May is a crazy month for us. Three of our children were born in May so there is always a lot going on.
I guess that is why I missed the last two weeks with the Wednesday pictures. I also had a gopher and pill bugs eat some of my plants, so I had less to show anyway.
Today I only have pictures of the three apples on my Anna Apple tree. I am really surprised by this tree. I just planted it this fall, and it is the only apple tree around. I didn’t expect any fruit at all any time soon, so having three apples is amazing.
The next group of pictures are not garden related, but they did keep me from taking garden pictures. I spent much of the last two evenings building model rockets with the kids. We are driving 1.5 hours to the desert on Saturday to launch rockets and fly remote control helicopters. If all goes well we will have some videos of the rockets to talk about later.
-Joshua
love the MLP rocket! Pinkie pie to the sky! 😀
Flying rockets and helicopters sounds fun too. I’m glad you got some apples. Next year, I bet there’ll be a lot more. Did you get lots of apple blossoms at least? What pollinates fruit trees in your area? Bees or some other insects. Or is it wind pollination?
I’m looking forward to pictures of the fruits of the boys’ veggie and fruit plantings.
There must have been at least 20 blossoms on the tree, and they were beautiful.
We have a few bees, but not many because few people seem to be growing anything. I want to grow more flowering plants to bring in more bees.
We also get a good number of hummingbirds and some butterflies.
I read that to have successful pollination, it is necessary to have two different varieties of apple trees. Most apple varieties are self-unfruitful, which means their blossoms must be fertilized with the pollen of a separate variety in order to achieve good fruit set. (from the article below)
https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/apple-tree-pollination
Here’s a link to the pollination chart.
http://www.raintreenursery.com/plantcare/plant-care/pollination-charts/understanding-apple-pollination/
This fall I hope to plant a golden delicious tree. Like the Anna Apple they are supposed to be good in warmer climates like ours. We don’t get enough “chill hours” to successfully plant most apple types.
I did wonder about that as I thought that apples needed that cold snap for optimal growth. I did a bit more reading up on growing fruit trees and noted you should not let any fruit ripen on the tree in the first year so that it can devote all its energy to growth otherwise you may stunt its growth.
Good luck. It’s not easy starting a fruit orchard. 🙂
I remember my dad planting coffee beans and ponderosa lemons and growing them in the house. (Kind of a challenge in Ontario, Canada when you don’t have a ‘greenhouse’.) They all grew quite well for a number of years but I can’t remember whatever happened to them.