2024 Food Garden

Oooo! :open_mouth: How many of each?

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Lol - the fruit tree project. In all on the property, there are:

9 apple trees
5 sour cherry
4 sweet cherry
4 Asian pear
2 Italian plum
1 European pear
1 peach
1 apricot

Everything still is pretty young. Mostly getting apples, cherries and Asian pears reliably. We had our first European pears last year, and might see an apricot this year. Peaches and plums have not yet started producing. I’m confident the plums will eventually produce, but the peach and the apricot are kinda a crapshoot.

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That is awesome! Literally! Do you mind saying how many hours in care they need in the busiest month? I’ve been wondering (so Imay have asked before) if I am up to managing any more stone fruit.

I think I’m seeing evidence of just two apricots this year, but lots of one of the pluots. I bought this pluot because a different one neededa pic, and of course, this is the one does the best.

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Wow! Impressive!
I have a:

pear tree,
a 4 year old sour cherry that has not produced fruit yet
a rhubarb patch,
a gooseberry bush,
a Saskatoon berry bush,
2 black currants,
a black raspberry patch (too seedy for anything other than jellies and strained jams),
strawberries,
a Meyer lemon in a pot,
and a fig in a pot.

No fruit from the fig, Saskatoon bush or Meyer lemon yet.

My rhubarb this week.

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Hard to say how many hours, really, since the trees and production are still in their early growing years.
Every year it takes a bit more time and energy. Here’s a rough version of our maintenance routine, to which we both apply ourselves:

Winter/dormant season:
Prune everything but the cherry trees.

Early spring:
All trees - spray the trees with neem-oil at 10-day intervals. Repeat for a total of 3 times.
Stone fruit - copper fungicide spray also in 10-day intervals for a total of 2 or 3 times.

Late spring:
Apples, pears, apricots, peaches - thin fruit. This goes on for several (to many) days.

Early summer (after fruit has set and been thinned):
Apply an organic pesticide (spray) at 10-day intervals for a total of 3 times.

Late summer:
Prune the cherry trees.

Fall:
Stone fruit - copper fungicide spray in 10-day intervals for a total of 2 or 3 times.

On top of this schedule there is monthly fertilizing, and - obviously - the harvesting, and the processing of any fruit for long-term storage.

We are relatively new to fruit growing (berries are another story) and still (just) spry enough to stand a ladder and spray, thin, and pick. Even though our trees are semi-dwarves or smaller, we expect they will outgrow our abilities at some point in the future. That’s OK. We figure by that time we will be tired of doing all the work, we won’t be eating much fruit beyond what we can reach, and are prepared to either call in the gleaners, or just let things just go wild. When I counted up the trees yesterday I couldn’t believe we had let things get so big. DH, of course, noted that he was fully aware. :smile:

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Do what commercial orchards do, and prune them to height. All the cherry and apple orchards around us are all cut to a uniform height such that it looks like somebody hovered over the trees with a helicopter! During pruning season, they cut as high as they can reach safely, leaving the entire orchard with a flat-top look.

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We’ve thought about this. I’m pretty sure there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it, however.
Pruning gives me anxiety :crazy_face: so I need to study-up a bit more.

I bought a book about keeping fruit trees small called something like ā€œGrowing Small Treesā€. I think there is a YouTube Channel as well.

Chapter 900 of my potato growing trials, which are usually followed by swearing I’ll never grow potatoes again.

Last year I read about determinate and indeterminate potatoes! :open_mouth:

I grow in containers, usually over winter and early spring, they usually don’t flower, and I’m never sure when they’re dying a natural death.

These were essentially overwintered, were supposed to be fingerlings but are not. They have better size than I usually get than I do with fingerlings, I think because they are really early.

The early spring ones are just coming up.

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Bees enjoying favas…

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Wow, where do you live? That looks like paradise right there

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Wow, is all I can say, being blown away at the fecundity

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Pacific Northwest. This is probably the most beautiful time of the year. :sunny: :potted_plant: :sunflower: :evergreen_tree: :duck: :ocean:

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I looked up neem oil. It’s banned in Canada.

We haven’t been spraying our pear tree at all. The wasps and Japanese beetles love it. We get enough fruit for us, usually.

We used to cover our black currants and black raspberries with netting, until one year when a baby robin got caught in the net and perished. We decided to stop using nets after that. The berries bring the birds to the yard.

I just have to try to pick as many currants as I want a day or 2 before they’re fully ripe.

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Horseradish comes back to life, and in the background, a meadow of mustard.

The kale is in bloom!

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Here in the US, neem oil (neem seed oil) is OMRI listed, and considered organic and biodegradable.

I like your thoughts regarding your currant plants - i’m a fan of planting more than we need, just so there is some for nature and some for us.

We have some (very young) currant plants - black and red. That’s a good tip about picking early. I do the same in the carrot department, else-wise the rust fly get the bulk of the produce.

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I’m having these spots on my foliage. It’s not the first time, but I am wondering if they will make peas longer if I can figure it out.

It’s affecting only leaves on the bottom 1/3 of the plants, both sugar snaps and sweet peas in containers.

I don’t think it’s powdery mildew, but that’s what I’m finding on Reddit :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

I think it’s a leaf sucking insect. I got this picture. Google lens says it’s an aphid, but I’m used to seeing them in droves!

Anyone have any ideas? I’d love it to be something nutritional. I don’t usually feed my pea plants.

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I didn’t know aphids had wings.
Speaking of aphids, the green lacewings have moved in in droves, thank God. They do a great job keeping bad bugs down to a dull roar

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If you don’t see any mites hiding under the leaves, my first guess is a zinc or other deficiency. Sometimes, peas will normally shed older leaves, especially if they get shaded by top growth.

A balanced fertilizer which has zinc, boron, potassium, etc. may help. Also, necrosis, white zones can be a symptom of too acid a soil. A pH of 6.5–7 is ideal. If the soil is too acidic, you can start by mixing about a tablespoon of powdered dolomitic lime into a gallon of water and soaking the plants with that. Don’t try this with hydrated lime or the more potent types. Dolomitic lime will try to settle, so keep the water container agitated, mixed.

Here’s a good link to help pinpoint issues.

Usually, aphid fliers means one needs to keep an eye out for more, especially on the new growth.

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Thank you!

Today’s pick. Noble Giant spinach, Russian kale, asparagus. The spinach and asparagus are for tonight’s dinner – I’ll serve the asparagus stir-fried with beef as a salad over the spinach. The kale will go into a spring minestrone later this weekend.

I’ve also included a photo of my Macgyvered double sink for rinsing greens. I found the big washbowl at a local feed store. It sits on-top another overturned bowl, because it is just a hair to big to fit into my sink. Works great for washing and rinsing big batches of greens.

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