Sunday, June 30, 2019

Mini-Orchard Update

I've waited to be SURE how the mini-orchard had survived the winter before posting about it. It is safe to say all the trees are still alive. We were told the peach wouldn't make it. They are barely hanging in there, I'm not sure they will ever produce fruit....but we'll watch and see.  We weren't expecting any fruit this year, but we may get a few bites.  The plum trees appeared to  die, but are resurrecting.  Unfortunately, in one of them the main trunk seems to have died and it's put out new shoots. I don't think they'll produce well. The other one looks great. We may need to get another plum tree to cross-pollinate if this shooty one doesn't do the trick.  

We have a few Rainier cherries on the trees.  These are Michael's favorites. 
Rainier Cherry 

The two Meteor Cherry trees are full of cherries. 
Meteor Cherries
We had apple blossoms - Braeburn and Gala. 
Some day we'll have apples


This the plum tree we are questioning. 
Plum
The peach trees are putting out leaves. The leaves are curling so I need to take care of that. BUT they both have a few green leaves....we aren't willing to say they'll die. 
Peach 
More Meteor cherries. I think they are pretty. 

We were told the peach would not survive and the others were iffy.  We were also told it would be 3 - 5 years before we saw any fruit. We are happy with where the mini-orchard is at this point.

We like to look at the trees and dream of a future fruit buffet. We'll be here long enough to watch the trees grow - that is an amazing thing to this missionary kid, who became a military wife. Perhaps nothing illustrates home quite as well as planting the orchard has.  We planted this orchard in memory of Dad and Mom G... it's a happy place. Blondie and Lucille like to hang out here. The moose haven't invaded. The bees have found the trees.  I envision trees big enough to block the road and provide shade. I see a turquoise table and a buddy bench or two out here for relaxing and welcoming others.....MEA is taking down the evergreens in a few years. We're hoping to have the mini-orchard in good shape when they do.
Perspective is odd - taken from the deck to the south of the trees 

3 comments:

Renee said...

I know with apple trees you need to plan multiple hoping you get both a male and female tree. No idea if that applies to plum trees as well

Renee said...

Plan = Plant

Jodi said...

We've had that same thing happen with one of our plum trees, it died but the next year out new shoots from the bottom. We've really struggled with fruit tree predators, finally this year fencing in the whole orchard not just a bit of it. You are wise to fence from the start. Those trees that don't look too well give them some fertilizer at whatever ratio is recommended for your state. Also water while young if you get several days in a row without rain. I never thought too much about fertilizing our fruit trees once they were established got that tip from Lisa G, aka queen of the peaches (in my mind anyway, LOL). I learned that we should fertilize well in May according to our state agriculture division.