Ripe Kiwi berries!!
This week we’re harvesting a variety of late season fruit! Apples, pears, quince and kiwi berries are still keeping us plenty busy with harvest. We’ll also be picking our latest ripening grape variety, Neptune, this week. Harvesting and packing fruit still dominates most of the schedule. We’ll be squeezing in some postharvest micronutrient sprays and planning for a variety of field tasks to come in a few weeks once harvest begins to wind down.
Fruit/Bud/Tree Development
- We’re beginning to see leaf drop on early fruit varieties signaling the dormat season is coming. This marks the start of dormant season management considerations such as postharvest foliar feeding (to bank nutrients for next year), mowing of dropped leaves to reduce disease innoculum, and dormant season fungal sprays to protect our trees during cold wet weather.
- Quince ripening has begun marked by the distinct aroma that fills the air around the quince trees in the orchard.
Pest & Disease
- We’ve made it a high priority this year to remove apple drops from the orchard floor on a weekly basis. Prompt attention to this task helps to ensure codling moth and apple maggot larva in dropped fruit do not persist in the orchard ecosystem. All of our dropped fruit gets fed to our neighbor’s pigs.
- Fall winds have a small but non-zero impact on fruit losses as they can sometimes cause nearly ripe fruit to fall from the tree before we get a chance to pick.
What’s Ripe?*
- This week we’re harvesting: Jonagold, Karmijn, Assorted Cider Apples, Crimson Topaz, Ashmead’s Kernel Apples, Kiwi Berry, Bosc, Chojuro, David, Armida and Packham’s Triumph Pears, Quince, Neptune Grapes
Quince nearly ready for harvest
Scenic morning views on the farm
Lynden Blue Grapes losing their leaves
Grimes Golden Apples ready for harvest
