Today in the orchard
Today Alyssa, Skylar and I spent the day inventorying the fruit in the Finley Lane orchard. If you’re going to recommend that others grow (or not grow!) particular cultivars, you have to take the time to get out in the orchard to observe and to write down those observations. We usegood, old-fashioned paper, pencil and clipboard. We looked at about 250 trees today of about 230 cultivars. One pleasant surprise was the Blanc Mollet tree. (USDA PI 162719). The young tree is loaded with fruit. It has more than a bushel on it and it’s not that old. It may be a cultivar to consider for more planting. While we looked for fruit, we also checked every tree for insect damage, general health and for two tags: one with a name on it and another with a number. If you’re going to keep track of the trees and the fruit, you need good tags! We prefer pencil on vinyl-siding wired onto a conveniently visible and accessible branch.
