Mad Tom Orchard

Our UVM fruit specialist says “there is haggard/erratic bloom all over the place this year”.   We have found that the McIntosh, Cortland, and Ginger Gold were hit very hard by the 5 degree temperature on April 5’th and the crop on these varieties will probably be 10% of a normal crop.

Gala, Honeycrisp and Macoun which bloom a little later all have many more flowers.  We still need to see how many of them pollinate, but there MAY be a reasonable crop for these varieties, but not like last year.

We are grateful that the crop for our 75’th anniversary celebration was so bountiful.  The bumble bees are out working.  We have also finished planting 500 more Nova raspberries.  The existing raspberries are forming flower buds, so we hope to see fruit in July from them.

Another growing season is underway  – we will post updates as we learn more.

Bumble Bees in the old orchard

 Some bloom on Honeycrisp

Planting raspberries

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.

We finished out the 2015 apple season on a very cold Sunday (Oct 18).   It was great to see so many familiar faces and many new ones as well.  You picked a record number of apples!!

Because the crop was so large this year,  there are also a record number of apples left.  We can no longer sell them because two hard freezes means they will not keep well.  Some will be picked by a local farmer for cider vinegar and apple sauce – some more for folks to feed to their animals.  If you want to pick in quantity, contact us this week to arrange time and price.   The remainder will compost back into the soil to add organic matter.

Good place to find apples already picked is at Dutton Berry Farm  in Manchester on Route 11 &30 – tel 802-362-3083.

Look forward to seeing you next year!!