Redford tree in bloom for the first time this year

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we sprayed the second half of the orchards with Fish, Kelp, EM1, Karanja, Neem and Dipel. It takes two 100 gallon tanks to spray the orchards. We started at 5 AM and were done by 7AM. We had a perfect, much needed rain last night—about 4/10”—to water in the newly grafted trees. It was cool today though not nearly as cool as a year ago when it was 22F on May 18. We have about 15 apple cultivars that are still dormant or barely in green tip. 70 cultivars are at pink and 22 at King Bloom or full-bloom. The rest are somewhere between 1/2’ green and completely leafed out but don’t appear (yet) to be flowering. The plums are starting to lose their petals. We will spray surround on the plums soon to deter plum curculio.

The Redford is blooming for the first time this year. It will be interesting to compare Redford with Redfield. The flowers are similar and are both are blooming early. The two apples are full siblings—same parents. Redfield is the more popular of the two, especially for cider.

Heard a loon in the distance down towards the pond today. We also had a turkey vulture hanging out in a tree near the entrance to the BRC orchard.