Mini Orchard

We have a few fruit trees.  They were planted at different times so they are various sizes.  The oldest is 8 years.  The newest was probably planted about 4 years ago.

Every year there has been one problem or another.  The peaches developed peach leaf curl, so now I spray for that every winter.

The dead wilted leaves are the result of the fire blight.

The apple trees developed fire blight.  I have been fighting that for years. You can only treat fire blight two ways.  One is by cutting off the affected limbs.  Other than that, you must spray every three days after you see the buds and until they flower out.  I did this AGAIN this year.  It is better, but every week or so another branch starts wilting.

  

One year we had quite a few peaches on a young tree.  There was just enough to make a pie. The next morning when I went out to pick them,  the entire tree was stripped of peaches and there were a lot of peach pits under it.  We had a small wire fence around the tree and some small animal had bent up the bottom and had a feast.  The last few years we have had a problem with a late freeze after the peaches have bloomed.  This kills the blossoms and means no fruit for the year.

  

The late freeze this year destroyed the apricot blossoms.  One of the peach trees is a late bloomer, so it has lots of peaches.


  


I may actually get some fruit this year!  I will have to fight off the deer and other fruit lovers, but that is RJ's job.

  

The early blooming peach has a few peaches on it, but they look damaged and spotty.  If you are a peach tree expert, send help!  I am supposing the frost damaged the blossoms a bit, but not enough to totally destroy it.  They may be edible.  I'll find out in a few weeks

If you are an expert, I know I have put off trimming the trees. I plan to catch up this winter.

  

I have a few plums on the young plum tree.  That looks promising!

The Granny Smith tree with the worst of the fire blight has a few apples, but we have two of them and the healthier Granny has quite a few apples!

  

When my sister died I was devastated.  My friends at the Fincastle library got together and bought me a pear tree.  It now has a few pears for the first time.  I will think of her every time I eat one.