Snippy, snippy

[altivo]

Pruning time.

*takes a wicked-looking pair of pruning snips and a can of sealer and heads for the orchard*

Dwarf trees are nice. No ladder needed. Hopefully this year will see some real yield, since the trees have finally been protected from gnawing deer for two years. (Mate built fence wire cages around the remaining trees a couple of years ago.)

Inventory of remaining live trees:

Dolgo crabapple (dwarf, great for jelly and wine, planted 1999)
Spitzenberg apple (one dwarf 1999, one semi-dwarf 2002)
Red Astrakan apple (dwarf 1999)
Winter Banana apple (dwarf 2003)
Empire apple (dwarf 1999, not doing well)
Prairie Spy apple (semi-dwarf 2002)
Jonamac apple (semi-dwarf 2002)
Bosc pear (semi-dwarf 2003)
Colette pear (semi-dwarf 2003)
Winesap apple (dwarf 2003)

Some losses over the years:

Northstar cherry (three different attempts, I give up)
Meteor cherry
Red Bartlett pear
Prairie Spy apple (planted too close to a black walnut I think)
McIntosh apple (no loss really)
Comice pear
Vermont Beauty pear
Seckel pear ("hardy and easy to grow" pooh)

So much for my orchardist blood. My father's family had a number of successful and noted orchardmen in it. I wish I'd had the opportunity to learn from one of my great uncles. I begin to think that the failure of the pie cherries has something to do with the native flora here. Wild black cherry grows like weeds and sprouts everywhere, and perhaps carries something that infects and kills the weaker domesticated varieties before they get established. We are a solid zone 5 though, and all these trees should do well here. We can grow garden vegetables by the wagonload, but fruit trees have so far really stymied us.

*waits impatiently for flowers to appear*

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

My grandfather was really amazing when it came to trees.

We had a Valencia orange that just exploded with fruit, all year long. Even 30 years after planting it, with limbs slowly dying, it was still putting out so much fruit half of it would fall to the ground and have to be shoved into the garbage before it rotted too much. And that was with giving away bags and bags of oranges to neighbors, friends, coworkers, etc.

I've still got all the rest of his fruit trees in the back yard, and most of them still churn out fruit. There several types of oranges, Valencia, Navel and Mandarin, a Haas avocado, a couple Fuji apples, a couple freak Satsuma plums that were actually chopped down but have regrown, a lemon, an apricot, and a nectarine. The only trees that don't seem to be doing well are the cherries, they've not produced any fruit in years. In the front yard, there's a magnolia which has been there longer than I've been alive.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Cherries and most apple varieties do like a winter chill, which you probably don't get at adequate levels most years. Japanese apples, like Fuji or the apple-pears, have been selected for the milder Japanese climate so should do better there than the old fashioned European and Yankee types. Citrus, of course, are in their own element as long as you can water them enough. I just wish I could grow avocadoes, but then I'd eat them all so probably best that I have to settle for what I can buy in season.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

McIntosh apple (no loss really)

Not a Mac user, I guess? ;-)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh, actually, no. I had to use one for a couple of years when I was a full time writer, and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. That was System 7, and I might have felt differently now that they have moved to something 'NIX-like, but their prices and marketing tactics keep me away in any case.

When it comes to apples, a McIntosh has good flavor when absolutely fresh, but quickly turns mushy. And the skins are like they borrowed genes from an elephant. A number of better varieties are crosses from the McIntosh stock, though all are commercial apples: selected for easy picking and shipment, for shiny good looks but not for ideal flavor or texture. In general, I prefer old fashioned types like the Spitzenberg, which is crisp, tart, and tasty but not much to look at so it lacks commercial appeal. They are smallish, green with red and russet brown patches on the skin, but the flavor just explodes. Noted for being Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple variety. :)