May 19, 2025

Today in the orchard

Apple seedlings, May 19, 2025

Pruning, grafting, weeding, and harvesting in the orchard provides lots of time to think about life and to have good conversations with companions when we’re fortunate enough to have them with us. Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X. Although he died sixty years ago, he had many interesting things to say about life, much of it quite relevant today, and every day. 

 “There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed…” 

May 18, 2025

Today in the orchard

Bagged branches of Frostbite, May 18, 2025

Finally completed the topworking for the year. (Well, I might do a few more…). I also began a breeding project. I bagged branches of Frostbite with fine-netted, paint-straining bags. The bags will prevent the flowers from being pollinated by bees so that I can hand pollinate them with pollen from one of three selected cultivars - Gray Pearmain, Westfield-Seek-no-Further or--what else?--Black Oxford. If all goes well, the arranged sexual encounters will produce apple offspring with two known parents (Frostbite and one of the three pollen donors). I’ll save the seed from these crosses to plant next spring in hopes of “creating” new apple varieties for the future. This is what apple breeders do every year on a massive scale. Although I’ve grown many apples from seed over the years, I’ve typically only known the fruiting parent (the mom). Now I’ll know both. Stay-tuned.  

May 17, 2025

Today in the orchard

Two favorite crabapples, Red Jade (left) and Semi-weeping Red (right), May 17, 2025

Rainy and cool. Sunny and warm would be better for the apple pollination, but the cool temperatures mean less chance of the dreaded fire blight. I took the opportunity to go south for the day and attend the annual Wild Wine Fest at Wolf’s Neck Farm in Freeport. It’s down a long road that almost peters out completely before the picturesque farm and a lot of cars appear. The old barn was filled with wine makers and cider makers from near and far pouring tastes of their creations. A highlight was meeting Patrick Collins of Patois Cider in Charlottesville VA. His cider-making sounded right up my alley: very low intervention. And the cider was very good. It was a pleasure to see so many Maine cider-makers participating. But, what about the wine-makers? (I’ll try the wine some other time.)

Meanwhile on the farm the apple bloom is entering full swing. It is glorious this year, one of the best ever.

May 16, 2025

Today in the orchard

Skylar and I continued topworking trees around the farm. We’re just about done for the year. It was actually hot out. The blackflies and mosquitoes kept a respectful distance, and I only got one tick. Skylar is a fast learner and becoming a pro at topworking. That’s what the orchard is all about: passing the baton.

Passing the baton

In the evening Cammy and I went to a jazz concert in Orono. It was the vocal quartet “New York Voices” backed-up by the Portland Jazz Orchestra. The Collins Center for the Arts was packed with hundreds of wildly enthusiastic musicians under the age of 18 who were there for a vocal and instrumental music competition for high school students. They stood up, clapped, sang and danced to the jazz tunes that were mostly written long before they were born. After the concert we hung around the lobby like groupies for a few minutes. It was clear that the band members were delighted with the audience and their enthusiasm for music. One of the four singers said to me with a big smile, “we’re passing the baton!” 

May 15, 2025

Today in the orchard

Trailman (and a branch of Redfield), May 15, 2025

The heat has arrived at last, and the apples have rocketed into bloom. It is spectacular. Many of our younger trees are flowering for the first time. But this is just the beginning. Because of the diversity of apples, some of our trees have not leafed out while others are leafed and in full bloom. We may have apples in bloom for the next three weeks. What an amazing plant.  

The pears are ahead of the apples by a day or two.  Many of them are also in full bloom. Meanwhile, the plum bloom is pretty much done and petal-fall has begun. We haven’t seen such an explosion of plum blossoms in quite a few years. The intoxicating smell was enough to make us swoon.

In the evening Cammy and I sprayed “Surround” (clay powder) and Cueva (copper) on the plums, cherries, peaches and pears. .     

May 14, 2025

Today in the orchard

Tree Swallow in the high-rent district. (note very old apple tree background left)

I spent time repairing the sprayer early this morning and then sprayed a second tank of the Holistic Orchard Spray. Normally two of us do the spraying. One drives the tractor and the second person walks along behind and applies the spray with a gun at the end of a long hose. It’s a pretty good set up when the sprayer is working. I can drive the tractor and do the spraying at the same time, but that has its own challenges since in some areas of the farm the “rows” of trees are not really rows. Spraying alone is a bit reminiscent of texting while driving except that the only thing you might hit is your prize Black Oxford tree. 

The Tree Swallows have officially moved into their houses for the season. They are a regular fixture in the orchard. Give them the right terrain, the right size house with the right size entrance hole and they will give you hundreds of hours of entertainment. Plus, they are very good at insect reduction.

May 13, 2025

Today in the orchard

More topworking today - mostly onto seedings that have managed to appear in the tree rows up at Finley Lane. They seem to know that if they sprout in the rows there’s a decent chance they’ll be allowed to stay. They make good rootstock. It was Skylar’s first time topworking. We’ll let you know in a couple of weeks how she did.

Hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides) May 11, 2025

Later in the afternoon Laura and I sprayed our first ‘Holistic Spray’ of the year. The spray is designed to nourish the trees and boost their immune systems as they begin to grow in the spring. The theory is that these ‘health aids’ enable the trees to coexist with insects and disease. The spray includes liquid fish, liquid kelp, EM1(fermented microbes), Neem Oil, Karanja Oil, Molasses and Dipel. Spraying gives me another chance to get out into the orchard and listen to the trees as they begin to wake up after their long winter slumber.

The Maine blackflies have been here for a week or so. It’s been a robust season this year. They breed in running water, and there’s been plenty of that. So far I’ve resisted wearing a bug net. The Hobblebush is in bloom. We see it all over the farm.           

May 12, 2025

Today in the orchard

Plum bloom, May 12, 2025 

Early this morning we sprayed Surround and Cueva on the plums which are now approaching full bloom. They are spectacular this year, and there’s a potential for a large crop. We also sprayed the cherries and peaches. We spray Surround as a deterrent for the small weevil-type bug called Plum Curculio. Surround is a refined clay powder that doesn’t kill the Curculios, it just annoys them so they leave our farm and go to the neighbors. (Sorry guys.) Cueva is a liquid copper product we spray to prevent a fungus called Brown Rot (good name) that attacks the stone fruit. We spray just after sunrise when the wind and bees are still sleeping and we should be too. Later in the day we planted the rest of the newly grafted trees and did a lot of weeding. We ate the first Asparagus of the season for dinner. As we hit the second half of spring, everything seems to be happening all at once.   

May 11, 2025

Today in the orchard

Topworking seedlings with Rebecca, Finley Lane, May 11, 2025 

The bark is finally starting to slip in central Maine, so we have begun topworking in the orchard. It has been delayed this year by the cold weather. We did our first grafts today, although I could tell that it will be better in another day or two. A year ago we could easily slide in the scions on May 8. This year the best topworking should be on May 13 or 14, almost a full week later. The season is not long so it’s time get out your knife and scionwood and go for it. A few friends and neighbors came over for a lesson—it being Sunday—and we had a productive “class.” In our Finley Lane orchard we have hundreds of seedlings, and I set them loose to practice their knife-work on them. It’s nice to see sharp knives being put to good use. We will do the bulk of our topworking midweek.

Seth the neighborhood beekeeper stopped by to check his hives. The bees are doing well. They are already making honey, and we sampled a couple of finger-fulls.  It was delicious. He’ll be dividing hives in the next few days.     

May 10, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today we had one of those all-day soaking rains of over an inch - great for watering the thousands of young trees that have been transplanted throughout the state in recent days.  Thank you clouds!  As a result, there was definitely a lot happening in the orchard today though none of it had anything to do with us. It was mostly about happy roots. We just watched from the window as the world turned green. Although many of the trees are still looking rather barren, some—like the poplars—are almost entirely leafed out. Tomorrow sun is predicted, and topworking will begin.

John and Vernon LeCount with the first two shovelfuls at the site of the Maine Heritage Orchard, August 6, 2013

On Wednesday, May 21, from 5-7 PM there will be a celebration of the Maine Heritage Orchard in Unity. Both Cammy and I will be there, and we hope that you will as well. It’s free, but MOFGA wants you to register.  Here’s the link. Please join us if you can.

May 9, 2025

Today in the orchard

Lining out the newly grafted trees

Today was overcast and cool, perfect weather for transplanting young grafted trees into the nursery.  Skylar, Cammy and I planted about 220 of them 12” apart in three rows. We have one more row to plant, and they’ll all be in the ground. It’s a team effort: we dug a trench about a foot deep and a foot wide, then add compost and some balanced chicken-manure based fertilizer. Once the trench was prepped, Cammy planted, I came along behind her and dragged the soil back in around the trees and Skylar followed and smoothed out the soil, creating a small “dip” around each tree so the water will soak in rather than run off. 

May 8, 2025

Today in the orchard

Buckets of young grafted trees, May 8, 2025

No rain today, though they say it will return on Friday night and all day Saturday. Friday will be a perfect day to get things into the ground. Today I completed adjustments to the sprayer to level the tank and raise it a few inches to minimize the chance of it ‘bottoming out’ when we hit low spots. This should be a big improvement as we enter into the heart of spray season. 

We’ve been putting the newly grafted apple trees outdoors for the past couple days to harden off. They have been in buckets of damp sawdust—about 40 trees per bucket—in the living room and are now ready to go into a nursery bed. Tomorrow we’ll ‘line them out’ (plant them) about 12” apart in long rows where they’ll live for the next two years before being dug and transplanted to their final homes. This year’s trees include several special orders of rare cultivars as well as trials of apples that friends have bred over the past few years.  Some of these may be valuable to future generations. 

The plum flowers are opening now. They’ll be in full bloom within the next couple of days. 

May 7, 2025

Today in the orchard

Skylar and Taterhouse tree (look closely)

A few drops of rain today but mostly overcast and dry.  Cammy planted the onions into the main garden. Skylar explored the rootcellar for good storage apples. She’s learning to read my handwriting and weird abbreviations on the dozens of miscellaneous bags. In the afternoon we planted an apple tree out in the ‘BRC’ orchard that is referred to by some as ‘Jurassic Park’.  A certain amount of bushwhacking is required before doing any planting. We were able to bushwhack sufficiently to plant a small but well-rooted tree of Taterhouse.  Taterhouse is a seedling discovered by friends in Aroostook County. The fruit is large, oblate, purple-red in color and excellent fresh eating.  We almost lost it to fireblight a few years ago, but I was able to snag one puny piece of scionwood out of the remnants and graft a couple trees.  Now it will live on to see another day.

The birds are descending upon the farm in delightful diversity. We see new species everyday now.  Yesterday Redwing Blackbirds, a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and even a Bobolink.  Lots more native plants in bloom, and  more coming daily.       

May 6, 2025

Today in the orchard

The rain was back with a vengeance. It was a good day to sit at the desk and make spray plans for the coming weeks. We also spent a couple of hours sorting through apples in the rootcellar. It’s an annual May event that always yields a great deal of roughage for the compost pile along with a few interesting discoveries of cultivars that keep really well (or do not.) Some of the apples that have been down there for over six months are still usable. The Redfields are gone by; their annual limit is about April 15. The Ashmead’s Kernel are shriveled but haven’t rotted. The Ben Davis (of course) look perfect. The Northern Spys are about 50-50; they weren’t that good this year. The Rox and Box (Roxbury Russet and Black Oxford) as mentioned a few days ago, look great. In the next few days, I’ll report on the other superior keepers. 

Mettais, Palermo, May 6, 2025

One cultivar that kept beautifully is Mettais, a French bittersweet cider apple that I’ve been observing for the past couple of years. It has been producing really well for us. It ripens late making it perfect for those post-Cider Days November pressings. The flavor and texture are quintessential cider. Cammy described it as “pecan pie, butterscotch, very bitter, some slight astringency, some tartness though not sharp, more sweet than acid. Some cottony, some juiciness.”

We still have a few cider apple trees for sale. If interested, be in touch ASAP. 

May 5, 2025

Today in the orchard

It was a welcome change to have no rain for an entire day.  I’d forgotten what sun looked like, although there wasn’t much of that either. It was mostly cloudy. I dug what may be the last trees of the season.  Laura Sieger came over as I was finishing the digging, and we moved a lot more brush into piles to be chipped. Later we sprayed 200 gallons of “Kocide” copper fungicide throughout the orchards.  We hope it will help with fireblight on the apples and pears and brown rot on the plums and peaches. The sprayer behaved pretty well for the first three hours but then stopped working. It took about an hour of ‘studio time” to get it operating again, and we completed the spray as it was getting dark. 

Amelanchier, Palermo, May 5, 2025

Many more woody plants are now in bloom, including the Amelanchier (aka Juneberry, Serviceberry, Shadbush, etc.). I absolutely love the juxtaposition of the white flowers and the orange-tan foliage. It gives me shivers! The plums will be in bloom within the next few days. Some of the earliest apples are showing a little ‘pink,’ meaning bloom is not far away.     

May 4, 2025

Today in the orchard

The rain continued off and on all day. In between the drops I was able to get the sprayer working and gather more prunings for chipping. I also began to put together this year’s topworking plan. Every year we topwork (graft) multiple selections directly onto seedlings that sprout in the tree rows in the orchard or onto varieties deemed no longer necessary for us to be growing.  We’ll topwork about thirty varieties into the orchard this year.  

Black Oxford and Roxbury Russet, (BOX and ROX) May 4, 2025

I made apple sauce in the evening. I still make it a couple times a week and will do so right into June. Most of the varieties in the root cellar are now gone-by, but two of our favorites are still in great shape - Black Oxford and Roxbury Russet. Both are still firm and tasty and cook up magnificently into sauce. If you’re looking for the best winter keepers, you won’t go wrong with either of them.  

May 3, 2025

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.

May 2, 2025

Today in the orchard

The Drap d’Or de Bretagne tree and Todd Little-Siebold on Verona Island, February 2024.

More tree planting today. This time in our neighbor’s orchard that dates from about 1900. Most of the original trees planted by his grandparents are gone, but over the years I’ve supplied him with young trees to fill in the gaps.  There are now a number of important local historic cultivars in amongst the Baldwins and Ben Davis. All the cultivars we’ve planted date from before 1900. The most noteworthy tree in this year’s planting would be the Drap d’Or de Bretagne. It’s been gaining a lot of attention lately and rightfully so. It was a great discovery that has helped fill in another piece of the puzzle of how the apple found its way to North America.  Kudos to everyone involved. 

During the middle of the day I attended an apple meeting via zoom, and Skylar continued her work on creating “passports” for all the trees in the Maine Heritage Orchard (MHO). The most important task at MHO is maintaining the trees, since they are an irreplaceable living history library. But documentation of the collection comes in a close second for importance. Keeping accurate records of each tree’s origin, DNA profile results, fruit description and observations requires a lot of time. Having the information in our heads (as we do) is not very communicable. Writing it down is time consuming but critical. We call this the tree’s “Passport.” Each tree in the MHO will have one. Fortunately we have Skylar to help us this spring.      

May Day, 2025

Today in the orchard

Planters of the world, unite!

We did plant the trees

Many hands did make light work

Someday we’ll all pick

April 30, 2025

Today in the orchard

Today was cool and very windy. Skylar and I planted more trees in the Finley Lane orchard. Laura Sieger joined us for part of the day, and the three of us hooked up the sprayer which is always a challenge. Following Tree-Digging Season comes Spray Season.

We planted four trees today: 

• Avon Calling: Laura and I discovered it by the roadside in Avon, ME, just north of Farmington in 2016. It’s small-medium (5-6.5cm), yellow, cottony, bitter, astringent, sharp and has potential for cider. We have an older tree that is already bearing in the orchard. We like it.

• Dandeneau seedling: This was selected by Skylar from one of our older seedling beds. It hasn’t fruited yet so who knows??. Dandeneau (the mother) is a favorite selection of Steve Gougeon. No name yet. (Danny Boy?)

• Blue Wolf red-leafed seedling: Another seedling from the same nursery bed. The mother is the Rocky Ground selection, Blue Wolf. The other parent is one of our red-leafed apples though we don’t know which one. No name for this one yet either (Dyer Wolf?)

• Suite Eleven: I first saw the beautiful, dark purple-black fruit at the 2014 Great Maine Apple Day. When I visited the tall, skinny tree growing between buildings in the back streets of Portland, ME, I parked illegally nearby in the parking spot for “Suite 11.” Hence the name. A sweet eleven years later we’re finally planting a tree of our own.