Chestnut Tree Season

It looks like the new seedlings that were planted had a pretty good season. Last week we took a detailed look at the trees in order to mark the ones that did not make it. We had a 4% loss rate which was about expected. And we were very pleased to have such a mild summer with enough rain that irrigation was not necessary. I'll take some photos this week to show how far some of the seedlings have grown out of the tubes. We've been working on the fields this week with mowing and next we will be back to weeding carefully around each tree. In March 2010 we will replace the trees that did not make it and decide what needs to be done next.

One question we do have is about spraying. We did not worry about this too much because we did not anticipate much foliage on the trees. However, even the trees that did not exceed the height of the tubes have leaves on them. If anyone can give us some direction on a spray schedule and products it would be greatly appreciated. We have some general information on nut trees in general, but nothing specific to chestnuts. Thanks for your help.

Back to the Farm (ok, the Pool)

I haven't given up on the farm blog, or the farm. We've been a little distracted this summer with something not entirely farm related. This summer we installed a pool. Literally. Ourselves. Although this is not complete, we have done a few things that hopefully will benefit the farm.

First, we installed irrigation pipe from our creek to the top of hill where the garden resides. Yes, we used the irrigation pump for the pool, but really, we will be using this for irrigation beginning in the spring. Then, we had a hydroseeder come and seed the banks around the pool. This lesson taught us to let the professionals just do their job. We have grass around the pool, in less than 7 days. We did plant our own grass on the outskirts of the hydroseed, and then blew straw on it. Maybe we'll have grass in those areas in 70 days. Finally, we installed snow fence, hence the redneck pool photo. Installing snow fence is much easier than installing wood plank fence and it comes already painted, orange. We did this mainly because of small children and safety. Maybe we'll keep it. Nah.

Orchard Weeds

We had to do a little research to find out how we could efficiently weed the orchard without working 24/7. On-line we found an attachment for the Bobcat called a Weed Badger. Basically this is installed on the front of the skid-steer. It allows you to move the Weed Badger between the trees, without disturbing the trees. Sort of like a souped-up weed eater. You can see how clean the rows are.

Chestnut Growth

I haven't forgotten about the blog, we've just been pretty busy on the farm. Here are 2 pictures of the chestnut trees. We have a few that are actually growing out of the tube. Remember that the tubes are 5' tall. We were so fortunate to have all of the rain right after planting, and hopefully this will lead to strong growth for the rest.

Spring Rain

When the weather gets hot and dry, it always seems, to me, that it may never rain again. But of course, that's not the case. We've had a great rain this weekend, almost 2 inches since Friday. The trees will be in good shape when the sun comes out again. And since I planted the garden last week, I'm thrilled that it got a good soaking.

90 Degrees

We've had a pretty good stretch of very hot weather in April. It has been 90 degrees and hotter, Saturday through today, with temps beginning to lower by Wednesday. So how is this affecting the trees? Our concern about purchasing the tubes was about heat collection in the tube. However, although the tubes are called "grow tubes", they are ventilated. About 18" from the ground the ventilation begins and is about 12" from there. Hopefully this will be enough to allow heat to escape and prevent the tree from burning. We'll let you know in about a week how that is working out.

Fertilizer

Generally we try to do all of our tree fertilization in early spring, but shipping schedules of our trees, the fertilizer and the rain put us off a few weeks. This weekend, we added fertilizer packages to our tree tubes. Because our soil is so poor and much rain was on the way, we dropped the packages into the tubes instead of planting them with the plants (and because the fertilizer did not arrive until a week after the tree planting was completed). Sometimes you just have to work within circumstances that are out of your control. Above is a photo of the fertilizer pack. And yes, it looks like a tea bag.

Tree Tubes

Last year we lost the majority of our chestnut crop to deer pressure and drought. Not again. We decided to invest in tree tubes. There are orchards that choose to use these tubes to jump-start growth on their trees. Our primary goal was to protect them from the deer.

The trees that we planted are between 24-36" tall. The tree tubes are 5' tall. A 1/2 inch bamboo pole (6' tall) was installed next to each tree. The tube fits over the pole and the tree and then secured with 3 plastic ties. It was a very windy day when we installed the majority of the tubes, and they withstood the wind and heavy rains.

Without tree tubes, crop loss can be very great. With the tubes, we expect about a 4% loss due to weather and soil conditions annually.

Chestnut Trees Planted

So I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of our new orchard. Here are the before and after of the tubes. As you can see, it is almost impossible to determine where the trees are after they have been planted. But once the tubes are on, we'll be able to do an accurate count of trees in each field. We'll be evaluating the success rate of trees in each field so that we can prepare for next year.