North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Freeman" <jf@gctruck.com>]

Hello Fellow Nafexers,

Like most others, we had a wet & warm spring in North Georgia. Most
trees flowered for about half their normal time, but we still had good
pollination. We have had excellent crops of tasty blueberries from our
three year old Jubilee, Misty & Premier plants. So far we have an
average yield of 2 gallons per plant. Our other blueberries have similar
crops but are not ripe yet.

All of our apples set good crops this year. We have thinned the fourth
leaf M111s and our third leaf M7s to about 50 apples per tree. We ate
our first ripe Pristine on June 29th and expect the Gingergolds to be
ready soon. It looks like we will have good crops of those varieties
plus Redfree, Crimson Gala, Gale Gala, Auvil Early Fuji, Crimson Crisp,
Sweet 16, Liberty, Gibson Golden, Crown Empire, Freedom, Hampshire Mac,
Cameo, Rome Beauty, Mutsu, Enterprise, Autumn Rose Fuji & Goldrush this
year. Our other trees are still too young to bear much. Pristine is such
a beautiful, crisp & tasty apple; I would encourage anyone to grow it.
The only issue we have experienced with them is a susceptibility to
fireblight (particularly bad this year) that can be overcome by frequent
scouting and removal of infected wood.

All of our peach & nectarine trees set far too much fruit and have been
a constant source of thinning work. We will have good crops of Bounty,
Challenger, Sunglo, White River & White County this year. An extension
agent advised a heavier dose of "stick thinning" for next year;
something like "spare the rod and spoil the fruit size". Once the big
trees leaf-out, it is near impossible to do a thorough thinning. I also
accidentally killed one by spraying Round-Up too close. I was
subsequently told to never use Round-up near peaches, as the bark will
absorb it. Live and learn...

This is the first year our four year old plums have produced. We have
good numbers of Stanley & Ruby Queen, which are not quite ready. We also
had a few Sweet Ruby, which ripened starting June 15th. They were mostly
2" fruit with a fantastic sweet flavor; just avoid their sour skin.

Our pear trees of the same age have been much slower to produce. Only
Orient has produced any volume of fruit. Our Maxines & Moonglows have
produced a couple of pears, but we have seen nothing out of the Warrens.
We have spread the limbs and are doing a good job growing big pear trees
that have no fruit. I would appreciate any ideas to help produce fruit
next year.

We planted a lot of new varieties in our test block this year and look
forward seeing how they perform in our hot & humid environment. Feel
free to call me for a visit if you are in our area on a Saturday.

Best Regards,
Jim Freeman
Freedom Farms
Zone 7 near Chatsworth in North Georgia
Cell (404) 428-6541
www.freedomfruit.net


-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jackie
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:06 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Pomona time!

I'll be putting together the next Pomona shortly; all of NAFEX is eager
to hear about your experiences in fruit growing. Please write it down,
no matter how briefly, and send it to Gretchen Ring,
ring.gretchen@yahoo.com .

Thanks so much.

Jackie