August Todo List for the Orchard

Zinfandel

I know that you’re harvesting wine grapes right now but July and August are the months for harvesting plums and plum relatives such as pluots as well. Plums such as Emerald beauty and Elephant Heart should be coming on soon or ready now. Flavor Queen pluots should be ready or very close to being ready.

There should be apples coming on so walk the apples and see. If the apple looks like it might be ready then bite or cut into it and inspect the seeds. The seeds should be brown if they are ripe and ready to pick. Do some fruit evaluations on apples if they are ready. Remember to get multiple brix readings and do not combine evaluation scores but record them all independent from one another.

Hosui Asian pear 2009 and we are now working on
developing size by increasing our thinning

Yutaka on Saturdays can give you some advice regarding Asian pears but the early producers should be coming in soon. Please get some evaluations of this fruit as it ripens because we have scant data on how well they are performing. Last year was the first really good year for many of them and many achieved very high quality both visually and taste. They are getting better and better under Yutaka’s watchful eye. This is an important fruit to document since this is definitely not the Asian pear climate.

The remaining almonds were pretty much decimated by ground squirrels before I left. Good thing we sold a lot of them as green almonds this year. That would be a good market for us next year if we can let local chefs know that we have them. They went to San Francisco this year and sold at $4.00 per pound that their farmers markets. We sold them to a broker for $2.00 per pound.

Fallen fruit is always going to be a problem this time of year and if you do not keep it picked up you will have an outbreak of pests that attack ripe fruit such as the confused sap and dried fruit beetles. Fallen fruit should not be kept very long in buckets or exposed to the open air or the same thing will occur. If you leave the fruit sitting in buckets you are just moving the potential for infestation from the orchard aisles to buckets. These beetles can fly and they will go out looking for girlfriends and boyfriends. Remember, we used to put them in large containers that had lids. The lids kept them from getting infested. Somehow you need to keep this picked up fruit from getting infested and not leave them exposed.

Bubblers should have a perfect cone if they have no debris
in them and the pressure is adequate.

Because of the frequency of irrigation right now bubblers will have a tendency to plug more often. Once a month the irrigation bubblers need to be walked and checked for plugging. The easiest way to do this is to use the remote for changing irrigation stations and have two or three people inspect the bubblers for plugging. These inspectors should carry spare cleaned bubblers and replace plugged ones as they see them. You can flag the plugged bubblers and when the irrigation has moved to the next station then replace the bubbler unless of course you are hot and want a shower.

Pests that can occur now are still the peach twig borer which is the little worm that gets in the soft fruit, dried fruit beetle if you don’t pick up fallen fruit and we may have a short outbreak of Green June Beetles but they will be gone in a couple of weeks if they occur. It is also possible that we can act of revisit by the grape flea beetle soon which chews holes in the leaves. They cause some damage to the leaves but we don’t get real excited because the damage is minimal and they disappear in a couple of weeks.

I am sure Jon will have numerous things to do but here it is a short list of things that might be coming up in the orchard

Jujube fruit from the contorted jujube. There are quite a few
varieties to pick from. Along with almonds displayed still
in their husks these are showstoppers at farmers markets
because people want to know what they are

Remember to keep harvested fruit out of direct sunlight as much as you can or you will build up excessive heat in the fruit and internal breakdown of the fruit will happen much more quickly. After harvesting put the trays in the shade of the trees until you are ready to take them to the cooler or the shaded area.

Todo for August

• Pick up fallen fruit and make sure they are properly disposed of
• Irrigate and make sure bubblers are not plugged.
• Help with the wine grape harvest on Saturdays.
• Inspect apples for ripe fruit.
• Inspect late plums and pluots such is Emerald Beauty and Elephant Heart as well as Flavor Queen pluot if they have not already been harvested.
• Vegetables should be sprayed regularly with our insecticidal soap.
• Inspect asparagus for female plants and remove them.
• There should be table grapes and figs ready for harvest

• Don’t forget jujube as it should be coming in very soon. Some people like it mottled brown and green and still plump while others like it dried, brown and shriveled. It would probably be a novelty and attract people to a farmer’s market table just to ask what it is