Grafted an Arkansas Black Apple scion onto M-111 rootstock. Done at Maricopa Extension Office with AZRFG. First graft I have ever done.

No buds on the Arkansas Black scion which means that this graft did not work. The rootstock is growing so will let this grow and graft onto it next year.

Attended AZRFG scion exchange and got a number of scions for grafting:

• Cripps Pink - grafted onto failed Arkansas Black and Espalier Apple
• Braeburn - grafted onto failed Arkansas Black
• Dorsett Golden - grafted onto Espalier Apple
• Snow Queen Nectarine - grafted onto Arctic Star
• Katy Apricot - Grafted onto 3 in 1 Stone
• Autumn Gold Apricot - Grafted onto 3 in 1 Stone
• Black Mission Fig - straight to ground
• Li Jujube - straight to ground

After grafting Braeburn (on the right) and a Cripps Pink (on the left) scions onto the two branches coming out of the rootstock. Graft type: cleft.

Looks like the Cripps Pink graft has taken.

I think that I can see a bud on the Braeburn graft.

Fertilized all fruit trees with citrus/avocado fertilizer.

Removed the tape from around the 2 grafts: Cripps Pink and Braeburn.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 4'8"

• The height has changed by 0" over the last 71 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 4'8"

Applied 4 gallons of Neem Oil to a bunch of trees.

Irrigation on 4 port for Grime Delicious and Cripps/Braeburn.

Jobe's All purpose fertilizer around all trees in NW orchard + water

First flowers about to open on Cripps Pink. Strong growth on both Cripps and Braeburn scions.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Manually defoliated the old leaves from the Cripps Pink scion.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Wood chip mulch around base of tree.

Created mulch cones around the bases of a number of trees today.

First apple has formed on Cripps Pink. Still very small. Theorize that something nearby has pollinated it.

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 3.1"

Braeburn has flowers for the first time

Cripps flowing again

• The height has changed by 4" over the last 239 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'

The lone Cripps Pink apple is surviving and growing very slowly.

Root stock producing a sucker for next year's grading.

I was showing a friend the orchard today and she pointed out that the Braeburn scion had some apples on it which I hadn't noticed before.

I still can't determine which one of these is the King Apple so I can remove the rest and just let it grow. This tree is way too small to let more than 1 apple grow on it.

I'm going to apply for a world record for the slowest growing apple in history. The sole cripps pink apple on this tree is bigger than before but not by much. Winter will be over and spring will be here before it reaches its full size.

• The height has changed by 5" over the last 92 days.
• The girth has changed by -0.8" over the last 196 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'5"
• Girth (inches only): 2.4"

Finally some color on the solitary apple.

More blush on the apple.

Frost on the ground this morning. Further back the mesquites are protecting the ground from the frost.

The single fruit just gets redder and redder.

Added irrigation ring with 6 emitters of 0.5 GPH each for a total of 3 GPH.

Curious about when the best time to pick this apple is I posted on Fruit Trees Anonymous and Epic Yard Farm had this great information:

Crisp Pink and Crisp Red are both Fall apples. The literature say they are normally the first to bloom and some of the last to be harvested. I recently harvested my Crisp Pink also. They need the long summer to develop and then put on color in the fall where night temp is cool and day temp is warm. The size of the apple is likely due to summer dormancy and watering schedule during the first couple of months of fruit development. My Crisp pink had a couple grocery store size apples and some really small ones.

I also had harvested some fruit off my Crisp Pink in September for flavor test, they were crisp and juicy, but not as sweet as the December ones.

For me, it is worth the wait, but also requires careful pruning in late fall to expose the apples for color development, I leave the foliage dense through summer to prevent sun burn on the apple.

My Crisp Pink gave me one apple the first spring in the ground and this year I had about 24 apples and it is only second spring in the ground.

So today I picked the solitary apple...

The texture was fantastic, perfectly crisp. You can definitely taste the sugar in the apple. That wasn't without some astringency and sourness. With hindsight I think that this apple might have been able to last another month on the tree. Here's hoping that there's a larger crop next year and tasting can be staggered over several weeks.

This also marks a milestone in my fruit growing/grafting. This is the first time that I've eaten fruit of a graft that I did. This graft was done around 2 years ago.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 1
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔

• Manually defoliated to encourage dormancy.
  • Did not defoliate the root stock growth because not interested in that going dormant. In fact I'm happy to encourage its growth while we're having such mild weather as this will be the host for another graft next year.
• Pruned off the tips of all branches to encourage vase like lateral growth instead of vertical growth.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Sprayed a bunch of trees with Copper Fungicide. Mixed 2.0 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

The irrigation for the pears runs from the base of the 2 in 1 Cripps Braeburn Apple. 2 of the lines run the based of the trees and the third line runs to 14 inches under the Seckel.

Sprayed with Neem Oil. 2 Fl Oz per gallon. Made a total of 4 gallons for the trees listed on this note.

Got a bunch of apple scions from today's AZRFG scion exchange. I decided the graft the Gala scion onto this tree. I used the V blade from the Grafting Tool. This is the first time I've used this blade.

It took me about 10 minutes to change the blade from the one that came with the tool which is the U blade. Now that I know how to do it I think that I can probably change a blade in around 5 minutes.

Mushrooms growing near the base of this tree where I have some bareroot trees healed in that get water each day.

• The height has changed by -5" over the last 85 days.
• The girth has changed by 0.1" over the last 85 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'
• Girth (inches only): 2.5"

First bud on Braeburn scion

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

First bud on the Cripps Pink.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

• The girth has changed by 1.1" over the last 27 days.

Girth now before branching

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 3.6"

Flower forming on the Cripps scion.

Also the gala graft on the rootstock is taking off.

First blossom on the Cripps Pink for the season.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

First blossom on the Braeburn.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

I feel that the blossoms on the Cripps & Braeburn scions this year are earlier than last year.

Found a whole bunch of nasty aphids on the Cripps Pink scion today. Soaked them in soapy water.

Aphids on a few leaves again. Sprayed with soapy water.

More aphids on the Cripps Pink scion. The Braeburn and Gala scions are completely untouched. They seem to be appearing every two days but in smaller numbers each time. I assume that more eggs are hatching progressively. I douse them with soapy water and that appears to kill them. I feel that this strategy has them under control as I cannot see any damage to the leaves as I think that I'm catching them just-in-time.

The second image shows the whole tree. The left half of the tree is the Cripps Pink and the right half is the Braeburn. The gala is the scion at the bottom of the tree that was grafted within the last couple of months.

Small apples forming. Still flowering.

A ton of aphids on the Cripps Pink scion today. Still none on the Braeburn and Gala scions on this tree.

The other image are new Cripps Pink apples forming.

Still lots of aphids on the tree. Seems to be a new batch of aphids every 2 or 3 days.

Spray with Pyrethrin for aphids.

Gave the Cripps scion another spray with Bonide Pyrethrin Garden Insect Spray Concentrate.

Cripps Pink scion is still flowering. Removed some apples from both the Cripps and Braeburn scions to (1) reduce the clusters of apples to a single King Apple and (2) to remove the apples from the ends of the thin branches to stop them from breaking.

Images:

1. A baby Braeburn Apple. Probably 4 weeks since it was a flower. It has a very clean split around three-quarters of the apple. It's almost as if the fruit grew too fast and the skin wasn't elastic enough.
2. Another Braeburn. This one's looking healthy.
3. Cripps has started flowering again.

Three of the Braeburn apples have this growing-too-fast split in them so far. This one is the third.

Otherwise the tree is doing well and the Gala scion is healthy and growing.

Both the Cripps and Braeburn scions have new flowers. Image is of the Braeburn flower.

The braeburn apples are shriveling and dying. Might be that they already became ripe and didn't grow to their full size because of the immaturity of the tree or might be something else...

The gala scion is doing very well. To the left of the tag is new rootstock growth which might be used for grafting next year and further left is more rootstock growth, also for grafting next year.

The gala scion is doing really well. This tree generally very healthy.

Sprayed a bunch of trees with a 2 fluid ounce per gallon of water Bonide Copper Fungicide.

Manually defoliated so that I could start pruning and spraying.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Sprayed with copper fungicide and all seasons horticultural oil. In total I made 8 gallons of the mixture using two different copper products:

Batch #1: Bonide Copper Fungicide - 2 fluid ounces per gallon of water + Bonide Horticultural Oil - 3.75 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

Batch #2: Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water + Bonide Horticultural Oil - 3.75 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

Sprayed with 3 Fluid Ounces per gallon of Pyrethrin mixed with 1 Fluid Ounce per gallon of Neem Oil. Purpose of this is to combat the influx of Glassy Winged Sharpshooters that have suddenly been observed and also to hopefully suppress Peach Borers.

• The height has changed by 4" over the last 368 days.
• The girth has changed by 0.3" over the last 341 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'4"
• Girth (inches only): 3.9"

First bud on Cripps scion.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

• Some damage at the base of the Cripps scion.
• Still no buds on the Cripps or Gala scions. The Braeburn only has a couple.

The aphids have appeared on the Cripps Pink apple. This is amazing at how they are drawn to this apple in particular.

I was wrong about the aphids only being on the Cripps scion. I found them on the Braeburn scion today as well. Sprayed with soapy water.

The aphid infestation continues on any new sign of green even though I'm spraying with soapy water each day. Today I ordered 1,500 ladybugs from Amazon which should arrive in about a week. I also spotted a lacewing larva on another tree nearby so hoping for some of those larva on this tree or I'll transfer it if I see it again.

Ordered 1,500 ladybugs and they arrived today. Around 1,000 still alive. Put them mostly on the apple trees and in the vegetable garden. They immediately started eating the aphids on the apple trees.

First blossom on the Braeburn scion. Still no buds on the Gala yet.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Jordan grafted a Swaar scion onto a sucker on the gala scion today. (The gala scion is still dormant but the other two have started budding.)

A few pounds of used coffee grounds at the base of the tree.

Pulled up a coriander bush that's loaded with ladybugs and larvae at different stages and wedged it into this tree to provide a continuous supply of aphid eating creatures.

The Gala scion has finally started to leaf out. But it's doing so in an interesting manner. In the image the Gala is coming out of the lowest point on the tree and to the left. The part of the scion that is leafing out is the part a friend recently grafted on a Swaar Apple scion. The rest of the Gala scion has not started to leaf out yet. I'm wondering if the graft and the cutting at that point stimulated that part of the Gala scion coming out of dormancy early than the other parts. This is even though the Swaar on the Gala has not taken (yet).

The second image is a close up showing the recent graft of the Swaar to the left.

Braeburn apples forming on this tree.

In the second image the branch on the right is the Braeburn and on the left is the Cripps Pink. At the base the green leaves is the Gala scion.

Thinned off seven apples from the Braeburn scion leaving around four on the tree. The cluster of four in the second image was taken down to one.

One of the Braeburn apples.

Braeburn apples developing.

Not sure if the Braeburn is suffering from insect or bird damage or if it's just the heat or if it's even because the tree is still so young.

Harvested the two remaining apples from the Braeburn. The one of the left was half rotten but the part that wasn't rotten was crisp and sweet with almost no astringency. The one of the right was still not ripe and tasted like a slightly green unripe apple because that's what it was.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 2
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔

Still lots of leaves on this so had to manually defoliate today.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Spread around 19 pounds of Arizona's Best Soil Sulphur at the base of these trees today.

First buds on both the Braeburn and Cripps scions. No sign of buds on Gala yet.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

• All trees in the Northwest orchard.
• Distributed 50 lbs of Tiger 90CR Sulfur pellets.
• Mixed in 1 pints of Link P31 (8-31-5) Nitrogen/Phosphates and two-fifths of a tablespoon of Borax powder to add Boron in around 40 to 50 gallons of water in the gorilla card. There was only 1 pint of Link P31 solution left in the container but the bottom of the container had a bunch of stuff stuck to the bottom that I rinsed out and added so it was probably more like 2 pints.
• Used the shower nozzle on the hose and watered the sulfur and Link P31 through the mulch.

This provides this part of the orchard (Northwest) which is 1,000 square feed with the following:

• 0.5 pounds of Nitrogen
• 2 pounds of Phosphate
• 0.02 pounds of Boron

• The height has changed by 7" over the last 404 days.
• The girth has changed by 0.8" over the last 404 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'11"
• Girth (inches only): 4.6"

First blossom on Braeburn scion.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

First blossom on the Cripps scion.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Gala scion has finally woken up.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Last blossoms on both the Cripps and Braeburn.

Metrics:

• Last Blossom: ✔

Both the Cripps and Braeburn are flowering again. The apple in the image is from the Cripps.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Seems to be doing fairly well. The Crips scion has 3 apples on it and the Braeburn has around 10.

I was trimming the tree and discovered this hidden gem. Tasted delicious. I think this is the first "real" one I've had. It was tiny.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 1
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔

The image photo'd from the south side. The branch on the right is the gala scion that's shedding its leaves early than the other two (cripps/braeburn).

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Started to manually defoliate and prune this tree today but didn't manage to finish. This image is before I started work on the tree.

Finished manually defoliating and pruning.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Monterey Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water. Made a total of 4 gallons for these trees.

Sprayed with Plantonix Neem Oil. Mixed 1 fl oz per gallon. Also added one-third fl oz of mild dish soap liquid per gallon. Made a total of 8 gallons for these trees.

Spray ran out on the espalier apple so only did around half of that tree.

Spread 320 pounds of Arizona's Best Ammonium Sulfate around yard. Includes all trees tagged on this note which is about 95% of the trees in the orchard.

First bud on Braeburn scion.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

First blossom on the Braeburn scion. The other two scions haven't even leafed out yet.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

First bud on Cripps.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Some of these got a very light spray as they'd just been sprayed a couple of days earlier.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

A cluster of Braeburn thinned down to a single. Did this to about 3 clusters. The gala apple scion has a good bunch of leaves on it now.

Images in order:

• Flowers from the Gala scion. I think this is the first time that I've seen the Gala graft flower on this tree.
• The Cripps is flowering as well.
• The whole tree.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

• The height has changed by -6" over the last 641 days.
• The girth has changed by 1.5" over the last 641 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'5"
• Girth (inches only): 6.1"

Put 0.5 fluid ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron in a gallon of water and poured at base.

First blossom on braeburn

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

First time that all 3 scions (braeburn, cripps, gala) have fruit on them. The braeburn probably had over a hundred apples. The cripps around 50 and the gala around 5 to 10. I've stripped all the apples to encourage the tree to grow.

Metrics:

• Last Blossom: ✔

Sprayed with a mix of Plantonix Neem Oil and Bonide Horticultural and Dormant Spray Oil. Mixed 1 fl oz per gallon of Neem and about 3.5 fl oz for the Bonide. Did half the quantity of each oil to make 4 gallons in total. Also added one-third fl oz of mild dish soap liquid per gallon.

Put 0.5 fluid ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron in a gallon of water and poured at base.

Spread 42 lbs of Monterey's Dr Iron product around the yard under every tree. Product is 55% sulfur and 22% iron.

Fruit on both the Braeburn and Gala scions. First time that I've seen fruit on the Gala. Thinned out all apple clusters on both scions to a single apple per cluster.

Marked as dead today as it didn't survive the rest of the summer.