Weather

[Nan_PA_6b]

Originally Posted by oakley

...Usually I get Asian pears every 3-4 years. So much work as they need to be culled...

They only crop every 3-4 years? Is that their nature, or the weather? What sort of culling?
Nan

[oakley]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

They only crop every 3-4 years? Is that their nature, or the weather? What sort of culling?
Nan

We had no fruit from the AsianPear the last two years. 3 years ago we had bussels of fruit.
It is more sensitive to the mountain climate than most fruit tree. (altitude)
Often an early warm week in early Spring followed by a frost ....loss of bloom and fruit set.

It is 15 years old and setting fruit 4-5 per cluster. Needs to be culled to one or two. The
weight alone will pull and break branches. Also the fruit is smaller if not culled.

My apples and pears fruit every year though some years better than others.

It is a mixed blessing to have a stellar year being so much work. Pruning, culling, harvesting.

And I have a bear that can sniff out ripe fruit. I caught him/her in my regular pear tree last year.
Broke two big branches sitting/climbing for ripe fruit. He got all he could reach and left me a few.
I took a brix reading and decided to wait a week but he knew best.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Originally Posted by oakley

...And I have a bear that can sniff out ripe fruit. I caught him/her in my regular pear tree last year.
Broke two big branches sitting/climbing for ripe fruit. He got all he could reach and left me a few.
I took a brix reading and decided to wait a week but he knew best.

Ouch; you can't very well bear-proof anything.

Nan

[imp]

Pear stuffed bear with pear sauce.

[oakley]

Originally Posted by imp

Pear stuffed bear with pear sauce.

On a bear rug...
It was a teen bear. Really nice silky coat as it ran off. Fortunately
we scared off with the two pups 20 steps ahead of me.

[oakley]

Originally Posted by bower

Gotta gripe for my poor tomatoes - three straight days of rain and fog, no sun = no heat in the greenhouse, and those plants are cold, cold and miserable after 72 hours of temps between 44 and 54 F. Purple on the ribs, yellowing centers on the newest leaves.
Then the sun actually came out nearly 4 in the afternoon, okay I won't complain but we got up to 62 F for a couple of hours, we are now past the hour of direct sun. Maybe tonight will only drop to 50 F, but the forecast is for more FOG and drizzle tomorrow, then showers on sunday... .. no sunshine forecast for two or three more days.
Unheated greenhouse is a bit of a crapshoot, but who can afford a heated one.

I've wondered about the fog. One year we had ten days of drizzle with heavy fog.
Early Spring. Wondered about heating a greenhouse in those conditions. Still designing and
wondering if closer to the home using a blower from wood cookstove heat since it keeps
the house way too warm on a usual day, even fog and rain.
(I have a Newfoundland home a few hours from Bower for those that don't know that)

Fog in Newfoundland can be so thick the visibility is 3 feet. Once we had to pull over and
sleep in the truck for 5 hours until it lifted. We had to tap with our feet to 'feel' the road
off the shoulder.

[bower]

Yeah Oakley greenhouses don't work in the fog. Woodstove with blower a good idea, if you can make the gh tight enough to keep heat in... otherwise may as well heat all of Bonavista.
It only takes a glimmer to warm up a bit though. We got up to 60 F by 3 in the afternoon today, in spite of being entirely overcast. Just a break in the fog is enough to survive another day.... More fog tomorrow though and then snow tomorrow night. Merely showers Monday, we'll be laughing.
I trenched the big tub tomatoes with caplin the day before the fog set in... was hoping it would keep their toes warm. Just hoping it doesn't get terribly stinky the minute the sun comes out.

[salix]

Hopefully can plant tomorrow, tonight is forecast to get down to 1C (that usually means -2C). Last Thursday night the temperature was at -2C, for over 5 hours . Was really glad I'd kept all my tender stuff at home and sheltered.

[bower]

My sympathies Salix, in the same boat. Frost this morning had all the perennials buckled down. Don't know how we're doing under the row cover but I hope some of those peas will survive what we've been through. It's time to get the next round of greens seedlings out in our gardens but... I hope this is the last we see of frost this season!!! Leek and shallot seedlings are down to a single leaf....
We're finally getting sunshine today and UV 8 after a week of darkness: torrential rain, days of fog, freezing temperatures, snow... all one after another. Will be tending the tomatoes closely today, as they are going from one extreme to the other.
Couple pics, the flooded forest just starting this bout of bad weather, the snow on ground yesterday morning. Snow in June is not unheard of, but the last time it happened was 22 years ago. Not a common thing (thank goodness!!)
Here's hoping your weather gets summery too!!!

[Nan_PA_6b]

Oh, man, I feel for you people still suffering freezing conditions. I was sick of winter in January.



Nan

[AlittleSalt]

What month is it?

In April, it felt more like early March - not unusual, but not normal.
In May, it was more like July without much rain - very unusual.
June has been like June temperature-wise, but no rain. 35+C / 95-99F

We went to town this evening, and the fields and pastures are dead plant yellow-brown like it is here in August, and it's dry and dusty like in August. Hay is a crop grown a lot around here, and they are already bailing.

[imp]

May not get second or rowan cuttings on the hay this year, too dry. The posted fire danger is way up, too. May get rain next Monday and Tuesday up here, but I never count on it until I see it.

[bower]

We finally broke our streak of bad weather nine days ago. Since then we have been consistently below normal temperatures but we've been happy to get it, ie so much better than the week before. In the greenhouse, we had seven days out of nine with a high above 60 F, that is a tomato growing-degree-day. And the not-mater-days were not one after the other, which is good. Five days out of nine we even were in the 70's in the greenhouse and pretty perfect tomato weather. Green tomatoes getting big enough to be cute.
In the long term forecast, the below normal trend looks to continue until the solstice.
The lettuce and greens I transplanted under row cover before the 'wintermayjune' fiasco don't appear to have grown a bit! But the saving grace, the older stuff in containers has not even bolted, so we still have something to eat.

[Worth1]

The weather here is just fabulous.
If you are a cactus.
Worth

[rxkeith]

i am now living in a natural disaster area.

we had a storm come through overnight that dumped close to 7 inches of rain on the area in 7 hours. it was constant thunder, lightening, high winds that did not let up. roads are washed out. a bridge near chassel is washed out, and will take awhile to repair. my drive by the road is about gone. a neighbors drive over the culvert is gone.
only way out for me was in the truck down a seasonal road that bisects our property. i had to dodge a culvert on one side of the road that looked to be a couple feet deep.
some areas may need to be evacuated. one person who works at my store had to jump out a second story window of her house that was filling with water.
the area is a mess. more rain is coming. no telling how long it will take to fix everything.
we are on high ground, so no worries about major flooding. we have a wet basement is all. part of our road is chopped up with several inches gone, but we can get out. others are not so lucky. no word on injuries yet. one of my techs is a first responder. she was running to calls at 4am according to my partner.
i will update when possible


keith