TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

In honor of Memorial Day, a picture of our most patriotic plant, the President Lincoln blue-flowering lilac

On May 25 Alyssa helped me planted 131 apple seedlings in the Finley Lane nursery. These were of several mothers - fathers unknown. We planted the seedlings about 7’ apart. The seed was collected in December, 2023, stratified for 3 months this past winter, planted in flats in April, transplanted into cell trays at the beginning of May. We have been hardening them off in a hoop house for two weeks.

On May 26 we inventoried all 330+ apple trees in the Finley Lane orchard. We were looking specifically for newly opened flowers that are unprotected by Blossom Protect as well as any signs of fire blight. We found 23 trees still in bloom or newly so. About half of these cultivars were European cider apples and half are American selections. Depending on conditions in the next few days, we will spray these as well as late-bloomers in our other orchards for fire blight protection.

We also found some early signs of fire blight infection. We snipped off most of these branch ends and will do a closer inspection later this week. The most susceptible cultivar so far appears to be the rare historic English apple, “Court Royal.” Also on May 26 we sprayed “Surround” liquified clay on the plum trees which are now at petal fall. We spray surround on the trees to irritate and deter plum curculio.

On May 27 we transplanted sweet and dry corn seedlings to the garden just in time for the rain. Most apple trees on the farm are now at petal fall. A few have begun to form small fruitlets. The lilacs are in full bloom. We have an assortment of colors along the walkway to our house. The combination of the lilacs, the Kaleidoscope crab and the Sargent crab make a great combo.