European Pear Harvesting
We’ve posted before about timing harvest of pears and apples, how to tell when they are ripe, when to pick, and how to store. As summer ends and fall begins, we are ramping up the harvest of pears and apples at Cloud Mountain. Every year, we are asked how to tell if pears are ready […]
How We Graft Japanese Maples
In our last blog post, we talked about Japanese maple propagation in general and why we graft, and today we will lay out the steps that we use in our grafting program. With a few basic tools, a little bit of plant material, and a good bit of patience, you can build a Japanese maple […]
Grafting Japanese Maples
Summer heat is upon us and while many gardeners in Western Washington are simply trying to keep things alive during these hot dry months, we are in the heart of our propagation season. Mid July is when the new wood of the Japanese maples begins to harden off, and that’s when the grafting begins. We […]
Thinning Season
We’ve posted on this topic before, but it is worth saying again how important it is to thin the fruit on your fruit trees. Typically, most trees set much more fruit each spring than they have the energy to ripen. By thinning the fruit while it is small, you direct the tree’s energy into the […]
Summer Cover Crops
Most folks know that winter cover crops like rye and vetch can be a huge benefit to their soils. Winter cover crops benefit their crops by providing soil cover to prevent erosion, keep valuable nutrients cycling through the microbiome below the soil surface, suppress weeds, fix nitrogen for spring plantings, and provide a break in […]
Results of a Cold, Wet Spring
Many fruit trees are starting to show the signs of a cold, wet spring. Our first indication of the weather showed up on peach trees, in the form of peach leaf curl. Established trees of leaf curl resistant varieties like Frost, Avalon Pride, and Betty showed much more leaf curl than normal this spring. Non-resistant […]