pear – Peacock Orchard

Varieties in the Orchard

I thought some might be interested in what varieties we currently have growing and my opinions of some of them. It is a long list. I’m somewhat eclectic. I do enjoy buying everything and seeing what flourishes. So prepare yourself some coffee as this is going to be a long one.

Apple Trees

Stark® Lodi Apple Stark®– This apple has done the best by far in the orchard. It is our oldest apple variety and the tree is beautiful all around.
Starkspur® UltraMac™ Apple
Honeycrisp™ Apple
WineCrisp™ Apple Co-op 31
McIntosh Apple
Pound Sweet Apple– Alive and well in a Krater. I am excited to see this fruit!
Stark® Golden Delicious Apple– I have quite a few of these (they had a good sale) and they are hit and miss. Some are doing quite well but others are not. They also haven’t branched out at all. They are still stick looking with leaves. It’s a little odd.
Macoun Apple
Freedom Apple
Snow Apple
Hidden Rose– I was over the moon to be getting this variety but sadly neither apple survived. I bought them as whip grafts and I had some issues with both planting and protecting them. The rabbits got to a lot of my whip grafts. I hope to try this variety again.
Dabinette– Cider apple
Jonathon
Fuji
Dr. Matthews
Grimes Golden– I had a few of these and have one survivor. They were also whip grafts. They are said to be top of the bushel as far as taste and cider making ability. We shall see on that. It is still only a few feet tall.
Melrose
Caville Blanc D’Hiver– I keep trying to acquire this variety but it has been a difficult one. I finally bought a single whip graft which sadly did not survive.
Kingston Black– Cider apple
Sops of Wine
Golden Russet– Cider apple
Northern Spy

Cherry Trees

Blackgold® Sweet Cherry– This cherry is proving to be an easy keeper. Both trees survived and have flowered in their second year.
Hansen’s Bush Cherry
Stark® Montmorency Pie Cherry– These trees keep dying on me. I’m not sure why, but they do.
Stella– Bought a single tree from a home improvement store. This is our first year with it but so far it has survived Wyoming winds.

Peach Trees

Contender Peach– Has survived another winter. I thought keeping these peach trees alive would be an issue but they are hardier than I had expected.
Intrepid Peach
Reliance Peach>Both of these peach varieties were dead upon planting last year. One has come up from the rootstock but that is it. They were replaced and we shall see how they do this year.

Pear Trees

Starking® Delicious™ Pear– I am not sure I will plant any more pears. Not a single one survives the winter. I’ll stop thinking about poached pears and move on to something that can handle our conditions.
Starking® Hardy Giant™ Asian Pear
Colette Everbearing Pear
Forelle- I’ve grown this tree and the following trees from seed. They are tiny but doing well so far. Time will tell.
Colette
Seckel

Plum Trees

Bubblegum Plum®
Superior Plum– I bought two of these plums my first year from Stark Bros. They are both still alive, some of the only survivors on the berms (Which I have decided are not a good place for planting in dry Wyoming). They both flowered profusely this year, though very early. I believe that is also due to being on the berms. We had many snows during their bloom and I doubt we get anything from them.
Starking® Delicious™ Plum
Ozark Premier Plum
Methley Plum
Shiro Plum– We have quite a few of these and they are all doing well. This is their second year. Their branching out is much slower than the Superior Plum but they are sturdy and growing so what else can a girl ask for.
Oullins Plum– We bought 4 of these trees this spring. I expected them to be whip grafts. I was quite surprised when they came in the mail and were a good 4 feet tall. The root mass on them was also impressive. I have never received trees in quite this condition before. One Green World is where I got the Oullins, Nichols and Italian plums. I’ll be purchasing from them again. The price is a bit larger than Stark’s but they carry different varieties. They are a few dollars cheaper than South Meadow Fruit Gardens but South Meadow simply delivers whip grafts. So, for the price these trees can not be beat.
Nichols Plum
Italian plum

Other Fruit Trees

Mango Paw Paw– Had a tough time of it last year. I had a single survivor which daughter quickly broke in half right after I took the picture and rejoiced after it. I suppose the lesson here is that two year olds should not be released upon unsuspecting trees.
Briana Apricot– These things were teeny tiny when I bought them. Scarcely a few inches tall. Not much has changed BUT they are still alive, so success.
Cathay Quince– I just bought one of these, not figuring I’d require much more than that. It’s alive and well in the Krater farthest from the house. That krater gets the least amount of water so I’d say these trees must be quite hardy.
American Persimmon– These were also tiny trees upon purchase. I have no idea if they’ve survived their first winter yet. I will say they must taste awful as the rabbits didn’t eat them.
Osage Orange- Planted in a dry, desolate part of the property they have thrived in total neglect. They were small trees though, and some of them snapped under the weight of our last heavy snow fall.

Nut Trees

Black Walnut– A few survivors the first winter only to be completely consumed by ground animals.
Hazelnut– Rabbits love them.
White Oak– They don’t like getting hit by trucks.
Timbur Chestnut– Also tasty to rabbits.
Michigan Pecan– Perhaps the tastiest.
Russian Almond– Eaten but coming up from the root. A nut that is hard to crack (making a joke).

Berry Plants

Autumn Magic Aronia Berry– Both aronias survived but only as they are coming up from the root now.
Viking Aronia Berry
Illini Hardy Blackberry– By far the best berry I have as far as survivability. Takes an eating and keeps on kicking.
American Cranberry– I fell in love with these at first sight. So dainty. So unexpected. So dead. Dang it!
Black Consort Currants– I have three. Two survived. One could even be said to have flourished.
Adams Elderberry– A single survivor and only then as it came up from the root.
Johns Elderberry
Vermilion Sunset™ Goji– So easy to grow. I didn’t expect that and only bought one. It was eaten to the ground but is coming back just fine.
Borealis Honeyberry– Honeyberries are supposed to be native to my area. If they are they just hate me.
Cinderella Honeyberry
Issai Hardy Kiwi– Not sure I’ll bother trying these stupid vines again.
Fall Red Everbearing Raspberry– Yet another berry that should be native but won’t grow.
Latham Red Raspberry
Leikora Seaberry– Doing great in a moderate krater though it’s pollinating buddy bit the big one.
Seaberry Pollinator
Red Mulberry– Unknown. Not sure if any survived yet. Probably not but I like to give them a try.
Apple Rose

Nitrogen Fixing– Nothing more be said about these I think.

Black Locust
Caragana

Dealing with rabbit problems in the orchard

We have a lot of obstacles to growing here in Wyoming. We’re high. We’re dry. We have insane winds. We have extreme fluctuating temperatures. We’ve got a short growing season.

Hmm. Why do we live here again? I’ll get back to you on that.

A lot of these things we just have to deal with. Rabbits, however, can be….dealt with. Ok, mostly I just complain about them, loud and often. I’m not a particularly good shot. Mostly I just don’t care to learn. Husband is a great shot though. Encouraging him to get out there and do some mafioso style hits is the problem. The rabbits don’t bother him like they do me. Probably because the growing stuff thing is all me.

We had a dog who was great at hunting rabbits once. Now he’s dead and our other dogs couldn’t catch a rabbit if we held it in front of their faces.

They're so cute though! — They’re so cute though!

I know how a lot of permies deal with the rabbit scourge. I tried Sepp Holzer’s bone sauce last year. The rabbits appear to like it quite a bit. Utter failure. I do put tree guards on all of my trees that are large enough to support them, and some that probably aren’t. The rabbits appear to like their food wrapped. Leaving low hanging branches for them to nibble is a great idea. My trees aren’t exactly large enough to do that. Every branch is a low hanging branch at the moment. I encourage predators. Unfortunately the dogs don’t. In fact they do a great job of repelling predators. It’s like a bunny sanctuary at our house.

I suppose beyond wholesale slaughter of Satan’s furred minions I have no idea what to do about this rabbit problem. I guess I’ll try to look at the bright side and think fertilizer. Bunny poop fertilizer. That’s something I’m not lacking.

The above pictures are all of the same tree. Please explain to me how the rabbits did that.

Just a fun pic. It’s SOOOO hard to get good pics of things when the instant I focus in on something my “help” jumps in the way.

How to grow pear trees from seed

Last winter I had a good attempt at growing apple trees from seed. I actually did a pretty good job until summer, when I no longer watered my tree seedlings and they all died. This time around I will have more time and hopefully will not repeat my mistakes.

I’ve found the hardest part is finding pear seeds at all. Most of the store bought pears I’ve gathered have 0-1 seeds in them. I was lucky, though, and found organic pears from Colorado at our local King Soopers. Naturally, I bought two of each variety. They had a lot of seeds in them so I’m hopeful of success.

So, just like apples I cut the pears up, divided out the flesh to the kids and collected the seeds. I cleaned them and placed them on a clean paper towel in a plastic cup. Then I add a small amount of water to the paper towel, put the cups in a plastic bag and wait. I find times vary by seed, though 2 months is pretty standard. I check weekly to removne any molding seeds and plant out germinated ones. Once you see a nice root growing you simply plant out to compost filled plastic cups, water and voila, easy peasy.

Mini Krater Construction and Planting

Thanks to my bush experiment last year I decided Kraters were the way to go. Lots and lots of Kraters. So the first thing I did was make sure I was legally allowed to dig them. I am, so long as they remain under a certain size.

So the work began. We dug the initial holes with the front bucket loader.

texting and driving — Don’t text and drive. Unless you’re in the middle of a field on an excavator that has a top speed of .95 mph

Look ma, no hands!

Then I went in with our new excavator and did some ground softening/terracing work.

Of course, life is not complete without back breaking physical labor. So I went to work with the hoe refining my terraces. Then I had to add the topsoil back into the holes and hoe the terraces again.

It’s kind of hard to tell. The one krater has a rather unique design though. You see, I originally thought I’d be able to deepend the Kraters a bit. However, the kraters were pre-dug 20′ in diameter. The excavator has a 7′ reach. I wasn’t able to get to the middle, no matter how I tried. So I didn’t try to deepen any other kraters but the one ended up with an island in the middle. I find it a perfect place to plant a paw paw.

After I put the topsoil back on I cover cropped the works.

Husband and I took a day off to plant them out.

We had just a little big to plant…………………………..

The aronia berries are holding up to our hot weather nicely. The cover crop seeds are also coming up!

Finito.

I’ll update pictures when we have notable growth. It’s exciting!

Growing Fruit Trees From Seed

Life is tough in my household. You can’t eat anything without my demands following you. Such is the life for kids who like apples. I love buying them apples but they had best not throw that apple core away. I require the seeds from it first! Plus, the chickens like the cores so they’d best not throw them away regardless.

Apple seeds need stratified before they will germinate. I cold stratify my seeds in the refrigerator until they have just barely sprouted. Ok, not completely true. I once forgot I had seeds in there and they were leafed out before I planted them. They did not make it. Best to get them when they have just barely started.

A forgotten apple seed, leafed out in fridge and finally planted.

Whoo that picture is bad. I need a better camera. Anyway, you can barely see the leaves there. I believe these were fuji apple seeds and my very first stratification attempt. I remember they exist a lot better now!

So what I do is easy. I take out the seeds, put them on a wet paper towel and then put them into a cup that I have labeled with the name of the apple I took them from. I have all the cups stacked and put in a ziploc baggie. This is all kept in the veggie drawer of my refrigerator. Every once in awhile I take them out and check to see if any have sprouted.

If not, I put them back in the fridge. If they have I plant them in a plastic cup.

I planted 8 germinated apple seeds a week ago and today they look like this:

Growing quite well!

Now I am also trying to grow rootstock from crab apples I found on a tree in town. The same basic process as regular apples except harvesting these seeds requires more work.

So far none of them have germinated. They had been dried up hanging on the tree for most of the winter so we shall see what happens.

I also collected various locust seed pods on my daily walks with my parents. We all take our lunch break and walk. They have become quite used to my odd veering off and shoving of various debri into my coat pockets.

To germinate the locust seeds I simply put them in a small “greenhouse” like container with a bit of soil.

I have germinated many, many seeds this way. It also works. This container has seen many gardens!

The locust seeds did not need to be cold stratified and germinated in just a few days. I have 2 surviving seedlings that are growing quite happily in a windowsill right now.

I believe I only have a few survivors as the seeds had also been collected from the ground in the middle of winter. I did not pre-think most of these projects.