Orchard notes for 2018 growing season

This is a histogram of when I expect the fruit on my apple and pear trees to ripen.  Each count is a tree.

This is a good time of year to take inventories for the upcoming growing season.

This is an approximate inventory of the "serious" orchard south of the old barn:

15 Quince: asst cultivars
5 Enterprise apples
5 Shenandoah pears
3 Chojuro Asian pears
3 Liberty apples
3 Goldrush apples
3 Novaspy apples
3 Crimson Crisp apples
2 Korean Giant Asian pears
1 Shinko Asian pear
1 NY 65707-19
1 Spigold apple
1 Winecrisp apple
1 Jonafree apple
1 Keepsake seedling apple
1 Schlarbaum chestnut

The entries that are shaded are changes for 2018.  I am flipping one pear from Atlantic Queen to Chojuro and grafting a couple of apples to Spigold and an obsolete variety called NY 65707-19.

I made a conscious decision to bias toward later ripening varieties so I can store them in a root cellar or even the garage.  That gives me a great deal more operational flexibility.  Later ripening fruit tend to hang on the tree without degrading, unlike fruit that ripens when the weather is warmer.  That gives me a longer picking window.