New apple

[glenn57]

apples smapples...........i get them delivered to the house off someone elses trees!!!!!!!!

[Rebel SS]

Ya, that's 'cuz ya couldn't grow 'em right anyway!   

[glenn57]

Ya, that's 'cuz ya couldn't grow 'em right anyway!   

maybe....................... BUT i could make you grow a couple big ole lumps on your noggin!!!!!!!!

[Rebel SS]

Ooooooh.....big threats!  Here; I got a lump for ya...      

[roony]

Dotch,
I have been harvesting pears off my Luscious tree for about 5 years now. It seems they are best ripened off the tree. As soon as they come off the tree easily, they need to be picked. If they get bruised by hitting the ground they seem to rot. We keep them in a cool place and if we want some to ripen faster we put them in a paper bag. This year my Gourmet pear has a few pears on it for the first time. It will only get better.
I haven't picked any pears yet this year, but soon I will
Last week the warden and I broke out the old cider press and made apple juice out of the better looking windfall apples. We ended up with somewhere between 15 and 16 gallons of juice out of about 11 5 gallon pails of apples.
I have to learn to pick apples off the tree when they are small. My Haralred and Fireside trees are taking a  real beating this year.
Gold apple, pfffffft 
Maybe I will risk castration from the warden and plant another apple tree next spring.

[glenn57]

Dotch,
I have been harvesting pears off my Luscious tree for about 5 years now. It seems they are best ripened off the tree. As soon as they come off the tree easily, they need to be picked. If they get bruised by hitting the ground they seem to rot. We keep them in a cool place and if we want some to ripen faster we put them in a paper bag. This year my Gourmet pear has a few pears on it for the first time. It will only get better.
I haven't picked any pears yet this year, but soon I will
Last week the warden and I broke out the old cider press and made apple juice out of the better looking windfall apples. We ended up with somewhere between 15 and 16 gallons of juice out of about 11 5 gallon pails of apples.
I have to learn to pick apples off the tree when they are small. My Haralred and Fireside trees are taking a  real beating this year.
Gold apple, pfffffft 
Maybe I will risk castration from the warden and plant another apple tree next spring.

if you call your pear tree luscious....................wadda call your apple trees??????????

[mike89]

getting personnel huh Glenn!!!!

[glenn57]

getting personnel huh Glenn!!!!

inguiring minds wanna know!!!!!!!!

[Rebel SS]

          Let us stick with the intriguing apple discussions, please.

[glenn57]

          Let us stick with the intriguing apple discussions, please.

yea...........whatever!!!!!!!!!!!!

[roony]

Here I am trying to have a cereal discussion and the little blue smurf gets off topic again. At least they donut have blue apples yet.

[Rebel SS]

Here I am trying to have a cereal discussion and the little blue smurf gets off topic again. At least they donut have blue apples yet.

   Don't lead him on!!!!!!!!!!! 

[delcecchi]

Dotch, my wild plums all died around the same time that my planted ones did.    Must have had a surge of pests.  Plum curlios or something, not smurfy or reb. 

[glenn57]

Here I am trying to have a cereal discussion and the little blue smurf gets off topic again. At least they donut have blue apples yet.

   Don't lead him on!!!!!!!!!!! 

i ask a serious question and get accused of being 

[roony]

We had some wonderful Superior Plums and then they died a slow painful death shortly after the wild plums started to die off. Turtle Creek Nursery says it's a fungus that is prevalent in wild plums and if you have wild plums close by you might as well forget about trying to grow plums unless you want to spray them weekly with a fungicide. I found out the hard way that cherry trees get it also.

[delcecchi]

We had some wonderful Superior Plums and then they died a slow painful death shortly after the wild plums started to die off. Turtle Creek Nursery says it's a fungus that is prevalent in wild plums and if you have wild plums close by you might as well forget about trying to grow plums unless you want to spray them weekly with a fungicide. I found out the hard way that cherry trees get it also.

That must be what got mine as well.  It took out all the wild ones too.   Something else got the cherry tree.   

[Rebel SS]

We had some wonderful Superior Plums and then they died a slow painful death shortly after the wild plums started to die off. Turtle Creek Nursery says it's a fungus that is prevalent in wild plums and if you have wild plums close by you might as well forget about trying to grow plums unless you want to spray them weekly with a fungicide. I found out the hard way that cherry trees get it also.

That must be what got mine as well.  It took out all the wild ones too.   Something else got the cherry tree.

George Washington? 

[roony]

The Warden and I picked 4 pails of Luscious pears this morning. Also found 16 of the Gourmet pears on another tree, first pears we've had off of that tree.

[delcecchi]

I have heard, no personal experience, that pears need to be picked  before they are totally ripe and allowed to ripen off the tree.   Personally I never planted any pear trees.   

[Rebel SS]

I heard that shipping someone half a dozen pears will bring you good luck.   

[HD]

We're all done with pears as of today. We picked the last dozen...... Pears seem to go every other year, last year's crop was minimal... this year we had quite a few.

[roony]

I have heard, no personal experience, that pears need to be picked  before they are totally ripe and allowed to ripen off the tree.   Personally I never planted any pear trees.

That is pretty much right. Pears are more delicate than apples also and spoil quickly if bruised.
I'd say maybe about 4 pears out of all we picked were ripe enough to eat, the rest will ripen inside.
Putting them in a paper bag speeds up the ripening.

[Dotch]

Glad you mentioned that roony. I need to check the trees today again and probably pick what I can. In the past couple days some of the ground falls I brought in a few weeks ago finally started to change colors and get a little softer. So I sliced one in half for breakfast. OMG was it good! Texture was about perfect not mealy, very juicy and very sweet. Not much of a core either. Patience is a virtue I guess or as Seinfeld put it, fruit's a gamble. 


[attachment deleted by admin]

[mike89]

got to get me some pears!!!!  to bad it will be store bought...

[delcecchi]

We're all done with pears as of today. We picked the last dozen...... Pears seem to go every other year, last year's crop was minimal... this year we had quite a few.

Apples do that too.  Has to do with the tradeoff between making buds for next year or making fruit this year.   Thinning the fruit can help this problem, along with getting nicer fruit in the fall.    At least for apples.

[Rebel SS]

I have crab apples every other year. This coming spring will be no flowers or anything. Bears on the even years.

[delcecchi]

I have crab apples every other year. This coming spring will be no flowers or anything. Bears on the even years.

If you don't want the actual crab apples, there is stuff you can spray on to make them fall off.  Sevin will do it if you put it on in June.   Probably newer stuff available too.

[Rebel SS]

They fall off on their own, silly. All over my yard. Mushy, fermented mess.  Drunken skwirrels and birds raisin' he** all over.     

[attachment deleted by admin]

[delcecchi]

This makes them fall off in spring while still tiny..... not in winter after they are full grown.  Basically keeps fruit from setting.

[Rebel SS]

As far as I always knew, Sevin is an insecticide...and it kills honeybees, too. NOT gonna be used by me! I plant lotsa bee friendly flowers and plants, sure ain't gonna kill 'em off!