Working on the Fruit Trees in Preparation for a Storm + Planting a Dwarf Birch Tree! ✂️
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00:00 early on when they were real little. We were walking around out here the other day and I realized
00:04 how many fruit were on this tree and how much weight this tree is bearing. Oh my goodness,
00:09 like look at this one branch. All of these fruit. That is way too many. Way, way, way too many.
00:16 I had no idea. I thought that we were already done with this chore. So we're going to go in
00:21 and we're going to just remove a ton of this weight here today. Like a ton of it. We've also
00:28 got two peach trees on the other side we're going to be thinning. They're not weighed down like this
00:32 one is. This is the worst. But it's something that we have to get done today because we're expecting
00:36 the tail end of Hurricane Hillary to arrive at some point. So we have a drop of 20 degrees from
00:41 today to tomorrow and then we have severe weather warnings and flash flood warnings.
00:46 So if we do get all of that rain and this tree's already bearing all the weight of this fruit,
00:51 the tree for sure will snap in half. I'm also going to remove all of the fruit off of our Honeycrisp
00:57 apple tree. Pretty much all of it I think. Yeah you can see all the wormholes. You're supposed to
01:02 spray apple trees every two weeks from like the time that they start setting their fruit like
01:08 blooming and starting to setting their fruit all the way until the end of July and I only
01:12 sprayed them one time. It's just something that I didn't think about and something I don't really
01:16 want to have to do out here. So I'm going to try to figure out something different we can do.
01:20 The other trees I don't have to spray other than our dormant spray application which is you know
01:26 something I usually don't forget because we're not as busy that time of year. Anyway I just
01:30 figured that if we remove these fruit then the tree will be relieved of one the weight as well
01:35 even though it's not like succumbing to the pressure yet but also we won't tax the tree's
01:40 root system by trying to ripen all of these buggy apples. So we're early enough in the morning now
01:45 that it's pretty pleasant out here at the moment. So this is just a chore that I'm just gonna have
01:50 to stand here and and do and really like I'm not concerned about keeping a tremendous amount of
01:55 fruit on each branch because the whole tree is loaded. This is a flavor top nectarine right here
01:59 and I really wish I would have noticed it sooner. Oh my goodness. It's a happy tree. I mean we'll
02:05 give it that. Okay so let's just get after this and get this done. It'll make me feel a whole lot better.
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03:01 - This tree looks so much better.
03:11 I am amazed.
03:13 And there are still a ton of fruit on it.
03:15 I could probably thin more,
03:17 but look at this in the back of the gator.
03:20 Just piles and piles.
03:24 I don't know how many, like hundreds of fruit
03:26 we have in the back here, but a lot.
03:28 And I did take off some foliar growth too,
03:30 stuff that didn't have nectarines on it,
03:33 just like that weaker growth,
03:34 but the ones that had a lot of leaves,
03:36 because if rain does come,
03:38 that's a lot of weight that this would create.
03:40 So we just lighten the load.
03:42 I can breathe easier for this tree.
03:45 It looks so much better.
03:46 I mean, look at this one branch.
03:48 And it will pick up even more
03:49 because it was getting kind of used to being weighed down.
03:51 So the wood starts to harden that way.
03:53 But now that the weight has been lifted,
03:55 it's had a chance to correct a bit,
03:56 and I expect it to correct even more.
03:59 Let's come around this side.
04:01 You can see how many fruit are just still left on there.
04:05 But there's plenty of light and airflow
04:09 around each one of the branches.
04:11 And you can see here kind of how much space
04:13 I tried to leave.
04:15 Now, if I would have got after this a little sooner,
04:17 I think that we would, in the end,
04:19 have a little bit larger fruit,
04:20 which thankfully I had already thinned it this year.
04:22 I mean, the amount that this tree is producing is insane.
04:25 You know, when I thinned them before,
04:26 they were about this big, like maybe the size of a quarter,
04:29 and they were all like really hard and green.
04:32 And I removed, like I said, about half
04:34 of what was on this tree,
04:35 knowing that this tree couldn't support that many,
04:38 not realizing how many were actually still left on here.
04:41 So, you know, this fruit will still have time
04:43 to size up more before it starts to ripen.
04:47 But had I got after this thinning process
04:49 even sooner than this,
04:50 we probably would have even more larger fruit.
04:53 And that's the whole goal of thinning.
04:54 It's not taxing your tree too much
04:56 because that's a tremendous amount of energy
04:58 that that tree would have to send
05:00 into ripening all of those fruits.
05:02 And that way it has more energy to send
05:03 to all the fruit that are left
05:05 so that they get nice and big
05:06 and the tree stays healthy and stays intact.
05:10 The tree doesn't fall apart if you get rain or wind.
05:12 So tree number one is done.
05:15 We'll keep our eyes on it.
05:16 Just make sure, you know,
05:17 if we need to come out here and remove anything else.
05:20 I feel better about taking off some of that outer growth
05:23 that would weigh the branches down even more.
05:25 In fact, I feel like I could come in and take more.
05:27 I was taking off stuff like this.
05:29 And I think my approach with this tree, this variety,
05:31 at least in particular,
05:32 is I'm going to prune a heck of a lot more of it
05:34 when it's dormant.
05:35 I left a lot of little branches
05:37 that I probably shouldn't have.
05:38 So yeah, we'll be doing a much more thorough job
05:41 and then we won't have as big of a crop
05:45 to thin out to begin with.
05:46 Okay, while we're in the same location,
05:48 let's go ahead and remove all these apples.
05:50 This will be a pretty easy job.
05:52 Honeycrisp apple has been removed of its apples.
06:17 So now it can just keep focusing on root development
06:20 and staying healthy.
06:22 All but one, because this apple looked pretty good.
06:25 This is the first year this tree has set fruit,
06:28 which I was about ready to give up on it
06:29 because this is year three and everything else,
06:31 including our Fuji, has been very productive in this space
06:34 while this one just sat here.
06:36 So that part is a bummer.
06:37 But I wanted to mention that while it's hard to watch this
06:41 because you're seeing food, you know, go into a bin,
06:43 thinning your fruit trees is part of it.
06:45 That's part of the process and you have to do that.
06:48 So all of this, normal.
06:50 Apples, that was my fault
06:51 for not staying on a spray schedule.
06:53 But you know, you learn every year
06:55 things that you cannot skip doing.
06:56 But the good thing about this
06:58 is that these are going to feed Bethany's pigs.
07:00 So every time we have something like this happen,
07:03 and it's bound to happen,
07:03 I think it happens for everybody,
07:05 something falls between the cracks
07:06 and you just don't get to it.
07:08 I just love that we have a way for this produce
07:10 to be used up.
07:11 So whatever we end up with in the bed of this gator today,
07:14 all of it will be going to Bethany's pigs.
07:17 So it will be feeding something.
07:18 I don't know why, but that eases my conscience in a way.
07:21 Oh, gotta grab my shoes.
07:23 Wonderful part about this grass in here
07:27 is that you can be completely barefoot.
07:28 I love it.
07:29 And what a pleasant morning out here.
07:31 Look at this.
07:31 Minus the tub.
07:32 Let me move the tub.
07:33 That's ruining it.
07:34 Look.
07:36 Oh, beautiful.
07:39 Yeah, see, look at this Fuji tree, you guys.
07:41 Like there are a few apples
07:43 that have a little bit of worm damage
07:45 and I'll kind of pick through today,
07:46 but largely untouched, looking beautiful.
07:50 I don't know what the difference is.
07:52 Okay, here are the peach trees.
07:53 Similar situation as the nectarines.
07:56 This is a Snow Beauty white peach.
07:58 Oh my word.
08:01 I also removed about half the fruit
08:03 that these set earlier on.
08:04 So I have no idea where all of these appeared from.
08:07 And then right over here, we have Alberta peaches,
08:10 which I need to probably,
08:11 when I come in to do my pruning this next year,
08:13 I'm also going to be taking off bottom branches
08:16 because this is just a huge pain for Aaron
08:18 to get around when he's mowing.
08:19 I don't really want to do it today
08:20 because it's bigger cuts
08:22 and I'm only just making small cuts today.
08:25 So that's something that's on the docket to fix later.
08:28 Oh, look at the little jumping spider.
08:30 Cute.
08:31 Anyway, this one's loaded too.
08:32 You just can't see them quite as good
08:33 because they're the same,
08:34 almost the same color as the leaves.
08:36 Okay, so let's get it done.
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09:49 (sawing)
09:51 All done and these trees look so much better.
10:17 So here's the Snow Beauty White,
10:19 which these peaches have already started
10:21 to put on their color.
10:22 So I honestly, like they're still really hard.
10:25 So they'll probably size up a bit,
10:27 but they would have sized up way better
10:29 had I done this at the right time.
10:30 But you know what?
10:31 Better late than never,
10:32 better to get the fruit gone
10:34 so that we don't deal with any issues with too much weight.
10:38 It just, they look so much better.
10:40 Now on this one, like I said,
10:41 I'm going to come in and probably take off.
10:43 Hmm.
10:44 Let's see this one.
10:47 This one, this one, that one, that one,
10:50 and probably this one.
10:52 So we'll have a trunk that starts at the ground
10:56 and goes up to here.
10:57 Yeah, I think that'll make it a lot easier to get around it.
11:00 Now I decided to go ahead and take after this one
11:02 because I realized it was only three cuts, I think.
11:05 Yeah, three cuts and they weren't as big
11:07 as I thought they were going to be.
11:08 I thought there was much more
11:09 that was going to need to be cut.
11:10 And those were, especially on the backside of the tree,
11:12 they were laying on the ground already.
11:14 So that's no good.
11:16 Decided it was better just to get those off.
11:19 If you come in here, you can see thinned out peaches
11:23 and these definitely have a long way to go.
11:26 Oop, missed one.
11:27 They have a while to go yet
11:28 until they'll be ready to harvest anyway.
11:31 So I expected these to actually get a little bit bigger
11:34 than those.
11:35 And then I came through and cleaned up
11:37 just a few of these apples,
11:38 a few branches that were kind of cruising back
11:40 toward the inside of the plant,
11:42 which is oftentimes what I do during the pruning season.
11:45 Oh, I missed one.
11:46 See, don't want to keep that.
11:48 And you know what?
11:49 Bethany already came and got a big bunch
11:51 of what I took off the trees today.
11:53 And then she'll take the last of it here in a couple of days.
11:56 She said it'll take a bit for the pigs
11:58 to get through that first batch.
11:59 But that makes me so happy to know
12:01 that they'll get a treat out of the whole deal.
12:02 The weirdest part about this whole storm coming in
12:06 is that it says, okay, so today's high is 97.
12:10 Tomorrow's high is 78.
12:12 Usually with just a 10 degree drop,
12:14 we have a big bunch of wind.
12:15 And it's like very lightly breezy right now,
12:17 which is normal.
12:18 But there is not a single wind symbol at all on my forecast.
12:22 It just has the temperature drop and rain, 80% chance.
12:25 So while 50% tomorrow, 80% on Monday.
12:29 So yeah, I don't really know what to expect.
12:32 Okay, now that that chore is done,
12:34 I want to run and grab corn and onions
12:35 from the garden, I think.
12:37 And then I've got a birch tree that Isley sent out.
12:40 It's the cinnamon curls birch.
12:41 It's absolutely gorgeous.
12:43 I envisioned putting it around the pond,
12:45 but then it just didn't work out.
12:46 And that happens sometimes.
12:47 So I'd like to get that one planted out in the landscape
12:50 because it's currently in a wood box,
12:52 which I think it's fine,
12:53 but it takes a tremendous amount of care
12:55 to keep it dry or wet rather,
12:58 because it wants to dry out.
12:59 It just, it's root bound in there.
13:00 And I think it needs to be in the ground.
13:02 So I would like to get that done as well.
13:03 You're welcome fruit trees.
13:06 Little late, I know.
13:07 Oh, wait a minute.
13:08 This branch has been driving me crazy.
13:12 Oh, that looks better.
13:13 (leaves rustling)
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14:00 (door creaking)
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14:48 All right, so I got the onions and the corn.
15:02 I ended up harvesting the rest of the candy onions
15:04 that were out there,
15:05 and they are behind the barn, drying and curing now.
15:07 And then a few more of the walla wallas
15:09 that were ready to go.
15:10 And then I did find some corn
15:12 and I've just been harvesting four years at a time
15:14 as we've been wanting to eat it.
15:15 Oh, it looks so good.
15:18 This is the Ambrosia by Color 75 Day,
15:20 super sweet and delicious.
15:23 And I usually know it's ready to pick
15:25 when the silks on top kind of start to dry up a bit.
15:28 And then this is the Cinnamon Curls Birch Tree.
15:31 I'm actually in front of the greenhouse
15:32 because I need to go water in there before we plant,
15:36 but I'm very excited about this one.
15:37 I love the bark.
15:38 It stays really small.
15:40 I can't reach the tag, but I want to say it,
15:42 it tops out like at eight feet by six feet.
15:46 We'll double check when I get it down.
15:47 But anyway, this is the box I was talking about.
15:50 We have to cut that apart
15:51 and we tear the box apart to get it out.
15:54 But it's pretty rooted in there.
15:56 I mean, the water just shoots right through.
15:57 And usually this one,
15:59 I need to water twice a day when it's in a container.
16:01 It just needs regular moisture
16:02 once it's planted in the ground,
16:03 but some plants are just harder in containers than others
16:06 to keep real happy.
16:07 So I'm gonna water,
16:08 we'll gather our supplies to plant this,
16:10 and then we'll go out and get it in the ground.
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16:52 All right, guys, it's been a couple of days,
17:09 but we did get the birch tree in the ground.
17:10 It looks really good.
17:11 It's replacing a gingko we had out here
17:13 that just all of a sudden died with no explanation.
17:16 Like the whole top died.
17:17 It looked like there might be a little bit of life
17:19 pushing from the bottom, but anyway,
17:21 decided to remove that and put the birch tree in its spot.
17:24 It looks great.
17:25 Look at that.
17:26 It just tucked in beautifully.
17:29 So right in this spot, we've got a black lace elderberry,
17:32 the limelight prime hydrangeas,
17:34 there's the Asian moon buddleya,
17:36 and a blue sky Serbian spruce,
17:38 which is my favorite evergreen that we own.
17:40 I love that tree.
17:41 This one, because it only grows, I think eight by six,
17:44 we'll go look at the tag again.
17:45 It's just gonna be perfect right there.
17:48 It'll have that really beautiful peely bark
17:51 with that white kind of coloring on it.
17:52 Oh, it's gonna be great.
17:54 It already is great right there.
17:55 So the other day, right when I was getting ready
17:57 to go out and finish this project
17:58 and get the tree in the ground,
17:59 Aaron texted me a picture of a leak
18:01 that we had behind the Hartley.
18:03 Maybe we could put the picture on the screen.
18:05 It just showed a bunch of water on the ground,
18:07 and he wasn't exactly sure where it was coming from,
18:09 so I just had to stop what I was working on
18:11 and help with that.
18:12 It was on a Saturday.
18:14 Actually, Paul came in and he helped us fix it,
18:16 and he's back there right now, like, re-leveling up bricks.
18:18 We had to dig out from underneath
18:20 one of those planting quadrants back there.
18:22 The break was right underneath
18:23 some of the Supertunia Bordeaux, which is so weird.
18:26 I mean, it's a brand-new waterline,
18:27 just run, I guess not brand-new, one-year-old waterline.
18:31 We haven't planted anything over the top of it in a long time
18:33 so nobody hit it with a shovel or an auger
18:36 or anything like that.
18:36 It just simply broke.
18:38 So we had to dig underneath the brick border
18:41 and find the leak under there and get it fixed.
18:43 So anyway, that's kind of what took over Saturday night.
18:45 And then we had the storm come through,
18:47 which I'm happy to report
18:48 all of the fruit trees did beautifully.
18:50 I am so happy that we went out there
18:53 and got 'em all thinned out
18:54 because even though we did not get wind,
18:56 which was a huge blessing,
18:57 we did get tons and tons and tons of rain,
19:00 which was a huge blessing.
19:02 I mean, a huge rainstorm like that
19:04 that brings in such a saturating rain without the wind,
19:07 I mean, that doesn't happen super often for us.
19:10 It usually is accompanied by really strong winds,
19:13 which when you get all that water weight on plants
19:14 plus the wind blowing on 'em, that can mean disaster.
19:17 And that's probably what would have happened
19:19 to the fruit trees had all of those factors happened
19:22 and we just weren't sure.
19:22 Oh, look at that tree.
19:25 It is so pretty.
19:26 The poor thing got a little dried out
19:28 and then it was on its side during a windstorm earlier
19:31 and got a little scorched.
19:32 It'll be completely fine.
19:34 Most of it looks really good and healthy.
19:37 My favorite part though is this right in here.
19:42 That is so, so gorgeous.
19:45 So you can see as the bark starts to peel,
19:48 it reveals like that creamy white underside,
19:51 which turns more white.
19:52 And the underside of the bark is that cinnamon color.
19:55 You can see it maybe even a little better right down here.
19:59 Look at how gorgeous that is.
20:01 And this is one of the plants
20:03 that Isley Nursery sent out to us not long ago.
20:06 Cinnamon Curls Dwarf Korean Birch.
20:09 Oh, 15 by 12.
20:10 Oh, it'll be fine in this spot.
20:13 I thought it only grew eight by six.
20:14 I don't know what I was thinking.
20:16 It'll be fine.
20:16 It'll be great in this location.
20:18 Hardy to negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
20:21 Can grow up to a foot a year.
20:23 Golden yellow fall color.
20:26 Here's a look from this side.
20:27 Honestly, I'm thinking like that 12 foot span.
20:30 It'll be six foot from center.
20:32 So six feet this way.
20:33 The black lace will broaden out a little bit
20:35 so they will touch,
20:36 but I don't think it'll be too much, which is okay.
20:39 I kind of want this area to fill in more solidly eventually.
20:43 And then this one has like a 12 foot spread as well.
20:45 So those will meet probably in the middle.
20:48 It's actually kind of perfect.
20:49 I'll look from this side.
20:51 I look from backed up eventually,
20:53 like this gets 18 feet wide.
20:54 This gets 10 feet wide.
20:56 So this whole area will fill in one day.
20:58 We've got squirrels dropping off presents all over.
21:02 There is a walnut tree right there.
21:04 And they bring us these.
21:05 Anyway, that is gonna be it for this project.
21:07 And I am really happy that we went through the orchard
21:09 and took care of some of those things in there.
21:11 I know that Bethany's pigs were happy
21:14 with the fruit that they got from it.
21:15 I'm happy with how they're looking.
21:17 It just feels like when I look at them,
21:19 I feel more comfortable just looking at them,
21:20 knowing that they're probably not gonna snap
21:23 from the weight of the fruit at this point.
21:24 And they still have time to size up their fruit
21:26 just a little bit.
21:27 And you guys, we're actually expecting another thunderstorm
21:30 in like the next 15 or so minutes.
21:32 I don't know, it kind of looks like
21:33 it might skirt around us just a little bit.
21:36 It's kind of traveling to the south.
21:38 We'll see what happens there.
21:39 So thank you guys so much for watching this video.
21:41 I hope you enjoyed it.
21:42 And we will see you in the next one.