June 15, 2024

Fruit this June on the original Scout tree

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we worked in the Finley Lane nursery and orchard. Alyssa was there all day to assist. We weeded all the 2024 newly grafted trees and seedlings and a row of dwarf (Bud 9 and G 11) trees (no herbicides, please). We went through most of the trees in the orchard and tagged those with fruit. The trees are nearly all on standard rootstock and are just beginning to bear. Noting which ones have fruit is useful for many reasons, one of which is that when we spray fruiting trees only, we know which ones to spray.

Finley Lane is an old tract of land we purchased a decade ago adjacent to our farm. It was initially cleared and then farmed by two families before the Civil War.  By 1900 the farm buildings were gone, and the land was owned by someone named Finley. Finley Lane is a narrow dirt road leading to the old cellar holes. We began to farm the part of Finley Lane we call “the nursery” in the early 1990’s. Twenty years later (2013) we purchased the property and expanded our operation there. Since then we’ve planted about 500 apple and pear trees.

June 14, 2024

The little squirt of orange-brown sawdust at the base of this young apple tree is an indication of a borer inside. Time to get out the knife and the wire. You don't want a borer inside the tree

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today I scythed around 40 trees at the Finely Orchard. One of the primary purposes of scything is to clear around the trunk to see if there are any borers  in the tree. (see photo). The other reason is to trigger a bunch of under-ground activity.  As Michael Phillips wrote in The Holistic Orchard: “The mowing tool itself has relevance as well for this first orchard cut… for the benefit of fungal allies. … This … mowing causes root mass in perennial plants to shed just as the spring root flush begins.  This enhances access to nutrient zones for the tree— with the help of mycorrhizal fungi…Adding to the outer edge of the fungal duff this way feeds the saprophytic fungi, which in turn makes even more nutrients available to the feeder roots…”  If there’s a third reason to get out the scythe, it would yet another opportunity to observe every tree one at a time.

In 1979 (or so) I made up this little ditty about spring. It goes:

“When the spring is sprung and the seeds are sown beyond the garden gate,

The scythe is hanging in the barn while the patient farmer waits.”

Or as one of my fortune cookies so aptly said, “A handful of patience is worth a basketful of brains.” That waiting game is now over.  Hooray!

June 3, 2024

A Chestnut crab tree grafted in April and now in the nursery with the newly installed irrigation drip tape running by.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This morning we weeded 2023 nursery apple trees and a row of dwarf trees. Later I re-mowed all the paths through the orchard, set up irrigation to the newly grafted trees with Cammy and watered all the newly planted trees. Everything seems to be growing faster than is “humanly” possible. The young seedlings scattered along the rows that we topworked in May are being buried in the grasses that are already nearly waist-high. It is time to begin weeding the younger trees (1-12 years old) in hopes of reducing competition and finding any borers that snuck in last year. First step is to scythe back the tall grass and perennials from around the trees.  Then we weed around the base of each tree, all the while looking for the saw-dust frass—the sign of borer activity. Around July 4th we’ll paint all the trunks with pure Neem oil. The Neem will smother the new eggs of the adult borer beetle.  We hope. 

June 1, 2024

The Lady Slippers are in full bloom now. Marissa counted over 140 in out BRC orchard.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura and I sprayed all the fruiting trees on the farm with Surround, refined clay powder.  We mixed it with Regalia and Grandivo. The primary purpose of Surround is to deter Plum Curculio. It was a beautiful morning to be out in the orchards and the spraying took about 5 hours. Later Laura made a new batch of plant teas to be sprayed next week, and I spent about 6 hours weeding and watering the 2023 and 2024 young grafted trees.  It was a long day, but the nursery is looking pretty spiffy.  Many wild plants are flowering now throughout the farm.  

May 28, 2024

Vilberie is an old English bittersweet that was likely brought to England from France in the late 19th century.  It’s late ripening and said be decently bitter. It is also late blooming, one of the few trees currently in full bloom .

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today the farm dried out slowly after 1 3/4” rain yesterday afternoon and overnight. The sun came out and it warmed up. Laura came by and we strategized about next spraying options. We decided that we’ll spray tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM.

May 30, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Nearly every apple tree on the farm is now at petal fall, and small fruitlets are forming rapidly. I took a break from the orchard today and worked in the Main Garden. The primary activity was constructing a 36’-long arbor tunnel for pole shell beans. These are a SCF favorite. The construction took most of the day using about forty 1 - 1 1/2” diameter hardwood poles.  It should look pretty fantastic covered with beans.  Around the farm the quince are all now in bloom.  A close relative to the apple and pear and very susceptible to fire blight, the quince come into bloom very late, thus increasing their susceptibility. It’s about time to begin doing major weeding in the nursery and around the young trees in the orchard.  Saturday we’ll spray surround again.

Bunk and Nick, celebrating the completion of the new bean arbor. Nick was an apprentice here at SCF about ten years ago.  Nick is now a farm manager at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. His son is named Finley. (What else?)

May 29, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura and I sprayed two tanks beginning at 5 AM.  We sprayed Cueva (copper), Regalia, Double-Nickel and assorted herbs teas including Comfrey, Dandelion, Horsetail, Nettles, Willow and more. The objective is to strengthen the apple trees to fend off fire blight as well as other pests and disease. Cammy continued to transplant vegetable plants into the big garden, and later she and I planted the potatoes up at the nursery. We have taken most of the remaining 2023 apples from the root cellar and added them to the compost piles.  In the process we have begun to discover this year’s best keepers.  Roxbury Russet of course still look very good, but some others do as well.  In the next few days we’ll go through all the remaining bags in the root cellar and see which apples are still great. So far it looks as though there will be some excellent apples in amongst the rotten ones.

Here is Bunk planting a Roxbury Russet in its place of origin, Roxbury, MA with a group of local youth. Roxbury Russet, possibly the oldest named apple in the US, is one of the best of all keepers traditionally grown in Maine.  Outstanding for cooking - Bunk considers it his favorite winter sauce apple.

May 25-27, 2024

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.  

May 24, 2024

One of our favorite crabapples. It’s named Kaleidoscope, bred by a crabapple breeder in Ohio and named by Cammy. It’s an outstanding tree!

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was not nearly as hot as it’s been the past few days. The risk of fireblight, however, remains high. With over 300 cultivars we have a wide range of bloom times - some trees have flowered and dropped their petals days ago while flowers on other trees are just beginning to open.  The yeast product (Blossom Protect) that we spray only works on open flowers. Every day flowers are opening that are not protected by yesterday’s spray. So we have sprayed 3 times in 3 days, and we may be spraying again before long. A lot of the flowers on the apples have now dropped—called “petal fall”.  The bloom is so beautiful. It’s sad to see it going by.    

Our plum trees are about to be attacked by an unpleasant weevil-type bug called plum curculio. Protection from PC takes another spray of a clay product called Surround. 

May 23, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was a challenging day on the farm. The temperatures were high, the apples are in bloom (many of them) and rain was predicted: the perfect trifecta for fireblight. After communicating with Steve Meyerhans of the Apple Farm in Fairfield, ME , Glen Koehler (pronounced KAY-LER) of U Maine extension and Mike Biltonen of Know Your Roots in NY, we decided to spray a second application of Blossom Protect.  Cammy helped  me with the spraying. As we finished, a huge storm blew in. Thousands of apple flower petals swirled around us in the wind.  We retreated to the safety of the house.  The storm blew over with a heavy downpour. Now we get to hope that the Blossom Protect did its thing and the fireblight stays away until another day. Although we lost a lot of flowers in the storm, a lot remain.  As night settles in, we are reminded once again that we really do live way down in the woods, surrounded by trees and serenaded by singing bugs and frogs and owls.  They’ve got us outnumbered by about 1000 to one. It’s home.

May 22, 2024

Bunk doing something impossible earlier this spring: making a beautiful pie (with help from Ingrid Bathe).

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”  Francis of Assisi

“The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible.” Sun Ra

Today was Sun Ra’s 110th birthday, or his arrival day as some people call it since he came from Saturn.  To celebrate, I’ve re-committed to doing the impossible whenever possible.  Yes, it might seem as though what you want to do in life is impossible, but so what?  Do it anyway! Like living in an apple orchard and eating the food you grow yourself. Today I did some mowing in the orchard and then sprayed a yeast product called “Blossom Protect” on every flowering apple tree. (There are many.) It seemed like an impossible task but we finished the spraying as darkness descended on central Maine and the full moon was rising in the East.  

May 21, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Two of my favorite ornamental crabs: to the left ,“Red Jade” weeping crab (with white flowers) and to the right, “Semi-weeping Red” with its wonderful red flowers. 

“Don’t go nowhere. What do I care?”  Fats Waller

Today was Thomas “Fats” Waller’s 120th birthday.  To celebrate, I’ve re-committed to going nowhere as much as possible. It’s more fun here with the trees. With the blast of heat we’re getting, it seems like every apple tree in central Maine is in bloom or about to be. We also have a huge challenge looming on the horizon - Thursday will present a major risk of fire blight thanks to the combo of heat and moisture. Tomorrow we will spray a product called “blossom protect” in hopes of fending it off. All over much of Maine orchardists are in a serious panic. Fire blight can be devastating. We have our fingers crossed. 

May 20, 2024

Newly grafted apple tree (about 6 weeks old) planted in the nursery. 

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

“Although almost no one does so, herbal medicines can be used as medical agents for plants as well as [for] animals and humans. Such herbals have effects similar, even identical, to those they have on us.” (Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm” p 200.

Today Laura made a number of herbal teas including comfrey, nettles, horsetail, dandelion and more which we will spray on the apple trees in the coming days. These plant teas are medicines for the apple trees.  Our thought is that they will strengthen the trees throughout the season. I watered the newly grafted trees with a dilution of kelp (more plant medicine) and liquified fish. I also did (what I hope will be) the last of the topworking.  It was warm today—the first day that felt almost like summer.  With the warm temperatures come the weeds.  So much to do!  

May 19, 2024

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.

May 18, 2024

Bill filling the trenches with compost

Grafted seedlings waiting to be planted

Backfilling the trench with soil

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Cammy, our friend Bill and I planted our newly-grafted trees in the nursery. We have about 120 of them of 40 varieties.  We grafted them in early-mid April then packed them in damp sawdust - about 30 trees per 5-gallon bucket. We let them callous and grow for the past five weeks, first in our living room and later out on the porch to harden off.  During that time the trees grew about two-four inches. We had two varieties that did not take, but for both the scionwood was poor so we weren’t surprised. Everything else was close to 100%.

Before we planted we dug trenches and fertilized them with compost from our heaps and a composted chicken manure product we purchased. We planted the trees about 9-12” apart.  It was the perfect day for transplanting young grafted trees: overcast with occasional brief periods of light rain.  We finished up at about 5 PM as the rain began to intensify. Hopefully we’ll have rain all night.

Cammy and Bill also potted-on our peppers and tomatoes while I was prepping the nursery site.  We celebrated with a trip to John’s Ice cream. En route we saw several more bobolinks. They’re definitely back!

May 17, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura and Bunk sprayed half the orchard with Neem, Fish, Kelp, EM1, Karanja and Dipel. We started at 5 AM and were done at about 7:00. We saw two bluebirds at Finley.  They appear to have moved in. Hooray! Laura went off to Seth’s to plant 4,000 more young grafted trees. I mulched young apples and pears with chips created by yesterday’s chipping. Later I did another leaf/bloom inventory update at the Finley Lane orchard.  There are quite a few trees still dormant or only at green tip.  Others are at king bloom.

 In the late afternoon I gave a small grafting class (four of us) at the next-door-neighbors.  We topworked an old tree with many small new stems that are the perfect size for topworking.  Also noteworthy is the Conjuro Asian pear: it is in full bloom.  We are eating rhubarb and asparagus now. 

Trailman in bloom with a branch of Redfield. Redbud off to the left and red oak towering behind.

May 16, 2024

Marc loading the chipper and showering the base of a young apple tree with chips

Malus hupehensis Chinese Tea Crab is not used for tea.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Major chipping on the farm today: four of us (or sometimes three) chipped some gigantic piles of fruit tree prunings as well as small trees from the edges of the orchards. It is a fast-paced event thanks to a very large and extremely loud chipper we borrow once a year from friends.

More of the cultivars are breaking dormancy now, and many are at 1/2” green.  (Amazingly some are still dormant.) Today’s photo is Malus hupehensis, the Chinese Tea Crab, which is now in bloom. It's a very nice light pink.  Niedzwetzkyana is about to burst into bloom. The Tree Swallows are back and have retaken up residency up at Finley Lane, our orchard up the road. They swoop and dart and flash through the sky like orcas of the air.  I love them. 

May 15, 2024

Redfield

Orientalis

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Did more mowing and brush collecting.  We mow a path to each tree, leaving 80-90% of the orchard un-mowed.  This gives us access to the trees while also allowing all the “weeds” to grow and provide forage for the beneficial insects and pollinators. The first cultivars are now in bloom including Redfield (red) and one of the Orientalis (light pink). It looks as though we might have a good bloom this year.

Saw a Bobolink at Finley Lane today.  

May 14, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today it rained early, and rained again after dark.  In between it was a beautiful day to be outdoors. Bunk cut firewood along the driveway and piled the brush to be chipped later this week. Later he mowed the nursery and topworked 3 pears with scionwood from Lauren Cornier. (Wasn’t I supposed to be done with grafting?) Then he inventoried about 100 trees for leaf and flower stages. He hopes to complete that job tomorrow. Some trees are still dormant, many are at green tip, 1/2” green or somewhere between the two. Some are at pink which is exciting. Looks like it could be a good crop.  The peaches are at about 1/2 full bloom as are the plums.  The Amelanchier is in full bloom.  Our one mature Asian Pear is ready to bloom, but the nearby Bartlett Pear that we hope will pollinate it is not ready. The large oak behind the barn was host to a beautiful Rose-breasted Grosbeak as well as a Goshawk today.