Fruit Tree Blossoms

It’s definitely springtime in the garden. 

All the blossoms are popping.  The six dwarf fruit trees were planted as bare root stock on January 12, 2009.  All are being trained espalier in three tiers.  This will save space and encourage more fruit production.  Plus, it will look great.  Surprisingly, two trees produced fruit on such young limbs – peach and apple.  The peach gave 5 pieces of fruit while the apple gave 3.

I’m charting production using the number of pieces of fruit produced.  As the trees mature and produce more, I’ll switch to the pounds of fruit produced.  I’m interested in learning if the 1st to bloom is the 1st to harvest.  Additionally, I may track the amount of fertilizer used vs the amount of fruit produced.  Perhaps I’ll include additional costs like dormant oil to determine just how much the fruit actually costs. 

Here’s how the blossom race is shaping up:

 

#1Plum (Santa Rosa) – February 14, 2010

#2Apricot (Blenheim) – February 20. 2010

#3Peach (O’Henry) – February 28, 2010

#4Nectarine (Fantasia)– March 3, 2010

 

Still to show up to the race are apple (Granny Smith) and pear (Warren). 

All the trees seem to be blooming about one week earlier than last year.  Last year, there was unusual heat in February and not much rain.  February 2010 was cool to warmish with a nice amount of rain.