It warmed up. Fast. We went from daytime highs below 0 degrees F, to 50 and rain inside of a week. Lake Minnetonka has turned into a slush covered mess, and the snowpack in our yards is compacted ice. Last night I figured I should do a test tap on the big maple in our yard just in case they had started running. Glad I did. Took the time to get all of the trees in our yard tapped after that drip drip drip started as soon as the spile was driven.
It was nice to wake up this morning and find that there were a few inches of sap in the buckets too. They did not fill up overnight, as they will when it really gets going, but with the extended forecast showing freeze-thaw cycles every day into March, this could be a really good sugar run on the trees.
This morning I was up early to get to work on the grape vines. I have two varieties in my yard here. Bluebell and Swenson’s Seedless. We are going to try propagating them out for plants we can move up to the property we bought this last summer. Hoping for 40 strong plants by fall. Vines needed pruning anyway as that is an annual thing that just needs doing.
Nell had the camera so I ended up in a lot of the shots, which is a change. She is better looking than I am, but this morning she was wearing her pajamas, crocks on bare feet, and a stocking cap and jacket. So probably better I was the one being photographed.
With the vine cuttings I wanted 8-12″ pieces without winter damage, and at least two buds. The lower buds set roots, and the upper buds will push out leaves (hopefully). They are sorted and soaking in 2 gallon ziplock backs in the sink right now. This evening I will pack the lower side of the bags with peat moss and root growth hormone, and then those bags will be placed into another bag and they go into the fridge until the ground thaws out.
The fridge is filling up with things. I have apple wood scion cuttings for grafting new trees wrapped in wet paper towels and sealed in bags, filling about half of the crisper drawer. Next weekend I am making another trip to an orchard to gather more of some specific varieties. Around March 10th there will be delivered 150 Antonovka apple trees which are used both as a standard root stock and make a nice apple all on their own, with the great benefit of being able to handle temperatures down to -50 f. With that order will also be 50 MM 111 rootstock, a semi-dwarfing rootstock that can handle cold, and will produce apples in fewer years than a standard. Downside to those is that trees grafted to those root stocks do not live as long. Long term plan is to make about 30 trees from those, and to use the other root stocks to create a more commercial type orchard on the northern half of the property up north. The 150 standards will become a permanent orchard, being it will outlive me, my kids, and hopefully well into several generations in the future. This is the year we really start work on our forever home/legacy/future for the kids, with the kids. And we are all really excited about it.
