The record of the highest amount of rain in July was set 100 years ago.
Forecasters said we are likely to break that record this July because this is only mid July and rain continues to come.
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In ground Orangered apricot was very bland but Zard in a container was good. I’m wondering if root pruning in ground peaches would help with excess rain? Other idea is a water proof tarp under the tree if ground is sloped.
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I am glad to know I am not the only one.
I only have one early peach tree, it’s harvest time now. The peaches have no taste at all. I thought I did something wrong, maybe not thinning enough.
My early peach were never as good as peaches come later, but they tasted reasonable in the past.
One thing interesting is the methley plum I grafted to the same tree, the plums are gradually ripening. I started to pick a few a day. They tasted pretty good, pretty sweet and lot of flavor.
My Early-magic plums are delicious and in the past plums have not been watered down by excessive rain for me- at least most varieties. Unfortunately EM didn’t set well this year- I think partially because where it’s located. I have good crops of it on my few nursery trees of that variety.
Most of my nursery trees get root pruned just in the process of planting and removing other trees. I’ve never noticed a benefit, but I will pay attention this season. I’ll try a couple of Spring Snows tomorrow. I’ve thought about the tarp idea for years and tried it once for a red haven that always produced bland peaches on my prop. It didn’t help. On a vigorous peach tree I suspect trees will reach far and wide for water.
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Maybe the combination of a root barrier and a tarp. At least we could find out how much grey skies have to do with it and how much too much water. The easiest thing would be just to grow a few trees in big containers and not give them access to rain water.
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Same problem with different fruit. One watermelon had a wide crack and two others didn’t get sweet enough.
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Amazing how different our experiences are between East and West this year. You are on track for the wettest year ever and we will have the hottest, driest year ever…
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Yes, you should see my flavor grenade pluots. A few cracked fruit is fine but I doubt I get a single good FG as they are still 50 days or so away from ripe. They are not very good for the northeast- total crackers. I know you will remove that cracked stuff before it is rotting its neighbors. The dark ones are probably already quite good and the cracked on is likely OK. So much better than Shiro as grown here.
But I would like to know if those plums are Early Magic or Reema?
I got scionwood from you. I cannot find much info on the Internet
Early Magic. It ripens about with Shiro. Reema is later.
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Thanks for confirming it. It is very vigorous and productive. The cracked ones were the ones that turned red. They were not ripe yet, and still sour.
When I took Shiro out, Reema graft (and 16 other varieties) went with it. I recalled Reema was very late. By then, Laroda beat Reema out handily taste-wise.
I’ve been trying to be impressed by Laroda for years now. The first crop was very good but it has been bland since. Reema is much more reliable and tastes better here… so far. They both set well this year (Reema even had fruit last year) so I will see if Laroda gets some flavor this season and compare.
I notice your branch was very heavy set. Trees have to have similar spacing of fruit to be compared fairly.
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Alan,
I’m glad you posted this, because I’ve been picking Gold Dust and wondering why they were so bad. The last time I got one off the tree was about 2014 or 2015 (getting sprays and animal trapping right is a work in progress for me and this particular tree faces the additional challenge of a rampaging kiwi vine), when it was a relatively young tree. I remember the fruit being pretty good, but this time isn’t all that flavorful and under 10 brix. To make it worse, I think I missed it with my last fungacide spray (I need to crouch under 2 other trees to get at it and can easily forget it) and half of them rotted.
Is that the same as Rich May? I checked and it is also called Flavorich, so Flavor May could taking the non-“rich” part of the 2 names and putting them together…
I picked mine starting in the last week of June. They weren’t bad, but didn’t have that high of brix, maybe 9. Of course, as you noted, maybe I didn’t thin enough.
Have you started picking Silver Gem yet? I checked and it is -14 days from Redhaven, so that should put it around now. But, I tried an already damaged one and it was quite hard and still sour (7 brix).
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They said for Worcester it is the most wet July in history of records!
I have heard it will break the 100 year history of MA and set the new record, too.
What bothers me during this wet period is my potted plants. They may get a lot of rain the night before but if the following day is sunny, some of tomato plants will wilt by the end of the day. Daily watering is not fun.
In fact, potted plants like tomatoes, if their drip line is wider than pot(and it is almost always true for large potted plants), they DO NOT get enough water despite the rain. The water just runs off to the ground. If they do not have saucer to collect water, they are not getting enough water.And if they have saucer, they may get too much water 
. Agree, not fun to water plants under the rain, but sometimes we have to 
.
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After I saw that post, I checked out my FG. Yup- plenty of cracks as well:
I don’t see any cracks on the Geo Pride next to it:
Is that still necessary, even if we keep spraying Indar? I was hoping it would be the magic bullet and would keep things from rotting long enough the crack to heal/dry.
Do these look like Early Magic as well? I grafted them as Spring Satin, but they don’t match the description. And the same year I grafted SS, I also did Reema and EM, so it is possible I mixed up the wood. I’ve also reached out to the guy who sent me SS and asked what his fruit looks like…
The above fruit wasn’t fully ripe and the brix from the tip (probably highest) was only 12.
I can’t see from your pic- do they have a pointed tip like the one in my above pic?
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No, mine were quite round.
Yours looks similar to Beauty plum. Could yours be Beauty plum?
Beauty Plum - #28 by Vincent_8B…
Pictures in Posts #24 and #27