Around 5:30AM on Saturday morning, I went out to take photos of what was new in the yard. I eventually made it around to the first batch of Little Trees planted in the spring of 2020.
The second year I’d had just 1 cherry on the 1. North Star cherry tree. Last year I had 6. But this year it has quite a few. There had been a sprout from the root stock but the arborist I’d had in wasn’t sure which was the fruit tree so we left them both.
But the root stock one is twice the size of the fruit one. It should probably be taken care of but an arborist is expensive and with the brainfog, I don’t trust myself to try.
This is the 2. York elderberry. It was the best one for the last 3 years for growth and fruit. But it looks like it had a rough winter as there’s lots of winter kill. I’ve still not managed to get the spirals off the trees. I must, very soon.
This is the 4. Alleghany serviceberry. The first couple years it hardly grew at all. Last year it doubled in size, which wasn’t saying much compared to all the other trees. But this is what it looks like this year, a big improvement.
The 6. Lapins cherry tree has had a rough time of it the last couple years. It’s not looking so good.
But it does have a few cherries on it.
The 9. Contender peach tree has always done very well. I got 10 perfect peaches from it the second year. Last year, all fruit was wiped out in this area by a late frost but this is what it looks like this year:
I’m probably going to have to remove some so that branches don’t break.
So this year, this 10. York elderberry will be the best one.
The 11. Juneberry has grown slowly but steadily over the years. It’s had berries from the first year, but I’ve never gotten them, the birds always beat me to them.
There are a lot this year and I was thinking of putting row cover over them so I can get some. But I just haven’t gotten to it.
I went over the see how the Little Trees II were doing. All the comfrey planted by either the Little Trees I or Little Trees II came from the same place. They are all volunteers from the comfrey in the Big garden.
But for some reason, the comfrey by the new ones is twice the size of what’s by the first planting. They’ve all been fed and mulched. Just these are a little more protected than the first planting is.
I went to see how the Reliance peach was doing. I didn’t have a good selection of trees when I got this last year. It was what was leftover and offered in a sale at Fedco. It grew really well last year, with no problems and of course, no peaches.
It had been doing fine earlier in the spring, but when I checked it, it had a few peaches, but tons of Peach Leaf Curl fungus on several branches. From what I’ve read, that has to be treated in November and February. It doesn’t affect it if treated now.
I also read one should remove the affected parts. But it’s such a young tree, I’d be afraid to do that now. So we will see. I have to get gardens planted before I can move onto other projects.
The Juneberries are doing well on this second planting from last year. I could wrap the cage in row cover to protect the berries…
This is the westerly grape that was planted last year. Hopefully I can get a trellis built for it this year (the posts behind it).
This is the easterly grape and last fall it didn’t look so good. But it seems to be doing fine now.
The rest of the Little Trees II were all doing fine, but it’s really hard to get photos with the cages in place. I plan to leave the cages until they out grow them. Then they will have to fend for themselves against the deer. If I can manage it, I’ll try to mix up the stuff @thebigsweed recommended.
So that’s where things stand now with the Little Trees projects.