Fruit trees

[awa355]

The Nectarine tree was loaded, but the high winds and birds have decimated the fruit just as they were almost ripe. The ones I did get to try were beautiful and sweet on one side, hard as on the other. Not sure whether thats due to picking them to soon or not. ( Bloody birds get them if left too long ).

The Apple tree also has a good crop, but not spraying earlier has seen most with worms etc, although, cut that out and they are lovely to eat. The winds have played havoc with this tree as well.

The Plums have ripened ealier than the others. they were lovely , well the ones the birds left were. This winter, I'll have to take a bit more care with looking after the trees. Can't do much about the weather and birds though.

The grape vine has gone feral. Will leave it now and give it a damn good haircut after the grapes have ripened.

How has the fruit harvest been at your place this summer?

[Paul in NZ]

Strawberries/red currents/rasberries were great... Plums had the shit blown out of them at the wrong time.. Pears still going..

[insomnia01]

A good crop of Sweet corn this year for my first attempt ( Honey Pearl ) every other day I pick a nice handfull, cherry tomatoes are going nuts this year and cant keep up with them so every meal has them in it somewhere ( roasts, salads, lunch boxes ) pepper stocks look better this year ( Red,Orange, Green ) Sweet peas are covering the back fence nicely which I recently covered with brushwood & bamboo fencing which looks great with the differant varietys of colours.... strawberries continue to flourish which is good seeing as we still have xmas cake to eat MMMmmmmmmm

[HenryDorsetCase]

SWMBO's tomatoes are doing fuck all, we have some tiny chillies. It's just not hot enough though for them to ripen. Strawberries have been good.

black currants good.

[ellipsis]

...right at this moment our trees and anything else that is in our fairly extensive garden are being very spoiled...they are sharing in 7 and a half ton of water, which is our back up. We take our water from a well...the bloody tank stand that has been through however many thousands of shakes and quakes suddenly decided it had had enough and has gone for a relaxed lean to one side. We dont water our garden with our well water but have lots of rain collectors about the property...at the moment the plants all think it is bloody marvellous, I bet.

We have a lot of fruit trees and a vege garden but the highlight of this season was getting about 4kg of blueberries from our first real fruiting of a couple of bushes we planted about three years ago...we got very protective of them. Our bird security system worked well...

[wynw]

the fruit on my trees have all been decimated by birds before they even had colour, (peaches were green as grass and hardly bigger than a golf ball and the plums no better) this year. Gonna have to go to war on them next year

[T.W.R]

Plum trees were heavy in crop, nearly at an end now, birds had a field-day
Nectarine still to ripen
Peach tree still to ripen
Apple trees heavy in fruit
Pear tree ruined by late frost
Green gauge just ripening
Persimmon just starting to ripen
Quince ruined by late frost
Chilli plants a mixed bag some with plenty of fruit and some doin sweet f/a

[Banditbandit]

Possums - fucking possums got our nectarines. (mind you, I got a few of the possums as well)

The avocado is loaded - the peach is ripening madly - the lemon tree is covered - the pear and apricot are a little young, and the feijoa is coming along well .. the rest are still a bit young (and we lost our tamarillo - planted June last year - died .. )

[george formby]

Had lashings of plums then it winded & rained. 30 ltrs of plums are currently fermenting. Climbed the tree last night for a final pick but quite a lot of the fruit has split. Lotsa worms this year, too. Still, got about 10 - 15kg, less than half what we had last year. I'm still eating last years chutney....

Tomatoes started very slow but have gone bonkers. Got an ox heart the size of a volley ball & me plum tomatoes are going mad. Red cabbages will be out soon & me chillies are over run with pumpkins.
Strawberries are shooting out runners but still fruiting heavily.

Me garlic isn't forming cloves yet. Bit of a worry.

Hardest part is keeping everything watered.

[haydes55]

I found a strawberry plant outside my house. Had a big one off it. Only found one small one since.... Am I doing this gardening thing wrong? Or is the neighbour pinching my newly found stash?

[SMOKEU]

The apple tree is doing very well.
The lemon tree is up to fuck all.


Those of you who are getting bountiful harvests, make some fruit wines then get on the piss hard in a couple of years when it's ready to drink. Or distill it through a pot still, or reflux still with the packing removed. Don't forget to remove a larger quanitity of foreshots than when distilling a sugar wash.

[Naki Rat]

Apple trees are all well loaded
Lemons, grapefruit and lemonades all cropping well
Younger citrus and plums just growing leaves yet
Avocado has a medium crop
Figs a couple of months off yet
We shared our only apricot with the birds
Birds got all the cherries from the first small crop from our young tree
Louisa plum is close to colouring up
Ongoing battle to get the raspberries, blueberries, strawberries before the birds
Asparagus just went on and on this spring
Beans for Africa now
Chillis and tomatoes are getting close
Garlic is slow to bulb up
Eating second planting of peas
Pumpkins are going nuts
And we have one almond

[Trade_nancy]

Possums - fucking possums got our nectarines. (mind you, I got a few of the possums as well)

The avocado is loaded - the peach is ripening madly - the lemon tree is covered - the pear and apricot are a little young, and the feijoa is coming along well .. the rest are still a bit young (and we lost our tamarillo - planted June last year - died .. )

same here banditx2...possums get the lot..in spite of fencing with chicken wire etc. Gave up on corn - they love that...they also love citrus - they get joy from the fat layer in the pithy bit of lemons and grapefruit.
Last month the regional council pest control person made a visit here to sign up the rural hood to a poison program...using arsenic. So he mounts the white box up a tree out front laden with poison...(tiny little pea size). I forgot about it - checked it after 10 days and found THREE dead possies right at the foot of the tree piled up - actually on top of one another. Ate the bait - bang - dead - drop. Fuck...

[unstuck]

The only thing that got hammered this year was the cherry tree, but there is still enough for me and her. Everything else going real good. Apart from the lemon tree, which got killed late last year.

[Oakie]

Gooseberry ... died (may have had something to do with Roundup)
Plums ... birds
Nectarines ... loaded, pick em in three weeks
Pears ... had to remove some to stop the branches sagging too much, pick em in mid March
Apricot ... fruit half ripens then rots. The tree won't be there next year.
Lemon ... has been continually in fruit for four years now. Intend to get a litre of vodka and make Limoncello sometime
Tomatoes ... still all green
Redcurrants ... good. Made 9 jars of redcurrent jelly with what was left after everyone snacked on them for two weeks

Want to put a couple of blueberrys in next year if I can make space.

And a couple of grapes.