Its mid September and fruit is starting to ripen. Red Delicious are getting larger and quite red, although many apples seem to have a bit of pest damage or small darkened spots. It is actually difficult to find one that looks good. In the next tree on the same row, the Old Fashioned Limbertwig are […]
One question that always comes up this time of year is how do I know when my fruit is ripe It’s a question that new growers and seasoned orchardists both struggle with. I know that this time of year, I routinely refer to published dates to try and get ready for harvest. Fortunately there […]
Pruning demonstration I wanted to explore some future plans for the orchard. One of the events I would like to participate in is a pruning demonstration. This would be around February, and could include anyone in the community who would have an interest in attending. There are a lot of experienced orchardists in our […]
Summer arrives with a great deal of excitement. The development of this website and the first walk-through of the orchard prove to be two important firsts. Our July orchard walk-through July proved to be an exciting time for the Wilbourn House Orchard. Our very first community walk-through saw around 15 visitors. I walked through the […]
We had our second walk-through on Saturday, August 12. Most of the visitors were in the Master Gardener program and already had a strong foundation in fruit trees. We discussed many aspects of the orchard, including rootstock, spraying, pruning, tree form and grafting. The use of comfrey as a green mulch, nitrogen fixer, and weed […]
