We finished raking 1000 feet of rows where 500 new Nova raspberry plants will go in once we get some rain and the soil warms up.

Apple trees are now at 1/2 inch green and slowly moving towards bloom.  Buds at this point can still tolerate 23 degrees for 10% damage, so we are OK so far.  We need to estimate when bloom will occur to schedule shipment for the bumble bees.

Temperature this morning was 6 degrees and there was three inches of new snow.  Fortunately the apple trees are at “Silver Tip” – the buds are just beginning to crack open.  At this bud stage there will be some cold damage, but most of the buds will survive.

Cherries are still a question mark both from last night and from the -23 degrees on Feb 14’th.  We will just have to wait and see.

Most of our pruning is done – we need to do some grafting and get ready to plant 20 new cherry trees plus 500 new Nova raspberries.

Each new growing season is it’s own challenge.

We are starting off to grow another crop.  The winter so far has had very little snow – lots of up and down temperatures which is not good in general for all plants – apple buds are still tight and will be ok if they do not open too soon.

We will have to see on the cherry buds which may have been frozen when it got to minus 23 degrees on Valentines Day.  Raspberries may have been set back also, but there was some snow cover when it was coldest.

Photo taken this morning – no snow – but it makes the pruning easier.  Second photo is from family celebration last summer for orchard’s 75’th birthday.

Look forward to seeing folks in early July for raspberries.