Renovating an Older Apple Tree
There are many century old apple orchards scattered around Puget Sound. The San Juan Islands had over 10,000 acres in tree fruits in 1900. Whatcom County had somewhere around 5000 acres that were apples, some pie cherries and plums. There were two packing plants, the Kale cannery in Everson and The Deming Delight Cannery that […]
The Best Time To Plant
I wanted to expand on my last post about summer planting. A more general question we get in the nursery at Cloud Mountain is “when is the best time to plant?” In our maritime climate, you can plant almost any time of year. But as I discussed in the last post, summer planting means more […]
Multi-variety fruit trees and other musings
It sounds great, doesn’t it? 4 or 5 varieties of apple, all on one tree! Both pie and sweet cherries on one tree! How about plums and peaches together-an on-the-tree fruit cocktail! No worries about pollination, long fruiting season….why doesn’t Cloud Mountain carry trees like these? It’s a question we get asked every year. But […]
Pear Trees Problems
We’re hearing that many people are seeing problems on their pear trees this year. One pest that seems to be showing up is pear blister mite. This little mite overwinters in the bud scales on the trees, waking up as the trees break dormancy, then feeding on the leaves during the growing season. Because the […]
Scouting for Pest Problems
Scouting One of the most important tools a gardener or orchardist has are his or her eyes. Scouting is the act of observation, with the intent of recognizing disease or pest hazards before they become critical. The idea is to act before too much damage is done. This is an important skill to develop. Aphids […]
Upright Fruiting Offshoot (UFO) Sweet Cherry Training
Many visitors to Cloud Mountain are intrigued by our ‘cherry tunnel’. This upright fruiting system (UFO) is an unusual way of growing sweet cherries. It was initially developed for commercial growers, but can be adapted to home gardens and market farms as well. The Upright Fruiting Offshoots (UFO) system for sweet cherries was developed to: […]