Thank you! I haven't even read it, but I'm going to print it up and study it and stick it in my garden book!

Thanks again,
Bart

Hi Scottfsmith

Great calendar

I am curious if you encourage long leaders on your plums, or if you promote lots of branching to increase fruiting?

Take care
Sam

Sam, my Japanese plums I am mostly doing as vase "V" shapes with branching every foot or so from the center on out. The European ones are more as a vase "U" shape where there are longer leaders (maybe 1-2') which tend to go first more out and then more up relative to the Japanese plums. I have just now gotten to the point of building the complete scaffold structure on some of the older trees and am figuring out how to do renewal pruning on them. At one point I saw a picture of a commercial orchard where many shoots were pruned back to only 3-4 buds off the main scaffolds and I may want to try that. Its something more like a grape pruning system in the sense that you have these short spurs which get renewed periodically.

Scott

My gawd, wotta a lotta work!!! Your're making me tired just sittin' in front of my computer. Well, at least you're eatin' good in the neighborhood.

Geraldo, I bet if you wrote out everything you did in your orchard you would have a lot more. I don't have to produce a great yield of blemish-free fruit so I can be pretty sloppy on a lot of things.

If you are just starting out however its good to know how many tasks there are and how long they take. I really got myself in over my head in the beginning because not only did I have all the maintenance stuff, I was adding new rows, trying to figure out how the heck to prune, working double time to correct all the stupid mistakes I made, etc etc. These days its a piece of cake in comparison.

Scott

Scott, I don't hardly do any of the hand stuff myself these days. I sit on the tractor much of the time. And I spend much time working on equipment. I also spend considerable time running to town for parts. And then back, because it isn't the exact right part. I just can't hardly have anything repaired by someone else these days. It just costs so much.
the funny thing is that pruning young trees or working on the sprinklers or planting the trees; this is the stuff that I like, but have less time for.

Thank you, Scott! This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for for my small orchard. I've attempted to assemble the pertinent info but you've done it! And we are in the same 6/7 zone! You're right, it takes all (well, some) of the mental fog off and lessens mistakes that cost us time and effort. Thanks again!
Herbert

Thanks Herbert. One thing I should have mentioned is my philosophy is "dont spray unless the previous year had a problem" -- I started out with no sprays and only added them when I had a disease problem. So for example the standard recommendation is to spray for diseases all summer long on all trees, but I have been able to avoid that. It could be that brown rot gets bad enough that I will want to add sprays on my peaches/plums around ripening time, but so far it has not been needed, and so I don't do it! Also I am 95% organic and thats reflected in the above but I didn't mention it.

Scott

Scott,

Do you consume (either yourself or as presents) all the fruit you produce?

The picture of your orchard is great I would love to see some more.

Sam

Sam its easy to consume it all now because I am still a ways from full production. I will also be redoing things based on too little or too much of this or that, it is very much a work in progress. One thing I discovered already is I did not have enough row-feet of berries. I may end up with too many peaches and plums. I have a cider press and make apple cider so I doubt I will ever have too many apples. Also my neighbors will certainly be very helpful with the picking if I have extras. My 7-year-old daughter already has big thoughts of her future roadside fruit stand.

Scott

Spraying when conditions arise and as organically as possible is the strategy I'm using as well. I went to your page and love your set-up. So many apple varieties! Cool! I would like to be similarly "obsessed" but I have too many interests and hobbies to do many more fruit trees. Have had lousy luck with peaches. I'm down to one "Cresthaven". Today I picked up some "Maxine" pear scions and will attempt my first grafting onto a "Savannah" pear (6 yrs. old) that may actually bear next year , then again...
Herbert

Thank you, Scott, I have quite a bit less fruit trees, but scattered all over my yard, your schedule will help me see that they all get proper care when they need it. I'm waiting to get a couple of apricot & pluot trees, not w/ any hope that they will bear fruit, but it will be fun to plant them & see them grow.

Scott -
What is CB? As in this line: "Until CB under control do copper on all stonef."

Also I presume L/S is lime/sulfer. Do you need to get lime and sulfer and mix them, or is it one product you just buy and spray?

Thanks!
Bart

Bart, CB is Coryneum Blight. It is not often a bad disease in the east but I got a very bad case of it from a tree I purchased out of a California nursery. It is nearly gone now, but not quite. I would ignore that line. Well, in general its not a bad idea to use dormant copper every now and then on stone fruit due to its good activity on both CB and bacterial spot. Copper can build up in the soil over many years so on the other hand L/S should be used most of the time.

L/S is indeed lime sulphur and any good garden center should have it pre-mixed. It is possible to brew your own but for small amounts it is cheap enough to buy the pre-mixed version.

Scott

I could live in your backyard!!! wow. Nice pic... I'll have 4 peach trees, and 3 apples and 1 pear... and i thought i had a lot of things too do. I like how you've mulched all your trees... Very interesting. I'm still learning, so i'll probably screw some things up again this year, but i've still got time, considering i'm a few zones behind you!

Great photo. You are an inspiration!