May 2015

Saturday May 23 Slowly slipping into winter. Have had the first few frosts of the season, have had good rainfall over the autumn period. A beautiful autumn display on this weeping cherry.



 

 



Orange Arctotis This plant has been flowering since spring, tough as nails.

 



 

Rosie Rainier on colt rootstock.

 

 

 

Saw the first few of this  cherry variety last season, we let customers sample them for free, which they loved. Had good size with a lovely blush, sweet Rainier flavour, have not handled them through any wet weather yet to judge what they are like for splitting. I certainly enjoyed eating them.

 



 



 

Royal Lynn above, Royal Hazel below. Certainly are a vigorous grower with a good healthy leaf, flower early, (Empress flowering period) which could be problematic in a frosty spring. Picked a small amount of both around Merchant time. Both look like a good cherry. Also have some Royal Dawn planted and have ordered some Royal Tiago when they become available.



 

 

 



Santina above and below, these have been impressive for us in our district. They like to crop from an early age and have good size, a good eating cherry.

Photo below shows good fruiting buds on these Santina.

 

 



On our orchard we use a single 8ltr an hour dripper on young trees until reaching production where 2 8ltr drippers are used in shifts no longer than 2 hours. In our soil type any longer wastes water outside the root zone. Every district is different and every orchardist has different ideas, this works for us here through hot summers with limited water supplies.



 

It is hard to believe where the years go sometimes and the hard lessons the orchard can teach you as you strive to grow a quality product no matter what the weather throws at you. For those in the northern hemisphere harvesting cherries I hope it is a good harvest, my wife told me that she saw some cherries from the USA in the supermarket looking good  at $25kg.

Best wishes to all.