WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I was lucky enough to visit a member’s bradford pear tree a few days ago that was grafted with an ‘Asian Pear’ scionwood or cutting. These pears seem to grow faster than anything else so far. We had to put in a stake toContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Spring? “Is it coming you ask?” The trees seem anxious to begin. A little rise in temperatures over the weekend surged bud break. My pears and a few apples began bursting. Red maples are popping over many parts of the Catskills. I picked myContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? The Apple Tree Pruning season is over for us at CFA, but don’t forget about next year. There were a few trees this year that we saw quite a bit of uprooting or branch-failure due to heavy snow and wet conditions. Underneath all thatContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I’m glad the snow is receding & this time it’s not because of the more obvious reasons like plowing, shoveling, salting, etc. Snow blindness or medically speaking photokeratitis is a temporary loss of vision due to overexposure to the sun’s rays. I’ve never been oneContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Just yesterday I was cutting a dead leader out of a large sugar maple tree hanging over someone’s house & out came 8 flying squirrels, one after the other. They scurried up the leader & then flew literally 30 plus yards to a neighboringContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Well, I always wondered if there is more that can be made with maple sap. I’ll get back to you in a month or 2 and report on how this maple wine turns out. Anything with sugar can be fermented. This wine should beContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Somewhere hidden inside that overgrown tree is a decent apple tree. Been pruning a lot of these overgrown & neglected apple trees lately. I guess after years of free-loading apples from the side of the road, it’s time to give back a little bit. Continue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? While picking up my wood pile that blew over in the wind, I literally watched my neighbor’s tree fall down next to me and onto the power-line. It’s during these heavy wind and snow-events that those “weak unions” inside trees tear apart and damageContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Sometimes the maple season comes to a halt because the day-time temperatures aren’t warm enough. Sometimes, it’s because the evening temperatures are too warm; Both conditions cause the sap to stop flowing. Sometimes the season stops due to a lack of energy on theContinue Reading
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? My sapwood pile has noticeably shrunk with all this maple sap boiling, which makes me wonder how much wood my little evaporator eats to spit out some maple syrup. Well, so far it’s roughly 1/2 cord to 5 gallons of syrup. “Sapwood” consists ofContinue Reading