.
Those look awesome Kevin. How do they taste? Is Rome Beauty the same variety as the Rome variety I used to see in stores. I always remembered those as a good baker variety.
