The Blairmont Apple Project

 Yes; two plagues of the South have arrived. Oppressive heat and high humidity. And if you try to go out in the cooler morning the swarms of Yellow Flies have arrived. And only some heat relief. Monitoring fireblight it seems to have stabilized with the drier weather. But the damage is done. Have vigorously sprayed fungicides, and some copper sulfate though it's a bit late for it. I'd guess a 3rd of the grafts were seriously damaged. I've topped and beheaded about 4 grafts to save the root stock after a through cleaning. More are coming.  Of the late grafts courtesy of UGA; Mrs. Bryan is the first to leaf out.  Sill have 7 or 8 community pots to re-bag. So far the trees bagged seem to be doing well. But aghast! Have to make more soil mix to finish. Going to add more sandy loam to be less wet. Talking to other growers this is a bad year for fireblight with a new strain. I have Rouville which was a bullet proof rated tree on Fireblight. I think one will die. Pear growers se...

 Not surprisingly Fireblight on blossoms has arrived. My have lost a few grafts. I drenched the trees and especially buds with fungicide that includes copper sulphate. We will have to wait and see. Also have now bagged 18 grafts in the new bags.  I think Devine got wiped out on all buds. Though the rootstock is ok.

 .....I still managed to get a dozen trees moved to their new 3 Gallon grow bag homes. other then restringing the weed eater; this was the sole item accomplished today. I found it takes a bit of getting use too. But you can arrange the bags flat bottomed and mutually supporting. And I believe they are tough enough to last despite their thinness. Taking the rest of my hatch day off!

 I've been a bit sidetracked but have managed to do some minor things. Some of the good news is some of the laggard scions have decided to get with the action. Been fighting a lot of typical spring afflictions. A bit of fireblight. Good old Cankerworms. The darned ant raised aphids. I fear I have lost my Circaussian grafts to leaf stickiness of some sort. Hopefully the very tiny twiggs break new leafs though.  Friday I should receive 150 3 gallon grow bags. So I need to spend the next two days getting a new batch of soil going. More composted mulch, composted manure, a bit of sand and my bought biochar'ish compost to mix together. 

 Out checking the grow pad, I got into pulling empty pots and checking interstem grafts. Also pulled all the cuttings pots for my apple rootstocks. G.214 on M111 is not something to try. Everything was failing. Managed to regraft 11 out of 12. Nor did any of the stooling G.214 take roots. Pulled P.2 and M111 just to check progress. Got 8 P.2 and 10 M111 with healthy roots. Took the G.214 cuttings that were clearly alive. Layered them in a large tub and covered them. Then put them in a dark place to give them another try. Re-potted P.2 and M.111 and returned them to the grow pad.  Wish they were like Brown Turkey figs. Have 20 potted out and another 16 in collective pots for lack of pots. All well rooted. Found another pot of slow take apple grafts. About to investigate those after lunch.

 Looking over the graftlings; was getting suspicious of a pot with 6 cleft grafts. The first I did in fact. So I tumped over the pot and started inspecting the grafts. Red Detroit was the first and the rootstock {G.214}had failed. Managed to cut the scion in half. It was good. And "Q" grafted it on a G.214 and P.2. Next was the only Tanyard Seedling I had. Had to trim it back. But also successfully put it on G.214. Also saved 2 Circassian apples and a Dorset Gold on M111. So glad I checked!!!

Took a deep dive on scions top worked on existing trees. Pretty convinced Dorsett Golden has incompatibility issues. 4 had dead swollen graft unions. One modest. 3 really large.  Have 2 left on Dorsett that the Jury is out on.  Looks like Centurion Crab is better. 2 great takes. 2 looking ok. 1 got removed by wind damage. 2 are looking viable. St.Anna Boskoop on Anna looks about ready to bud. Also not doing the v graft on top work anymore. 

 Those sad trees in a bag of wet sawdust just could not be ignored. Garden weaseled a bit of wood mulch and mixed it with soil. Made 3 pots for each rootstock for now. Let them grow out and I think I will try to plant them end to end in the ground in late fall. Checked out my Georgia Origin champs so far. Wallace Howard, Parks Pippin and Disharoon are the top in vigor so far. Now Yates, King Solomon , Shockley, Spice of North Georgia are catching up.  Terry Winter and Tarbutton. Slow as sin. Look dead. Very green inside though. Practically everything from Southern Cultured has taken. St.Claire, Devine , Hoover , Cauley , Orange Cauly, Chickasaw.

 Got out the wife's new battery powered weed eater and went to town in spurts. Looks real good. But it just makes more work. Have to sit down and hand weed and re-mulch again. Found ant farmed aphids and some kind of worm in the new shoots of my older trees. Gave them all a nice coat of olive oil sheen spray. Looks like they were jumping ship to get out of it. I need to find the ole vaseline and ring the trunk of the trees again to stop those darned ants from bringing aphids. Seeing more scion takes here and their. Have no idea how much longer Norfolk Beefing and Hudson Golden Gem can last without budding. One Hudson finally popped. Parks Pippin is giving Wallace Howard a run for most vigorous scion.