Do you feel lucky

Well I could start this post with how inconsistent the weather has been, hot temps everyday, very very dry, and did I mention how dry it is lately. I cannot remember a winter like this one has been, however with all of its shortcomings I have good news to report. That's right as I am sitting here in my chair, darkness has fell, and what do I hear on the roof? Its raining! Do you feel lucky? I do...

Apple blooms

I am going into my second leaf here in the low chill orchard and already have a show. I do not have anything to compare it with, however I am sure that having apple blossoms in the first weekend of February is unusual. Now don't get me wrong the trees in my orchard are not full of blooms and I guess you can have some blossoms at anytime thru the year when you live in a place like central Florida. It has only been a couple of weeks that I put my trees to sleep as you can see from a previous post but it seems I may be on my way to an early spring.

Visitor to low chill orchard

When you spend a lot of time outdoors you will always see a great variety of creatures. I love to see these visitors to my backyard garden/orchard. Here is a recent example of a rare close encounter of the woodpecker type. I know it is sometimes hard to let areas of the garden go without some sort of intervention to clean and prune out things that are dead, however this should be a reminder to leave some of these areas in the garden untouched. Many times these areas are a super necessary hideaway and diner table for these little guys. Anyway hope you enjoy this little clip of my recent encounter.

Putting my apple trees to sleep

Happy New Year everyone! This year has given some serious cold weather that is very unusual for central Florida. Just as I was beginning to think that winter was nowhere in sight, wham! a hard freeze here in the Low Chill Orchard. I had temps all the way down to 27F and for a very extended time thru the night. The apple trees in my backyard orchard were hit a little off guard and some of the leaves were damaged. I made an executive decision to just go by hand and pick every leaf off of the trees to force the trees into dormancy. After removing the leaves I also mixed 1oz. of copper spray to a gallon of water in my pump sprayer and lightly coated each tree after some detail winter pruning of course. So for now I say good night to my trees for what is started as an unusual winter.

Cold temps on the way!

A couple of days ago I posted that my lemon tree was in full bloom and I was not kidding. I also said that the temps were running above normal, again not kidding! I posted a video today on YouTube as to how great of a day it was mild, maybe cool, but surely not cold. Now look out!, out of nowhere here comes the cold. Low temps in the morning tomorrow are set to hit 29F. Now someone will read this and say 29F is not cold, well remember this is central Florida you know the sunshine state. Let me be the first to tell you if you don't already know. That is cold for here!!!! Don't misunderstand it has been colder, but to go from one extreme to the other on a dime will shake things up around here. I am sure that tomorrow Home Depot will be sold out of space heaters. Now I know why I see the robins all over the yard today. Anyway not much to do other than go with the flow.

Lemon tree is blooming

Here it is late December and you would think that most trees in the orchard would be fast asleep and ready for the winter. Not so in the backyard orchard in central Florida with some high temps at that 80F mark. High temps this time of year are generally around the low to mid 70F zone. I am just branching out to a couple of citrus trees to have some variety in the backyard orchard. I have noticed that the lemon tree is starting to show signs of going into bloom as you can see from the video. After getting posts from YT friend in southern California I guess it is not so unusual. Anyway I just wanted to share my experience on this unusual winter orchard bloom.

Very warm Christmas in the orchard

Well today was Christmas day but it almost felt like summer time. In the sunshine the temps were pushing 85 degrees and slightly humid. I would almost say unseasonably warm, but that would not be totally true because this is after all central Florida. I did a small video yesterday and made an orchard walk to show how my apple trees are staying in full leaf. I am not to sure how to address this if we don't get colder weather. I guess I will just have to be patient and hopefully it comes. Otherwise I may be left with the decision of pulling the leaves off the apple trees to force dormancy. Maybe it will not come to that and winter will set in over the next few weeks.