Often we may reject a variety based on limited bad experience that doesn't truly represent the qualities of that variety. That's why I stressed my limitied experience with Tomcot. The trees were in a shallow soiled part of my nursery. Harglow is another I forgot to mention and have recently been forgetting to order- maybe ACN doesn't carry it and I should go back to Hilltop who used to give me larger trees anyway (dissappointed with size from ACN this year!). Harglow does blossom a bit later than other varieties and Alfred seems to spread the bloom a bit. Difference between these so called late bloomers and others seems slight here- but there is a regional element to this. Up here we only get a week seperation from first and last blooming apples (thank goodness, really simplifies the spray schedule). I've never had a year where later blooming between varieties of a given species has served to advantage the harvest although it obviously increases your odds a bit. Interestingly, sometimes your earlier flowering varieties fare better in late frost as happened one year for me with peaches. Blossums that had already been pollinated when frost came bore some fruit- later blossums did not. I guess that contradicts the first sentence in this paragraph but nevertheless amplifies my point.

A statement from the NWS regarding this summer in central NJ: ...WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...FIFTH DRIEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...EIGHTH WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...THIRD DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...MOST DAYS IN A YEAR THAT REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES ON RECORD AT TRENTON... METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER (JUNE, JULY AND AUGUST), 2010 IS THE WARMEST SUMMER ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 77.67 DEGREES. THE PREVIOUS WARMEST SUMMER ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1898, WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 76.47 DEGREES. ALSO, METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER, 2010 IS THE FIFTH DRIEST SUMMER ON RECORD WITH 5.90 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION. THE DRIEST SUMMER ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1966, WHEN 2.66 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION FELL. AUGUST, 2010 TIES AUGUST, 1900 FOR THE EIGHTH WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 77.1 DEGREES. THE WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1895, WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 78.7 DEGREES. ALSO, AUGUST, 2010 IS THE THIRD DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD WITH 0.80 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION. THE DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1964, WHEN 0.47 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION FELL. FINALLY, THE TEMPERATURE THIS YEAR AT TRENTON HAS REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES ON 47 DAYS THROUGH AUGUST. THAT TIES 2010 WITH 1983 AS THE YEARS WITH THE MOST DAYS THAT HAVE REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES. THAT TIE WILL NOT LAST, BECAUSE THE TEMPERATURE AT TRENTON WILL EXCEED 90 DEGREES AGAIN TODAY. TEMPERATURE RECORDS DATE BACK TO 1893. PRECIPITATION RECORDS DATE BACK TO 1866. $$ THE TEN WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMERS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1893: RANK TEMPERATURE YEAR (DEGREES F) 1 77.67 2010 2 76.47 1898 3 76.27 1983 4 76.07 2005 5 75.97 1895 6 75.93 1896 6 75.93 1973 8 75.90 1966 9 75.83 1899 10 75.80 1893 THE TEN DRIEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMERS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1866: RANK PRECIPITATION YEAR (INCHES) 1 2.66 1966 2 3.80 1957 3 5.48 1913 4 5.53 1874 5 5.90 2010 6 6.80 1929 7 7.02 1925 8 7.09 1976 9 7.11 1949 10 7.22 1912 THE TEN WARMEST AUGUSTS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1893: RANK TEMPERATURE YEAR (DEGREES F) 1 78.7 1895 2 78.2 ...

JH Monteath in Old Bridge deals in some exotic woods, try giving them a call - http://www.monteath.com/

FIxed the PDA problem where I couldn't set the chlorinator... the AquaLink RS wire was never connected in the PureLink can. Now the PDA also shows a few additional things, like the current salinity. Neat!