Doll's Orchards, LLC

Summer has arrived in Southeastern Indiana. The rains of late Spring and the early part of this month have created a lushness in the orchards. The fruit has gone through the stage of cell division and now is in cell growth. Apples are growing significantly every day and very visible.

The apple trees in our orchard have gone through their “June drop.” The home orchardist may be puzzled when the apples appear to be developing normally and then, from a week to several weeks after bloom, a sizeable amount of fruits start dropping to the ground. It is referred to as “June drop” but it may occur as early as May or as late as July depending on the growing region you are in. It appears that all the fruit is on the ground but it is important to remember that only 5% to 10% of a fruit tree’s bloom actually needs to develop into mature fruit for a good crop. “June drop” is Mother Nature’s way to eliminate inferior fruit or excess fruit. Most of the apples laying on the ground have not been pollinated sufficiently. Fruit not pollinated or fertilized sufficiently have few seeds and can not develop into edible fruit. Besides eliminating inferior fruit, “June drop” also sheds excess fruit that the tree cannot feed or its branches cannot support.

Our first variety of apples that we can offer to our customers is the Gingergold. If all progresses as we think, this offering will be available by the first week of August. This apple is one of our favorite early varieties. It is an apple that makes good sauce, great canned apple pie filling but is also an apple that offers a solid texture that customers can enjoy for eating out of hand as well. It won’t be long before these locally grown apples will be made available at the markets and our home location.

Yes, it’s already June. Not officially summer according to the calendar but temperatures here in Southeastern Indiana are such that we’re thinking Summer. Plentiful rainfalls have put planting behind schedule for the grain farmers. However, for our orchard these rains and warm temperatures have created a welcome “lushness.” Deep green foliage with developing fruit is a beautiful sight.

The peach and apple trees survived the ups and downs of the Spring temperatures with lots of consecutively wet days. We experienced “cool” temperatures during and after the trees bloomed but escaped “cold” temperatures that would freeze developing fruit. In short, a more typical Spring season this year.

Plant development depends largely on temperature. The warmer the temperatures, the faster plants develop. The cool weather of early Spring slowed the bud development. We do not want the fruit buds to develop too much too soon. Buds that develop too early (March) in the season become vulnerable to frost damage. Later in the Spring (April) we look forward to Mother Nature to provide warmer temperatures for bud development and bloom and this year Mother Nature did not disappoint. Although our bloom was good, the pollinating period was shortened by days of consecutive rain. However, we are happy to say we will have apples and we WILL have peaches, just not the size of crop we had last season.

The development of the fruit is really fascinating to observe. Every day it grows a little. At this point of time, most of the apples are the size of quarters. The peaches are at about the same size, maybe a little larger. We are working to keep the fruit “clean.” With all the rains and wind our area has been receiving, it is a daily challenge to keep scab and other diseases from affecting the appearance of the fruit.

Along with the lushness and growth of the trees, the inevitable has also occurred, WEEDS. There is the age old formula, Sunlight + Water + Warm Temperatures = WEEDS. The next few weeks’ “to-do” lists include maintaining and controlling the weeds and grasses. The good thing about having an orchard is the fact that we never run out of things to keep us busy.

Almost everyone enjoys a tree-ripened peach, picked fresh from the orchard. Sweet, firm but juicy, with those sweet juices dripping down your chin and hands as you enjoy each delectable bite. Peaches are truly a superior fruit and a great addition to any backyard or orchard.

Probably the greatest drawback of peaches though, is the possibility of an early spring freeze-out of the buds after bloom. Peaches break dormancy as soon as warm weather presents itself. The emerging buds become subject to freezing if a subsequent cold snap occurs. In southeastern Indiana it is not uncommon to experience cold snaps following bloom. We have suffered losses of our peach crop numerous times.

Peaches are self pollinating. A single tree will bear fruit under the right conditions. Soil conditions are critical to peach tree growth and production. Peach trees do not do well in wet areas so it is advisable to avoid wet areas or prepare problem planting sites by berming. Poor drainage and excess water can potentially “drown” your trees.

Best time for planting is during complete dormancy when the peach tree is not actively growing. Dormant bare root trees placed in topsoil have an advantage over those that are potted or in a balled peat mixture. In dry weather the “ball” tends to dry out and in a wet season the “ball” becomes saturated and acts like sponge drowning the root growth. Balling or potting trees is used as a method of maintaining shelf life of trees in garden centers and nursery outlets. Neither process is considered long term.

Prepare the site before planting by working the soil with a spade or plow. Remove sod, weeds and grasses. This is done so the newly planted tree has no competition for soil nutrients or water. Dig a hole large and deep enough to accommodate the spreading feeder roots. Cramping the roots will hinder growth and cause the tree to not anchor itself. Set the tree in the hole, spread the roots, cover the roots with topsoil, tamping as you go. Make sure no air pockets remain and all the roots have contact with the soil. The graft union should be about 2″ above the soil level. Support the newly planted tree with a stake. If a dry period occurs after planing, water the tree. Fruit trees do not like “wet feet,” so do not over water. A good soaking rain will relieve any need for watering.

Planting success depends on your soil, If the soil is fertile and well-drained, it can support any kind of fruit planting. Clay and soggy soils can be problematic. “Ridging, mounding or berming” the planting area slightly higher than between the rows is beneficial.

Peaches always present a challenge to the backyard producer as well as the experienced orchardist. Weather and soil are just a few of the issues that arise. There are many other factors involved in getting that delectable peach from the tree to your table. Just the thought of picking that fresh peach, however, makes the challenges worthwhile.

Our “to-do” list last week was an all out effort to finish the final cleanup of the apple orchards. Our U-PIK orchard is located along a State Highway (SR# 229, north of Oldenburg, Indiana). So besides cleaning up tree prunings and debris in the orchard, we are also faced quite a bit of roadside litter and trash. Most of us agree that roadside litter is a real problem in our communities. Besides “de-beautifying” the countryside, litter and trash is damaging to the environment, poses health and safety concerns, and can reduce property values.

Picking up litter and other people’s trash is NOT our favorite thing to do, but a challenge that needs to be met by us as property owners if we want to keep our community beautiful and “green.” Much of the litter we pick up along our fence line and road ditch is comprised of plastic films, grocery bags, food wrappers and snack bags. Probably fast-food drink cups and plastic beverage bottles make up the major items picked up. Since the pandemic, however, we have also had to deal with discarded face masks and latex gloves. Uggh!

It is a time consuming chore to pick up road side trash and litter. It’s not “once and done” but an ongoing challenge during the entire year. One styrofoam drinking cup chopped up by a mower becomes tens of pieces of litter less than four inches in size. Smaller litter may be less visible, but it’s more difficult to pick up and possibly more damaging to our water supplies as it washes down waterways easily and almost undetectable.

People can choose not to litter. It’s so simple. Think and don’t automatically toss litter out of your vehicle’s window. Just take your litter and trash with you. Dispose of it in a trash container. Learn to recycle and reuse. The EPA has reported that the rate of recycling and reuse is about 32% and account for approximately a half million new jobs and $37.8 billion in wages. Properly managing litter and trash cleanup, recycling when possible, is a win-win for our environment and economy.

When starting the tree pruning several months ago, we wondered if we’d ever be able to say, “finished.” We were facing a daunting challenge as the heavy harvest caused extensive limb breakage and the trees had tremendous growth. However, this past Saturday, March 5th, was a day of celebration. The last trees were pruned and what an awesome feeling it was, knowing that other than maintenance, the equipment could be put away for another year.

Now that the actual trimming is finished, the prunings (brush) laying under the trees will need to be stacked in the aisle ways and mulched. Quite a few labor hours are involved in the clean-up process. Besides stacking the larger limbs in the aisle ways, we rake all the debris from under the trees. This involves the smaller prunings that were cut as well as dropped apples, leaves, weeds and whatever else that took up residence under the apple trees. After the raking is completed the tractor and mulcher are used to pulverize the debris in the aisle ways. Eliminating debris under the trees lessens diseases that may hibernate in the soil, fungus infection and allows easier application of fertilizer and herbicides. Rather than collecting the brush and removing it from the orchard setting, the actual mulching process returns nutrients to the soil.

An important point to remember is that although we prune each tree individually with hand held pruners, the size of our orchard and its topography allows this method of pruning to be conducted. Larger orchards having more acreage and thus more trees, would find our pruning method unfeasible. These orchards rely on more automated pruning methods. However, no matter what method is chosen, proper tree pruning is essential to the overall production of good fruit.

We have spent a great part of January continuing to prune apple trees. Whenever the weather cooperates we don our winter apparel and out we go. At this point we feel that we have completed about two thirds (2/3) of the pruning work. The heavy loads of apples on the trees last season caused the trees to suffer heavy limb breakage. Thus, there is lots to prune and trim to get the trees back in shape in anticipation for this year’s production. The good aspect to all of this is that there is ample apple wood available for those who like to smoke meat.

The peach orchard will be the next challenge for us. It needs quite a lot of attention to pruning as well. The peach trees are nearing the end of their life span and every year we lose five or ten trees. We have made several efforts to replace the trees lost but not much success at doing this. Old orchards suffer replant disease and we face that problem. We continue to explore alternative planting areas and methods.

We have had several nights of single digit temperatures and one night where temperatures dropped below the zero reading. Peach trees suffer crop losses when temperatures dip below the zero degree reading. A professor at Purdue University’s School of Horticulture stated that peach trees can sustain their crop potential until zero degrees. Any thing below zero degrees creates a percentage of crop loss. His findings indicate for every degree below zero, ten (10%) percent of the peach crop is lost. Thus, ten degrees below zero could potentially wipe out an entire peach crop. We have found these statements to be factual. We think so far, so good for the peaches this year.

The month of February usually brings less cloud cover, brighter days as well as more daylight hours. Looking forward to having warmer temperatures and more daylight. Extended hours of daylight make brush cleanup easier for the grandchildren to tackle after their classes at school or on the weekends. They’re not usually overly excited about the task but they “step up to the plate” and try their best.

Single digit overnight temperatures and daily wind chills have slowed down the progress of tree pruning. The equipment doesn’t work properly when temperatures are so cold. Not only does the equipment not function well, neither do the operators! Up to this point, however, progress was good.

One way to speed up the pruning process is to just remove entire trees. We have actually done this to several rows of older trees in the orchard. Not really to speed up the pruning process, but to make room for new plantings in 2023. Everything in nature has a life cycle and the trees that were removed were getting to the end of their productivity. After caring for them for over 30 years, it was hard to see them go but new and more popular varieties will be planted in their place. Our plan is total removal of all trees and roots and plant a cover crop. Letting the ground lay fallow for a year will allow it to better accommodate the new plantings

Pruning is as much as an art as a science. Probably the most frequently asked question when we are at the seasonal markets is “how should I prune my backyard fruit tree?” There is really no definite answer to this question except open it up to sunlight and airflow, and NEVER prune a fruit tree like an ornamental tree or a shrub. Fruit trees should not look like a bush. Every tree is different and different circumstances create unique challenges to the person trying to prune it. Pruning is a skill and it takes time to develop that skill. To date we have logged over 190 hours in manual pruning labor and are perhaps fifty percent finished. This year we are training a younger generation in the technique so hopefully we have someone in the wings ready to replace us.

We haven’t attended many post-harvest trade shows but have kept abreast of new tree varieties, fertilization programs, insecticide and herbicides applications through the local extension service and sales representatives. Local extension offices are an excellent “go-to” for questions relative to planting, pruning, fertilization and chemical applications. County offices support back yard gardens and orchards with publications, programs and on site demonstrations. It is always worth making contact with your local extension agent when doing gardening or planting trees.

These first days of January, 2022 have sneaked up on us. The past year, 2021, is in the history books and in some ways, a very good thing. Small business owners have had to deal with challenges unlike any in the past decade. Although, our fruit business was seasonal, our challenges were similar to and in many ways compounded by factors we could not control because we are small. Overall, though, we were fortunate that we could rely on good friends and family to help us and good customers to buy our product.

What a difference a year makes! We ended our season in a positive way. Our harvest, although intense and exhausting, was bountiful and we were able to set up at numerous Farmers’ Markets, tractor and/or trade shows. It was really uplifting for us to see our customers, old and new, and get reacquainted with them. The U-PIK location was well received and we are making plans to make it an even better experience for our visitors in 2022.

We haven’t been too conscientious about maintaining this website with updates. “Begin Again in 22” is our new motto as we start this year. Our goal is to reach out to all with more frequent updates on this website and also keep our Facebook account more up to date as well. Not being too “tech savvy” is a real drawback in this world of social media, but we promise to make efforts to do our best.

Well, it’s January and that can mean only one thing. Yes, get out the pruning equipment and let’s go! Weather in our region has been good and that makes a difficult job more easy with which to deal. We’re moving right along with trimming the apple trees. We still hand prune each tree. The grandchildren call the process, “giving the trees a haircut.” That’s about what we do to each tree in our orchard. Not all orchardists prune in this manner but that’s what we do. It is an arduous job but we’ve been doing it for over fifty (50) years and probably won’t change the process at this point. Prior posts describe what we do and why we do it and referring to those posts will pique your interest. Pruning is probably one of THE most important jobs to perform in the orchard so onward we go for another year.

Please consult our Facebook site (Doll’s Orchard) for updates and posts regarding our product availability, updates on marketing, hours of operation and events planned for the general public. We appreciate all of our customers as we continue striving to bring a good product at affordable prices.

Here it is almost the middle of September and apple harvest is well underway. Peach season is over and now we are onto apples. A tremendous crop of apples await to be picked in the orchard. This year’s harvest will be plentiful with almost every variety in abundance. Quite a difference from this time last year!

We are working on Gingergold, Gala, Honeycrisp, McIntosh and Cortland. Hopefully, this week we will be picking the Jonathon, Empire, Fuji and Grimes Golden. Apples are ripening later than our normal schedule so we are not picking our Golden Delicious yet.

Great response and feedback from those who have visited the U-Pik location. We are working to transition all weekend sales to this location to get patrons acquainted with it. Picking is an option at that site. We also have a display of our products available that anyone can choose their favorite variety and still enjoy a visit to an orchard that is designed for a walk-through on a beautiful fall day. The U-Pik hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. Weekday sales will still be conducted at our home location. Hours at the home location is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 9:oo am until 6:00 pm and Wednesday from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm.

We will be setting up at several festivals and tractor shows over the next few weeks. We are looking forward to being able to be back and seeing our many friends and acquaintances that we have made over the past years.  It is really a busy time for all of us here at the orchard.