This has been a strange year. I'm sure every year is in its own way though. Our raspberries were severely water stressed this year, so we only got about 20 quarts compared to 40-50 last year, but they were absolute flavor bombs. I'll take half the harvest any year if they are this good.

Other positives, I planted a Hardy Chicago Fig in a container and have 4 nice sized figs in its first year.

The Hardy Kiwi I planted reached it's full vertical height and is now growing along the top wires. I was worried at the beginning of the season if it would reach full height or not. If all goes well, maybe I'll get some flowers next year even.

The 2 new Pear trees I was worried about earlier in the season because they stopped growing in May, both started pushing out growth about 2 weeks ago.

All my paw paw's survived last winter. One of them pushed a bud below the graft, so I guess you could say I now have a self-pollinating paw paw.

overall, I'm happy I chose this year to do most of my fruit tree planting. It's been a bit a work keeping everything watered by hand (the drip irrigation goes in this weekend), but the hot, dry summer seems to be doing everything well.

I moved to a new place this spring so I left all my old mistakes behind. Come this fall I will get to start making all new ones! If I ever make any final decisions about what's going in and where, that is.

But the wild blackberries and black cherries were very tasty and I didn't have to fight the birds at all. We'll see if I get any elderberries. I may even get some maypop this year if I can beat the rats and the rabbits to it.

Also, my poor potted pomegranate, which has been suffering through inadequate light for 2 years now, finally has a full sun exposure outside and looks happy, happy, happy.

I have more red and black currants, gooseberries and raspberries this year than I can pick. No gooseberry sawfly. No bird depredation despite not getting around to netting. And the greengage is laden. Whether it has anything to do with us having the coldest winter for years I don't know.

Big winners so far this year include: Minaj Smyriou black currants, Bristol black raspberries (these two together made some fantastic and unique jam), Tomcot and Shekar Pareh apricots, Gold Dust peaches, and Satsuma plums. Yum!!!

Scott

Lodi had its typical good crop early on; forgot to even look at the Early Harvest apple tree 'til it was too late, and they were all mealy.
Montmorency cherry produced plenty of fruits for us and the birds. Illinois Everbearing graced us with plenty of tasty mulberries - the birds got most of the first flush of fruits, but we got plenty of the second.
MonArk apples have been great - picked the last of 'em earlier this week, have been eating them for about 3 weeks now. Centennial and Kerr crabs have been loaded with tasty little apples, and the Dolgo seedling has produced enough tasty little morsels to make a couple of gallons of crabapple & crab/hot pepper jelly.
Rabbiteye blueberries were marvelous - 2 to 3 gallons a day, but are just about finished now.
Honeycrisp and Cinnamon Spice, MacIntosh & Winesap will be next up.
Chojuro pear is loaded - as usual, I didn't get around to thinning, and didn't prop any limbs until one broke under the weight of the fruit. Multivariety pear has a nice crop coming of several varieties.
Bur oaks & hybrids have good crops of acorns set; haven't looked at the pecans/hickories to see if there'll be any nuts this fall or not.

I have an abundance of Cucumber, eggplant and tomatoes. The bell pepper trees are loaded with fruits. The Pears tree is carrying a very healthy crop. I had to thin some to relieve the tree. I think we will start harvesting the bears in 30 days. I have very healthy and vigorous beds of a plant called Molokai. probably nobody knows what is it. Some people call it Egyptian spinach and some call it Jewish spinach. The Jewish people call it the food of the king. It has green leaves very rich in Ba-ta Carotene. The leaves are chopped very thin and used for soup with Chicken, Rabbit meat is preferred. The fairytale says in old Egypt the king got very sick and the doctors could not a cure him but when he drank a Bowl of this soup he healed.

The raspberries are done for a few weeks!!! We picked 650 pints between the 18th of June and July 10th. We get to rest (a little bit) till Aug 1st then we figure we'll have 1500 pints to pick before frost. The good news is I do love raspberries.

Jake

We harvested a gallon of blueberries, and they are just about finished. Raspberries have started to ripen, and they will produce through mid-October. The patch looks healthy, with only a few japanese beetles. We are just beginning to see ripe cherry tomatoes, and butternut squash is healthy so far-in past years we have had a problem with squash vine borers. Green beans were planted late, we will have to wait & see...

So far, I'm keeping even in the battle with the coons. It's an unwinnable battle, but keeping even is admirable. We actually got more peaches this year than they did. They did, however, beat me on the cherries. Love my electric fence.

Brook

Hey foolish, I know what your talking about. If people want to google it, it is also called Jewish Mallow. I've always eaten it as a thick soup poured over chicken and rice. Never grew it, but I have some seeds brought over from syria that I might try.

Planted raspberries last fall. Canes were trimmed to only a foot high. Got a few berries of those canes, but the new growth looks very good. Can't wait for next year!

Planted a few TC blackberries last year. Getting a few tasty berries, and the new canes look good. Trying to tip root a few canes, move them and cover them with mulch for the winter.

Strawberries did pretty well. Picked about 12 quarts. Also have a few everbearing so we get a few berries here and there.

Added 3 apples, 2 peaches and a cherry in the last year. No fruit on them yet.

I got enough raspberries that I'm quite sick of them and haven't picked any for a while now. My plums have grown really well this spring and I might get fruit next year.

Just ate my first Imperial Epineuse plums. They are outstanding. I have 3 other plums with their 1st crop this yr. Hope they are half as good.

My Santa Rosa Plum is covered in fruit that started ripening this week, I'm especially grateful to have plums this year because last year a spring storm blew all the flowers away and we didn't get a single fruit.

The Amity Red Raspberries I planted last year are producing well, I haven't weighed anything but I go out and eat a few handfuls every couple of days.

I'm very happy about how well my Rio Oso Gem Peach is doing, I planted it bare-root this spring and it is the star of my new fruit trees. But the Elephant Heart Plum, D'Anjou Red Pear, and Hachiya Persimmon are all doing well too. I planted them in gopher cages and I think it's saved them from a lot of damage.

I also ordered three bench-graft apple starts and they are all doing well too. I got a Grenadine, Rubaiyat and Thornberry and I'm going to nurse them in 15 gal pots for two years before I plant them in their permanent places.

I love being able to snack on fresh fruit while I'm wandering in the garden.

We got more black rasberries than ever before, probably around 1,500, although the kids eat them by the handful so it's hard to get an accurate count. In any event, it was enough to keep two small children very happy for the entire month of June.

Also, the Montmorency cherry that I planted in April put on some nice growth despite being in slightly less than full sun, and I even allowed it to grow one delicious cherry, which I split with the kids.

The espalliered multi-graft three-cordoned pear I planted in April put on a lot of growth and I'm hoping to be able to get some fruit next year. In the meantime though, it's a nice accenty to the edge of my flower garden.

We got our first crop of blueberries in the last few weeks. We had a picking party yesterday with my kids and their cousins and we got some delicious fruit.

And lastly, my plum tree that was covered in black knot last year and was cut back to not much more than the scaffold has put out a lot of new growth this year. It does have some gummy/sappy residue coming out of lesions, however, so I had Cornell's county extention do a site visit on Friday. I'm a little concerned that the tree might have picked up bacterial canker through some of the wounds from black knot pruning, but the tree looks very healthy otherwise. If it is canker I will, of course, have to take it down. But, I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy and of it does have to come down (Cornell took a sample of the resin and is going to test it for me, so I should know soon) I will get to try something new, like peaches.

Anyway, it's been a fun spring and summer so far.

Our sour cherry tree finally produced fruit - a few gallons! This made my hubby very happy since he grew up eating and actually enjoying sour cherries! That is 2 BIG positives about them. However, I personally don't think there is anything that could be done for them to make them into a 'good' cherry, and further, in my opinion, the end taste is almost a waste of good sweetener... and I don't care to bottle things up in the middle of the summer heat. But there is another big plus... the wild birds don't like them any more than I do! So, fruit that actually survived the late frosts, critters leave them to mature, and sour cherries make my hubby's favorite jam... that's a winning combination!

currants produced like gangbusters. MS Black Currant produced phenominally heavy, but as I don't care for the fruit the birds feasted. Cherry (Northstar) was covered with nice tasty fruit and Crimson Passion, after doing nothing last year, has more than tripled in size. Nectarine (in 3rd year) put on more than 4 feet of growth and doesn't look like a stumped whip any longer. Blueberries produced well, but the new dog has a taste for them just turning from green. Alpine strawberries produced very well until the weather got very hot. Ate first figs, Violette de Bordeau, before the 1st of July. Main crop coming along now. My own unknown michigan fig has a bumper crop that also seems to be coming along well. Tomatoes, Squash and chard are growing happily and we've been eating them for weeks.

Mulberry was pollarded last fall, it has bounced back well (even after the neighbor went out and pulled out all the shoots facing his yard) Pawpaws are doing very well, with fruit bigger than those small yellow mangoes at the stores. Biggest Pawpaw currently is already over 6 inches in length and 3-4 inches wide. Some kiwis on the vines, but not like last year (city made me prune the vines off of the arbor for the winter....idiots) Oh yeah, blackberries currently ripening, had some raspberries and there are more to come!

No jujube's even though some did flower, no pears yet (in their 5th and 6th years).

My passionflowers are looking great, with incarnata flowering the first week of July!

~Chills

Chills, you've no idea about the value of black currants until you've briefly cooked them and sugared generously. They make the best dessert sauces, preserves, and when blended and strained with fresh cider a wonderful beverage. Not everything has to be perfect off the plant although some of us even like black currants straight up.

Black currants have more flavor and more minerals, vitamins and flavenoids than possibly anything you can grow.

My golf course olive cuttings are in their 2nd year, and growing like weeds! It's time to take them out of the ground and plant them in containers, or they'll get too big!

My fig tree in it's second year has produced about 30 yummy figs, and is putting out more. It's in a container, but that container can't stop it from growing!

My trellised grape vines are very vigorous and next year we can let them keep their clusters. I put some cuttings in containers this year, and they are topping their 5' stakes!

It's all good!

Suzi

Chills - ditto what harvestman said about blackcurrants. You are letting a wonderful fruit go to waste. They are extremely widely used in the UK and make wonderful jam, jelly, pies, syrups, sauces, liquers, wine and crumbles. They form the basis of one of the most most popular soft drink for Brit. kids. The link is a really annoying ad for the product.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ribena ad.

There really was a good news for me this year. My two apricot plants, 3-years old, fruited the first time and ripened by mid-July. It was a good treat. We had a mild winter and there was no late spring killer frost. I am not sure if the mild winter is the reason for the good crop so only time will tell.

Despite overpruning, we enjoyed loads of Jewel black raspberries this year. Last year's boysenberry plant produced a handful of amazing berries, and next year we will have 5 plants to harvest. The red Caroline and yellow Anne raspberries are growing rampantly in their new confined beds, and next year we should be gorging on berries.

The Asian pears are starting to ripen, the Saijo persimmon is covered in baby fruit. My Sal's fig is growing very well and loaded with figs, even though, once again, it died to the ground last winter.

My baby hardy kiwis are growing very well and I'll be wiring the trellis this weekend to start the horizontal cordons. Hopefully this vigorous start means I won't have to wait 6 more years for fruit!

As usual, my tomato plants have exceeded the space allotted and formed one giant tomato jungle. Every day I harvest several pints of Sungold tomatoes (my new favorite!) and keep my friends and coworkers happy!

For me, this is an awesome year!!!

1) The Royalty planted Sp-09 fruited little last year but grew some 4-5' primocanes. This June, those canes produced a handsome harvest of very large, yummy berries, As the harvest season progressed, the size grew smaller. this year's primocanes are up to 5-7' long, guess I'll have to re-think the trellis. Oh BT, our lowest temp. last winter was 0 but there were several nights in that range, the tips were never even pinned down and there was extremely little tip die back.

2) Planted 28' of Caroline Sp-09 and got little fruit that year. Currently, the entire bed is FULL of 4-6' tall canes chuck full of blooms and newly formed fruits, I am looking forward to a bountiful harvest picking standing upright (got the trellis up high enough). Planning to mow the spent canes to the ground and mulch them heavily with mowed leaves late this Fall.

3) Reliance has done very well, didn't make the mistakes of years previous and have about 140 fruit to show for it. Too bad the hail and wind (welcome to life in Tornado Alley) thinned the crop and damaged it. Next year I'll try leaving more fruit on to try reducing the pit splitting, maybe we won't get any fruit thinning wind and hail, that would be a treat.

4) Haven't had to consider irrigation till now as it was rather wet up till about 3 weeks ago, since then it has been low to high 90s and no rain. It is a real treat to not have to irrigate here and a rare summer to have to start this late. The chipped wood mulch under the trees is doing a good job of retaining moisture, areas outside the mulch are already bone dry down to at least a foot.

5) the best news, with the dry, hot weather, a lot of the stink'n skeeters have died and are no longer making life outdoors a miserable chore.

I guess my best news is that this is the first year I've really focused on selling. I've sold a little bit out my back door the last couple years, but this year I've been selling at roadside and a farmer's market and enjoying it.

Strawberries produced 30 gal. Sold 20 gal. U-pick, and we ate or gave away the rest.

Blackberries are hardly worth mentioning. Sold maybe 3 or 4 gallon. Birds have nearly gotten all the rest. I finally gave up and quit picking them altogether. I really need to build an enclosure around the patch because nets are such a hassel.

So far I've harvested 11 bushel of peaches and sold 8 of them. The other three bushel were damaged from mostly bird pecks, some rain cracking, bruising, insect damage, etc. A Redhaven produced 3 bu. by itself (that's 150 lbs) and they taste good too. I love that tree.

Not any big numbers I know, but for my orchard, most of the trees are still pretty young. Looks like peaches will produce a total of 15-20 bu. this season.