What did you do in your orchard today?

[CrealCritter]

Buds are on the blueberries and Asian pear tree. Wanting to plant two apricots.

What varieties of aisan pear do you have?

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Honey bees working over the peach trees. I probably mentioned this before, but I have a fond affection for honey bees. Please be kind to our bee pollinators, leave them alone to do their work. And most importantly please don't spray pesticides during bloom. Let them live and do what honey bees do best, feed us.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Mason bees showed up today to work along with the honey bees to get what peach pollon they can. Our peach trees haven't reached full bloom just yet. The first blooms are not even in the shuck phase yet. But it will be over soon, bloom time is only a few short weeks from start to finish.

Our rich may peaches have a good flower set. Hoping for first peach from the trees. Although with late bloom this year. They will probably ripen to be rich june, instead of rich may. IDK... first flower set for them

So 5 days and a few cherries are breaking bud. It appears cherry scions grafted onto mazzard rootstocks breaks the bottom bud first then moves up the scscion. Just a observation...


Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Seemed like overnight the apple blossomed I had my doubts about the spurs after cicada madness last year. But the spurs are still viable, beaten up but still viable. Actually cicads may have did this apple tree a favor by damaging it's spurs.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Mini Horses]

Looks real good!!

 

[CrealCritter]

Looks real good!!

I agree with you. Perhaps I'm just easily amused... but I find it interesting that you can clearly see the king blossoms.

The center blossom on a apple tree is called the king blossom. This blossom opens first and is most likely to become the largest and best quality apple in the cluster. Once the apple is ripe and picked, it's known as the king apple or king's apple.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Pretty happy that all 10 of my air-layered MM111 apple rootstocks are growing new leafs. Even the one on the right that had no visible roots when I potted it is putting on new leafs. That's 100% success rate, it doesn't get any better than that
View attachment 27146

The one that had no visible roots at potting is in the center. These root stocks get a quarter of air-conditioning condenser water every day.
View attachment 27147

I learned something new with this air-layer go around, that I'll continue to follow. Since it improves the takers sucess rate. Looks like that's 10 less root stocks I'll need to purchase for apple grafting late winter / early spring

Jesus is Lord and Christ

My 10 MM111 apple air layers have put on a lot of growth since September 2024. It's a rainy day so I brought them inside to graft. I'm sitting here looking at them and trying to figure out the best way to graft them. The root stocks are way larger diameter than my scions are. I've thought of a plan to try. I'm going to call it a modified whip and tongue graft. We'll see if I can pull it off with a grafting knife in my hand.

If I can sucessfully graft them. The rootstocks have a lot of stored energy in all that wood. Which means the scions should grow well.

This is a interesting one with three main branches. I'm going to try for a 3 variety fruit cocktail. We'll so how it goes...

Clippers and knifes are sharp, scionwood is in the refrigerator and tank is ready to start working. The only thing preventing these rootstocks from becoming tasty apples in the future, is me.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

My work is done here.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

All of my cherry grafts have took from a week ago, so I set them outside to get the sunside they need to grow. I have great sucess with cleft grafting cherries onto mazzard rootstocks. After 1 week my peach grafts have not broken any buds yet so they remain inside where I can baby sit them.

Last night apple grafts (bottom), cherry grafts from last saturday.

Still have 15 more apples and 10 more pear rootstocks to graft. I also need to set out in the orchard some of last year's grafted takers.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

My work is also done here, 1 row of modern disease resistance apples So very happy with maple valley orchards. Nice rootstocks and scions. They even gave me some extra scions.

I'll heal them in tomorrow after tree coat dries.

So far grafting season has gone well.

Jesus is Lord and Christ