Same here.

I may have lost a plum to standing water and strawberries are a total loss. Otherwise everything seems on course in the orchard.

Vegetables aren't happy, except for lettuce, which is overjoyed.

my strawberries (leaves) are all yellowing...once they start to ripe (july?) they will rot so fast if it stays like this.

I've sprayed no fungicides on anything!

It's shaping up to be a good year to grow fungus.

i think we had 4 inches in May, just right, in Michigan. Several late frosts, but my guess the fruit crop is safe.

"i think we had 4 inches in May, just right, in Michigan. Several late frosts, but my guess the fruit crop is safe"

Yes, a little heavy. My trees are OK, not extremely happy. Everything in the raised beds and pots are fine. I had to water them a few times. But I'm a little concerned about the trees. Hope it dries soon.

We have about three days off now of rain, then it begins again. The orchard has had three sprays to date inbetween rainy days. I now have 'fireblight' which has never hit my orchard before. It is on the edges of my combo pear. I sprayed immunox. Probably should get out the fungi fighter while the sun is out. This is bad. I feel as if I am pushing that huge boulder up a knife-edged cliff. I'm beginning to feel mouldy! Mrs. G

Showing a temp of 60F again and drizzle for today...sun and 70F is possible tomorrow, but so is the possibility of a shower in the afternoon... Reminds me of 2003 when we had like 10 days straight of rain and clouds (if i'm remembering right)...

Everything looks ok this morning...tons of new growth on the sweet cherries.....apples look fine, pears, peaches...so we'll just hold onto hope that it dries out/warms up some.

Frank, there's some interesting information in the "when to thin apples" thread about the effects of this kind of weather.

Had the same concerns over all the rain and lack of sunshine, not to mention three frost adviseries this week. (1 1/2 hrs N of GB) I've got good drainage, so no standing water issues. Still a few late blossoms clinging to some trees. Am more worried about good enough weather to get them pollinated with the wind and cold temps. Growth is actually above average despite the lack of sun and warmth. If only my trees lived off mosquito's!

You may have little hope for usable cherries if rain continues through the rest of spring, but if it dries out in summer other fruit should be fine. If it keeps raining it can ruin almost everything but maybe apples. It will probably reduce the brix if soil stays wet for everything but plums.

I've had wonderful European plums on wet years where it dried out a bit just as they ripened. All the gray weather and rain preceding the last days or ripening didn't hurt them at all.

If clouds effect apples that much, then i'm doomed...we've been socked in clouds since late Monday...and i woke to clouds this morning... I noticed PC hits yesterday on the apples, so they must be getting more active in this 50F weather...

Frank, who said clouds affect apples a lot? As long as it's warm enough for apples to get pollinated they tend to do fine in cool weather- varying with variety, of course.

Last year we had an amazingly warm, long season, although many, including me, lost most of their crop to hard, late (in terms of flower development) frost. Most of my customers have better frost protected sites than I, and apple set was moderate- but the quality was pretty poor.

Yesterday at work I noticed fireblight on one potted pear
and two potted Honeycrisp. No other apple varieties
had fireblight.

It makes me nervous to check on the young honeycrisp trees out in my orchard. The wet spring has been great
for anthracnose too. I noticed it on a lot of maple leaves
today.

I hope to break out the Captan this weekend. More rain
projected on Sunday.

I have checked my cherries in the backyard and see no
PC damage so I assume the Imidan is doing its job. The tart cherries are sizing nicely already despite the cold.

I wish the vegetable patch was faring as well. The seeds are up but do not grow. Lack of heat I suspect. Beets,
carrots ect just the same size week after week. Planted
early May and still waiting for the second set (true leaves) to come out.

2 weeks cool & rainy has me worried about fire blight
orchard 3 years on from forest clearance
Luscious Bartlett & Summer Crisp all have varying degrees of leaf damage (photo Luscious)
All untreated except picking off leaves.
considering low impact white vinegar spray
Is this an example or not?
Cherries also in fruit set
apples no blossoms

Here is a link that might be useful: http://twodogsgonewild.blogspot.com/

Harvest-

The other apple thread...think it was Fruitnut..i read some research that says the same...the best thing is that its been cool (50Fs) and not warm ...so growth is kept in check... still can't be good for a bumper apple crop, but i should still be ok...i haven't thinned yet, but plan on it today. Need to get a spray on too!

Oh my God...sunshine the past few hours!!! yeehaw

Saying an inch of rain sat into sun...

Frank, raining again here yesterday, today and tomorrow. Sunday will be sunny then another day and a half of rain starting monday. It is hurricane season. Mrs. g

We also have had 12 in rain in the last 3 weeks. It had looked like we would get a good cherry crop, but now most of them are dropping (1/2 fruit). Is this common with cherries and rain?

Eric

So is cracking, alas. Cherries don't like water.

I don't know if the drop is common but we are experiencing the same thing.

IT looks like my cherries (Lapins, BlackGold and Kristin) will be a total loss... I picked a huge amt today that had either shriveled up turning pink, some turned yellow, some with brown spots (not brown rot) and a few with brown rot... I shake the trees and they just fall.

Rained last night, and most of today in Newport, RI. We get one day off of rain and it starts again on Thurs. My strawberries are fine. I have never had 'fireblight' ever, so it is new and very ugly to me. We also have fog and 71-62 degrees outside. The lawn is strewn with mushrooms. We had a similar situation year before last. This is really bad I haven't lost a tree yet, but they are stressed. Particularly my peaches. Mrs. G

Same here MrsG. Mushrooms everywhere in the lawn, mulch, etc. It wouldn't be quite so bad if the mushrooms could at least be Morels.

Todays was warm and dry here. Forecast for the next 3 days is the same. If I could find some bees, about 75% of my blueberries that are still holding blossoms, might get decent fruit yet.

Interesting to hear about your blueberrie's bloom. Some of ours carried bloom into June as well.....never done that before.

After complaining of having so little rain for such a long time, and having asked you guys to send me some rain, you finally granted my wish. But hey, let's don't over do it. Tropical storm Andrea and her little sisters have really drenched us.

Harvestman, i have to differ with you about it not effecting the brix on plums. I have an AU Rubrum that is producing the biggest crop I've ever had , and the plums are huge, but have virtually no flavor or sweetness. I'd rather buy plums in the grocery store, than eat these things. The only thing that I can blame this on is all of the rain that we've had during the ripening period. It's kind of like the effect you would get with watermelons with excess rain during ripening. Can you think of any other reason for this??

Another flood warning for today. There go the cherries. And the strawberries. I picked 2 quarts yesterday, but that may be it.

Itilton, I am envious! My strawberries are all so green, but not yellowing in this mass of water we're getting. My blackberries and very tall and have their first nice crop of blossoms. Maybe they like the rain? Mrs. G

Tilton-

I just ate my first ripe strawberry yesterday...mine are in a crappy spot with a lot of shade in the mid morning...i think that is slowing down the ripening some...the leaves on them are almost all showing yellowing.

If you needed to start a new lawn, this was the best year ever. I seeded some large areas near a fence i put in and its come in thick and lush.

It's too wet for my strawberries. I'm seeing a lot of botrytis already. But the main problem is that I so often can't get AT the bed to pick or weed or mulch, because the trenches are full of water and mud. I've got boards laid down there now, just to be able to pick.

Got another quart or so today, lots of berries I'd have normally left at least another day to ripen. But if the weatherguys are right, I'll be flooded out for another week.

I just put a baffle around my struggling young plum tree to try to divert some of the rain away. I just hope the wind doesn't pick it up and take out the whole tree.