Auctionzip.com will be your friend

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

If you need supplies now is the time. If this year ends up anything like last year, you won't find canners, jars, supplies in general. I sold my pressure canner before I moved as I focus on water bath method for tomatoes and freeze or dry most other things. When I went to buy a canner, everyone was out. I had some luck with Fleet Farm out of the midwest and their prices were less.

That alone told me if I needed more jars or lids to get right on it. So I was stocking up spring and early summer. By the time mid summer came around there was nothing.

Interesting lesson learned. I used to can all of the time, especially tomatoes. Had a ten year gap where I wasn't in a house with a sunny enough yard or have the space. Today's tomatoes are not acidic enough. I've always done water bath for tomatoes. Go on line and filter through all of the university gardening extensions as they said. I put up 30+ jars of tomatoes last year to find out I may have to throw them out. Coworker said new varieties are not as acidic. I ordered a pH meter from hannah instruments to check as I did plant an older variety from seed. PH good. I do check each jar when I open as I had three varieties and depending upon how ripe they are, the ph can vary. The spaghetti sauce yesterday was worth it. PH meter will come in handy for grapes and wine making too.

You can still water bath tomatoes but may need to add citric acid.

Plant lights for starting seeds are also in low supply.

Have fun! It is much needed therapy after a rough winter dealing with covid. We have had zero covid patients in house for at least a week.

Any suggestions as to why an entire orchard won't produce fruit? I have an orchard with ~10 Apple, 4 pear a couple cherry, couple plum and to date have gotten 2 apples....yes, 2.

The orchard is surrounded by anywhere from 6 to 12 beehives depending on year. The trees where almost all planted over 10 years ago. I have checked and double checked to see if I have the right variety of trees to get pollination. I have sent pictures to U of I extension asking of they could see anything horribly wrong. They responded with that the pruning looks "OK" and to continue on.

Every year I get thousands of blooms and thousands of "Ornamental" fruit size niblets...no full fruit.

I have

1) Pruned, Pruned and pruned again. Over pruned, under pruned, no pruning, scalped...same result
2) Had the soil tested
3) Thinned the fruit, not thinned the fruit
4) Fertilized, not fertilized

My neighbor has a single apple tree in his front year that is probably 1/8th of mile from these...he gets tons of apples every year. I have two Arkansas Black apple trees in the bunch. They are the only ones that have given me any fruit at all. Last year I got one apple off one and two years ago I got one apple off the other.

I may give them a couple more years but if I don't figure something out they may just be coming down because it's easier to mow a flat space with no trees :-)

~Matt

I typically do Cider Pressing with a friend of mine...when we aren't Covid-19'd. He made a bench with a stainless steel sink and a Garbage disposal. He has two disposals. You chop the apples into a few chunks and then press the chunks into the disposal and the shredded chunkies come out the bottom into a bucket.

The two disposals are because constant use like that over heats them and pops the breaker on the unit. Switch them out and let the first one cool down while you keep on smooshing.

He also made his press, everthing except the wooden bucket. Pretty much a tripod out of 2 X 10 with a large wheel, ACME nut and ACME rod. Drop the smooshed apples into brewing backs and place them in layers between UHMW round plates alternated in the buck....press.

We had 4-5 people cutting, one person running the grinder and one person pressing and did 650-750lbs of apples in 4-5 hours.

Fermenting, only thing I can say is DON'T use a Trappist beer yeast. I fermented a bunch with various yeasts I used for mead but for some reason thought a Trappist yeast would make a good cider....no it does not.

~Matt

No, that is odd to consistently have fruit start but not fully develop, even when I don’t thin my apple trees I still get some fruit to fully develop. My thought would be fertilizer but if the soil is good then you should be fine. I will say 10 years is about when my apples started to take off.
Good luck on finding something that works.

Just thought I'd throw this out there, you may already be aware of this. Now oops, you have already checked the variety. My bad. Most often you need a couple of different varieties for cross pollination. I had a granny smith and a McIntosh years ago. By seven years those trees were absolutely loaded. You can also use crabapple trees, even the ones that only flower, as a cross pollinator. As cross pollinators they need to flower about the same time. Right now I have a granny smith, honey crisp in back and two ornamental crabapple trees in front. Is it possible there was a cross pollinator that didn't survive?

What varieties of apple do you have?

This year I hope to add a cherry tree and peach. Had a peach on the west coast, with the rain and climate it required too many chemicals. Hoping here as it is dryer that I won't need to poison the dang thing. I get by with dormant oil and bt when I can for apples and others.

https://extension.psu.edu/...-no-fruit-on-my-tree

I did not know fertilizing grass near the trees would cause no fruit. You mentioned you mow around the trees?

I'm going from memory here but I think I have Macintosh, Fuji, Arkansas Black and possibly Granny for apples. I have two varieties of apples as well.

I just can't imagine that pollination is the issue especially with a million or more bees flying around within 100-150 yards or so.

Furthermore I know there is a crabapple tree and some other unknown variety of tree in an 1/8 to 1/4 mile radius from my orchard.

No lawn fertilizing. The orchard is in a field with my apiary. I occasionally mow to knock down the grass so I can get around easier. I have, in a couple years, used fruit tree fertilizer but did not seem to have and effect.

I've always wondered if it was possible that something was left in the soil from when it was actual farm land. It has not been productive farm land since the early to mid 80's so that's 40+ years. But you never know I guess. I will probably get the soil tested again this year and maybe have a more thorough test for micro nutrients, minerals etc..

What are you spraying with? Some insecticides will make the trees drop their fruit. You can actually use a weak solution to thin, but that has always made me nervous.

Does the fruit drop right away or hang on and just never grow?

Another suggestion is to walk through the orchard with the chainsaw running. Let the trees know to either produce fruit or they can help smoke meat.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Fruit stays on all year long and even thru the winter. The appearance is very "Ornamental" looking rather than actual fruit tree. I'll get a cluster of 2-3 "apples" in the same group that look more like a blob of cherries than applies.

I'm not spraying with anything as I've never had any fruit develop that would need to be sprayed or saw any sign of insects causing issues. I will often times get Japanese beeetle infestation on the plum trees, in fact they are kind of my warning signal they are coming because they always get nailed first. For them I've found a quick spray down with oil and a bit of dawn mixed with water is all it takes to make them go away and die.

For thinning I have gone thru a couple years and thinned by hand which was a time consuming PIA that did nothing for me either.

Very hard to raise apples without spraying. I will spray 4 times before the blooms even open. And those are the most important. Couple different critters lay eggs in the blooms and that is when the fungi first get a foothold.

Dormant - 1/2" green - tight cluster - full pink - here's a pretty good guide out of Purdue's extension service - https://ag.purdue.edu/...ts/pdf/2012ID168.pdf

No idea if that is what is causing your issues but if I miss those, like last year when it rained every day for like 3 weeks, I get small lumpy fruit for the most art.

I'd also do some soil tests to see if you are missing some nutrients.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I jumped into the pruning project two days ago, made it just over halfway through. As you can see, the trees are wildly overgrown to the point where very little light breaches the canopy in summer. It’ll take a few years to prune them down to an attractive shape and manageable size, but it’s a start.

I took off all the suckers, the downward facing sprigs, all the dead I could find, crossover branches, and the tallest lead coming straight up out of the crown, which should open it up to more sunlight. I mostly stayed within the 1/3 removal rule, though I’m not sure what to expect given that I’m pruning just as the buds are emerging.

Two pears and 14 apple trees down, a dozen or so more to go.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Sorry if I missed it: what do you use to spray, and is it something I can do from the ground with these trees? They’re probably 30 years old, mostly left unchecked, as best I can tell, so if I need to spray the leaves in the canopy we’re talking crop duster duty.

I’ve been coming across Neem Oil as a good all-around product, but I have zero experience with any of this.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I will use a dormant oil spray this weekend. I am using a combination of captan (fungicide) and malathion (insecticide) during the year. I will also use something like Mancozeb (different kind of fungicide) once or twice to control a couple other diseases.

Here is a pretty good spray guide - https://ag.purdue.edu/...ts/pdf/2012ID168.pdf - ETA - that I see I posted just above, thought it was a different thread

Bonus PITA this year is that due to the plague it appears captan will be in short supply. I was going to order from these guys, https://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/ until I found 2 x 5 lbs bag at my dad's house last weekend when I was pruning his trees. Now he has 1 x 5 lbs bag :)

I like those two because they have been around for ages and are pretty dang safe. Malathion has a short half like, 4.5 days, so you may need to spray more often than other insecticides but that also means it has pretty much broken down when you go to eat them as long as you aren't spraying while you are picking.

Here's another thing to look for. Bonide makes some combo mixes that are convenient. Look at the labels before you use them. They don't mention it and it seems like garden centers aren't smart enough - Bonide "Fruit Tree Spray" has as an insecticide "carbaryl". This is the active ingredient in Sevin. Sevin is a great insecticide. I use it a lot. But when you spray it on young apple fruit (and grapes, pears, and I am sure others) it acts as a chemical thinner. Meaning it will make your trees drop a good amount of the fruit if you spray it at full strength. People use Sevin intentionally to thin the fruit but they use a lower concentrate and know what they are doing. I made this mistake for several years.

They make another that is "Fruit Tree and Plant Guard" that uses a different insecticide.

That spray guide can be overwhelming. It really isn't that hard. Most of them are the same basic mix, I mix my own spray now, just follow the directions for the product you use and you can combine them with no issues. Malathion is available everywhere in great big jugs that will last multiple years most likely. Fungicides are available anywhere you find fine agricultural products for sale :).

You'll notice there are 4 sprays before they fully bloom. Don't spray while they are blooming or you kill all the bees. The early spraying is the most important IMO. If you want pretty fruit spray diligently during the growing season.

Walking though the orchard and grabbing random fruit is kind of cool.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Thanks again, useful information. I bought Neem oil but haven't sprayed yet. I've got enough going on here with now 32 fruit trees in different locations and in various states of health that I think bringing an orchardist to the property and getting a proper assessment of the situation would be worth the effort.

We added blackberries (Osage), raspberries (Heritage), LSU Fig, Rabbiteye blueberries, and a trio of grapevines (Concord, Reliance, and Somerset, all seedless) to the homestead this week.

The fruit are emerging now, the pruned apples are somewhat stunted as a result, but all of them flowered to varying degrees.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

The USDA has an excellent home canning guide...
https://nchfp.uga.edu/...blications_usda.html

I've got 12 apple trees that I need to prep / spray.

We're getting into bee keeping this year. Beehive is prepped / setup and I'm getting the nucleus colony in two weeks.
We've planted a few hundred sq. ft. of wildflowers for the bees, but since we're in the country I don't think they will have any problems finding flowers.

Vegetable garden is planted, though probably too early as the recent snowfall killed some of the more delicate plants. Will need to replant the tomatoes and such. We usually get about 100lbs of potatoes, 30lbs of onions and such out of the garden.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

I was pretty worried during that. But my peaches had gotten just far enough along to make it. I now have scads of little tiny fuzzy peaches growing.

I covered my strawberries with tarps but was not hopeful looking out and seeing a couple inches of snow on top of them because they don't like even a mildfrost. . Uncovered them and lost a few but not many.

The rest didn't care.

Everything is looking good for the fruit.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Garden is starting to produce now, mostly peppers and tomatoes. I planted three blackberry and two raspberry bushes, with the blackberries fruiting nicely (one surviving a ferocious bovine attack). The orchard is fruiting, with all but a small handful of trees stunted from the pruning operation. Looking good so far but I definitely have a mite problem which isn’t new this year.

Sour cherries are in the final days of viability. I pulled off a few baskets, enough to make three pies, one of which with Splenda which was the best of the bunch.

Interestingly, the end of season mulberries are far sweeter when ripe than the early season berries. Made a nice batch of lemon-mulberry muffins and put them to good use.

I’m fighting with critters non-stop and will need to build a chicken run. We’ve lost half of the flock to foxes already, and the deer stripped a few of my grape vines and peach trees, though both have rebounded and are now protected with black plastic mesh. I need a better solution than wrapping every damn plant on the property, though, and I can’t keep the birds in the coop forever.

I haven’t found a cider press but I did find the materials to make one, which may be a more enjoyable experience than buying an old one. Or not.

This week’s project will be pepper jelly. I’ve got a variety of hots on the vine and should be ready to pick within a few days.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Tomatoes are getting ripe here. This is a new variety for us this year - pic taken a month ago. Very tasty.



My yellow plum tomato plant may be a victim of fungus - very wilty after recent rains. Don't think it will survive or produce much more fruit.



ETA: to upload, see pics and directions for imgur.

Login to your imgur account, mouse over your account name, and select images.

Click on one image and you should see a set of links for sharing.


Click on the blue "Direct Link" Copy button.
Then go to your ST post compose window (must be in Advanced Editor mode).
Click on the picture frame icon (Insert Image).




This will bring up a dialog box. Make sure the radio button for URL is clicked. Then paste into the "Image source" field.




When you click OK, your image should show up in the compose window wherever your cursor was last. It helps to have a few carriage returns above and below your cursor to allow you to type up some text descriptions of each photo. The photo will look huge in the compose window, but it will resize automatically when you post.

In addition to the excellent recommendations for seeking out extensions, also seek out your local Master Gardener program. Google "[your town or region] master gardener" and give them a call. Those people are full of knowledge and they want to share it with you.

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War is god

I thought I was going to have the best cherry crop in a couple of years however two weeks ago It rained a lot and split most of them, and the last two days with the temperature up to 109 degrees I don't think I have any left.

Enjoying this thread. Picked a gallon of blueberries yesterday. Figs are coming out. Pears getting big. Lost all regular peaches to brown blight. Red skin peaches coming along. Blackberries and raspberries are good to go. Had three plums. Tomatoes ripening. Mint is good in mojitos. Love this time of year. Apples continue to suck, like another person mentioned.

>> I planted three blackberry >>


you'll be sorry


.. note to beginners
... that stuff can get away from you quickly

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RayGovett
Hughson CA
Be Prepared-- Strike Swiftly -- Who Dares Wins- Without warning-"it will be hard. I can do it"