chappellpeaches.com Blog

Another cool snap has hit with lows in the 40s.  I bet it will be October before we get that low again.  This week we pretty much finished up thinning.  You never completely finish because I usually go back over some varieties throughout the summer.  We sprayed this week for insects and disease.  We also are mowing and disking the middles to keep the orchard clean and chop up old pruned limbs.  We applied more fertilize to young trees and some old trees which have a big crop.  This week we will summer prune young trees to allow more light in the middle of the trees.  This will help next years bud crop.  It will also be a good week to get the vegetables in order before we get busy picking.  It still looks like mid June before we start picking.  We’ll be back next week with a new update.

Peaches continue to grow with warmer weather and lots of rain.  We are still thinning the peaches, but we should finish this week.  We will add additional fertilize to the heavier loaded varieties this week.  It looks like a mid June opening at the earliest with freestones probably beginning around July 1st.  Apples are also growing and the overall crop should be close to normal.  Check back next week for more farm news.

We are getting behind on so much farm work that it could be October before we catch up.  We started thinning the peach crop last week and many varieties are loaded while some need very little thinning at all.  Weeds are growing and it takes time to spray down or mow the weeds around the orchards.  We applied thinning sprays to the apples, but it takes time to see the results.  I believe that we will be close to finishing the thinning by the end of the week and barring another peach drop it looks to be around a 70 percent peach crop.  We may open later because of damage to early peaches.  Several late varieties also look to be slim.  Check back next week for more farm news.

We are still in a cool pattern of weather.  We have also been very wet this spring, but peaches are starting to grow some.  This week we will begin to thin the fruit starting with varieties that are heavy and early maturing.  I’m still concerned about  a drop on some varieties, but I can’t postpone thinning any longer and risk small fruit on these trees which appear heavy.  There are many varieies which are light, so thinning these can be delayed for another week or two.  Produce seeds which have been planted are slow to break through due to cool weather.  Tomato plants are yellowish but standing up.  Everything could use some warm weather. Check back next week for more news.