Bountiful harvest in the orchard

[Smart Red]

Here is my red bartlett pear.

Three apple trees heavy with fruit. It was a pretty good year for fruit trees here.

 

[thistlebloom]

Beautiful! What variety of apples? I am impatiently waiting for mine to start producing. What will you be making with all that?

 

[baymule]

and my DH says too!!

What a bounty of fruit! Your trees are gorgeous and what a harvest!!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Wow those apple trees are loaded!! Amazing!

 

[journey11]

What a beautiful sight. Are those dark red apples Rome Beauties?

 

[elaerstelle]

HOHO! really nice thing! you manage your orchard very well.

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www.melodyhome.com

 

[Smart Red]

HOHO! really nice thing! you manage your orchard very well.

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NOT well managed. I have found that three sprayings with organic products -- one dormant oil, one before bud break, and one after petals fall - will pretty much make for well-formed, insect-free fruit. Unfortunately this spring, every time I tried to spray it was so windy that I put spraying off until the apples were formed and no spraying got done. Even using organics, I prefer not to spray every few weeks as suggested.

Still, I think the drought of 2012 might have killed off many of the orchard pests. These apples and pears are nearly free of insect damage anyway.

 

[ninnymary]

SmartRed, how old are these trees? They look sort of young to me and are producing very nicely.

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

* journey11 said, "What a beautiful sight. Are those dark red apples Rome Beauties?"
* thistlebloom asked, "Beautiful! What variety of apples?"

The apple tree varieties (all dwarf trees) in order of the photos are: Jonafree, Mac Free, and Liberty. That first photo, a pear, is a Max Red Bartlett. I have a regular Bartlett and an Anjou pear in the older orchard. All were planted in spring of 2005 and I retired in early June.

 

[bj taylor]

smart red, that is some beautiful trees. just beautiful