Farm Update

April is the hardest month

On Wednesdays I normally publish a short story, fiction or non, but I’ve been overwhelmed with outdoor work this last month and just haven’t had the stamina to finish several stories that I started. Bear with me, I’ll have more to publish shortly. In the meantime, here’s what’s happening on the farm.

The most important job this spring was to prepare the orchard for 80 new trees, all Kingston Black, to be shipped in first week of April from Washington, the Van Well nursery. When I first started the orchard 9 years ago, none of the large commercial orchard nurseries offered the types of trees that I wanted - the traditional trees with bittersweet apples for hard cider. I was forced to purchase trees from an outfit in upstate New York. They had the trees, but did not run a good business. As the only supplier on the scene, they also raised their prices 300% in one year. Not smart. Within a few years the large nurseries joined the ranks and now trees specific to hard cider are generally available, though it’s still hit or miss what they might offer any particular year. In the past four years I’ve found Dabinett, Chisel Jersey, Yarlington Mill and now Kingston Black from one nursery or another, adding about 300 new trees total to the orchard. But I turned 64 this year, so these 80 are the last trees I’ll plant. I swear!

Of course I said the same last year, and even sold the auger, the tool that, along with with my tractor, allowed me to drill a large hole in the ground, enough for the tree’s root ball. But I knew I had a number of open spots in the orchard, and a number of trees that had been so damaged by the deer that they never recovered, so when I saw that Van Well had Kingston Blacks for sale, well, I had no choice, as you must surely understand.

It takes 10 years to get a full crop from a tree, unless you plant high density, meaning an apple tree every 24 inches, supported by a trellis, and then push them really hard with pumped in fertilizer and water. High density orchards will see a good crop year 4 and a full crop year 6 at the latest. They plant dwarf trees, meaning the root stock is chosen to produce a small tree 8 feet tall or so, that cannot stand up on its own. I plant a semi dwarf tree that should grow 8 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. I fit 330 trees on an acre, while the high density orchardist fits 9 times as many, or 2970.

New Kingston Black planted

I digress. I have finally finished planting 80 trees. It only took 3 weeks! I had to remove the weed control, a high density ground cloth that acts as a substitute for herbicide, and then remove the dead or poorly performing trees, drill a hole - my neighbor Ed did this part - plant the trees and landscape, then add the mouse guards and the weed control cloth. I also finished some pruning and have already sprayed twice this spring.

We were very concerned that we might not have an apple crop this year. We are about two weeks ahead of average degree days this spring as we had a very mild winter. We then had the trees start to push buds early and, as we all foresaw, we had a night last week in the 20’s. Some places hit 26 F (-3 C). Here in Northport we saw 31 F (~0 C). Fortunately it seems like the buds came out alright on the apples. We won’t know for sure until later, but the worst of the temperatures are behind us now, we believe and pray.

When not in the orchard, on a rainy day for example, I finished frames for the beehives. The bees will be coming on Monday. I’ll try to take some video of the bees and post on Notes, here on Substack.

I also built seven raised beds for the garden. We needed a way to make gardening easier. So I bought some rough 5/4” thick pine from the local mill and with some 4”x4” posts cut to 20 inches, I built these beds. Then I filled the bottom 10” with logs, mostly from standing dead Northern Ash that I cut down, and the top 10 or so with top soil left from the house build and chicken guano. I’ll let you know how they turn out. I also used my propane torch to burn the inside of the box so that the wood does not absorb moisture. Hopefully this will keep the boxes rot free for the next ten years, at which time we’ll be buying vegetables year around!

Raised Bed, ready for planting

So that’s about it on the farm update. When I get my legs back underneath me there will be new stories on Wednesdays! Thanks for reading!

When in April Thomas hath his trees delivereth
He is in orchard not at laptop engageth
His big head with bees and boxes filleth
Until he lands on couch completely fatiguethed