Fruit trees in

Woke up to sunshine this morning and got the fruit trees planted. The orchard is expanding into the pasture, and I have at least one more row planned for the future...

New trees

We went to a fruit tasting festival at a really cool nursery in Everson, Cloud Mountain Farm, this Sunday. They had 200 varieties of apple, pear, cherry, grapes and other less commonly grown fruit (gooseberries and paw-paw!) for sampling, all grown on-site on their test fields, so guaranteed performers in our climate. Plus they had a buy 2, get one free deal going for their remaining fall stock of fruit trees. I have a list of fruit trees I'd like to add to what we have already, so it was a perfect event to try some of those varieties and maybe pickup a few.

So I didn't get the pick of the litter, but it doesn't really matter since the first few years most of the growth is pruned off each spring anyway, as intial training requires. The tall one on the left is Frost Peach, a semi-dwarf, self-fertile, super hardy (zone 5) variety. It's the only peach that will grow in our climate. It can be finicky its' first few years and must be sprayed for peach leaf curl, but once established does well without much trouble. Next, in the middle, is Conference pear. This is a dessert pear (fresh eating) that also stores well. It can be kept in the fridge once mature for 3 or more months, and brought out to ripen as needed. This one will ripen after the Bartlett we already have, and keep through the winter. Last, on the right, is a Rainier cherry. It's one of our favorite varieties, and will ripen with our later black cherry.

I plan to add a few more trees in the spring or next fall and over the next few years, as we start to learn how much we need to be able to eat some fruit fresh, have extra to can, and some to make cider (and hard cider), without getting so many that they are a pain to take care of. But I think "having too many" is a problem I'll rarely have...

Fresh fruit (and nuts)

I have been very happy with how all the fruit did this year - mostly because I was able to avoid mangling them too badly while learning to prune this spring. The cherries were excellent earlier this summer, as were the raspberries (even though many were eaten by deer) and blueberries. We have been eating the blackberries that line our property for a few weeks now, including a pie and cobbler!

Here's what I picked yesterday to test ripeness. The Asian pears (upper left) are ripe and very good, the apples are not quite ready, and the Bartlett's are mature and very good after a few days ripening. On apples and asian pears, a change in "background" color from green to gold and a slight give when a thumb is lightly pressed into the fruit indicate ripeness. Bartlett's are tougher, as they are picked "mature" but not "ripe". If any on the tree start to go yellow even in the slightest, then the others that are still green are likely ready to be picked. We ate one last nigth that I picked last week - it was delicious.

Italian plums (probably). Good for cooking, good fresh, and good to give away!


Gala apples are small. I should have thinned the fruit so the remaining could grow larger. These are not quite ready.


Walnuts. I have no idea when these are ready (or how this strange fruit becomes a walnut).

Hazelnuts are starting to color up. We have 3 nice big filbert trees out front - should have lots of hazelnuts so I'll have to read up on how and when to harvest nuts.

More goodies

Cherries are ripening fast now - so far we have picked 6 lbs off the backyard tree. More brassicas too.

Emily with fresh cherries (made a nice pie), broccoli, and kohlrabi.

This is 3 broccoli heads, cut up and ready to be frozen. First blanched for 3 minutes, then chilled in ice water, patted dry....

...and bagged and vacuum-sealed in a freezer bag. We're going to try canning this year for other vegetables, but I will be freezing whenever possible as it just seems a lot easier.

Fruit!

Fruit trees are coming along great. All of the trees set fruit well (except one apple that set only 5 or 6) and seem to be growing well, now putting out their summer flush of new growth.

Apples turning red on the sun-side.

Red bartlett? My unreliable fruit tree map says green bartlett, but I am suspicious.

Bing-type cherry. We have 2 of these trees, and this one (behind the house) is ripening faster than the tree out front.

First ripe cherries! We hung silver scare tape to help keep the birds out of them, and it seems to be working pretty well. We are going to have hundreds of cherries...

Flowering fruits

The fruit trees are all in bloom now. Since I've not had them before, it has been interesting to see the blooming sequence of the different fruits and different varieties. Pears first, followed by one variety of cherry, then peach, plums, more cherries, and finally apples (just coming into bloom now).

Here we go.

Ornamental weeping cherry.

Bartlett pear.

Cherry.

Plum.

Apple ready to open.

Native cherry trees in the woods are blooming as well.

The New Garden

It's a little scary looking at this weedy, barren patch. Not because it can't be turned into a productive vegetable garden (it can, and will), but because it's going to be a hell of a lot of work! As far as I can tell there was a garden in this spot a few years ago, so I attempted to begin weeding and turning over some of the grass that's moved in, but it's just too wet and compact right now. In about a week I'll rent a heavy-duty rototiller and get to work on it. The planned garden will measure about 25' by 60', and consist of slightly mounded, 30" wide beds with narrow walkways between them and two wider wheelbarrow paths bisecting the garden from either side. There are lots of creatures out here, so a 6' deer fence must go up, which will keep out rabbits as well. And that all has to happen before I can transplant or sow anything...

The fruit trees are heavily budded, swelling up and just about ready to begin flowering.

Gala apple.

According to my tree map, this is a Bartlett pear.

On a few of these trees, especially the "plum" trees behind the house, it really doesn't seem like the map is correct. It will be interesting to see these trees set fruit this summer and try to nail down what they actually are...

Found a big rhubarb plant out back by the garden starting to wake up - will make great pie with strawberries!

Fruit trees

The new property came with 14 fruit trees and 4 nut trees, all of which were in need of some serious pruning. I read up on pruning techniques for all kinds of fruit trees, and decided the best option was to treat these as old fruit trees in need of renovation, which means pruning for shape and for ease of future fruiting, and not think about this years' harvest.

Found this nailed to a beam in the shop.

Here are the fruits:
Stella cherry (red, sweet)
Rainier cherry
Montmorency cherry (sour cherry - for pie!)
Bartlett Pear
Fuji apple
Gala apple
Jonagold apple
Red Gravenstein apple
Peach 'Frost' (small, sometimes won't ripen in a cold summer, but very hardy)
2 Italian plum
Santa Rosa plum (oriental)
Satsuma Japanese plum (oriental)
Yellow Egg (European) plum

Apples, cherries, pear, and peach along the driveway out front. Plum trees are behind the house.

The Montmorency cherry is 75% dead, and the Gala apple and Frost Peach both have bad canker infections on most of the main scaffold branches which might require some pretty severe pruning (like, to the ground...). I'll see how they do this year and may replace them.


Most of them looked like this; tons of water shoots, hanging and dead branches, and way too many branches shading out he center of the tree.

Much better when pruned back to shape.