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Fluffy’s update…backyard growers report IL...far west burbs of Chicago

Apples:

For the first time Dayton has disappointed.  They started dropping early this 
year and were mealy, nice taste but the structure was broken down and lots of 
watercore.

Liberty is absolutely bizarre this year.  Normally this ripens Oct 1st, this 
year it started dropping apples and ripening August first, some spot on 
delicious, others tart and starchy.  I took to dehydrating the obvious tart 
ones, and they make  a good dried product for snacking, and then eating the 
ones that look good, if the taste is not yet developed they get dehydrated.

Honeycrisp entire crop wiped out trees and all…and ditto that for just about 
everything else  : (  Savage neighbors dog (pitbull) came into the area and 
decided to chew through just about every last tree (they were M27s and about 
6 feet high).  It was unbelievable. I lost 40 trees and have 4 left – sigh.  
So if anyone wants to donate scion wood next spring left me know as I hope to 
cleft graft the stumps and hope they have enough energy to push out the 
scions…this is just sickening.  He also chewed away the pear benchgrafts I 
planted out.

By the way, this M27 bearing in 2-3 years seems like nonsense to me. Most of 
mine took 6-7 years to fruit.   Northern Spy took 11.  

The survivors are Golden Russet, Razor Russet, Tompkins King County and maybe 
Ashmead’s Kernel though it lteh later two look pretty chewed up and no apples 
left.

Pears:

I had a small yield of Harvest Queen starting 3rd week of July and it was 
outstanding, I have one left.   These tree ripened and were exquisite.  
Harrow Sweet is developing nicely, as is Potomac and Warren, I never got 
Potomac thinned and it suffered from it.  My Asians most got taken out by 
fireblight, except Chojuro which has one or two small fruits.     Magness got 
taken out by fireblight this year (3rd time that has happened).  By the way, 
for those who think Warren is Magness, all I can say is, side by side on 3 
occasions Magness has been taken out by fireblight and Warren was not even 
effected.  Other than that though I cannot tell them apart ( but since I am a 
home grower that is a very insignificant sample).    Seckle produced its 
little heart out, even with a huge amount of squirrel predation.  

Raspberries:

I bought Taylor again after letting my land go fallow fro 7 years, and 
replanted Taylor and it is struggling to take hold. My stock was from Nourse 
and at first I wondered if the variety was right as it fruited at the wrong 
time etc  but this year it was spot on.  They are not spreading much though 
and I seem to have lost some.  The soil is rich etc, but the drought last 
year and the dry spell this year did not do them any favors. But the taste, 
of yes the taste, that is what you grow them for and they excel in this 
regard.

Heritage is looking good for the fall.  It survived a heavy attack by 
Japanese beetles. 

Grapes:

Well we got a handful.  The squirrels, coons, possums, neighbor hood dogs, 
birds took them again.  The dogs and coons make short work of any netting and 
it is just sad.  Reliance, Interlakenseedless, Candice.

Blackberries:

Triple Crown.  In all the years we have had this we never managed to get more 
than a handful of this prolific, giant plant.  If not for animals then they 
got froze out, etc, etc and the little woman kept wanting me to pull them and 
plant something practical.   This year however – good grief what a crop.   
Easily 30 pints off of a 10 foot row.

Peaches:

Modest crop of Belle of Georgia this year due to pruning.  A few days from 
ripening.  I ate a couple of animal cropped ones and even unripe and hard 
they are sweet.  This is an awesome peach. 

Plums:

All that is left (animals had there way with the actual trees, rabbits barked 
all but one) is French Prune.  It is okay for what it is, but I would never 
grow it again unless I had better conditions.  I would much rather spend my 
time spraying and thinning Japanese plums that size up and are designed to 
beaten out of hand when tree ripe.  In the past I have grown Ozark Premier 
and the AU series with terrific results.  Animals and age took them out. 

Sour cherries:

North Star continues to impress me.  Delicious easy to grow, one spray if 
that is all they need around here to take care of PC.  

Sweet cherries:

I have Lapins and every year brown rot gets them.  The tree has a very big 
diameter trunk I prune to keep it at 18ftbut it is a struggle.  If it was 
smaller (diameter size) I would cut it down, but it is too large for me to 
handle.
 

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