Thursday, March 22, 2012

Hey bud, nice seein' ya

One of the most anticipated sights of spring are buds on the apple trees.  We have two apple trees--a Zestar and a Honeycrisp.  The Zestar is the earlier of the two to flower and fruit set, and apparently to putting out leaves as well.  These trees are only a few years old and haven't borne a crop yet (we did get one small apple from the Honeycrisp in its first year). One of the years we received a late frost during flowering, and with the early start this year, that scenario is possible again this spring.  I am working on my strategy for protecting these dwarf trees in the even that a freeze is predicted during a critical stage.

4 comments:

  1. You must spend ages on your post titles because they're SO COOL!

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  2. Don't forget to mention the Year of the Deer. I think we might have had some apples last year had they not had a nibble fest on the tree in early spring.

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    1. Ah yes. What a contrast between this year and last. Last year we had deep snow all winter, which (I believe) made foraging harder for the deer, who came into our yard in March for a tasty snack of apple buds. So between frost and deer and immature trees, we are still waiting for our first apple crop.

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