I went to look at mine tonight, my, this should be a healthy year! I’ll need to procure more fermenters too! And how about yours? Sneezles61
My blossoms got through this year with no frost. Got a new spray rig for my ATV. Gonna be a good year
What do you spray yours with? Ours have gone untreated for the 3-4 years we’ve been here and who knows how long before that. We’d like to get a decent crop back eventually.
Have you been pruning them? That’s important. I didn’t spray for awhile but started again recently. I just use the bonnide complete fruit spray it’s an all in one. Just don’t spray when their in bloom so you don’t kill the pollinators. And don’t spray close to harvest. Plenty of information on line. I try to keep it to a minimum. Try to spray when their is no rain in the forcast for the next 3-5 days.
So far my apple crop is a big unknown. Leaves are just beginning to show on the trees. I think we are in a cold zone.
Last year was really good. Blossoms made it through two freezes in May.
Very simple here, I don’t spray, I do trim in the middle of winter. It seems everybody is worried about them not producing every year… Apples seem to be bi-annual… You may get some in the off years, but on the production years… They can crank out many… I’m saying MANY… Sneezles61
Oh Flars, I don’t have much in the way of leaves yet, but you can see the flowers breaking from the leaves… Bunker year here… you wanna come and pick apples and juice them for ales? Sneezles61
For the first time since planting like 6 years ago, I should get a bajillion Honeycrisp apples. The tree is finally mature and every single friggin bud appears it will have blossom.
Meanwhile, sad news, my Cortland tree appears sick as I found 2 branches with orange ooze = fireblight. I fear this tree is dying. Not much blossom on it either.
Sweet Sixteen apple looks great. Should get lots like the Honeycrisp except the tree is only about 1/4 as big.
None have bloomed yet but should in another 7-10 days or so. It’s finally warming up around here. Can’t wait for this year’s harvest.
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Apple ale. Sounds intereesting. I think I’m all out of apple ale hops though.
I stopped spraying but had a problem on my peaches so had to spray them so I sprayed the apples also so now I noticed an improvement in size and shape of all my fruit except the pears which the deer SEM to relish. Any tips on keeping them out of the orchard?
Either a fence OR thin them out during hunting season… I’ve not found anything else that works… They are soon to have their fawns… Aww shucks, they are so cute… Then, they start eating everything! Even our Iris’ are very neatly trimmed to about 1/2" above the ground… Sneezles61
Well, now I go out to look at the apple trees, and I see many little apples on the ground… I will assume the crows are to blame!! There are still a good amount of apples on the trees, BUT! Sneezles61
I have two apples on the Northwest Greening. No apples on the Haralson. Crab apple trees are loaded. Freezer still has quite a few bags of the Northwest Greening from a bumper crop last year.
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I’ve got a bazillion apples this year just like I expected (see previous post above).
If you see some on the ground, it’s not necessarily a cause for concern… this is known as “June drop” and it happens when the tree decides that it has more apples than it feels like it can support. With June drop, as many as about half or 3/4 of the apples might die and fall off, leaving just a bazillion apples instead of a megakatillion.
Also possible that you have a bug infestation. It’s worth a look. I’ve had aphid problems many times, and this year some kind of beetle ate about half of my Sweet Sixteen apples. Fortunately they are very easy to shake off the tree and it takes several days for them to crawl back up, so I’ve found if I shake the tree hard every couple days, it hasn’t been as big of a problem. I prefer not to spray but I might if it gets worse.
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I have a little drop. No more than usual more peaches droped
Thank you for the insight! I’m not much into pesticides either… I don’t see much in the way of bugs either… June drop it is! Sneezles61
I’ll be picking the first crop of apples this W/E, called state fair apples… Harrison are close now too. Sneezles61
Picking drops going to squeeze some juice next week.
I won’t be picking any until at least the last week of September. The microclimate here in the “Cool City” of Two Rivers, WI delays harvest by about 3 weeks every single year compared to others in Zone 5. But my crop looks pretty great this year.
We’ve a few peeps over here that will only drink apples fermented… nothing else… I mean only alcoholic beverages… Sneezles61
