Doll's Orchards, LLC

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.

Safe to say not too many people were saddened as they said goodbye to 2020 and welcomed 2021. Still facing challenges from the pandemic but all of us are hopeful for a more “normal” 2021.

At the orchard we are proceeding with the “normal” pruning or trimming of the apple trees. A non-producing season last year created tremendous limb growth and sprouts. It’s been more of a chore than usual. We’re anticipating about 20 percent increase in labor hours this pruning season. While the negative aspect is more time spent pruning, the positive is the extra growth proves the trees are healthy. The tree fruit bud for this year looks good, healthy and strong. Fruit bud for this season was developed during the summer months of last year.

An interesting comment I read recently about pruning is that just as everyone cooks a steak to his/her own liking, such is the same with pruning. Orchardists have their own techniques. Some hand prune as we do while others prune mechanically. Pruning is labor intensive. With limited labor supply orchardists have to determine what is most cost effective. Large orchards tend to prune mechanically because of the labor shortage, costs and the overall magnitude of the task. The overall objective, however, is the same, open up the trees to allow sunlight and chemical applications to get into the inner parts of the tree’s canopy.

We have certainly missed attending the trade shows and presentations that are sponsored annually by the Horticultural Departments of the state sponsored universities such as Purdue, Michigan State, and Ohio State. Several of the universities sponsored virtual presentations of classes for vegetable and fruit growers. Certainly this was a good alternative to get the information to the growers but we did miss the actual interaction of going to the the trade shows and exchanging thoughts and ideas with the vendors. This exchange of ideas is how new processes for production and management develop and move a small business forward.

We’re certainly trying to make 2021 a better year for our customers. With a little luck and lots of help from Mother Nature, we hope to be able to have something to offer our customers this year. Take good care.

Thanksgiving Day was celebrated somewhat differently for all of us this year due to the challenges of the Covid-19 virus.  Onward we go, however, as we move forward into the winter months and the trees enter their dormancy.  Expected snow this week will lower the ground temperatures and thus encourage the trees to become dormant. With dormancy, comes the task of pruning.  We expect pruning to be a somewhat lengthier process this year because with no measurable fruit the trees’ production was in the formation of branches and sprouts.  Quite a bit of unneeded and unwanted branches and sprouts create more time consuming pruning measures.  Trees need to be  “opened up” so air, sunlight and chemical applications can benefit the fruit on the interior branches.  Bacteria and insects are constant predators to tree fruits and both will take advantage of any opportunity to “attack” anything that is not protected.  Overgrowth in the trees keeps fruit protection at a minimal level.

So soon, the pruning equipment will be taken out to the older parts of the orchard and work will begin.  Right now, maintenance of the equipment is underway and the compressors and pruners are getting a thorough check.  Hydraulic hoses are being replaced and engine tuneups are being conducted.  Nothing is more aggravating than a breakdown once pruning is underway.

Not only actual cutting of unwanted growth will be conducted this year  but there will be removal of trees as well.  Over the past several weeks there have been heavy and damaging winds in this area.  Heavy winds and rain wreck havoc in an orchard.  Trees can be uprooted if the soil becomes too wet and caught in cross winds.  At times, we can salvage the tree by pulling it back in place and  staking it with metal posts.  With a little bit of luck the roots reestablish themselves and the tree continues to grow.  There are other times though, that a complete uprooting occurs and then nothing can be done to salvage the tree.  Heavy cross winds will also twist and snap the trees at the point of the graft and there is no other option than to haul it away and pull out the stump.  A tree broken off at the graft will not regrow.

According to the calendar, this year is winding down but we consider pruning as the actual beginning of another season.  So, onward we go!

We are expecting the first killing freeze of the season this week.  Not really looking forward to it but it’s that time of the year in southeastern Indiana.  We just need to get used to the idea of colder temperatures.  With a very lean harvest this season, there is not as much anxiety or stress about these freezing temperatures as in past years when we had apples on the trees that still needed to be picked.   The fruit itself doesn’t freeze with a dip in temperatures but the stems freeze.  The weight of the apple then causes the stem to let loose and the apple drops to the ground.  Usually after a hard freeze (25 degrees to 28 degrees) we have about three days to pick fruit before it drops.

Overnight freezing temperatures for several successive nights puts the trees into a dormant state.  Fruit trees need to be dormant before annual pruning can begin.  So next up on the orchard “to-do” list will be waiting for dormancy and then pulling the pruning equipment into the orchard and getting started.  Most years we are not really anxious to get started.  This year, however, it will be a bigger challenge and we will need to go after it as soon as it’s feasible.  With no fruit production this season, many of the trees added too much new foliar growth and that will need to be removed by pruning.

The area Farmers’ Markets have closed for the season and buying fresh fruits and vegetables from local growers will be put on hold until next Spring.  All the vendors who set up at the markets certainly appreciate the support of the local consumers.  It’s a “win-win” for both.  Remember, “we are all in this together.”

Due to limited produce and great sales, we are now closed for this season.  Looking forward to a more normal harvest and sales season in 2021.  Put us on your “must stop and shop” list next year.  Thanks to all!