New Mexico

[AWayer]

We are in Los Lunas... So 30's at night still. I'm just happy they are outside now! They were getting big and stinky in the garage. Hope we can turn the heat lamp off soon. They are all huddled under it every morning when I go out to open the run up.

 

[Peep_Show]

Hi everybody!
Spring is in the air and the apple trees in our Corrales orchard are in bloom. I love being out in the garden during this time...so full of hope, promise and good things to come (climate and weather willing....Last year no apples due to a series of late freezes). No idea what kinds of apple trees these are as the previous occupants didn't leave an owners manual. Husband spent today digging holes in the orchard for the new cider saplings we picked up from Tooley's Trees in Truchas yesterday. Judging from the number of blossoms, it looks like it may be a bumper crop this year! (Yaaaaah!)

This first pic is of a tree we had to baby back to health as the interim groundskeeper thought it easiest to turn off the water to the dormant veggie garden that contained it for a year. (Bad, bad gardener!!)


The bees buzzing in here have heavy little pollen balls on their legs.


Where's the tree under those blossoms?

 

[bumpercarr]

Hi everybody!
Spring is in the air and the apple trees in our Corrales orchard are in bloom. I love being out in the garden during this time...so full of hope, promise and good things to come (climate and weather willing....Last year no apples due to a series of late freezes). No idea what kinds of apple trees these are as the previous occupants didn't leave an owners manual. Husband spent today digging holes in the orchard for the new cider saplings we picked up from Tooley's Trees in Truchas yesterday. Judging from the number of blossoms, it looks like it may be a bumper crop this year! (Yaaaaah!)

This first pic is of a tree we had to baby back to health as the interim groundskeeper thought it easiest to turn off the water to the dormant veggie garden that contained it for a year. (Bad, bad gardener!!)


The bees buzzing in here have heavy little pollen balls on their legs.


Where's the tree under those blossoms?

My apples hardly bloomed this year. The one tree that didn't have but one apple on it bloomed pretty well, as did the pears that didn't have any fruit last year, but my best apple trees have only had a few blooms. Do apples have on and off years?

 

[Peep_Show]

I have heard they do cycle on and off, so don't give up on your tree if they have a year or two of bleh-y production. Apricots are supposedly VERY finicky in that regard. A bumper crop might be followed by a bummer crop.... It happens!

 

[CibolaChooks]

My apricot tree bloomed but already had a freeze hit it. I have a plum going now and at my place the apple trees and peeches are just starting to leaf out. I hope those hold out on blooming untill the late freezes stop.

 

[bumpercarr]

I have heard they do cycle on and off, so don't give up on your tree if they have a year or two of bleh-y production. Apricots are supposedly VERY finicky in that regard. A bumper crop might be followed by a bummer crop.... It happens!

I have zero apricots this year. I have three trees, and usually at least one of them is full of apricots. But I have zero, not a single one. Even the apples that seem a little off this year have a couple of starters on them. But I didn't even see the apricots bloom out. Maybe they got hit by a freeze, I was gone a week and they might have started to bloom and then got hit. Anyway, I guess it just means that I won't have as much canning to do this spring and fall.

My pomegranates stopped producing after that bad freeze a few years ago, but I'm seeing signs that they might produce this year. That is a good thing since I'm out of pomegranate jelly.

 

[bumpercarr]

And the hummingbirds are late this year as well. Usually I'm seeing a lot of them by April and I've only heard one buzz by about a week ago. Put out the feeders, but not a single hit so far.

 

[Peep_Show]

Remember that stone fruits, apples and nut trees all need a certain number of hours of chilling to bear. If you have an apricot variety that needs a solid 800 hours of chill time and you only had 700 (due to global warming or whatever via the climate), then you won't see fruit.

I've never had a good experience with apricots. Had one that grew into a beautiful tree (proper shape and gorgeous structure) that just up and died on its third year after planting. Really? It had the best spot in the yard. Other apricots I've had suffered infestation, but this one just up and died. Finicky, finicky.

One other factor to keep in mind is water source. Don't use water that has been through your household water softener as the salts therein do not do your plants any favors! Hopefully you're irrigating with a source that doesn't flow through the household circuitry.

Haven't seen any hummingbirds in Corrales yet either. Perhaps they're waylaid by vibes of bad weather back east?

 

[bumpercarr]

Remember that stone fruits, apples and nut trees all need a certain number of hours of chilling to bear. If you have an apricot variety that needs a solid 800 hours of chill time and you only had 700 (due to global warming or whatever via the climate), then you won't see fruit.

I've never had a good experience with apricots. Had one that grew into a beautiful tree (proper shape and gorgeous structure) that just up and died on its third year after planting. Really? It had the best spot in the yard. Other apricots I've had suffered infestation, but this one just up and died. Finicky, finicky.

One other factor to keep in mind is water source. Don't use water that has been through your household water softener as the salts therein do not do your plants any favors! Hopefully you're irrigating with a source that doesn't flow through the household circuitry.

Haven't seen any hummingbirds in Corrales yet either. Perhaps they're waylaid by vibes of bad weather back east?

I usually get fruit. My trees are about 40+ years old, and may just be getting to the end of their lives. The thought of losing them would break my heart, my husband's grandfather planted them. Lost one last year, just kept having more and more branches dying off.....infestation I'm sure. Used to be the tree that everyone parked under for shade and a fresh picked desert after they ate their lunch. Anyway, we water with ditch irrigation and our well....no water softeners.

I wish the hummingbirds would hurry back, I think maybe they know that we might get another freeze

 

[Peep_Show]

I used to drive up I-5 through the farmlands of CA and cut across the state through the valley. I was always shocked to see whole orchards of mature nut trees up-ended, stately walnuts and almonds. Made me sad. I hadn't thought that perhaps trees have production lifespans....kind of like chickens. However, I do have one little transplant in my orchard from a scion that came from a 100-year-old apple tree here in Corrales. So perhaps apples are the granddaddies of the fruit world..... Bet your old trees have lots of character.

- - -
We dug the soil and sod, planted the little twiglets, watered them down and were going to make and put out rabbit wraps (chicken wire barriers) around the trees when the wind REALLY kicked up. We were exhausted, anyway, from putting in 10 fruit trees which was a lot more labor intensive than planned. Later that night we drove out to dinner and passed the orchard with the high beams on..... Dozens of rabbits!!! Darn! However -- and here's a shameless product plug -- I had at the last minute before going inside this afternoon opened up a bottle of Rabbit Scram I got from the Spray-n-Grow folks. It's a granular concoction that you sprinkle around what you want rabbits to stay away from made of blood meal, meat meal (probably rabbit), chives, garlic and white pepper. It's odorless but supposedly smells like Death to rabbits. Sprinkle it and sprinkle a little water on it and it lasts 30 days up to two months. I was kind of disheartened during dinner to think that all that labor today went to creating hors d'oeuvres for rabbits and when we returned home our orchard would be nothing but twig nubs. When we got back from dinner we donned the flashlights and -- lo and behold! -- nary a gnaw mark! Tomorrow the rabbit barriers get built just to be sure that we'll have a future fruit crop, but tonight I'm thrilled that a product actually worked and worked spectacularly.