Made my first harvest of the season, spinach, red Russian Kale and onion greens. These were over wintered in a hoop house made of PVC and plastic tarp.
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I grafted a little 
I’m out of the hang of it, so might have mangled things too much. But I got better by the end.
My little Twocot white apricot tree hasn’t budded out! And some twigs are drying up. I really hope it pulls through; I wanted to try it. It was a clearance tree that had some base canker on arrival, so it’s not been vigorous yet the whole time I’ve had it 
Checked my new apple bench grafts that I did two weeks ago. Looks like my Mollies Delicious and Honeycrisp grafts are sporting new buds! My Enterprise graft sprouted last week. Now, I don’t know if it’s just the scions waking up or it means the grafts took, but still a good sign.
Guess I’d better get them potted up soon.
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I’d say scion
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Took a few pictures today, trying to get things in order before the flowers start showing.
Here is a picture of a Shiro plum branch. Not my favorite fruit (far from it), but I keep it around because it has so many blossoms and the when the fruit is chilled it is decent. Loaded with flowers this year.
shinseiki asian pear blossom on the way!
Picture of the yard, progress is being made. I have 3 spots to add trees, but have 5 coming…Have to choose between blazing star, silver gem, Victoria, arctic glo, and spring snow. I know I am definitely adding spring snow, the rest I have not decided yet.
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Love your yard… What’s the spacing between the trees?
What variety?
5.5 ft between trees in rows and 6.5 ft between rows
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That’s PF-24C. Planning to graft Baby Crawford and July Prince to it this year.
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A pic of my newly sprouting bench grafts. They were done on 3/7 and am very pleased they’re budding out. Guess I will be potting these up his week.
From left to right, Enterprise, Honeycrisp, and Mollie’s Delicious (on M7 rootstocks):
I know pretty much everyone knows about the first two varieties, but have any of y’all tried a Mollies Del?
Now only have to wait five more years for these to produce apples for us… Hopefully this will be the year some of our 4th leaf trees will give us some apples (and pears) finally.
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Did some more clearing of brush and trees today on the farm. There was a row of briars (mostly old wild blackberry canes), sapling trees and various other nuisance plants that were next to a row of our 4th leaf apple trees. Although I doubt it shaded the fruit trees that much, it sure was an eyesore, and probably didn’t help with air circulation. I don’t know if the presence of this hedge was close enough to interfere or compete with the fruit trees for nutrients as they were about 12ft away, but thought clearing it out may help too.
The most brutal plants to deal with were a couple of multiflora (wild rose) bushes that were in the row. The canes are thick, very thorny and long and entangle themselves in just about everyhing, even the trees next to them. They do produce some nice flowers, but are very invasive here. There are still other bushes spread out around the farm.
I left a few sapling trees, but the rest of the row is cleared, although not clean yet. I’ll have to take the mower through there and then a rake to make it look better.
Sure have been giving my loppers, hand saw and chainsaw a workout over the last few weeks. Plus the tractor and bush hog have been used, too. It’s hard work, but rewarding to see the place spruce up bit by bit. I think this is the most work I’ve done on the farm as far as clearing out fence rows and brushy areas.
Before I went out to work on that, I took a look at the strawberry patch in the backyard, and to my disgust, noticed a lot of leaves had been removed off a lot of the plants (either deer and/or rabbits). The crowns are intact with their emerging fruit buds, but not a lot of leaves. I’m worried that the missing leaves will impact my berry harvest in a couple months. I knew I should’ve put up my fence around the patch as soon as I weeded it last month, and am now paying the price for my inaction. I have another 25 plants (Flavorfest) coming in next month and hoped I could get away with it. Will these plants still produce berries with missing leaves, or will they sprout new ones from the crowns?
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Looks like a nice job to my untrained eye. Are all those branches on the ground from that one tree? Bet it felt good to get out there after all that snow had melted off.
How old is your tree and did it give you any fruit last year? Your soil looks really rocky, is that an issue? Guess you don’t have to worry about weeds!
Hey Bob. Yes all that wood is off of that one tree. It is 7 or 8 years old now and a pretty heavy producer for me. It is nice to have an older tree I can thin heavily and still be confident about a big harvest. The rock is landscaping. The whole house is done that way. Really keeps the weeds from growing and doesn’t blow away in the wind.
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Ok, I was wondering if the rock was your “mulch”. I can only hope our trees will look that nice in a few years. But, saying that, growing peaches here is a gamble, considering the late frosts. I mulch with straw and the weeds take over in a few months. I have actually considered using gravel or rock as my mulch.
Do y’all have many issues with insects messing with your stone fruit? What about diseases? I’d think it’d be more an issue with the former, and not the latter being that you’re in a relatively dry area? I know about all the apples grown in eastern WA, but what about stone fruit?
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We are fortunate here in Spokane. It’s really dry in the Summer so very little disease pressure. There is an Oriental Fruit Moth population in this neighborhood. Cold hearty varieties are preferred because every once in a while it will get to -20. Seems less and less frequent as the years go by. Still, I have never lost a crop to winter cold or spring frost in 20 years or so. A few years back, I did lose part of a Redhaven tree to what I belive to be Southwest injury (not 100% sure though). The rest of the tree fruited fine. I think the white vinyl fence is an amplifier of low angle solar energy in the Winter. I’ve been doing a better job of protecting the trunks since then.
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As for fruit grown in Central and Eastern Washington, seems like everything grows, but apples are definitely king. Pears are grown as well. Lots of wine grapes and lots of cherries too.
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