A Quick Glimpse of the Back40 Orchard

[greyphase]

Crazy Ed's Airport Apple planted in the fall of 2014 is bearing some apples this year. I picked all but one off. Am impressed with how blemish free the apples are.

Galarina is another apple that I've been impressed with so far. Only planted in the fall of 2014 it bore apples last year and this year. I only left one apple grow last year and only 3 this year. Blemish free with no spraying.

A Black Twig. No apples but good, healthy growth.

Red Limbertwig.

Washed Russet.

Shafer Crab planted last fall with a couple of apples on.

Just so you don't think everything's perfect in my orchard here's some "ugly" pics.
A Meyer's Royal Limbertwig. Obviously under stress of some kind. It had a lot of apples on which I picked off. Leaves tightly curled but no sign of aphids or ants.

My GoldRush apples are all marked up. Apple Maggot, Coddling Moth, Plum Curculio ???

Also had 5 trees die over the winter. 2 had been planted in the fall of 2014 and put on good growth last summer. They leafed out this spring but soon died. 3 had been planted last fall and also leafed out this spring and then died.

So goes the joys and disappointments of raising apple trees. o_O

 

[Turkey Creek]

GP I think that is PC damage on that apple mainly. They typically leave that "smile" scar.

 

[CrazyEd]

Looking good! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Native Hunter]

Those are some very clean looking trees. Very little leaf spotting. Looking great!

 

[Bill]

Good looking trees except the last couple. Which is why I have stayed away from them. Just don't have time to baby anything at this point.

I'd love to have them like you guys do, but I know it would be a lesson in futility for me.

 

[CrazyEd]

Good looking trees except the last couple. Which is why I have stayed away from them. Just don't have time to baby anything at this point.

I'd love to have them like you guys do, but I know it would be a lesson in futility for me.

They don't have to be perfect if you are feeding wildlife Bill. Select low/no maintenance varieties which are well documented around here. The most effort I put into my trees is planting time, after that I try to prune once a year in early march.

 

[Maya]

Lookin good Grey. Ya as TC said that's PC scars, egg laying scars to be exact. Slightly smaller and rounded scars this time of year are feeding scars. They are done for the year though, and out of the orchards, so you shouldn't see any further damage from them. Those curled up leaves are just from cold damage in early April. They'll be fine. Those trees were just more open than the others at the time of the cold.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice trees Grey !! We planted some Galarina ( 3 ) this spring too. I hope ours turn out like yours. Thanks for posting pic of PC damage - more learning for all of us.
Thanks Maya, TC, and Crazy Ed for the additional info !!