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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">How can I resist an invitation like the one from Mosbah?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">We had an interesting spring in Ireland (as per the Chinese curse; “may you live in interesting times”). Much of March and April had settled warmer than normal
weather, due to the unusual deviations in the jet stream (associated with a warming artic unfortunately), meaning that our weather patterns settle for much longer than we are used to. And so our trees were off to an early start. When the weather did eventually
change, it settled into a pattern of winds coming from the north, which also lasted longer than usual, with the effect that each night grew colder as time went on, due to the cooling of the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Consequently, quite a lot of frost damage (80-90% flower blossom loss) was recorded in Northern Ireland, where all the cooking apples are grown, but luckily
not so much in the south, where I am, and I suspect that I could still have pretty much a full crop, despite the loss of about 20% of flowers on apples. The plums which bloom earlier were more badly damaged, but nothing that I don’t expect every few years
with them, due to Ireland being such a marginal location for growing them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">At this stage the weather is more normal (showers one day, rain the next, with the odd dry day) with lots of scab periods, and only just enough opportunity
to spray, but that is the way we like it, as with almost no irrigated orchards in Ireland, having the soils at field capacity now, before what will hopefully be a nice summer (El Nino years are also warmer than average in Ireland), keeps the trees from stress
for quite a long period.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">We have a new weevil pest (I think it is called rose weevil; it is bronze coloured), the adults of which eats the flowers of apple and cherry as well as damaging
the small fruitlets, but luckily the pheromones have now been synthesised, and trapping will begin shortly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Other than that, on the marketing side, cider (hard), which was always mass-produced here in Ireland, is now undergoing a revival as about 10 smaller craft
producers have started in the last few years, which makes it very exciting for growers, and also draws great attention to our small apple producing industry here.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Brief report over, I will try to post before prompting the next time
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D">J</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Con Traas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Life Sciences Dept.,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">University of Limerick.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">&<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The Apple Farm, Tipperary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Ph: 061-202905<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">M: 086-6091998<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">T: @theapplefarmer<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Kushad, Mosbah M<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 14 May 2015 14:56<br>
<b>To:</b> Apple-crop discussion list<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [apple-crop] crop prospects<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The update from Illinois is relatively good.. We also had snow bloom and sunny and warm few days during the early part of bloom which gave us
good fruit set on the kings. But the weather turned cold and windy during the middle and end of the bloom which has kept the bees in their hives.. Never the less, we should have pretty good crop. My concern is for the persistent cold weather that we are
still having, which is likely to reduce the thinners activity, especially NAA and MaxCel.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#C00000">Just curious.. I have not seen any recent postings from our Irish/Dutch friend Con Trass. I hope is just busy counting his profit from last year.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Mosbah Kushad, University of Illinois<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">
<a href="mailto:apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net">apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net</a> [<a href="mailto:apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net">mailto:apple-crop-bounces@virtualorchard.net</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Michael Vaughn<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, May 14, 2015 7:25 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Apple-crop discussion list<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [apple-crop] crop prospects<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Arthur,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I have a small Orchard in NE Pa. and the trees are loaded with Blossoms. The flowers opened starting Monday PM and full open by mid-day Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Going to be a very heavy set given the dry weather forecast and nice 70 d days.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 12:41 PM, Arthur Kelly <<a href="mailto:kellyorchards@gmail.com" target="_blank">kellyorchards@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I don't know about the rest of you but if we get any kind of pollination weather the crop will be very heavy and difficult to thin. The potential bloom at this point is scary. We are at pink except for cracking some
king flowers on Zestar, Paulared, Gingergold etc.<span style="color:#888888"><br clear="all">
</span></span><span class="hoenzb"><span style="color:#888888"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="hoenzb"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">--
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">Art Kelly</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">Kelly Orchards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#888888">Acton, ME<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US"><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
apple-crop mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net">apple-crop@virtualorchard.net</a><br>
<a href="http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop" target="_blank">http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span lang="EN-US">Michael D. Vaughn<br>
Owner / Manager<br>
Pie-In-the-Sky Orchards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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