Rain, Rain, Rain.
It makes we wonder if we have been transported to Puget Sound without knowing it. They say the snow pack is down and so we are grateful for all precipitation we are getting. We received part of our new trees and they are packed away in the "tree pit". We should be planting them in the next week or two. We will be planting two new raspberry fields this spring as well as a new blueberry field. Yesterday I had a chance to disc one field again, working in the sudan grass we grew for mulch.
We have about half the trellis put up on the raspberry field we planted in 2008. The plants have grown well and we are excited about this years crop. This variety K81-6, developed in Nova Scotia, is supposed to have very good flavored large fruit. We hope that it does well in our hot summers. With all of the warm weather the buds on the apricot and pluot trees are swelling. If we get a cold snap we could have a very small crop, if we can avoid this our fruit should be early this year. We have a small hill on our farm that has good air drainage, this means the cold air on those frosty spring mornings drains down to the bottom of the hill and away from tender new shoots and blossoms.
We have received some hardy kiwi plants that we wil grow in the nursery and if all goes well we will plant them on the hill in fall 2011 or spring 2012. These plants produce a fruit that tastes similar to the fuzzy kiwis you but at the store except the fruit are the size of large grapes, do not have fuzz and are much sweeter. We have finished pruning the blueberries and it looks like if can avoid the frost we will have a fine crop.
I am excited about another change. Thanks to the help of some friends we will have some orchard mason bees for pollinating our early blooming apricots and pluots. These bees are active earlier and at colder temperatures than our honeybees and we hope they will increase the fruit set in these trees. Sorry it has been so long since the last post, I will try to post more often.
Farmer Greg
It makes we wonder if we have been transported to Puget Sound without knowing it. They say the snow pack is down and so we are grateful for all precipitation we are getting. We received part of our new trees and they are packed away in the "tree pit". We should be planting them in the next week or two. We will be planting two new raspberry fields this spring as well as a new blueberry field. Yesterday I had a chance to disc one field again, working in the sudan grass we grew for mulch.
We have about half the trellis put up on the raspberry field we planted in 2008. The plants have grown well and we are excited about this years crop. This variety K81-6, developed in Nova Scotia, is supposed to have very good flavored large fruit. We hope that it does well in our hot summers. With all of the warm weather the buds on the apricot and pluot trees are swelling. If we get a cold snap we could have a very small crop, if we can avoid this our fruit should be early this year. We have a small hill on our farm that has good air drainage, this means the cold air on those frosty spring mornings drains down to the bottom of the hill and away from tender new shoots and blossoms.
We have received some hardy kiwi plants that we wil grow in the nursery and if all goes well we will plant them on the hill in fall 2011 or spring 2012. These plants produce a fruit that tastes similar to the fuzzy kiwis you but at the store except the fruit are the size of large grapes, do not have fuzz and are much sweeter. We have finished pruning the blueberries and it looks like if can avoid the frost we will have a fine crop.
I am excited about another change. Thanks to the help of some friends we will have some orchard mason bees for pollinating our early blooming apricots and pluots. These bees are active earlier and at colder temperatures than our honeybees and we hope they will increase the fruit set in these trees. Sorry it has been so long since the last post, I will try to post more often.
Farmer Greg