HOw To FRUIT TREE SUCCESS / FAIL UPDATE

When I was at the farm, I roamed around to check the fruit trees we planted last year.  It was time to see how everything fared after the first year "in the ground" at the farm.  We had a hot and fairly dry Summer, and then we had a colder than usual Winter, so we needed to see how hardy the tree varieties were that we chose.  I took the first batch of these photos a couple of weeks before the 'big ice storm' so read through for the final outcome of all.

This is a the beginning of a peach blossom.  There are quite a few of these on the tree.  This will be the second year for the peach but our first Spring with it and I understand the flowers are beautiful.

This is one of the two fig trees, about ready to leaf out (the other is the same).  We can't wait to get some figs (hopefully anyway) this year.

This is one of the two pear trees we planted, it made it through the Summer and Winter as well, not to mention the bark damage from rubbing animals.

And this is the pomegranate, it is covered in leaves and new growth so it made it through the Winter as well. We weren't sure that this was going to make it, but it did so at least we know it's a hardy one.

I didn't get pictures, but the two mayhaw trees, while still spindly and not growing as much as we'd like, are starting to bud out in tiny little leaf buds, so for now, they are a success as well.

As for losses though, we did lose a few fruit trees.  Lost one of the pears.  It's turned brown/black, not sure if it was the freeze since the other did well.  Lost the plum, but I believe that was due only to the ground and area it was planted in.  It's not a freeze sensitive tree, so it had to be the clay soil.  Also lost all three citrus trees.  Boo!  The Meyer Lemon, the Mexican Lime and the Satsuma Orange.  Sad because we really wanted to have fresh citrus.  I think the lemon and lime were lost because of the freeze.  They made it through the Summer, but our freezing was colder than normal and I wasn't able to keep them covered with every freeze.  We'd be 70 degrees one day, and then wake up and it was 30 and then 20 and then back up to 60...I just couldn't make it out there to cover and uncover.  Until the day we are out there full time, I'm afraid we might not be able to have citrus.  I might try one more time, we'll see.  The orange was a Satsuma which normally all do very well in our part of the country, so I think that one was also a location issue.

We still have the Olive and the Avocado in town where we can care for them but I might get those in the ground here soon once freezing is not a possibility.  We will definitely buy a new plum tree, and plant it in a different area, because we love plums and they do well down in these parts.

And now, an update since I took the above pics prior to the big "Frozen" days.  Even with the thick layer of ice, the fruit trees continued budding out!  These are the peach blossoms, and they are opening up. Yay!

And here is the pear, the one that survived and it is opening up as well. After being covered in a thick layer of ice, all of these trees just sailed right through.  It's kind of amazing to see nature at work, isn't it?

Sadly though, the pomegranate that had leafed out in the earlier picture, is now covered in crunchy brown leaves.  I'm going to assume the tree is fine, it's just the leaves that didn't make it after being frozen under ice for a period of time.  

Still not a bad outcome for the first year in the ground.  I did some pruning of the wiry branches so we should be doing good this Spring.  Fingers crossed!

Lastly, this is one of the only casualties of the day of ice.  This branch on "Ginger" (we name our trees, don't judge, LOL) was just too weak to hold the weight of the ice and snapped off.  If that's the only damage from the heavy coating of ice that was on everything, we're OK.