Harvest Day

Days actually. I picked 120# of Chambourcin by myself on Thursday. Then on Sunday we crushed the Chambourcin and picked, crushed, and pressed 400# of Vidal.

Chambourcin

That's about half

Big clusters

Lisa happily pressed all of it

Crush pad

Fruit of the Year - Camu Camu

 We hope for one new fruit from the greenhouse every year. This year it's the Camu Camu, Myrciaria dubia. Mine came to me by way of a friend Ethan in California, and we've grown it for many years now in the greenhouse. 

Like its cousin,the plant has nice peeling bark and tolerates wet soil. And, like its cousin, Camu Camu also fruits directly on the trunk. The fruit is very similar to jaboticaba, but with smaller seeds. We got about 4 fruit this year. 

Harvest Approaches

 Foch was at 17 Brix last week. I haven't checked this week, but it smells like it is getting close. 

This weekend's list, complete:

• Weed/Roundup the elderberries
• Dig up volunteer ornamental grasses
• Clean mud daubers off porch and garage
• Net the grapes
• Remove the grow tubes
• Weed the berm
• Weed the liriope
• Prune the lychees

We're targeting shorter, more frequent posts for my brother. So finally some nice pictures.

And from last week, Lake Michigan:

2020 June Week 3

I'd been losing all of my rainwater. It turns out I had a bad connection between the rain barrels. Of course now that it is fixed, we have no rain. 

We repotted some plants, including figs. Lisa is attempting to start a couple more from cuttings. In the past they have proven easy to root. 

We bought gooseberries at the Farmer's Market last weekend and they (over) ripened over the past week, so we made a gooseberry cobbler, supplemented with some jostaberries. I didn't get a pic coming out of the oven. 

Plumerias are happy

2020 June Week 2

We were out of town two weeks ago due to an unexpected trip to Texas. Back at home this past weekend where the primary occurrences were dreary home maintenance tasks. I planted 4 vines of what we hope is Frontenac Gris. The grafted Chardonel came up easily, thank goodness. I touched up paint on the back porch and the front door.

On Sunday we cleaned out the detached garage and sent a truckload of stuff to the dumpster. The pool is clean and enjoyable after a few hours of work.

Putting the LOG in Blog

Optimistically I'm committing to a new weekly post of the happenings around the house, wine cellar, kitchen, and greenhouse.

Spring is a good time to do this because there is plenty to do. We've cut down the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick and dug out the stump, replacing it with Dwarf Japanese White Pine 'Yatsubusa'.

The boxwoods are gone, replaced with oakleaf hydrangea 'Munchkin'.

We added to our Cercis collection with a nice one called 'Ace of Hearts'.

Grapes are growing fairly well. I lost a couple of the Vidal I installed last year, but I have two ready to be planted. If I'm lucky I can still get them planted in the next couple of weeks and fill in some holes. 

The greenhouse plastic came down yesterday, and the shade cloth is back up. Most of the plants are out, including the plumeria, jabos, mangoes, sago palms, and others. 

The poolhouse is ready for summer. I fixed a leak in the water softener, but the portable softener seems to be the way to go. The pool heater has the temp to 82 and with warm weather on the way I suspect we won't need it again until fall.

It's a good time to post some pictures of my favorite tree. This is a Kentucky Coffeetree which I planted as a seedling. I posted about this little guy four years ago, and it just continues to grow very slowly and bloom like crazy. If anyone out there knows how to determine if this is my retirement plan, please contact me. 

2020 Spray Schedule

May 2 - Mancozeb
May 12 - Mancozeb + Quintec (quinoxyfen)
May 23 -
May 30 - Abound (azoxystrobin)
June 5 - Mancozeb + Emerald (boscalid)
June 14 - Mancozeb + Quintec
June 24 - Abound (azoxystrobin)
July 1 - Mancozeb + Stature (Dimethomorph) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 8 - Mancozeb + Quintec + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 16 - Captan + Emerald (boscalid) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
July 24 - Captan + Quintec + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)
August 2 - Prophyt + Emerald (boscalid) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)

August 12 - Abound (azoxystrobin) + Sevin (zeta-cypermethrin)