Help, what's up with my apple #tree ?
The leaves on the new growth of branches look diseased. Photo shows example, they have a white fuzz on them and they will curl up and wither. I have a feeling it spreads back down the branch throughout the year, but unsure. It usually hosts massive colonies(?) of some sort of larvae, not sure what, covered in a silk like web. Perhaps this is it? Or perhaps they are attracted to the white stuff?
The apples grow with scabs on their skins. Related?
Some of the Jonathan and Gravenstein apples starting to grow during the cell division phase.
The old Esopus Spitzenburg tree. I think I transplanted it here in 2012, it was probably 3 years old from seedling if it wasn't just a root sucker if the other tree is grafted on a spitz root stock because it doesn't grow very fast either. So probably 15 years old. I haven't pruned it much if ever except to get wood for the grafts I did. It might be 10 feet tall now with a 4 inch trunk maybe.
Honey bees on apple blossoms. Both of the Esopus Spitzenburg, or Spitz, are full bloom now and everything else is still blooming with some bee activity.
Spring has Sprung
For sale here:
https://jessicajenney.com/featured/spring-has-sprung-jessica-jenney.html
The domestic apple tree (Malus domestica) belongs to the Rosacea family. It arose from a spontaneous cross between a wild apple tree and a low apple tree, which occur naturally in the Caucasus. This species was then strengthened by man through many years of breeding. The domestic apple tree is one of the most cultivated trees in temperate climates, especially in Europe.
Honey bees and apple blossoms. Saw a bumble bee too but it had no desire to stay on a blossom for more than a half second.
Mostly finished with chopping out cottonwood suckers. The view of the orchard/pasture is much better now and the geese gave their approval (or flexing dominance from a distance).
The view into the pasture/orchard is a bit better since I chopped/dug out a lot of the poplar/cottonwood suckers on Sunday. More to take out but I needed a break from swinging the axe and dragging brush so today I moved 250 liters of dirt twice, 4 arm loads of wood, 220 liters of sticks, and 150 liters of leaves... oh and 15 minutes of slicing sticks with the chainsaw for that one raised bed.
The the grafted Spitz apple is starting to bloom now too.
Bees in the Gravenstein apples and the Brooks plum. Looked like maybe a few migratory bees around today. Pear orchards are blooming and the cherries are just starting to.
The Comice pear has open blooms and the Spitzenburg apple tree that's on it's own roots is showing some pink.
One Jonathan apple blossom open. It's on the 1 out of 4 branches/leaders of a Gravenstein tree. I guess some of the early Gravenstein bloom will be pollinated.
Under The Apple Tree is a stop-motion horror-comedy. Available on
https://erikvanschaaik.com/projects/under-the-apple-tree/
Gravenstein scion wood from 2024 that's been in the refrigerator. I saw a forum post mentioning they had some old scion wood that was callused up so I went and looked at mine and some of it was callused up so I stuck it in some water and put a bag over it the other day. It was already leafed out and I didn't expect those to turn green but they did. Wait and see if the callus grows roots.
