OK, a little something different, not to sound cliche, but "2023 - the year in review." And this kind of sums up how I feel about 2023...Blow me one last kiss!
Month-by-tedious month, with some picts and comments...
January
Was the warmest January on record in Massachusetts, average temperature of 35 F. (max 55, min 32) at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown, MA according to NEWA. Trees have accumulated enough chilling hours to come out of dormancy and are not particularly at maximum winter hardiness either. So wait for it...
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| These Gala buds looked pretty good on 16-January. No snow to speak of. |
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| Dr. Duane Greene gave the George A. Goodloing Memorial Lecture at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Conference in Hershey, PA on 31-January. |
February
...an arctic cold front brought record cold on 4-February, -13 F. at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown the day after we returned from Hershey. Following highs approaching 50 F. the last week in January. Bye-bye peach (and cherry) crop for 2023.
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| Peach buds hosed on 6-February at the UMass Orchard and across Massachusetts. |
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| What a difference a day makes... |
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| Honored at International Fruit Tree Association Annual Conference on 16-Februaryin Grand Rapids, MI after nine years on the Board of Directors. Along with Jeff Clerveringa and Dale Goldy, us "old guys." |
March
Our winters seem to be "back-end" loaded lately, it snowed and was rather cold. Average March temperature was 38 F. It was 35 F. in January and 32 F. in February. All right, it warmed up a bit. Passed the time co-hosting Northeast Plant Growth Regulator meeting and spoke on Precision Apple Cropload Management and Apple Varieties at Maine Pre-season Fruit Meeting in Lewiston, Maine. And oh yea, I got my FAA Part 107 UAV Pilot license!
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| Looks like the most snow we had all winter on 15-March. |
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| Northeast PGR meeting 7, 8-March, Wilkes Barre, PA. The group toasts PGR meeting fixtures of past who passed in 2023, Butch Palmer, and Jeff Alicandro. I think Jeff would approve. |
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| Welcome to Lewiston, Maine. Although I love the place... one smart daughter of mine went to Bates College. |
April
Struggled a bit here to come up with memories. Oh yea, pruned my quad-v peaches hard (no crop). Planted NC-140 Porters Perfection cider apple trees with a little experimental overlay using Biosafe pre-plant program. First apple bloom was a little early?
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| Pruned quad-V peaches hard on 11-April to reduce height, what's to lose with no crop? |
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| Zestar! first bloom on 24-April, a bit earlier than ideal... |
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| NC-140 Porters Perfection apple rootstock planting ready to be planted. Unfortunately, this second batch to trees -- after Fedex lost my first batch -- were less than ideal in uniformity. |
May
Ugh, things were looking good until May 18. Apple bloom was the first week. OK. Things were looking pretty good. Did my first drone flyovers using the Outfield-Orchard Management Platform to map apple blossom density. Post-May 18, when the temperature dropped to 28 F. during late petal fall to fruit set, it got pretty depressing. Oh well, there is always 2024. Carnegie Melon University (CMU) crew plugged away with their robot at the UMass Orchard despite the freeze-damaged apples.
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| View from up above of apple block in bloom on 2-May at UMass Orchard. Outfield makes novice pilot like me (upper right) looks pretty competent. No crashes (yet). |
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| Gala apple cluster on 23-May is hosed from the May 18 freeze. |
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| CMU with their robot measuring apple fruitlet size using computer vision to attempt to predict fruit set. Hampered by the freeze though, had to move out of this frozen Honeycrisp block. |
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| Zestar! (left) and Honeycrisp fruitlets severely damaged post-18-May freeze event. |
June
Fire blight -- result of May 18 freeeze trauma event -- first visited, then stuck around (uninvited). Quick visit to see orchards and friends in MN/WI. By the end of June, rootstock bark failure in several orchards was coming to light resulting in tree decline. Not good.
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| Fire blight symptoms first observed on 5-June, then it got worse on Crimson Crisp by end of month. |
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| Joe Ferguson, yours truly, and Thomas Bernard at Ferguson's Pepin Heights orchard overlooking Mississippi River/Lake Pepin. |
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Rootstock shank bark failure was becoming commonplace in several orchards
by end of June, mostly M.9 and several Geneva rootstocks, resulting in apple tree decline by tree girdling. |
July
Attended Essex Junction High School 50-year Reunion in Vermont on 15-July. Lots of woe up there though. IFTA summer study tour in Nova Scotia. That's about it.
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| It turned out to be a disaster in much of Vermont |
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Overlooking the Minas Basin from the "Lookoff"
in Canning, Nova Scotia, Canada, 24-July |
August
Attended Reality Research/MAIA field day out in Wayne County, NY. Midwest Apple Improvement Association arguably the biggest apple breeder/tester in North America now? Dr. Jason Londo from Cornell visits to look at rootstock/tree decline issues in Massachusetts. We are all still scratching our heads but lead theory is winter cold damage.
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Bill Pitts discusses new MAIA apple 'Sweet MAIA' (among many other things);
apple selection test plot planted by Reality Research/MAIA, pretty ambitious IMHO. |
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| Physiologist Jason Londo from Cornell examines rootstock failure at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown, MA on 1-September, Londo had visited orchards on 31-August so this counts as August :-) |
September
Not much happened here, althought it was alternately hot (92 F. on 6- and 7-September, as hot as it got all summer) and wet (9-10 inches of rain!). Wrapped up 2014 NC-140 Honeycrisp planting over several picks, it was no fun giving the condition of the apples (freeze damage, rots, inadequate thinning, oh no!)
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| Fruit Surface Temperature on Honeycrisp apples on 7-September, not quite high enough for sunburn damage on apples. |
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| It was wet, wet, wet! |
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| It's a wrap says 'Suaz' with final harvest (after 10 years) of 2014 NC-140 Honeycrisp trial at UMass Orchard, quality was 'meh' so it was a bit of a slog. |
October
Depending on site, apple crop was generally better than expected after the May freeze event. But it was far from perfect. First and second of five meetings/trips stretching into December.
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| Lee Kalcsits from Washington State University discusses tree decline issues at Tougas Family Farm in Northboro, MA on 11-October. Lee was a guest speaker at the UMass Cranberry Station in Wareham, his topic bitter pit of apples. How'd that happen? Maybe had something to do with Giverson Mupambi being his post-doc at WSU? |
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| With some persimmon trees outside the Musser Fruit Research Center prior to attending the MyIPM app working group meeing at Clemson University, 3-October. My rental wheels while there had Massachusetts plated, glad I didn't get pulled over by 'Smokie!' |
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| The UMass 'fruit team' along with colleagues from NY and CT hike 'The Pinnacle' outside of Bolton Landing, Lake George, NY prior to our annual New York/New England/Canada IPM working group meeting at the Fort William Henry Lodge and Resort in Lake George, NY (23- and 24-October). |
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| Despite the tough year for growing apples, these Suncrisp look pretty good on 30-October at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown. |
November
Meetings 3 and 4, Great Lakes Fruit Workers (GLFW) centered in Buffalo, NY and NC-140 rootstock research project annual meeting in Holland, MI. Gave two talks at GLFW -- one on apple tree decline and one on my work with Outfield (drone). Keynote address by retired (and highly respected) Cornell entomologist Art Agnello at Clarksburg Cider (which was yummy). Agnello's address was both entertaing (humorous) as well as serious considering some of the groundbreaking apple IPM work done by Art and his colleagues at Cornell over the past 40 (+/-) years. At NC-140 presented our Massachusetts state report and had a nice-day tour of Michigan State University Clarksville and Southwest Michigan (Benton Harbor, my old stomping grounds) fruit research stations. Oh yea, I snuck in a talk at the Connecticut Pomological Society Meeting in Middleton, CT on 'Honeycrisp disorders' and I started one cut pruning on most of my older apple variety (not going anywhere) plantings at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown. Several reasons for this, I won't go into the details... 👎
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| Art Agnello keynote at GLFW, Clarksburg Cider, 2-November. Art is a true professional IMHO and I greatly respect him. |
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| NC-140 group at MSU's Clarksville horticultural research station on 7-November where we visited the Great Lakes Cider Apple Collection. |
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| One-cut pruning by me commenced on 21-November at the UMass Orchard. |
December
May have been the trip of a lifetime, off to Australia to attend the ISHS Symposium Precision Management of Orchards and Vineyards (PMOV). Way too much to detail here, but you may want to look at the Book of Abstracts. And I survived driving on the wrong side of the road without an incident! (I learned my lesson pretty quick while driving wrong way once shortly after leaving the Melbourne airport, fortunately a grassy turnaround once I realized my mistake when I saw the white arrow on the pavement pointing in the direction -- wrong way -- I was driving!) The highlight of my trip was the weekend after PMOV spent with Garry Langford in Hobart where he treated me to an amazing tour of the surrounding area. Alas, I think we spent way more time sightsseing than looking at orchards in Tasmania, but that was just fine and dandy with me. Hobart is a great little city if you every have the opporutunity, go there! And thanks Garry for the Aussie hospitality!
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| With Luca Corelli at PMOV. Luca was on the ISHS Symposium scientific committee and a long-time fruit researcher at the University of Bologna, Italy. |
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| Sweet cherries with rain covers and apples on 10-December near Grove, Tasmania. Cherries have been very lucrative (Asian export market) in recent years for growers there, allowing investment in modern, multi-leader apple plantings. |
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| Garry and Jon atop Mt. Wellington (1,271 meters above seal level) on 9-December, Hobart city in the background. |
I have a Flickr photo album with full res pictures of all of the above and a few more bonus pics.
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