Today in the orchard
I finally received the parts to repair the sprayer, but with the rain yesterday, today and predicted for tomorrow, I won’t be spraying until at least Monday. Not that I love spraying, but it’s spray-season now. Instead I planted a ‘Zachary’ apple tree up the road at a neighbor’s. It’s a big tree that needed to find a home. Zachary may not be the correct name, but for now it’s the best I’ve been able to do. The dark red, all-purpose, winter apple has become a favorite of mine and one that I’ve written about on several occasions. We’ve found it in multiple locations in central ME, mostly in Belgrade and surrounding towns. I also planted two ‘Alpha’ (aka Alfa?) grapes along the grape arbor. I was given the cuttings by Scott Skogerboe of CO a year ago. The cultivar was, as I recall, selected by Louis Suelter in MN in about 1870. I don’t know much about Alpha except that it is related to the better-known, hardy selection, Beta. Alpha is all but extinct. I was able to root several plants from the cuttings and will spread it around so it will not be lost. Anyone interested in planting it out, let us know.
When the planting was done, I continued to gather apple prunings into massive piles in preparation for chipping later this month. We’ll have a lot of chips to spread around the farm this spring. I burned the remnants of last January’s Wassail fire and cleaned up the Wassail area. The rain kept the fire contained and kept me hydrated from head to toe.
Another sign of spring - the dandelions are starting to bloom.
