I think of July 15 as the middle of summer. It is a good time to take stock of how things are going.
The fact that I am a week late in posting this summary pretty much tells you everything you need to know.
I am behind on cutting the grass, pulling weeds, tying up cucumber vines, controlling snails, picking up fallen sticks. The Eaton Rapids orchard is overwhelmed with annual grass, and the grapes have been struggling with Japanese Beetles and fungal diseases.
Compared to the last five years, 2025 has been warm and wet.
Year GDDb50 Evap-rain
2025 1685 11.1-9.3
2024 1760 11.5-10.7
2023 1478 14.2-5.8
2022 1580 15.1-5.1
2021 1668 10.7-10.2
2020 1594 13.1-8.1
GDDb50 = Growing Degree Days b50F: a measure of how warm the year is. Data presented is GGDb50 on July 21 for Charlotte, Michigan
Evap-rain is the Evaporative Potential - Rainfall. Data is for the span of time from May 1 until July 21. Data in inches.
On the positive side, many of the fruit trees I transplanted this spring are doing well. The persimmons and the grafted apple trees are modestly exceeding expectations.
Most of the new apple trees show between 15" and 18" of shoot growth on their main stem. An old-time apple grower once shared that his goal was to get 24" of shoot growth on trees while he was trying to grow them to-size and then he fertilized/managed for 12"/year once their canopies were "bumping" the neighboring tree's canopy. I am on-track to hit or exceed that 24"/year target.
Progress on the orchard floor has been fantastic since it was brush-hogged. I broadcast White Clover and Birdsfoot Trefoil seeds, both of which are already present in scattered populations, both of which fix nitrogen from the air. It is my firm belief from when I had cows and sheep that if you manage your pastures to have between 20% and 40% White Clover in the canopy, then everything else falls together (except drought tolerance). White Clover is literally the plant of "...flowing with milk and honey."
Another positive is that the legacy trees that I did not cull have a modest crop-load. The fruit size and color should be excellent this fall as long as we don't get a hailstorm. I am looking forward to identifying varieties and getting some labels posted.
The new pears I planted have been sulking. Their roots were not very impressive when I planted them and I planted them in the Hill Orchard and they were planted into subsoil that has a thin smear of top soil over it.
Trees on the Hill Orchard also have to contend with Black Walnut roots.
My goal today are to purchase a cart to move mulch, purchase 250 pounds of ground limestone to encourage the White Clover, to mow for two hours and to weed in the garden for at least one hour.
Joe how big a mixed orchard-fruit bushes do you feel is needed for an extended family's fruit and Vinger needs?
ReplyDeleteIf you were raising pigs' low grade, rotten and excess fruit would be nicely turned into beautiful lard and pork.
A milk cow and perhaps some sheep would really enjoy keeping the grass short for you. No Goats though as they are amazing like deer at destroying fruit trees and bushes.
Rabbits would love most of your cuttings and harvested clovers from the safety of their cages.
Free ranging chickens or chicken tractor poultry would be awesome for destroying the various pests when they drop into the soil for a part of their lifecycle.
Pity is that old timers tend to plant for the future, yet we NEED youngsters for the strength and endurance to care and harvest them properly. No wonder successful smallholders were multi-generational extended families.
Keeping livestock, even small scale, is more time required by the farmer. You have to balance work vs payoff results. I expect pigs are the easiest. They eat almost everything, are usually are sent to the butcher within a year, and no predator loss. Or so I’ve heard, never had them here.
DeleteSouthern NH
Here are some back-of-envelop calculations.
DeleteStart with the assumption of the equivalent of one-quart of apple sauce per week per person. It takes three pounds of apples to make one quart of apple sauce.
Commercial growers with equipment and chemicals and irrigation shoot for 1 pound per square foot to 1.4 pounds per square-foot of fruit.
A home-grower who leaves generous grassy aisles between the rows of trees, doesn't use analytical labs to determine fertilizer needs and who relies on natural rain can count on 0.2-to-0.3 pounds per square foot.
Using the larger number, then you need 10 square-feet of orchard for each person-week or roughly 500 square-feet per year.
This assumes that you planted productive, precocious, easy-to-care-for cultivars on productive, unfussy rootstock on better-than-mediocre soil. It is difficult to overstate how critical variety selection is. Many varieties are "dogs" when it comes to production. Some varieties are very fussy with regard to care (Honeycrisp, for instance).
So, for you and your spouse, a block four, semi-dwarf apple trees (like Liberty/MM106) planted 15' apart in the row with the rows 25' apart would do the trick. Add two more trees to the end of the row for every additional person.
That is a very simplified analysis but is a credible first-pass at the question. You will have excess production when the trees are fully mature but can expect 80 pounds per tree when they are 2/3 filled out.
You would want a variety of apple varieties for pollination reasons.
Pears can be slow to come into bearing and are vulnerable to fireblight but Keiffer, Korean Giant and Harrow Sweet are solid choices for a subsistence orchard. Korean Giant is a naturally a small tree. Harrow Sweet is compatible with quince which is a dwarfing rootstock for pears.
Peaches are like a whirlwind romance in your youth. Glorious when they live but not long-legs in terms of duration.
The old-timers used to plant berry bushes or strawberries between the trees in their orchards to produce fruit while waiting for the trees to fill their canopies. That is a GREAT option if you have free labor and your orchard is free-standing with the trees widely spaced.
We're fond of cherries but live a bit far north to grow them. Still, we planted a morello against our garage wall and it did well for years until a pest turned up: Spotted Wing Drosophila. We've had to net the tree.
ReplyDeleteWe also planted two trees for table cherries on the argument that even if the fruit came to nothing we'd love the blossom. Alas that's just what happened.