Fruit trees for Spring 2023

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Bucksnort,

I like that hilling method you have. I moved 2 root maker pots to their permanent locations. The dirt just fell apart around it, likely not enough root growth since march in a west window. South windows are all taken with other plants.

What soil did you use? Almost looks like bucket of saw dust, or covered with saw dust.

 

[BuckSnort]

Bucksnort,

I like that hilling method you have. I moved 2 root maker pots to their permanent locations. The dirt just fell apart around it, likely not enough root growth since march in a west window. South windows are all taken with other plants.

What soil did you use? Almost looks like bucket of saw dust, or covered with saw dust.

You are correct, I use sawdust in the spring to get them waking up and doing their thing. When it’s time to plant they pull out nice and easy with no root disturbance.

 

[weekender21]

Grafts starting to leaf out

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[PatinPA]

If all goes well I'll have my first plums ever this year. I can't remember what kind they are but I bought them from Lowe's about 4 years ago in the fall for around $7 each. After a bout of black knot, they bounced back pretty well. This one in particular is loaded. Now I just have to keep the tree rats off of them.


Here is my best persimmon seedling planted about 4-5 years ago before I kept track of any of what I was doing. It's been tubed until this year. No flowers yet but it sounds like I have a while anyway.

 

[PatinPA]

I have a pear tree that the top has started to bend over. I've kept it pruned up so it's not due to weight. How should I go about straightening it up? I forgot to take a pic of it. I'll have to remember next time I'm out.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Grafts starting to leaf out

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Slick looking grafts.

 

[bigboreblr]

Walked aroud my trees this evening. The warm weather and watering gave all of them a little shot of growth. Franklin cider seems to be slightly ahead of 30-06 for the most growth. Leaves are getting holes in them, but got home late today. Hoprefully tomorrow the wind will be clam. Been pretty windy here for almost a week.

Far as grafts go. 2 questions. When should you trim off the rootstock leaves, regular bench grafting and rootstock that rabbits girdled over the winter.

Also, when putting grafts on mature trees for scion wood growth. Do you trim off the leaves on the host branch? If your scionwood makes flowers / fruit, is it better to cut the fruit off? Kerr and dolgo scionwood has flowers on them.

I know some of you are big box store tree haters. I fought the temptation to purchase a semi-dwarf winesap apple tree from lowe's. Good cedar apple rust resistance, late october / early nov maturity, apple is good eating and storage, not bad for cider either.

 

[TenPoint]

Walked aroud my trees this evening. The warm weather and watering gave all of them a little shot of growth. Franklin cider seems to be slightly ahead of 30-06 for the most growth. Leaves are getting holes in them, but got home late today. Hoprefully tomorrow the wind will be clam. Been pretty windy here for almost a week.

Far as grafts go. 2 questions. When should you trim off the rootstock leaves, regular bench grafting and rootstock that rabbits girdled over the winter.

Also, when putting grafts on mature trees for scion wood growth. Do you trim off the leaves on the host branch? If your scionwood makes flowers / fruit, is it better to cut the fruit off? Kerr and dolgo scionwood has flowers on them.

I know some of you are big box store tree haters. I fought the temptation to purchase a semi-dwarf winesap apple tree from lowe's. Good cedar apple rust resistance, late october / early nov maturity, apple is good eating and storage, not bad for cider either.

I don't think a few trees like that are going to hurt anything. I wouldn't base an entire planting or majority on them but filling in here and there shouldn't be any issue. If you're willing to spend the $ on them, I'd say go for it.

 

[Barndog56]

Grafts starting to leaf out

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It's a great feeling when you see those first leaves. For your future grafting I would cut your scions so you only have 2 buds on them after grafting. That way the rootstock pushes energy to just those two buds, on a short scion, instead of dividing the energy up among the half dozen buds you have. You really only need one bud to leaf out anyway, all of the others will eventually be stripped. You can also do two or three times as many grafts with the same amount of scion that way.

 

[weekender21]

It's a great feeling when you see those first leaves. For your future grafting I would cut your scions so you only have 2 buds on them after grafting. That way the rootstock pushes energy to just those two buds, on a short scion, instead of dividing the energy up among the half dozen buds you have. You really only need one bud to leaf out anyway, all of the others will eventually be stripped. You can also do two or three times as many grafts with the same amount of scion that way.

Thanks for the advice. I’m a grafting rookie, it takes me a few cuts to get the graft right most of the time. I did have a few with two successful buds last year, I just picked the best looking one.


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[Troubles Trees]

I have a pear tree that the top has started to bend over. I've kept it pruned up so it's not due to weight. How should I go about straightening it up? I forgot to take a pic of it. I'll have to remember next time I'm out.

I had 2 pear trees that did that and the best I could figure is they had fruit I wasn't aware of and that is what bent them over, The trees are out of the way so not an area I check often and they were growing normal like the other 3 so I assume they had fruit but not sure bud.

 

[Troubles Trees]

I went back on my promise to never order from Stark Bros again. Most of the plants in my strawberry pyramid didn’t green up this spring so I ordered some from Stark. They had Santa Rosa plumbs on sale really cheap so I bought a couple.

Order comes in on Friday, I can’t plant until Saturday so I open up the box and pull out the plastic bag holding the trees and open it up to make sure the roots stay moist. Well…. my experience in the past is usually the moist paper strips are scattered throughout the plastic bag. This time there wasn’t any in the bag. How these people stay in business baffles me. Twice before I had trees not green up after planting from them, tried to go the warranty route to get no response at all. I won’t even bother with it this time.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I went back on my promise to never order from Stark Bros again. Most of the plants in my strawberry pyramid didn’t green up this spring so I ordered some from Stark. They had Santa Rosa plumbs on sale really cheap so I bought a couple.

Order comes in on Friday, I can’t plant until Saturday so I open up the box and pull out the plastic bag holding the trees and open it up to make sure the roots stay moist. Well…. my experience in the past is usually the moist paper strips are scattered throughout the plastic bag. This time there wasn’t any in the bag. How these people stay in business baffles me. Twice before I had trees not green up after planting from them, tried to go the warranty route to get no response at all. I won’t even bother with it this time.

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I can commiserate with you..I ordered some peach trees from an online nursery and when they arrived not only were the roots stuck in dry mulch, but the roots had actually been CUT! Even an amateur like me knows this is a huge NO NO. I am actually surprised that 2 out of the 3 trees have survived this long (1 month)...

 

[Fair oak]

Any idea what is going on with my liberty and Enterprise trees? Wondering if it’s burn from neem oil or something else. I sprayed all of my trees in the very early morning about 10 days ago as I had ants and aphids and tiny black caterpillars. Still seeing some tiny caterpillars. The dolgos, buckman, Kerr all look pretty clean compared to the Liberty, enterprise and 30-06. It’s been very dry so I dumped about 5 gallons of water on each of my 14 trees this morning. Maybe that’ll perk them up.

 

[g squared 23]

Couple of mulberry grafts, Illinois Everbearing

Persimmon grafts, Prok I believe.


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[Native Hunter]

My Bush Cherry Experiment is working out okay.

 

[bigboreblr]

fair oak,

When you spray for caterpillars, more can show up from neighboring trees. I used the pruple can of bonide fruit tree spray. It killed the catarpillers there, but more showed up later. Don't think it has residual. Neem oil takes care of caterpillars? Thought it was just insect eggs. The freshly sprouted leaves get beat up when I spray. Think mature leaves that get a heavier dose get damaged too.

Those marks on the leaves won't kill the tree. Sorta looks like cedar apple rust, but the color is off.

old timers used to put a line of grease or tape on the trunk to prevents them from going tree too tree from the ground. Kinda hard to do with these young trees and the vole screenings.

Ants I use terro a few times a year.


I got an update on my grafts. Hopefully someone chimes in on why. Was going to lowe's to pick up lumber Friday, I walked to the keiffer tree that's wasn't budding out to yank it out to get a warranty refund. It had buds starting to leaf out on it. So, I go to my M111's grafts that had leaves on them for a whole month now, and the grafts started to leaf out there too. Enterprise, liberty, blue pearmain, and Harrison. I have been watering my trees every 3rd day with no rain with well water. Maybe I shocked the temps on the soil and they took longer to wake up.....

 

[Bowsnbucks]

My Bush Cherry Experiment is working out okay.

NICE!! It's good to see you finally got SOMETHING to grow for you .......... Taste??

Do you have many of those cherry bushes?? People supply, or critters too?? We planted a bunch of choke cherry seedlings at camp for some brushy cover and also for the critters' food & cover / nesting. Hopefully those choke cherries will fill those roles.

 

[Native Hunter]

NICE!! It's good to see you finally got SOMETHING to grow for you .......... Taste??

Do you have many of those cherry bushes?? People supply, or critters too?? We planted a bunch of choke cherry seedlings at camp for some brushy cover and also for the critters' food & cover / nesting. Hopefully those choke cherries will fill those roles.

Hey Bows, I bought 3 of those cherry bushes from Gurney's. My son likes cherries, and I put them in the yard of the little place he bought next to my farm where no one lives. I really didn't put them out for critters, but had a bird about land on my head when picking them. The taste is tart, but I must have liked them pretty well, because I ate several of them while doing the picking.

 

[PatinPA]

I planted these about trees about 5 years ago. I bought them online and they were only labeled Wild Pear Trees. I've had them tubed until this year. I opened them up and pruned them up. Any ideas what they could be? They have some sort of thorny growths that grow out on the newer branches. They've never blossomed.
Pictures aren't the best. They really blended in with the background.