Now the Reliance Peach in my unheated greenhouse is in full bloom. Bright pink petals open wide and being visited by native bees and flies. I have done some paintbrush cross pollination just to be sure I get a lot of fruit to set. No frosty or freezing weather expected in the near future. Next will be a spray of kaolin clay for the bugs and sulfur for the rots and cankers that inevitably await if I do not spray. This will be applied at petal fall and repeated two weeks later. All this because I have learned from last season watching 50 little peachlets whittled off by plum curculio damage until I had only 3 peaches ripen successfully. Hoping for better results this year. Would like to can some homegrown peaches this summer and maybe bake a cobbler or two. You have to have high hopes to grow peaches in northern Vermont, I sure do.
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