This Spring has been constant change in the weather.
West Allis and Wausaukee Currant Gardens comparisons.
The photo below is April 15 in West Allis.
These two photos were taken April 25 of the Pink Champagne bush. Leaves were opening and blossoms were starting to attract pollinators. Nice.
Here we go. April 28. Easter morning. Pink Champagne under snow, in full bloom.
May 19, 2019:
There are berries forming beneath the spent blossoms on the West Allis currant bushes. It may just be a good production year.
June 29, 2019:
This morning I took a few photos of the pink champaigne and red lake currant patches. There has been a lot or rain this summer along with the unfortunate incident of the TruGreen tech spot treating my yard for broad leaf weeds instead of the neighbor's yard.
I put a cheap plastic tarp over the the pink champaigne bush because the robins were camping out on the power line above. The tarp is tied onto the porch railing and a couple of empty 5 gallon buckets. It will catch in the wind, billow and make the noise plastic makes. The robins do not seem to like that.
There is that fungus that the red bushes get in wet years. The leaves will fall off in August, but next spring all will be back to normal.
Do you see the tons of berries???? My children suggested the market tent be put up to cover the plans while I pick this week. Brilliant children.
The berries are on track to go to market in a week.
July 1, 2019:
Red Lake, 5 days from picking for the farmer's market. None too soon. Lots of moisture. Lots of overnight rain. How pretty.
There is a fungus causing the leaf drop because of the rainy year. It will not affect the current or future crops.
July 2, 2019:
Grandchildren knowing where their food comes from.
May 11 - 14:
While Phil planted black raspberry canes from the West Allis yard, I re-tagged the currant bushes for variety.
Keeping the 12 + varieties of currants in order has become a challenge. Tags made from strips cut from yogurt containers and marked with a sharpie faded and disintegrated in a year. Next I stamped canning jar lids. Those are rusting and the tie wraps used to attach are disintegrating.. Sean of Edible Acres cuts up old soda cans and writes on them with a dried up ball point pen over card board. This embosses the thin aluminum and does not rust. I used nylon cord to attach to the plants.
After the loss of the entire Wausaukee currant crop last year Phil and I have been intentional about how to keep the woodland plants happy.
Soil tests were taken and the results are a little low in nitrogen. All else is fine.
We have decided to focus on the moisture in this sand pit the berries are planted in. Last Summer we top dressed with wood chips and very old cow manure.. The plan is to continue top dressing with wood chips as handsome distance runner works his way through the Aspen cutting and underbrush of the groves on this property.
The other thing neglected last year was keeping an eye on the weather. I now check the weather report for this house daily. If need be a trip will be made to water from the well until the berries are picked. Here I am discussing berries when last weekend the leaves were just breaking through.
May 25, 2019. Can you believe it??? Bushes in blossom setting berries. We stayed until May 28 and the all day soaking of Memorial day. Hurray, hurray!!!
See the leaves? See the green of the field? See the berries beneath the blossoms just starting to set? So much better than 2018 berry drop.
This time last year all the berries were gone from the bushes. Much better this year.
This is the currant patch showing the large and small bushes along with the attempt at permaculture pathways to provide beneficial insects with a home.June 26, 2019:
This is not the way I thought the season would go back in May. No photos were taken this last trip north. There is a mystery to be solved. On 89 currant bushes there might be a total of 4 quarts of berries. Half black currants. No pink currants. Look at the blossoms on the bush taken a month ago. The blossoms should have produced a quart just from that photo.
It is not the soil.
It is not the moisture.
Could it be some insect? I am considering Fullers rose beetle / rose chafer. Not sure what the bug is. This dirt colored bug covered the plants last summer. They are back on the bushes this last trip. I thumped them off when I saw them. Could they be depositing next year's eggs into the swell on the stem that will become next season's stringers? Could the life cycle of this bug be the cause of the fruit drop?
When we put the bird netting over the bushes the week before father's day I was surprised by berries dropping when brushed. NEVER, EVER saw that before. They were not dried up or discolored. Were the tiny juvenile bugs eating at the connection of the berry to the stem, and later the stem?
I need to find an expert. But it seems I am quickly becoming the expert.
The photo above is from 2018, but shows what a rose chafer looks like in the currant patch. Could this beetle be the cause of fruit drop??
Since posting yesterday I've tripped over a YouTube channel by Stefan Sobkowiak. He has developed a trio permaculture system. It is worth trying in the orchard. Nitrogen fixing. Apple. Pear or Plum. Repeat. The shrub story is rhubarb, Black currants, Red currants, Gooseberry.
His premise is to grow a variety of food plants vertically, with the goal of abundance through diversity.
I've got the plants already. Just not near each other. Maybe planting the hardwood root cuttings under the orchard trees. maybe splitting the rhubarb plants. Maybe putting a shovel of the overgrown perennial garden from West Allis under each tree. Then standing back to watch what takes.
Phil has been promoting putting some trees in the middle of the fenced in currant patch. Is he two steps ahead of me? I hope not, because he is binge-ing on shark fishing now.
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