03 May Sun 2009
Spring has Sprung
I'm not much of a blogger--you can see that from the long time between posts, but as I walked the orchard yesterday I thought "this is worth writing about." Despite the picture on my listing page, the trees are not blooming yet, but they're on the way. The mysteries of life that take an apple tree from the cold and and dark of winter to the fruitfull abundance of fall are overwhelming. Right now, you can see the stirrings oif life. Some trees are still dormant to the eye, but inside, in the cambium, life is stirring. Other trees are showing the first signs of new life-a stage caled silver tip, where the new buds take on a silvery grey appearance. Yet other trees are at 1/4 inch green, and one variety-Northwest Greening-has trees at 1/2 inch green. That means there is actual green showing in the buds, and ion the 1/2 inch green, you can see leaves wanting to start popping out. Next stage-Pink (where the pink of a blossom starts showing) and then on to tight cluster, and eventually full blossom.
It seems that every season is THE busy season. I still haven't gathered most of the pruning from winter, and as I walked the orchard yesterday I kept commenting on all the trees I didn't get to prune. Early spring brings planting, early disease and insect control, equipment repair and maintenance and the list goes on.
The week before last I planted 140 new trees. They were all Honeycrisp but I used two different rootstocks and two different planting strategies. I put 30 Geneva 16 on stakes and 30 more on a five wire trellis, both with a six foot spacing. I also put 80 Bud 9 on five wire trellis, but a closer spacing of 4 feet between trees. I was out-of-town working last week, so couldn't work in the orchard, so this this week's task is to plant 60 more trees, these on a Bud 118-Bud 9 interstem. I'm staking 1/2 of them and leaving the other 1/2 free standing. I'm hoping the Bud 118 rootstock will anchor the trees sufficiently to keep them from breaking when the storms come. We'll see. Other major task this week--repair the air blast sprayer. I thought i drained all water last fall, but the in line filter broke in a way that screams" You didn't drain me." Then in the next twoo weeks, I need to install irrigation for the 200 new trees. So much to do besides contemplate life.
See you in the orchard