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Harvest Reports 2014?
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redberry
51 Posts
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1
September 11, 2014 - 7:58 pm

Have people been busy harvesting fruit? I thought I'd give a report.

My Asian Pear tree (3-in-1) is very loaded this year despite thinning the fruitlets. I was a little late in getting the baggies on so there is some CM damage (mostly in the Shinseiki, so far). The Chojuro don't seem to have much damage. I have had a few Korean Giants fall from the tree but generally they are the last for me to harvest. For storage, I am cooking them and then freezing some as I am resisting turning on the little fridge already. Has anyone ever dehydrated Asian pears? I have found some recipes on-line though I don't have a dehydrator so I'd have to use the oven.

Berries: I am still harvesting some raspberries and blueberries. I had one blueberry bush that was supposed to ripen late in the season striped of its berries. The bush was competely covered to protect it from SWD and ants are the only thing I can think of that could have gotten under the cover. I am still getting berries from my Bluecrop bush. The bush was loaded this year and I wonder if that slowed the ripening. I would have expected it to be done by now. As for the raspberries, as long as I keep the ripening berries bagged, I seem to be able to control SWD damage though I found one berry with a worm in it. The Duke plant finished up a few weeks ago and produced some nice berries.

European pears: I harvested a couple of Honeysweet pears today. One was windfall and one I picked. I only have about 6 pears. I am hoping I can figure out the best ripening regime for them. Last year I was not too successful with the 3 pears.

Apples: My semi-dwarf Rubinette tree has a good number of apples. I have already harvested some that were cracked or otherwise damaged and other ones are turning more red. The Goldrush tree is very heavy with fruit and I have had to tie it up to keep it from falling over. A couple of weeks ago, one branch broke off but I am hoping the apples that I rescued from the branch will still ripen in the fridge over time.

How are others doing?

redberry

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John S
PDX OR
2952 Posts
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2
September 13, 2014 - 9:32 am

Great post, Redberry.
I didn't get to my Asian pears in time to bag them, although like you, might didn't get bit too badly. My tree is loaded every year. Lots of Chojuro too. I find Korean Giants to be amazing keepers.

Great Asian plum harvest. They are also loaded every year. I budded in a couple of new varieties. Thanks to George Barton and Tonia.

We had more blue berries this year than ever. Last year I felt hopeless about them.

We had way more damson plums than ever after mineralizing the soil. We tend to be low in Boron, zinc, calcium, and I was low in manganese.

Got some Early Golden Am. persimmons this year. Lots of Garrettson both this and last year, but no Szukis this year after some last year.

Steady growth in apples again, although I seem to have a particular disease in one of my trees.

Full tree of conference pears and some in the aronia bushes for first time. I'm stoked.
Huge mulberry harvest as always. Tons of grapes. Lots of autumn olive and goumi as always. Porno blackberries and some black cap. Tons of raspberries. Loaded medlar. Hard to see the Pineapple Guava as they are small and same color as leaves until harvest.

Lots of regular strawberries as well as musk strawberries.

Quince is coming on strong.
John S
PDX OR

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davem
381 Posts
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3
September 13, 2014 - 11:20 am

I've been trying to document mine on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 2d47a254fa

I'll be adding to the album as more things ripen.

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Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
833 Posts
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4
September 15, 2014 - 11:40 am

This year I got pay back from Saskatchewan bush cherries and a very early ripening un-named selection of asian pear, neither of which had ever before fruited for me along side of many other regular bearing fruit trees. So this year in December I'm going to do the same thing I did last December to treat each bud where I want fruit with a synthetic product I found at the builders store but seems to be great at protecting buds where flowers originate. So this time around will be my second testing and I'm hoping it will work on my next subjects of unproductive apricots.

Anyone have any scionwood available of Hosui pear?

Davem, do you really grow evergreen huckleberry or do you resort to going places to get them? This summer having been in interior Alaska I have picked lowbush blueberry. To me they taste great and exactly like our Washington non-evergreen kind of huckleberry.

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redberry
51 Posts
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5
September 15, 2014 - 8:04 pm

Davem: I looked at your Facebook photos. How do you keep up on harvesting all of that fruit? I, too, am interested in your evergreen huckleberries. I have two bushes though my berries seem much smaller than your berries. Last year I tried harvesting some (later in the year though) but it was not easy.

redberry

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Eithieus
Willamette Valley
22 Posts
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6
September 16, 2014 - 10:17 pm

hello redberry, asian pears are great dryed. dryed persimmons are the best then i think asian pears . both are nice and chewie. we have two excalibers for dehydrating.

john s whats a pinneapple guava taste like i have two of them.

have a great day

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sweepbjames
NE Portland, OR Cully Neighborhood
242 Posts
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7
September 17, 2014 - 11:02 am

First Pawpaws dropped maybe yesterday other than a couple of early releases by the tree rats (squirrels). Looking forward to a good season for Pawpaws, smells delightfully full of promise. Usually start dropping more like mid to later October in my short experience, 4 fruiting years.
"Picken' up pawpaws ..puttin''em in yer pocket" lala la 8)

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jafarj
422 Posts
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8
September 17, 2014 - 4:59 pm

Rooney,

I have Hosui and can give you some scion wood this winter if you remind me.

Jafar

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John S
PDX OR
2952 Posts
(Offline)
9
September 17, 2014 - 7:05 pm

Hi Eithiues,
Pineapple guava tastes kind of like Sweettarts candy. There is a sweet and tart, exotic, kind of like guava but more aggressive and less grainy, with a hint of mint. The flowers are yummy do you eat them yet?
John S
PDX OR

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Eithieus
Willamette Valley
22 Posts
(Offline)
10
September 17, 2014 - 9:15 pm

hi john. no I havent tried my pinneapple guava. its still too young. i was told the flowers taste like cotton candy. those large persimmons trees that I dug up have fruit and are holding on to them. they are starting to turn orange. so it was a success. i am going back to get some more trees this fall. i will add to the thread about digging up the persimmons that i had started previously in hopes to help someone else out. so moving a mature persimmons tree is doable. had a great peach and nectarine havest and still getting them. started going to the canby scion exchange about three years ago. grafted all kinds of fruit. one fun thing we do is sit under one of the nurse apple trees that holds over fifty varities and try different apples. one of my kids are so proud of the fig cuttings he got at the scion exchange in canby. it is about four feet tall. talk about good time. so great full to all the people that put that together. :P
have a good day and thanks for all the hard work home orchard society

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davem
381 Posts
(Offline)
11
September 17, 2014 - 9:43 pm

Rooney & redberry:

Re: Evergreen huckleberries - when we had a landscape design done, the designer included some evergreen huckleberries. I had never eaten them until about a week ago and was surprised at how tasty they are. So I picked all of them. I found them pretty easy to pick when they are fully ripe, you just kind of grab the whole branch and strip them off. You'll get some leaves too but those are easy to sort out. I have seen evergreen huckleberries growing wild near the coast, but not around here. I do see regular (blue) huckleberries up in the mountains here.

Re: How do I harvest all that fruit - the main reason I took the photos this year is so I could know when each fruit ripens. So by next summer I will have a calendar to tell me when each should be ripe.

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