Thursday, May 16, 2002

Ok, this is weird! Notice the center of the flower, black. Petals are turning brown and falling off.Clearly not pollinated. This is a block of Delicious in Massachusetts where it looks like fruit set is going to be very poor. Cutting open what is left of the fruitlet DOES NOT reveal typical frost damage. (Although we had some upper-20's a couple weeks ago when the bud stage was pink.) My theory of the moment is an extended, cool, somewaht wet bloom period which just "wore out" the flower and it never got pollinated. Frost may have exacerbated the situation. Have seen this in several orhards throughout Massachusetts. Unusual, or maybe not? 3:13:45 PM

Man, is the drought over yet? Here in Mass, we've had 2-3" of rain over the past several days, however, authorities claim we are still in a 'drought watch.' Horticulturally speaking, I say naahhh! FYI, this is a super-spindle planting at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard . Planted in April 2002, tree spacing is 2 X 12 (feet) and includes apple varieties such as Gala, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Fuji, McIntosh, Empire, and Cameo. Rootstocks include M.9, B.9, and G.16. Most of the trees were donated by Willow Drive Nursery, but also trees from Wafler Nursery, Adams County Nursery, and Stark Bros. Win Cowgill of Rutgers Cooperative Extension also put the planting in at the Snyder Farm Research and Extension Center. Be good. 2:52:12 PM

Let's talk about the apple-crop so far this year -- and what little I/we know asbout it at this time. Home-wise (Massachusetts), I'd say things are too early and too variable to tell. In many cases, it appears there is no set in king bloom for apples. It's been so cold that fruit has not started to size up. Some growers have applied petal-fall thinners (weather willing) but others are waiting. In south-central Massachusetts there has been some frost injury reported. (As well as in CT and RI where apparently it got even colder.) Everyone is advised to keep a close block-by-block eye on set before making a thinning spray. My colleague in NJ, Win Cowgill, says things are probably light down there, and they are thinning now. In the Hudson Valley, according to Jim Schupp, things are all over the place. Lower sites may have been hit hard by frost. They too are advising growers to carefully scout their blocks before making thinning decisions. Apparently peaches have fared better and there is good set in all but the coldest locations. Farther south, in the mid-Atlantic we hear frost damage may have taken it's toll in some places. The midwest has been cool, and in SW Michigan, the grape and sweet cherry crop was hit hard by frost in April. No word on the apple crop yet. No news is good news from Washington, we guess. Back to work. Be good. JC, aka Mr Liberty, or more recently, Mr Honeycrisp 2:33:13 PM