The fruit and nut orchards have been struggling this year. Since it’s still within the establishment period for some – that is understandable and even expected. The mature fruit, planted by the previous owners, also hit some rocky spots, however.

Peaches: Yes, I know Minnesota is not peach territory, but they produced so beautifully and bountifully last season that I thought perhaps global warming would be my friend and salvation where this crop is concerned. Not to be. The temperature dipped to at least -34F here with devastating results. Four of the 6 trees were killed (though they made feable attempts to leaf out). The last two were killed to the ground and sent up shoots. One of these was so weak that it toppled and died, too. The final one is being fortified from sheep browsing and my nephew and I planted a ‘Reliance’ peach near it that was actually bred/selected to handle -40F.

Pears: For the most part the pears are doing great.  They have a heavy crop on and, oddly, seem to be ahead of last year in maturation. They have, however, been attacked by some psylla insects that have skeletonized many of the leaves severely.  I hope the crop matures well and the trees have adequate winter reserves considering the lost leaf/photosynthetic surface. The psylla looks like a terrestrial leech with a wider head than body. Note the elongate black blob in the photo.

Apples: Moonshadow, the gray shetland wether, is a browser, a fact that I didn’t appreciate fast enough to prevent some damage to my young apples. What was at stake? In May I had planted 8 dwarf apples (4 ‘Liberty’ and 4 ‘Sweet 16’) to extend my harvest season and also provide earlier harvest relative to larger trees.  They are on Bud 9 rootstocks and are reputed to grow to 25 to 30% of seedling tree height – I’m figuring 8 to 10 foot. The first time he and the other sheep were pastured among them, Moonshadow got on his hind legs and, with his forelegs on the cages, ate the tips out of 4 of these and 5 of the 11 small grafts planted in 2012.  The trees are releafing, but it will take some time to retrain a leader in each.  The 4 ‘Cortlands’ and 2 ‘Golden Delicious’ are bearing heavily, but the ‘Connell Red’ are in an off year.  The question remains… did Moonshadow teach this behavior to the young and impressionable Babydoll lambs?

Hickory-Pecans: I did no replacement planting this season and the hickory-pecan census is down to 28 – 4 died over winter and another 2 gave up the ghost this summer.  I’m concerned that part of their struggle is due to the lime-laden dust from the gravel road less than 100 feet to the south of the planting.  You can see the dust deposits in the accompanying image. They are likely to handle high soil pH better than the chestnuts (who are luckily, another 40 feet from the road).  I paid for one dust-control application that was effective in August and also gave them a 1/2 cup dose of 20-20-20 fertilizer to try to improve their condition. The fertilizer was delivered in a hole made with a bulb planter about 3 inches deep and 1 foot to their downhill side and the plug was replaced on top of the fertilizer.  To quote a horticulture educator at the Morton Arboretum speaking about transplanting woody plants: ” The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap.”  I’m looking forward to lots of leaping next year. 

Chestnuts: This is the “creeping” year for the chestnuts, but they are looking tough.  All of them died back to near the snow line this last winter and some are looking very blonde from the continuous lime-dusting. Of the 13 present at the end of last season, 3 didn’t survive the winter and another 2 died this summer.  When they stabilize a bit, I plan to transplant them to a more fertile, moister, and more acidic location among some white pines. 

Wild (Prairie) Plums: The plums ripened at a particularly inopportune time so I only harvested about 4 gallons worth.  This was enough for 2 quarts of plum liqueur (not yet strained), 1/2 gallon wine, and 8 1/2 pints of jelly.  I purchased a new canning aid, a steam juicer, that did a beautiful job on the juice for the jelly.

Additional Stone Fruits: I added two plums, ‘Superior’ and ‘Toka’, and two sour cherries, ‘Montmorency’ and ‘Northstar’, to the orchard this summer.  Due to the time spent on our book for work, “Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts”, they were not planted as promptly as they should have been.  They also suffered from the Moonshadow effect.  The ‘Montmorency’ cherry didn’t make it, but the others are doing reasonably well.  We are experiencing a huge grasshopper population this season, which doesn’t help matters.

Elderberries: My cultivated bushes are still juvenile so my harvest is from the clumps growing behind my property in the drainage swale.  Flowering was glorious this year but pollination was a bit sparse. I collected enough to test out the steam juicer and netted 4 quarts of juice.  Two of these got highjacked for wine.  The wine making is something I have not done before, but I figured it is yet another way to preserve the harvest.  If grape juice and wine are healthful then the juice and wine from elderberries should be even more so.  I’m not quite sure when to start sampling the wine, but I will let you know how that goes… even if it gets poured down the drain.

In spite of the work they require, the taste of their fresh ripe fruits is enough to convince me to plant even more… preferrably with off-set maturation dates so they can get the attention due them at harvest as well.