Gator Jeep

We picked up our new Jeep Wrangler today. Here are a few pictures...

Mystery Vine

Last year when we started pruning the Traminette vines, we discovered a couple of vines that clearly were not Traminette. They must have gotten mixed up at the nursery. They are in the same row and about two or three vines away from each other. We have no idea what they are but they are extremely hardy, very fast growing and look absolutely nothing like Traminette. They are massive compared to the other vines in the row. We're going to let them produce this year and try to identify what they are. Maybe they're something weird and unusual like some obscure old heirloom table grape or something we can play around with making crosses. It seems vigorous enough to put on an arbor so maybe we'll take some cuttings and start some new plants to use near the house.

Here's what it looks like.

Man, it looks like an antler...

It's not though. It's a recently pruned peach tree.

All of them are Reliance semi-dwarf trees, one of the few peaches that will grow this far north. We have three of them, as well as four apple trees. The oldest two of the peach trees are about five years old and I've been pretty slack about pruning them, and over the last several years they've gotten a little out of control. Lots of young wood up high, out of reach, and not very good structure down low at arm's reach. Peaches develop on second year wood and in the case of these trees, that puts almost all of it way up high. Not what you want if you plan to harvest the crop.

Last week, I finally spent a little bit of time on You-Tube learning how to properly prune them to maximize fruit production and maintain healthy structure. Letting them run wild is counter-productive both from a fruit standpoint and also the long-term survival of the tree. It looks pretty drastic and I'm pretty sure I've pruned at least 50% of the wood from each tree. We'll see what happens this year. We won't have many peaches but hopefully the trees are on track now for lots of peaches next year.

At our old house, we planted two of this same variety and they quickly grew huge, just like these did, and produced a tremendous amount of peaches. The same bad pruning regimen doomed those trees because we allowed the horizontal limbs to get way too long, and when fully weighted down with peaches, the limbs bent down literally almost to the ground, and sometimes tore away from the trunk. We moved in 2005 to our new place and over the years those trees at the old house continued to deteriorate and the last time I drove by there, I think they were almost dead. The apple and cherry trees we left behind seemed to be thriving with zero maintenance, as the place is vacant and has been for several years. In fact, the house burned to the ground about a year or so after we sold it and there's nothing left but a hole in the ground, some outbuildings, and the perennials and fruit trees we left behind. Sad.

There are apple orchards in Iowa on old homesteads that are over a hundred years old and still producing fruit. Apples are a lot tougher in this area than peaches, and apparently don't require the same vigilance to keep them productive. Iowa is on the very northern limit for even the hardiest of peach cultivars. They don't live terribly long here under even the best of conditions, and I can't recall seeing a particularly mature peach tree since I've lived here. They seem to do better in Missouri, just a short hop south of us. I don't think that many people around here even try to grow them. Anyway, hopefully taking the trees back down to a manageable size, avoiding overcropping, and not stressing the limbs at the point where they join the trunk, will allow these trees to live as long as possible.

I love peaches.

Now Get To Work!

With about a row and a half of Traminette vines left to prune, and with things starting to rapidly green up on the vineyard floor, today seemed like a good day to get out and do some pruning and take my mowing crew with me. There's not much to eat in their winter pasture now, and they were more than happy to head up to the vineyard and start mowing the grass and eating weeds. We're expecting snow this afternoon but at the moment, they are on the clock.

Here are a couple of photos of them hanging out with me in the vineyard.

"Chewbarka"

"So... I guess that's your accomplice there in the wood chipper?"

Oh how I love this thing... We've started on the dead tree "carcasses" and so far, the bed of the truck is about two-thirds full of wood chips. I have no shortage of places that need mulch, starting with my newly pruned fruit trees, and around my clay oven, Sunny, so it definitely won't go to waste. We have massive piles of tree branches to chip, and lots of stuff too big for the chipper but not big enough to mill into dimensional lumber. It will need to be cut up with the chainsaw and used for firewood. This afternoon, I used the tow strap and hooked one of the biggest logs to the truck and dragged it down the driveway and parked it out of the way. I think I came within an inch of backing the truck into it the other day. Not something I wanted to have to 'splain to Greg...

Pruning in Winter, II

Haha! Not really, just needed an excuse to post this picture. This was taken in early January, looking southeast from the front yard.

I spent three hours today pruning the Traminette vines. Thus far, everything that was alive last fall is still alive and looks ready to take off sometime in April. It was 66 degrees today, sunny and breezy. Can't ask for better than that...

I have about two more rows of Traminette and then I'll start on the Cynthiana vines.

Pancho

I took this picture today while I was waiting for the barn water tank to fill. I was sitting on a log and Pancho came over and stood next to me waiting for me to scratch his chin. He loves it. While he was standing there, I took the opportunity to comb the wool out of his eyes. They really need to be sheared soon.