Saturday, March 25, 2017

Pear Trees Blooming

   Pear trees are now blooming, and most apple varieties are in the pink bud stage, with some apple varieties blooming.  Praise God, we have not had any more killing frosts in the past 10 days, and no more frosts are forecast for the next 10 days.
Our European pear trees are in full bloom now.
   It looks like we will have a bumper pear crop this year, and a good apple crop as we do almost every year.  We can't tell yet how much of a peach crop we will have this year, but it looks like the crop will be greatly reduced or eliminated on some peach varieties.
Asian pear trees, in foreground with white petals, were in full bloom a few days ago.  'China Pearl' peach trees, in background with pink petals, were still blooming a few days ago, so I'm hopeful that we will have a partial crop on that peach variety.
    During this past week of spring break, our workers came almost every day to help with the huge amount of pruning needed.  They helped prune blackberry plants earlier this week, and pruned apple trees later in the week.
Tre Maxton used pneumatic loppers to remove upper branches from our apple trees, while other workers hand-pruned apple branches.
   We still have many apples and pecans for sale.  I started picking asparagus a couple days ago, and started selling it today.  Asparagus is still $2.78 per pound + tax, harvested.  Scroll down two posts for apple and pecan prices.
   Just phone 620-597-2450 a day in advance, and leave a message on the answering machine saying your name, the day and approximate time you're coming, and which crops you want.  Our phone rings in the house, and I check for messages when I come in from working in the orchards or sorting apples in the sales building.  If you wait to call until on your way here, I probably won't get your message before you come.
   I do not have a cell phone or smart phone (cell reception is terrible here), nor is there a phone line to the sales buildingWhen the weather's nice it's especially important to call a day ahead, as I can't always see the driveway from some parts of the fruit plantings, and when I'm working on a tractor I can't hear vehicles come in if you just drop by.