Thursday, June 21, 2012

Strange Weather


As many of you know the hot weather has changed ripening dates all over the country.  We picked out our June strawberries at the end of April!

We just had some much needed rain and are looking forward to July for peach picking.  The fruit has not been sprayed at all this season.  As the kids say “do you want pretty with poison or healthy and blemished”?  We are also trying to determine disease and insect resistance in our heritage orchard, looking for the fruit that will grow the best in this region with the least care.

Please follow us on here or Facebook for July peach picking times.

Our apple and pear crop is large this year – also not sprayed.  Usually September is the peak time for apples and pears in Kansas – not October.  We get the most traffic in October and most of the fruit will be gone already.  With the higher temperatures this year we may peak in late August – follow for updates.

Attached is a picture of some of the benchgrafts we just put out – you can actually graft well into summer as long as you have a cooler large enough to hold your scionwood and your rootstock.  We will be doing some final grafting of apples, pears and plums for the heritage orchard this week.  This year we have added hundreds of varieties to the orchard and are offering bareroot trees this fall and benchgrafts next spring. 

We hope to see you in July for peaches!