It's been raining off and on for 3 days now, but thankfully that'll give way to some sunny days starting this morning. There's nothing new to speak of in the vegetable garden, so I decided to give an update on the fruit orchard. If the bugs can somehow be kept under control this year, it should be a very rewarding harvest from the various fruit trees, bushes, and vines on the property.
Photo below - here's some blueberries plumping up nicely, and we'll get at least a few for some muffins later.
Photo below - The pear harvest should surpass last year's bounty of 5 gallons, which should be more than enough to make pear preserves with. The only problem is fireblight in the top of one of the trees, but that'll be taken care of when hard pruning is performed next February. Doing so now would destroy about half of the pears currently formed, and I aim to get this harvest before any maintenance is done...
Photo below - blackberries are everywhere, and look to be about 2 weeks earlier than last year. Me and Jude will venture out into the patch when ripe, and pick a few gallons for the freezer later.
Photo below - Plums continue to do well, although the plum curculio bug has certainly made it's presence known again as usual...Those little devils are sure hard to eradicate - as i've been spraying the trees on a weekly basis with Spectracide with only fair results. How professional growers keep them at bay is completely beyond me, but i'll definitely pick a few brains later in the year. I want to completely anihilate them if possible, and surely there's a way to do it....
Photo below - upon inspection of the grape vines the other day, I noticed another bird nest in the orchard. No eggs were to be found, so it appears that they've already hatched out and left....
In other news, a volunteer pumpkin vine is growing in one of the compost bins....This is due to several post-halloween pumpkins that were thrown in last fall for their nitrogen content, and i'll just let it sprawl along the ground below. Volunteers are always welcomed, but I seriously doubt anything will come from it..
Also, tomato suckers have been rooted like crazy this year, and several plants are ready to be given out to friends. One was given to Ribbit last week during my visit, and I sure hope it's doing well so far for her....
Well, that's about it for today...Take care and happy gardening.
EG
14 comments:
The potential for a great fruit harvest is underway.
It is rainy up here in Maine this week as well. Hopefully, we will be able to spray our apple and pear trees next week for the first time to try to keep the various bugs away.
Your plum tree looks like a prolific producer. I just love fruit bearing plants of all kinds. My Reliance grapes are in their 3rd season and it looks like there are going to be significant bunches of grapes this year. I have some upright Apache thornless blackberries that won't bear until mid-summer. Also ordered three fruit tree whips that were delivered a few days ago and are awaiting planting.
http://www.media-organic.com/garden-week-in-review-6
Wow EG, my mouth is watering over your orchard bounty!!!!
I didn't know you had all of this fruit growing around you, EG. I was thinking about getting a couple plum trees this year. Have they been good producers for you?
Nice fruiting going on there.
I can't wait to get fruit from my garden. I figure I'll get strawberries first, then raspberries. It will be quite a while before I get any tree fruit though.
Looking good! Definitely a good harvest underway. One of my non-evergreen blueberries just got leaves, ROFL.
As for how commercial growers keep bugs at bay, I'm sure what they use is "technically" safe per the FDA (read Monsanto). Makes you wonder though. Good luck with your pests. I'm losing the battle against mine.
This year I should be able to get a few peaches from the trees I planted last year. The dwarf in front of my house had a ton of fruit on it that I had to thin out dramatically while the bigger trees out back only got a few peaches on them. Don't want them producing this much when young anyhow but a few more would have been cool.
I love fruit trees! Your orchard is doing very well. I'd love to have blackberries and pears, but our pear trees got the blight right after planting, so got rid of them, unfortunately!
I am envious of all your fruits! I am trying to plan out where to put our berry patch on the property I just purchased... how did you decide where to plant your blueberries and blackberries? Or were they already on the property and just a neat bonus?
Prairie Cat - The blackberries grow wild, but the blueberries were just planted in available space at the edge of the yard...
Your pantry and freezer will be loaded down.
Oh wow, you have so much fruit growing! How awesome! I'm hoping for some blackberries to fruit this year, but I'm not holding my breath. Our peach tree has about a dozen peaches growing, which I am hoping will ripen on the tree. We shall see!
All your fruit looks wonderful!! My blackberries had beautiful flowers but then no berries on one and only 2 small berries on the other. Same things happened last year. I need to figure out what is wrong.
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