The trees are in

There has not been a lot to blog about lately: no snake rescues, (although I had to relocate a woodrat that had designs on sharing the potting bench with me), no recent trips, other than to Tucson (ho-hum). But one of those Tucson trips was to get the trees for the orchard.


We took the truck and the horse trailer to protect the trees. Putting them in the truck bed and driving I-10 at 75 mph is just not conducive to keeping the leaves. It was a bit overkill, but the trees arrived in good shape. I got 2 apple trees (Anna, and Dorsett Golden), 2 peach trees (Mid-Pride and Red Baron), an apricot (Blenheim) and a fig (Black Jack). The trees are all self-fruitful and require a minimum of chilling time (hours below 40 degrees). Chilling time is necessary for a number of stone fruits. Tucson is warmer than we are, and these trees were developed with Southern California and Arizona in mind. All the trees should be able to stand our minimum winter temperatures; even the fig is ok to 0 degrees.


We planted them yesterday in that well-prepared soil and I made big basins around each to contain water. Initially some of them flagged, but I must have added enough water because at sunset, and also this morning, they all looked great. I think the level of our aquifer may be going down as a result of all this watering.


Provided the trees are happy, we can expect some fruit in the next couple of years. As a matter of fact, I bought the fig tree with some figs on it already.