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| Whittling away at the tree we took down |
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| Most of the corn I replanted has already come up. That did not take long. Planted June 4. |
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| The potatoes are over 8" tall and ready to be hilled. Unfortunately it rained three inches Sunday night and the ground is still too wet to walk on. More rain expected tomorrow night. The potato vines are at the stage where they seem to grow an inch a day. I don't have a very long window before I will not be able to get through the rows with the tiller to loosen soil for hilling. |
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| Fruit set on Liberty apple trees. You can click to embiggen. |
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| Fruit set on Shenandoah pear. |
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| Winter killed branches in Shenandoah tree. Vertical shoots seem to be more affected than horizontal or angled branches. I intend to reduce Nitrogen application to see if the reduced vigor improves winter hardiness. I also want to mess around with branch spreading. |
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| Winter killed Schlarbaum Chestnut tree. |
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| It looks like the truck could not take the cold. |
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| This tree broke at the graft. I tipped it back up and tied the wire cage to the post like I was supposed to. I don't expect it to survive but I have to try. This failure goes in the category of operator error. |
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| Some fruit trees produce a lot of suckers. You can prune them off in the winter or you can easily pop them off this time of year by applying just a little pressure at the base with your thumb. The thumb method leaves fewer buds for future suckers to arise from. I was de-suckering this tree when I belatedly noticed that the vines climbing it are Poison Ivy. |
I deeply miss my Liberty apple trees. Our move from northern VT to central FL has dramatically changed the make-up of our gardens and orchards.
ReplyDeleteLiberty is definitely a "keeper" although it breaks my heart with early dropping of almost ripe apples.
DeleteWhat other apples did you like? Northern VT is almost Zone 3.
Are you growing any Asian Persimmons?
Thanks for writing!
-Joe
Liberty was my only cultivated apple, although we harvested any sweet crabs we could find for applesauce. We were on the 3/4 line depending on exposure given our altitude, about 1800'. We have persimmons on our list, neighbors have been generous. New this year are starfruit, and avocado, grown up from seed. The avocados are now 5' and grown from local fruit. We have successful mulberry, Meyer lemon, Acerola cherry and finger lime. Papaya from seed is hit or miss, but grows rapidly. SO very different from VT. Sorry to run on....
Delete