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Pruning

1/29/2011

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This week I have primarily been working on the peaches, pruning and beginning to prepare some ground for a new planting this spring.  Since I don't expect many peaches I am taking this year to prune a little more aggressively, so that we can generate more one year old wood for next year.  Peaches produce on one year old wood so the new branches that grow this year will produce peaches next year.  As I am pruning I can see quite a difference in the winter hardiness of the different peach varieties.  Some of the less hardy varieties may be removed if they do not have other outstanding qualities, such as flavor or a unique time of harvest.

Deciding which peach varieties to plant has been very challenging.  The perfect variety would have great flavor, large size, wonderful color, excellent winter hardiness, be very productive, have a nice shape and be very firm.  Obviously no peach possesses all this, so we are forced to make choices.  Many peach varieties today have focused on large size, good color and firmness for shipping.  Since we sell locally we have the ability to select our varieties emphasizing our preferred attributes more.  When we pick a variety our top three criteria are:
1 The peach must have a very good to excellent flavor.
2 It must be winter hardy enough to consistently produce in our valley.
3 It must be productive enough so that we can sustain our farm with the income.
Because of this our fruit will be different from what is available in the supermarkets.  To get the peaches with the flavor we want we have selected varieties that emphasize flavor over appearance.  We have made our selections very deliberately in the hope that the flavor will so grab your attention that other factors will not be an issue.  We hope that those of you who buy our fruit will agree with us.
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Winter Activities

1/23/2011

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I did not realize it had been so long since the last post.  Since that last post we have subzero temperatures, alot of rain and warm temperatures.  Lately I just finished pruning one raspberry field.  I have also been evaluating the affect of the cold snap around Thanksgiving on our plants.  Well, as they say, there is good news and bad news.  First, the good news, Our main raspberry patch came throught the cold weather with flying colors and no sign of winter damage.  I believe that the blueberries will be all right.  The new blackberry plants and the blueberry plants in the nursery this fall are doing well and seemed to handle the cold well.  We did cover them with a tarp before the cold weather got here.  The fall-bearing raspberries are doing well, the cold does not bother them because we mow off the canes from last year and they produce berries on the new growth this year.
Now for the bad news.  We will very few peaches this season.  The cold weather killed most of the fruit buds as well as damaging some limbs.  We will have to wait until spring to know how bad the trees themselves were hurt.  This also happened to the plums and pluots.  However they are hardier and they may produce a partial crop.  The black berry flower buds were also damaged.  Some blackberries can produce fruit from secondary buds on the branches if the primary buds are killed.  I don't know if our variety will but that will make this year a learning experience.  With our new raspberry planting the mice got in under the snow and girdled all the canes so we had to cut them off and so we will not pick a crop on the new planting this year.
One more bit of good news, a winter like this lets us know which varieties are not hardy enough for our winters.  This will  leads us to try alternatives to some of the less hardy varieties. 
Winter work is right about on schedule. Starting next month we will be getting the first of the nursery stock we will be planting this year.  Planting is always an exciting time.  To be a part of the wonder of new life springing from the ground is one of the major reasons I love to farm.  I will leave all of you who grow plants with this thought.

I farm the soil which yields my food.
I share creation.
Kings can do no more.

Chinese Proverb
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    Farmer Greg

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