Peaches and Cream (aka 'Together at Last')

I received an e-mail this week from Dave Lokken of Oshkosh, Wisconsin with attached words and music for a song titled 'Together at Last' where Dave professes his love for fresh peaches and appreciation for the fruit growers who produce them. Wow. I listened. I loved. I knew exactly what I had to do -- put the words and music to a slide show of all the peaches I picked at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, MA this year (2008). I started harvesting July 16 (with a numbered apricot selection) and the show chronicles all the peaches (in order) I picked and evaluated through September 25. (In reality, I just picked the last peaches up on the hill yesterday, October 10, but they did not make it into the show.) Many shown are numbered selections from the Fruit Acres/Stellar peach breeding program, but many are named too, such as Earlystar, Brightstar, Risingstar, Jade, Country Sweet, Glowingstar, Honeykist, Starfire, Blazingstar, Redhaven, Allstar, and Blushingstar.

Oh my gosh, what's not to love? How lucky are we to be in this business of growing these 'tender' fruit? And how very, very special are peaches grown in in Massachusetts on the northern edge of their range? (See this Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Assoc. press release about the 'Golden Days.')

Well, thank you very much Dave for the inspiration and I hope you enjoy the show:


'Together at Last' (words and music by Dave Lokken)

B.118 apple rootstock -- B.9 on steroids?

I am late on this one, but last week I picked 9 Honeycrisp trees on B.118 rootstock planted in 2006 as part of a mini- orchard systems trial at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown. To make a long story short, I was very impressed by the yield, fruit size, and fruit quality of these Honeycrisp trees on B.118. One tree had a yield of 60 lbs. of fruit, which if I extrapolate to a per acre yield (10 X 15 ft. spacing, 290 trees/acre), that's 400 bushels/acre in the 3rd leaf! (In reality, the rest of the trees had less fruit, but 200-300 bushels/acre could be expected.) So I have to wonder -- considering B.9 is very precocious and high-yielding -- if B.118 has these traits in a semi-dwarf stock? I would consider it closely, particularly vs. planting M.7. Willow Drive Nursery was the source of these trees. And check out NC-140 for more rootstock information.

And the early Fuji winner is...

I was kind of surprised during a visit to eastern Massachusetts (Northboro specifically), and upon prompting by Mo and Andy Tougas of Tougas Family Farm, to look at their Daybreak and Early Auvil Fuji's for maturity. Indeed, they were quite ripe -- see my 09/11/08 apple harvest report -- for details. Daybreak seems a little ahead of Auvil, otherwise, they were similar, although Daybreak seems to be a bit more intense in red color. I would not normally expect these to be ripe until more towards the middle of the month, but clearly harvest could start any day now. Daybreak was particularly impressive in terms of classic Fuji flavor and sweetness for this early harvest date. These were also very large fruit on 2nd-leaf tall spindle apple trees, with a crop load of 10-15 apples per tree easy.

I also returned to the UMass Orchard in Belchertown and looked at September Wonder (formerly Jubilee) and Rising Sun Fuji. Not nearly as impressive, I have never cared for September Wonder that much, and the Rising Sun were way over-cropped, so not really a fair comparison.

Still, in my mind the clear winner is Daybreak, followed closely by Auvil Early. Run, don't walk, to get some of these very high quality, large-fruited, and what are going to be very profitable early Fuji's in the ground. Daybreak is exclusive to Adams County Nursery, and Auvil Early is available from Van Well Nursery.

UMass Video Fruit Advisor -- Sept. 2, 2008. Slender-axis Lindamac McIntosh

Update: these apples were picked on 9/03. 15 bushels from 20 trees, equals 750 bushels/acre. So I was a little optimistic on the 1,000 bushels. Still a respectable yield in this climate. Ciao.

4 rules for pruning tall-spindle apples

On August 19, 2008, and thanks to Mike Fargione of Cornell's Hudson Valley Extension Fruit Program, Dr. Terence Robinson hosted a two hour tour of 3rd leaf tall-spindle apple research plantings at Dressel Farms in New Paltz, NY. Here is a video of Robinson explaining how to (dormant) prune this system for best results. Enjoy.

Observations from Belchertown

Some late-summer observations at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown:

• Flyspeck on Zestar! I expect summer diseases -- sooty blotch and flyspeck, fruit rots, etc. -- to be problematic this year with the wet weather we have had. Continuous fungicide coverage has been necessary to prevent these summer diseases.
• Frog-eye leafspot -- a classic symptom of black rot fungus, another disease that loves a wet summer. Mostly a non-issue unless it infects fruit as most season-long fungicide programs keep it at bay. Cultivar susceptibility seems to vary widely, this on Zestar! But Honeycrisp (see below) and Cortland seem to be particularly susceptible. (Among others I suppose.)
• Cherry leaf spot -- this one snuck up on me. Here, in a cherry orchard planted in 2001, I have not had much of a problem yet. But I suspect inoculum build-up and a wet summer have combined to cause a problem. Should I have maintained fungicide sprays after harvest? Of course. Did I? Noooo...not a good thing as it can lead to premature defolation which can pre-dispose trees to winter injury.
• Turkeys (feathered types) love Honeycrisp -- need I say more? But I am not happy, they have managed to pretty well destroy the fruit at (their) 'peck-level,' these on 3rd leaf Honeycrisp in a tall-spindle planting with relatively low branches. I figure each fruit is worth about a half-dollar at retail. That makes them a serious pest in my book, far worse than the fruit I have lost to plum curculio or apple maggot. Arghh...
• More black rot on Honeycrisp? -- I am wondering if this is black rot moving in where the infamous Honeycrisp 'Yellows' has presumably made the foliar tissue susceptible to infection? I don't know, but I don't like it. Honeycrisp does maintain 'mummies' which I think continue to Honeycrisp's susceptibility to black rot. (Also see my web gallery of Honeycrisp disorders.) Honeycrisp is the apple we 'love to hate.'
• On a brighter note -- I am a bit enamored by the appearance of these 'Snappy Mac' from Stark Brothers Nursery. Supposedly a limb sport of Rogers McIntosh from the lower Champlain Valley of New York, they color much earlier and better than Rogers. Who says we can't grow good colored Macs in Massachusetts?
• OBLR damage -- a little oblique-banded leafroller damage to Honeycrisp, this apple was a 'double,' which OBLR seem to prefer. An emerging insect pest. Many, and rather complicated, control options.
• Active scab in August? -- yup, more wet-weather woes. These trees did not have a real strong fungicide program. Fruit is not particularly susceptible when it starts to color, but I would still include Captan and/or Pristine in a summer fungicide program to slow or halt it's spread. (Three weeks of dry weather would help too.)

Are we having fun yet?

Two new Fruit Advisor web pages

I have finished two new UMass Fruit Advisor web pages recently:

2008 Peach Harvest Record, UMass Cold Spring Orchard. I maintain a nominal peach harvest and testing program, concentrating on newer varieties. A small sample of peaches (usually 5) is collected at what I think is optimum harvest time, and the Peach Harvest Record form filled out. More...

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for tree fruit growers: links to information. Consider these a short list of links to quality information on Good Agricultural Practices that might be of particular interest to tree fruit growers. There has been much abuzz about GAPS lately -- I hope some of these information sources help. More...