aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
One of my many Honeycrisps almost ready for picking. We just had rain so I thought I would wait until next week. About 40 % are nice and red but rest aren't. Some are hugeFirst Harvest pics
- Thread starter aerospacefarmer
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One of my many Honeycrisps almost ready for picking. We just had rain so I thought I would wait until next week. About 40 % are nice and red but rest aren't. Some are huge
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
don't want to bore you I took a bunch of pics of a lot of the damage from heavy fruit set and from something climbing in trees. I need to get better at thinning Let me know what you like to see pics of as most of the fruit is still on the trees that are busting at the central leader lol
greyphase
5 year old buck +
Hey Paul
Was wondering what rootstock and how old this tree is??? Great pic show us some more you won't bore us.
deepsleep
5 year old buck +
We just like pics. Any pics. Lots of pics. We will let you know when we get bored of beautiful fall apple pics (won't happen). Also, if you ever get time, how about a thread on your hard cider making? I've been playing around with it here but I can't get fresh preservative-free cider. I hope to start making it with my apples when I can spend more time up at my place. Also, any problems with FB on the Hosui? I originally put in Shinko and Olympic because of concerns about FB. I added Hosui after seeing one of your threads on it. It is 2nd leaf with no issues so far but wondering your observations.
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
MM.111 planted April,2010 and has been bearing fruit for last 3 years. This is best crop ever. Trees are from Cummins
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
I can get you some cider for sure at good price I already started collecting apples for cider. Will probably do first batch in 2 weeks just to taste some juice. Love it ice cold mmmmm. Had a few issues with FB this year with my Asian pears but it was bad year here all around Seems the trees survived and getting some good fruit from those trees as well
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the pix, Paul !! I don't think anyone on here is ever gonna be bored by pictures. I enjoy looking at all of them ............ AND reading about what everybody else is doing and planting. Tough to beat first-hand experience from guys who are growing apples, crabs, pears, etc.
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Come on up and see it for yourself if you like. My place is always open for all you guys. I have a lot more pics to post. Hope to post tomorrow
deepsleep
5 year old buck +
Do you ship to Florida:D? I am learning on pasteurized but preservative free supermarket cider, and so far I can make a decent hard cider from that. It does lack the complexity and funk that the really high quality hard ciders have. In a couple more years I hope to go up for early anterless season, grind some apples, throw a couple carboys in the basement and show up a month later to bowhunt and drink cider.
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Oh I thought you were in PA duh!!! Anything can be done but I imagine a heavy block of cider whether frozen or not would be a few bucks to ship overnight which would be the only way to go. You need to move from that hot crazy state lol
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Here is a half bushel of Pixie Crunch. Smaller apple that was marketed to kids as its sweet and small. I have 3 trees and the apples are very nice I think there are 2 Ginger Gold in there that I didn't pick last week but now its good and Golden
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
I wasn't going to pick any Honeycrisps yet but I found some huge ones on my B9's that were very red and didn't want to find them on the ground when I got back next week so I started with those and then selectively took the biggest and reddest from about 10 trees and ended up with some smaller not so red ones as they fell off when I was taking the larger red ones. Didn't make a dent in the total however and I think next week will be the week for a large harvest I tasted a couple and mmmmm they are awesome
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Here is a peck of Wolf River that I took a bit early as a few were dropping and a few had some black spots from our insect buddies. Seems they really like these huge apples I have a lady in the neighborhood who thinks these are the best eating apples even tho I don't share her view. She gets them all lol
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Harvest total for the week except for what I put in fridge for cider which is about half bushel. Looks good right? lol I also have some nasty looking nectarines in one of the pics that have ugly skin but when peeled are absolutely sugar sweet and delicious.
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Here are 2 more of the Honeycrisps planted 2010 on MM.111 from Cummins. I know a lot of guys like to cut lower branches early but as you can see in this pic and the previous one I posted I am getting a lot of nice fruit from the lowest of the low branches Just FYI and I think I need to get those poor trees some bigger cages this year The tree far left is a Granny Smith and is loaded again this year from Boyer Nursery and planted same year and has been producing great apples for 3 years
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Here is a Keifer pear struggling not to break. All my Keifers are loaded and I have lost a few branches already this year and they wont ripen and will get much bigger by late October. The deer love these even so close to cabin. All the pears I took off the broken branch were gone asap
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Here are future producers I hope. These are my grafts from last 2 years. From right to left 2014 to 2015 Some trees are over 7 ft tall all on G.11 rootstocks and most scions from all you cool guys here on the forum. First tree to the right is a Scarlett O"Hara on G30 that had FB in it the next 3 are HC on B9 which is where I took grapefruit size apples from.
deepsleep
5 year old buck +
I was thinking the same thing. I have been pruning pretty aggressively to get my first scaffolds at 5 1/2 or 6 feet. I started a year later than you, and I'm guessing I'm 2 years from those kinds of crops, meaning I lost a year by pruning those lower branches. Your place looks awesome. You didn't want to bore us with pictures. That's funny. Keep them coming. Oh, and if I get desperate enough I may have to send you a check and you can fedex me a block of your homestead cider!
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
Overloaded Liberty in back orchard. way too many and fruit smaller than should be . Most of these the deer get and we will get 20 to 25 deer in this orchard which also has brassicas and clover in it. I hunt this orchard from an elevated stand.
