GOOD MORNING IDITABUDS

[fladogfan]

Retired is a beautiful word.

[Alaska61]

Retired is a beautiful word.

It sure is. Not necessarily the way it happened, but itself, yes it is indeed

[Another UK Fan]

Love that AK61! Enjoy

Checking in before a busy day - can spend more time on the trail tomorrow.

[sc-race-fan]

Good morning all. It's 29 here this morning and to be colder tomorrow morning! The budding trees are not going to like this and the peach trees are going to take a beating so don't blame me for higher peach prices this year.

[fladogfan]

Going to be 'cool' here today, 60s, but my orange tree is loaded with buds and should be ok. Will soon be releasing a great aroma.

Morning all.

[Moose]

No sympathy for your southerners! It's 14.6 F here this morning. Still have shoveling to do from the storm Sunday night and into Monday. Only 6 inches or so, but it was heavy and wet and now it's freezing. Ugh. If anyone has them, stick your nose in some flowers for me, will ya?!

[Alaska61]

Good morning/afternoon/?? to you all
Peaches and oranges??? y'all killin me! lol
But no complaints...sitting here in the early morning, drinking coffee, enjoying Iditarod. Life is good!

[flowerpower]

I think our peaches are taking a beating too. It was 24 here at the lake this morning. Peaches were already budding out (too early) and they can't tolerate temps below 28 degrees. I know some farmers were burning hay bales to try to save them.

[Breeze]

For all of Maine's miserable weather, we do have native peaches. In retail, they are most often found as Organic produce just because getting to peach trees to spray even an organic oil is an iffy proposition.

The cultivar name is usually " Reliant", or is a close relative of Reliant on Reliant rootstock. Maine peaches generally do best on taller south-facing hillsides ( cold air sinks, warm air rises ). Reliant peach trees do not bloom so much on photo-period ( daylength), but with temperature. Still, some late winter temps do blast the flower buds, as sometimes happens with all tree fruits.

Truly, picking a warm ripe peach off a tree in Maine, in early fall is a special experience.

[fladogfan]

That sounds delicious Breeze. Peaches are one of my favorite fruits, especially the good ones. My friends who work farmers markets usually get the best ones from whatever state is in season in the southeast. Did you know we have peaches growing in Florida? I think the U. of Florida has been working with them and with blueberries too. After the years of the bad freezes when a lot of citrus were lost I guess The university came up with other crops for Florida to grow.

BTW there is a blueberry farm near me with you pick groves. Very tasty. The FL peaches are not as good as GA or SC or even VA for that matter, but each year they are bigger and better.