September 2022 - 27

NOTES FROM THE FARM
Apple picking time and the Jonathans are dropping
JERRY MILLS
Mills Apple Farm
jerry@millsapplefarm.com
happen. That is why we often see fresh
concrete covered with plastic, etc.
This year I was too lazy to look for
It's apple picking time! MidAugust
as I write this. It had been a
few days since I last checked the crop
and behold! Jonathans were dropping.
This means all of the preparatory
projects have to be finished. And
they aren't.
Rot again. Picked the first
Jonathans yesterday and I am so
disappointed to see rot appearing.
I was sure we learned the correct
timing for controlling it, and
throughout the season all fruits
looked so much better than
ever before.
Much of the problem this year is
poorly pruned trees and too much
vegetation to permit good coverage. I
guess I'll have to try one more year to
see if I can get it right. Maybe there
is a way for an older guy to actually
prune trees.
The peach problem. I missed a
spray for lesser peach tree borers the
third year after they were planted.
I thought the infections were too
high to cut out so I left them, hoping
the spots would heal. It ruined the
trees instead.
They will go this winter when I
have time to pull them.
New Farm Sign. This year's big
crop warranted a new larger sign out
front. I asked our local print shop to
help design it.
The cool thing about it is the way
A great machine for cleaning dry concrete. A large rotating brush in front sweeps
material backward into the bucket. Bucket is unloaded by raising and tilting forward.
Material dribbles out through the space between brush and bucket. Reversing the brush
speeds the emptying process. Wear a mask if your loader does not have a cab to protect
you from the dust. Seen at Mills Apple Farm, Marine, IL. Photo: Jerry Mills
it is set in the ground following
instructions that came with our
new flagpole.
Instead of setting posts in holes
filled with concrete, these posts
are set in rings of gravel and sand
separated by a section of eight-inch
plastic drain tile. The outer ring
is hard packed grade-eight road
gravel. The space around the 6 " x 6 "
posts is filled with dry hard-packed
playground sand.
Curing concrete, the easy (?) way.
Most folks probably know that fresh
concrete should not just " dry. " It
needs to cure, which means giving
the mix time enough to go through
a chemical process that produces a
much more durable, harder concrete.
Water needs to be present for this to
plastic but there are old hay bales
stored along a tree line, and I do have
a way to retrieve them. Soil is always
wet under them. Perhaps the same
will happen if the new concrete is
covered with wet hay. Well, we
shall see.
A grapple on the front of a track
loader is an easy way to handle
old hay.
Electricity bills spike. Illinois
Power electric bills have taken off for
the moon, powered, so they say, by
the cost of electricity purchased from
out-of-state sources. One more reason
to go for solar, which I intend to do
when we finish new market facilities.
Our bank is advertising solar loans.
I asked them for recommendations
since we are being deluged by emails
and phone calls promoting solar. It
is too difficult to sort through all
of them.
Tool of the month: A front end
loader bucket with a rotary broom out
front that sweeps debris off the floor
and into the bucket.
We store machinery in the pavilion
in the off season. The floor was
covered with dried mud. Two swipes
and the mud is gone. A half hour with
a power washer and the place will be
ready for a party. FGN
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FGN | SEPTEMBER 2022 | 27
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September 2022

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