Doll's Orchards, LLC

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.

Heading into August and getting ready for busy, busy days ahead. Our peaches have been slower in ripening this season. This area experienced cool temperatures right after their bloom and undoubtedly this delayed their development. Just started to pick this past week. Until this time we were “spot picking” the riper ones and now are progressing down the rows and clearing trees. Peach crop looks good. Currently filling orders and taking peaches to our local markets.

While the peaches are good, the apples are absolutely awesome, a tremendous crop. We are working to getting things organized for the harvest season, checking equipment, getting packaging supplies ordered and coordinating workers. We will begin “spot picking” the Gingergold and Zestar this week but plans right now are to begin harvest in earnest next week.

We have started setting up at some local markets this past week and as harvest continues we will try to bring our produce to all our market locations. Our “U-Pik” location will be open to the public starting on August 20th. At this time our plan is to open the “U-Pik” on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. Our home market will continue to be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm. Wednesday our business hours will be 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. While we do not have apples available yet we do have our tree ripened peaches to offer. Remember that shopping from local growers is a win/win for everyone and we highly encourage you check things out.

We’ve survived the ups and downs of the thermometer, the invasion of Brood X cicadas and last week’s flash flooding. As onward we go, hopefully we’ll make it to harvest without too many more challenges.

We’ve experienced seasonal temperatures these past few weeks. It’s good to be passed the point where every dip in the thermometer causes heart palpitations. Warm temperatures increase fruit size by providing conditions that increase cell size. Up to this point the dominant form of fruit growth in the apples is cell division. The fruit has now reached the stage of cell expansion. An apple’s size is determined by the cells that make up the apple. The number of cells, the size of each cell and air space between the cells all play a role in the size of the apple. Some apples achieve a larger size by having a large number of cells, and some by having larger-sized cells. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? More to it all than what you may think. We’re still learning every day.

Just as it seemed the Brood X cicadas appeared one day, they disappeared in the same manner. Their constant cadence for about five weeks was annoying but when it was gone it was somewhat missed. Cicadas do not harm the fruit on the trees but the trees themselves have damage. Cicadas burrow into the tender branches of trees, lay their eggs and after the eggs hatch, the new breed bore into the earth to live on the tree roots for seventeen years. The tender branches of the trees are damaged to the point where they fall off. The orchard aisle ways have branches scattered throughout where the cicadas nested and did their burrowing. One positive aspect of the cicada invasion is the fact that nature is still in balance. If environmental conditions didn’t support their development, the cicadas would not have appeared and continued their life cycles.

Our area experienced flash flooding last week due to six inches and more of rain that fell in less than ten hours. Water was rushing through the lower parts of the orchard. Rushing water is awfully powerful. We lost about four mature trees that were uprooted as the trees had too much weight in too wet of ground. We had some straight line winds as well, but no significant limb or tree damage from it.

The produce crop looks good and we expect to start harvest the first week of August. Until it’s in the baskets, though, an orchardist isn’t really sure of anything.

Brood X Cicadas have been spotted this week in the orchard. Their arrival is somewhat later than had been predicted. Unseasonably cooler temperatures the first two weeks of May kept the ground temperature below 65 degrees. Cicadas favor warm soil temperatures above 70 degrees to emerge from their underground habitat and this past week’s upper 70’s and almost 80 plus degree days were just what was needed for the cicadas to emerge.

After seventeen years underground, where they have been since 2004, feeding on sap from the roots of plants, Brood X, one of the largest broods of cicadas, have emerged across fifteen states including the tri-state area of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Estimates are that a billion cicadas will emerge and invade the area of these fifteen states; not millions, but billions.

When cicadas last appeared in 2004, the adults left behind baby bugs which burrowed underground and lived there for the past seventeen years getting their moisture from the tree roots . These baby bugs are now adults and as part of their natural cycle of life, these cicadas emerge in mass in the Spring of their 17th year. So, 2021 is our lucky year. Males attract mates by vibrating drum like tymbals on the side of their abdomens to produce sound. The sounds that are made can be deafening as the adults can emit sounds between 80 and 100 decibels, equivalent to a low flying airplane or a lawn mower. This sound or noise can be heard throughout the day or night.

Cicadas are not so pretty. Their “bug eyes” are red, large wings and overall a fairly large insect. When a cicada lands on your person, it’s not unusual to hurriedly brush it off. Adult cicadas shed their exoskeletons, attach themselves to the tree branches, mate, lay eggs and die off in about 6 weeks. The lifespan of the cicada above ground is about 4 to 6 weeks. So about late June or early July the adults will die off, while the hatched nymphs will drop off and burrow underground and stay there for 17 years, waiting to repeat their life cycles.

The damage done to young trees is caused by the adults laying eggs in the bark of the trees. At times the trees are riddled by the cicadas’ actions but it is not to the cicadas advantage to kill trees as the trees is their food source when they burrow under ground. Most of the damage we find from the cicada invasion is to the newly planted trees. Some suggest enclosing the young trees with onion sacks or other materials that will deter the cicadas from laying eggs. We’ve done this in the past several invasions but find that cicadas often outsmart us. Our fruit is not overly damaged by cicadas. We’re thinking that the fruit is just developing during the time frame of the cicadas appearance and is of not much interest to them as their main motive is to mate and reproduce. They have a short time frame to accomplish emergence, mating, laying eggs, hatching and reburrowing underground.

We have received several questions regarding collecting cicadas for dietary intake. Supposedly, the cicadas have a unique taste when ingested, similar to shrimp. It is not part of our plan to collect them; however, to each his own and good luck with that.

The apple trees were in full bloom about a week early this year. We feel better about making it through the freezing Spring temperatures without cold damage to the crop when bloom is later in the month of April. Our ideal is full bloom about the 25th of April. This year we experienced full bloom on the 18th of April.

While the orchard was truly beautiful with the intense vibrancy of the blossoms, in the back of our minds we had unvoiced concerns about the pending cold temperatures that were predicted for our area. Freeze warnings were issued for the entire central part of our state for two days, the 21st and 22nd of April. After last year’s devastating season this certainly was not welcome news for us.

Wednesday, April 21st, we awoke to three inches of snow and temperatures of 28 degrees. No one could remember when this area had this much accumulation of snow so late in the Spring. The apple blossoms were completely covered and the weight of the snow made the trees bend from the extra weight. The snow didn’t last long, however, as the day warmed and it melted. Depending on the bud development of the trees, the snow did somewhat act as an insulator protecting the trees from the extreme cold. Depending on the stage of the bud development is the defining statement here as the snow actually did cold damage to the buds of some of the apple varieties. As the snow melted, it actually drew heat away from the developing bud and froze it. Whether the results of this cold damage is just cosmetic or if the cold actually killed the fruit is a matter that is yet to be determined. The king blooms are the most likely damaged or destroyed. The king blossoms are the biggest and first to appear. Trees have secondary blooms and these probably are the survivors at this point.

So after we made the best of the snow and the cold on the 21st, there was still a freeze warning for Thursday, April 22nd. Luckily this front moved more eastward and temperatures actually warmed. Predictions were for a drop to 28 degrees but we actually recorded 30 to 31 degrees overnight. It was a welcome reprieve.

So where do we stand in damage? We’ve been conducting daily walks through the orchard and find that certain blocks suffered major damage and other blocks appear to be more favorable. It’s a tough job to make an assessment, but it is safe to say that there is damage and we’ll just have to sit tight and wait to see what happens . One thing for certain is that being an orchardist in the Midwest is not for individuals who are weak of heart.

Due to a few technical difficulties our website was not “up and running” for quite some time. An update has been long overdue. Since that last post the orchard has progressed from dormancy to bloom.

We have moved through pruning clean-up, the growth stages of the trees which were silver tip, green tip, tight cluster, pink and now we are in bloom. The bees were brought into the orchard about a week ago. Not having enough hives ourselves, we borrow hives from a local beekeeper. It’s a win-win situation as the bees pollinate the blossoms for us and the beekeeper gets the honey. Full bloom is expected for the majority of the apple trees by this Friday. Our peaches were in full bloom on the 6th of April. Things are moving forward.

So far so good with the weather conditions. We did experience a very cold front about two weeks ago with morning temperatures dropping to 18 degrees. However, we haven’t been able to determine how much or if any damage was done to the buds at that time. We’ve been checking but a more accurate assessment can be made after petal fall. Any temperature dips below freezing at this point would not be welcome. Judging from the extended forecasts for our area, we are expecting a long bloom period with favorable daytime temperatures in the 70 degree range. This is excellent pollinating weather. At this point we continue to just keep our fingers crossed.

Good news! Pruning in the older apple orchard and the peach orchard is now completed. We’ve moved along quite well this year. In fact after checking long term weather forecasts for the week, we proceeded out in rather cold temperatures on the 8th of February to finish pruning the peaches. It was a challenge as quite a bit was left to do, but we were determined. Even though the winds picked up and the skies darkened, we stuck with it and reached our goal. We pulled the equipment in at 3:30 p.m. and by 5:30 p.m. that evening the ground was covered with snow and it has snowed just about every day since. A great feeling knowing that pruning is finished in those orchards. It’s rather difficult to hand prune in 10 to 12 inches of snow on the ground.

There’s a real advantage of having this amount of snow cover, though. Usually as the temperatures warm, so does the ground temperature but with this blanket of snow covering, the ground will stay colder somewhat longer. Colder ground temperatures keep the trees in dormancy. The longer the trees stay dormant the better is the prospect of having fruit this year. Early bloom is not so good as in the Midwest we can have freezes well into May. This is exactly what occurred last year, a killing freeze on May 8th.

Our lowest temperature to date has been a minus 1 degree. Peach trees are not as hardy as apple trees and so extremely cold temperatures damage the fruit bud on peach trees. Our friend who worked as a professor in the Horticultural Department at Purdue University always made this comparison when discussing cold temperature damage to peaches; zero degrees is the breaking point, for every degree below zero, count on loosing 10 percent of the peaches. So, for instance, if we experience 7 degrees below zero, about 70 percent of the peaches are killed. This is not always the case as tree placement and wind factors can somewhat change the outcome. Usually, however, in our experience growing peaches we found his statement to be quite on target. Thus, maybe about 10 percent of peaches will be lost this year as we experienced a minus one degree. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that no more major cold fronts will approach our region this winter.

When the present snow cover melts and we’re able to return to the orchards, we will address clean-up and mulching of the prunings from the aisle ways and from under the trees. A tedious job at best but something that has to be done. We will be moving to the Pick-Your-own orchard soon and it will be getting its “haircut” as soon as temperatures warm up. Before we prune those younger trees, we prefer temperatures to be more stable and not predicted to dip to the subzero range. More daylight hours certainly will help to accomplish both of these tasks.

We’ve been busy with other “to-dos” on our list as well; inventory control, equipment repairs, cleaning and organizing and whatever else was put on the “we’ll do it later” list. Around here there is always another chore to do or another issue to be addressed.