Pruning Peaches and Thornless Blackberries

   Harvest seasons for peaches and thornless blackberries have now ended, so there will be no more peaches or thornless blackberries in 2016.  We are now very busy pruning the peach trees and thornless blackberry plants, which are both very big jobs.

Our two college student workers, Brandon Ledford (left) and Ben Miller (right) are still pruning the peach trees through the end of this week. They've already pruned the row to the left, so the trees are much lower and less wide.

   Our two college student workers are still pruning the peach trees through the end of this week, then they go back to college.  Our four high school student workers started their senior year today, so from now until graduation they'll only work for us on Saturdays and school breaks.  When they finish pruning the peach trees, they'll help me prune the thornless blackberry plants.

I've been pruning the thornless blackberry plants in late mornings.  These 'Natchez' plants in the foreground have had their side branches pruned back, while plants in the background have not yet been pruned.

   The 2016 apple harvest will start next week with very small amounts of some very early apple varieties.  We have just one tree of 'Gala', two trees of 'Jonafree', and a few trees of 'Crimson Crisp' that were just planted 4 years ago, so they only have a few fruit this year.

This 'Crimson Crisp' tree has fruit ready to harvest in a few days. I just planted these trees 4 years ago, so they only have a few fruit this year.

   We also still have a few 'Enterprise' apples for sale.  These were picked in mid-late Nov. 2015, and are still crisp and juicy since they keep well in a cooler for 8 to 10 months.  The 2016 'Enterprise' apple harvest (and pick-your-own apple season) won't start until very late Sept., and the best pick-your-own time is the entire month of Oct.

Most of these 'Jonafree' apples are not ripe yet, but harvest will start next week.

   We have harvested apples for sale in late mornings and from 7 p.m. until dark, through Aug. 31.  Most early mornings I'm applying desperately-needed herbicides around the apple trees, and I can't see or hear cars come in the driveway while I'm spraying.  So if you want to come in early morning, please phone 620-597-2450 the day before you come and leave a message saying the day and time you'll come, so I can look for you.

Peach & Blackberry Seasons Ending

    We will have only a very few peaches for sale now until Aug. 20, as the latest-ripening peach varieties were greatly hurt by the 6 frosts during bloom.  No customer is getting more than 5 pounds of peaches, and some days we won't have any for sale.

We'll harvest a very small amount of our latest peach variety, 'Flameprince' yellow peaches, from about Aug. 10 to Aug. 20. Notice how few peaches are on the tree, and we only have 2 trees of this late variety.

   We'll harvest a very small amount of our latest-ripening peach variety, 'Flameprince' yellow peaches, from about Aug. 10 to Aug. 20.  We've now finished harvesting 'Carolina Gold' yellow peaches, and all of these have sold.  We'll finish harvesting 'China Pearl' white peaches over the next few days, so we'll have only small amounts of white peaches to sell until Aug. 12 or 13.
   Peaches are $1.20 per pound + tax, and 2nds peaches are $0.69 per pound + tax.
   Phone 620-597-2450 the day before you want peaches to check on availability, and leave a message with your phone number so I can return your call, as we're very limited on peaches now until the end of peach harvest.
   Some thornless blackberries are still ripening.  Customers picked some blackberries this morning, though they take longer to pick now.  A few everbearing red and yellow raspberries are also ripening.

Some everbearing red raspberries are ripe now, and yellow raspberries are also ripening.

   Please phone 620-597-2450 the day before you come to pick berries and leave a message saying the day and time you'll come, so I can look for you.  Since very few people come in early mornings to pick berries anymore, most early mornings I'm applying desperately-needed herbicides around the peach and apple trees, and I can't see or hear cars come in the driveway while I'm spraying.  Also, I pick the red raspberries for my own use unless I know someone is coming who wants to pick them.
   This evening I brought the last 7 bins of 'Enterprise' apples from our big cooler, just installed last fall, to the cooler in the sales building.  So we finally turned the big cooler off for a few months to save electricity costs.  We'll still have these 'Enterprise' apples for sale for the next couple weeks.  They were picked in mid-late Nov. 2015, and are still crisp and juicy since they keep well in a cooler for 8 to 10 months.  The 2016 'Enterprise' apple harvest won't start until very late Sept., and the best pick-your-own time is the entire month of Oct.