Konrad

Bberry,
I know....it could get to be a problem with large flocks, here, the numbers are around 15 or
so the last several years and haven't bee a big problem yet. They also eat green cherries.
We had a late spring...perhaps about 2 weeks late, I rather see it late then heaving a heavy frost when leafed out,
still, it seems several pear trees look like died from a frost about 2 weeks ago.
Axel, it's nice to have it spread out longer in your zone, here, everything comes at one's, but when it comes, it's a very
intense short growing season, helping along with our long daylight.....but soooon it's over!

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It's very dry again, I don't think we had 1" rain since snow left 2 month ago, have never cut grass yet, some dandelion came
up and the grass is stalling.

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A bit of sun ray striking the orchard

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The Evans Cherries looking good again after one year resting, they are flowering now.

Konrad

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A pair of Cedar Waxwings had a nest..

Konrad

Glenn, Yes, ...think I have too many hobbies, ... guess better then none.
I have entered some photos in the Picture Of The Day [P-O-T-D], they don't give out prices,
think I have landed one for best of the month.

Juniorpilot...I would think you're a pilot, wow, you get the bird's eye View,... good for you!
I haven't had problems with birds so much, one year, Mc Pies cleaned up a couple of cherry trees.
Moose is my worst enemy in winter, in summer, I have mostly deer, they prune back the branches a bit but at least
they don't make much damage. Yesterday the first time, a couple of fawns [White tail's] I found laying in the orchard
in broad daylight, I went back to get the camera and got a couple of shot's, in the evening I set up a blind and waited,....only in about a half hr. they came and got some shots.

Konrad

Konrad

This picture about 10 day's before the freeze

This year's fall looks about normal..

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After a few minutes taking a shot towards where I was standing..

One's I thought this was a wolf..

That looks like some good tasting venison.

..Looks like he has a taste for apples too!

What's the wire mesh wrapped around some tree trunks for? Is it for squirrels? Do you think it'd work on stopping squirrels?

Where do you live if you don't mind me asking?
I remember you posting about Seedling rootstocks and how well they work for you. Are the Apple trees in these pics here on seedling?

Is it safe for the deer to eat the branches of apple trees without causing harm to the tree?
When goats entered my orchard and ate my olive trees in Greece, the agronomists told me they would not be the same again, some worse eaten some less...he said that the saliva acts like a poison and does not allow the tree to thrive there after. Advice: Rip out 100 trees and replant....farmer was charged by local agronomy policeman.

Give B118 a try it can take a cold beating.

Yes, all these are on seedling rootstock.
It doesn't seem to be a problem deer or moose eating the ends off.
Hmn...goat saliva,...that's news to me.

What's B118?

Think the wire mesh would work for squirreels?

I stumbled onto this video and it looked like a bunch of alien came and
pruned this orchard, some of us can use these electronic tools when joints are aching and our power is not there anymore....see video

I sold some apples, some I juiced with my home build juicer..[link], 700 liter of juice, [last year] lots got frozen, some I sold and some in exchange of 7 tons of manure.

That's a load of crap. Just kidding.

The Apple Orchard

Honey Bees cooped up in front of Evans cherries..

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At home, snowing night shot, street lamp giving the back light..

Konrad is correct, wire mesh will not work for squirrels. Refer to the devices to eliminate squirrels thread for some of the methods that have worked for some. I made a long post in there outlining my experiences.

Beautiful pictures Konrad. Cherries will not grow well where I am, save for the an ornamental weeping type. I have a bit of a deer problem as well, they continually eat my persimmons and other fruits. With the sheer volumes of fruit your producing, I guess they're just a mere annoyance. Thanks for sharing the photos and keep em coming!

Thank you all....yes, I'm blessed, allot of work but you can see the fruit of labor...

We still have allot of snow, Deer are suffering and chewing down allot!

Your deer look a lot more healthy than ours, here they look all ratty-coated and not very photogenic.

Scott

Baltimore Oriole

Aug. 31 we had hail damage, the second year in a row...good thing is I don't have many apples this year.. most trees are still recovering the second year now after a long deep freeze in October when trees were still too green going into winter, some trees are dead and some are still dying.
Another good thing....it could be worse, have seen allot of wood damage, luckily not in my orchard.

I was hoping to make some pin cherry jelly this year with the best fruit set in about 15 years, ..now I don't know?
The ground was littered with cherries, also chokecherries knocked off green.

Pin cherry

Evans cherry

Trailman crab apple

September Ruby

From Sept. 8, a little tree in the open with heavy damage.

A Trailman Crab, best juicing & eating little apple ready to pick, sheltered a bit with less hail damage but Deer sripped this one all within reach...they know what's good!

I agree that this photo album is very special indeed.

You still calling that canine a coyote? East coast coyotes are so much larger than the ones I grew up with in the west coast. Over 15 years back there was a lot of speculation that they are wolf-coyote hybrids but because DNA is identical (as far as what could be analyzed back then) between dogs, coyotes and wolves it was all theory. Don't know if that issue has been resolved.

I'm done with apple pickings, all is processed, mostly juice.
This picture from Aug. 29, showing the apples of my biggest customer, I don't do much custom juicing...just don't have the time. My first early juiced in jugs under the trees, the late one's I did last weekend.

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This from Sept.7, picked this Norkent in my back yard, the nice one's for storing, rest juice, trees do much better here then on the farm, grafted on a seedling.

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The first time I've seen a black lady bug.

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Out on the farm most trees are still recovering from the 2 week deep freeze a couple of years back, not much fruit, some bunches here and there.

From Sept. 27

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Have done good on some berries & cherries..
Pin cherries, on the south side of trees, sheltered from hail

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Western Sand Cherries

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Black Currant, go into my breakfast cereal

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Choke Cherries,.. this year I mixed about 3 liters fresh juice into a 50 liter apple wine batch.

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The first time I got a nice little crop of plum out on the farm, Sprout's Sunshine, grafted to a Siberian Apricot sucker.

From Sept. 3

Just downloaded the trail camera, the fawn on the left with mom, the white markings almost gone, from Sept. 22.

I've been on a visit to China, these pictures near Beijing on a roadside stand, I was impressed how nice these apples were, it
seems the Chinese don't eat much fruits....just never see anybody eating, that was just my observation, perhaps too expensive for the average Chinese?

Konrad, did you say those are standard rootstock trees? They look more like semi dwarf to me. How did you keep deer from killing trees off when they were smaller?

In China a large apple region is XIAN, some years ago the US was flooded with concentrated juice from there.
Most fruit's are exported, here, the mandarin's are in store already!. Do you have them in the US?

I was in XIAN, not for the apples, to see the buried terracotta warriors. I was totally impressed with what I've seen in China.
Also, they take trees very serious....
Sometimes too serious LOL

Patty S.

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This is showing the transition, rootstock [rough] and top graft, about 2 foot up, [smooth].
At the time of grafting this high, I didn't really know if it would be of any benefit, someone told me to graft high, but didn't say for what reason, it just happened I had large root stock, so allot were grafted high. After over 10 years or so, I see now, there is a huge benefit, these trees, [trunk] cope allot better with the weather, less or none splitting due to frost, warm/cold cycles.

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Several times I had a moose in....pruned most of the trees, this wasn't a real problem, worse, when they're grabbing onto ends and pull in the same time, causing ripping off branches, this hapend to at least 10 trees.

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This was the only time ever, I got a glimpse of a moose,...seems like a younger animal, eating on the choke-cherry tree.

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Had a camera in the bush and put some sunflower seeds down.

Deer Love...
Mom with her youngster, white-tail.

Patty S.

I would love to one day have some nice land to stretch out on. Eventually I plan on moving up to Oregon or Arizona or Nevada. Sadly California, although a beautiful place, has become such a headache for me. I have a nice home here in So Cal that is paid off but Ca is just becoming such a hard place to live. And looking at Konrads lovely place makes me want to go even more.

Great job on the photos Konrad!!

This land about 6 acres, the orchard area I plowed all, the following year filled the low spots, old disc & racked with a chain link fencing material all season until smooth, so I can walk easily and zip fast with the mower cutting grass.

In the foreground,.. just sticking out of the snow are some Capilano Apricot seedlings.

From Feb.12, 2012

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Here is a before and after picture, it was the first time ever that I cut out the dead wood of the Evans cherry bushes this year.

From Oct.14, 2011

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From March 24, 2012

Patty S.

Now the day's are getting longer, at the peak,...getting dark around 11PM! All the snow has melted but we got twice since again ...a little left now. We can get snow in mid may!
Yes,.. plants, birds, bees and all wildlife are going into overdrive soon, [me too] with the longer daylight.

We can grow several apricots, in the odd years when the winter has been fairly mild and no spring blossom kill,...about one harvest in 4 to 5 year/average for me, in the city about every 2 or 3 years.

Below, [first picture] is a little tree called Capilano,.. the city of Edmonton planted some trees over 50 years ago along a freeway called Capilano, we think these were seedlings because all are a little different. Hope to get a picture when in bloom,...have a strong feeling that this year will be the year for fruit.

I grafted this to a plum seedling, fruited in the 3rd. season, I killed it after the transplant.

Here is a write up from DNA gardens, [not in business anymore]

[I really don't know for sure if this was mine, there are 3 trees.]

Parents: Unknown
Fruit habit: The lady of the closest house says it fruits every second year. Many people pick them. Size: 4 x 4.2 x . 3.6 cm
Shape: flattened ventrally; higher at shoulder
Suture: deep ending at beak
Stigma: small flattened beak
Color: very dark yellow with red blushes on exposed skin.
Aroma: good
Maturity: end of July
Texture: soft
Taste: juicy, very sweet
Uses: excellent dessert type
Stone: free
Thean Pheh remarks:

City of Edmonton could not determine whether it was a seedling or selection as it was planted in the 60's and the lile could not be traced. There were three apricot plants on the same buffer strip and each is completely different from the other in growth habit, fruit maturity, size, shape and taste leading me to think that they are open pollinated seedlings.

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This is called Westcot, [somebody else grew]

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A tree from around here, [not mine]

Think this was the worst ever I have seen, about 4 trees, moose pruned it first, now this about 2 weeks ago, moose had a good feast and coming back for more, seen tracks in nursery only about 2 day's old!

This is a Siberian Apricot,..been grafting over to plum, not a total loss, it needs more grafting.

Out of one clump I could divided into 7

Pear's and Plums are flowering...

My honey bees working them

Apples are just about to open, this is a red flesh, called Red Wonder

This is a Chokecherry, one of my seedlings, opens about 2 weeks earlier then the native choke cherry, I really love it as a bee tree.

Either way, picture perfect!

Perhaps both?
Long day light has allot to do also.

>>What type of graft did you do<<

Bark graft,..see link

This Baltimore Oriole on a Trailman Crab Apple

Hummingbird Moth on the Evans Cherry

One of my proud seedling Ornamental Crab
Anybody interested in propagating it?

Today was early honey harvest, the last two years I only done one's at the end of season. The orchard flowered good again this year, that makes a big difference, ..it will be some nice honey.

Sorry, I don't usually look like this, it was hot to our standards, when temperature hit's in the 30C. 86F. I take advantage, the extracting goes better.

You pay more from the local guy but it's worth every peny because the small scale bee keeper does mostly all by hand, also cleaner with no bees at all in honey when extracting,...I couldn't believe some of the videos I've seen on U tube, bees being extracted=bee guts in the honey!

The reason for processing plant heating the honey is to process it fast and efficient. They have large stock piles of honey in large drums, most crystallized at the time of processing. All honey gets heated up [pasteurized] filtered and filled. That's why store bought honey stay's liquid for a long time.

Here is a picture from outside, honey frame with bees on it, mostly clover, light honey, you see how the wax was gently pealed away in the middle with a decapping fork.

Patty S.

Several trees were nicely loaded.

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Butterfly getting the sugar fix!

Patty S.

Glenn,...you bet! Not so much out in the country here but som trees are like this, sheltered in town it's a common thing. I would think a perfect cherry for a sheltered zone 3, zone 4 should be just ideal, zone 5 and up might get a bit warm but I think you should still have cherries, not sure if loaded like this.

You can also experiment with other root stock, this picture is Evans on pin cherry, nicely loaded, flowered a little later, the cherries are still on but deer have eaten most on the bottom branches, I put on a trail camera,...they might be back, if so, I'll post later. The cherries are slightly smaller but I find sweeter.

Picture from July 2, Evans on pin cherry.

The bright red one's are Norland, light color one's are Norkent, others are Sept. Ruby

Norland, in full sun can get marbled,..they get juiced tomorrow.
Best early apple but not a keeper when left on this long.

Apple season has drawn all kind's of other animals, ..I found out that porcupine love apples, they can eat allot! Figured I don't clean up the ground so perhaps then they don't climb the tree,...not so here! They're like us, thinking that the apples are better on the tree.

I might have to set a trap and relocate him before winter, I don't want to see this anymore...

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I was surprised to capture a fox the first time.

-Eric
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It's funny, when they turn yellow they really stick out,...I wasn't expecting this many.