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Post by blueadzuki on Jun 24, 2015 19:19:46 GMT -5
I rather doubt I am getting much in the way of fruit this year. My peach tree seems to have suffered terribly during the winter, and appear to be taking a year off in total stasis since it has nary a leaf, or leaf bud on it (by this time it should not only have leaves, but have gone through it's whole flower season and have a handful of developing peaches. In fact the only reason I am saying "in stasis" as opposed to "dead" is that when I scratch some of the braches, the underlying tissue still seems to be green. So in theory it could come back next year (provided next winter isn't as brutal as the last one was, which is long odds around here.) But odds are not good (I honestly don't know if a tree stores enough food in a summer* to be able to go through two hard winters without any fresh supplies) I rather suspect by next year I'll be putting a new tree in that place. Probably not another of that peach (while I liked having a peach that was fully self fertile and the purple leaves were certainly pretty, a peach that under the most ideal conditions I had , produced only four ping pong ball sized peaches that did not taste any better than the kind of industrial dreck peaches you find in big box supermarkets and took until the end of November to do that (I literally would wind up sharing the trees peaches during Thanksgiving dinner, when there were any) probably just isn't worth the effort.
Beyond that, there really isn't much fruit around. The hard freeze the winter before last killed off the strawberries. The birds almost invariably get whatever blueberries our bushes make before we do (and given how sour and seedy they turn out, they are welcome to them. the one black walnut we actually have on our property is literally decades away from their being even a chance of nuts. the crabapples are nearly dead (and their fruit is tiny and blighted anyway). The only fruit we can count on their being is the wild wineberries (again, assuming we beat the birds to any) and their lives rather depend on how rigorously the Village decides to enforce the new NY state invasive species list (technically, plants on the list are only banned from being sold or knowingly planted, but with the way our local government thinks, it would not surprise me for them to pass a sub ordinance requiring any person finding a listed plant on their property take steps to actively eradicate it.)
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Post by swamper on Jun 24, 2015 19:22:57 GMT -5
My strawberries are small and scarce but very tasty. They are all day neutral plants and many of them new this year, so I'm hoping for a sustained yield.
Blueberries have excellent fruitset. I have mostly bushes that bear large berries later in the season.
The pie cherry tree is loaded with fruit, but none are quite ripe yet. One of the bigger branches was snapped last night. A black bear apparently paid a visit.
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Post by mskrieger on Jun 25, 2015 9:49:16 GMT -5
Joseph: Ah, so the elevation is just that much too much for them, combined with everything else? Hm. I wonder if some of the peaches growing (wild) in NW China have genetic resources that'd work for your situation.... Frustrating that breeding trees requires a generation-long commitment to a specific piece of land. And a generation. At least!
blueadzuki: I have nothing but admiration for your gardening efforts, considering where you live. Perhaps one day you'll be able to cross the state line into CT and have some property with a little less guv'mnt interference. (And I'll happily give you some peach grafting stock if you like--mine never have any problems with our winters.)
Swamper: That sounds great. Post your yields here when you get 'em! I'm going out to the pie cherries today to bring in what will probably be their last harvest of the season. I'm hoping to cross the 10lb mark today.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 25, 2015 9:54:14 GMT -5
There is an orchard in the next valley over that was planted a couple of decades ago with peaches that were collected from the wild in NW China. I volunteer at the orchard sometimes. Eventually something may come out of that orchard that works better here. It's all tied up in academia, and the orchardist that started the project is dead now, so his family carries on as best they can.
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Post by greenfinger on Jun 25, 2015 12:29:29 GMT -5
rind grafting www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrE2CkQHudIWhat to do next year, though this is not the same tree. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n336hga0J-kMy plum trees were true to form, beautiful blooms, and dropping all the fruit. I have 1 each youngish peach, pear, and apple (plus rootstock from a stump), no fruit developed. Blackberries are loaded. Currant has never borne fruit. Mulberry dropped all the flowers, first bloom for it, maybe it's a male tree.  My sassafras has lots of leaves for tea and file though. Oh! and elderberries have lots of blooms! |
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Post by blueadzuki on Jun 25, 2015 15:20:50 GMT -5
blueadzuki: I have nothing but admiration for your gardening efforts, considering where you live. Perhaps one day you'll be able to cross the state line into CT and have some property with a little less guv'mnt interference. (And I'll happily give you some peach grafting stock if you like--mine never have any problems with our winters.) Someday maybe until then I must forge ahead (except who on earth wants a forged head? (well a person who makes busts out of iron might....) most people have a real one g>) But no one the stock. My grafting skills are nonexistent, and in any case the space might give me opportunity to put in something that works better, like those yellowhorn seeds I've been keeping for a few years. |
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Post by castanea on Jun 25, 2015 21:51:27 GMT -5
There is an orchard in the next valley over that was planted a couple of decades ago with peaches that were collected from the wild in NW China. I volunteer at the orchard sometimes. Eventually something may come out of that orchard that works better here. It's all tied up in academia, and the orchardist that started the project is dead now, so his family carries on as best they can. Someone needs to liberate some of their seeds. |
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Post by mskrieger on Jun 26, 2015 11:48:33 GMT -5
Or maybe liberate a few twigs in late winter. And get good at rind grafting (thanks for the link, greenfinger!)
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Post by mskrieger on Aug 6, 2015 12:07:38 GMT -5
Total sour cherries harvest came in at more than 13lb! That's more than 20% of the max commercial yield off of two trees, not bad considering the terrible brown rot infection. I also noticed that the farm stands up in Storrs, CT, near the state land grant university, were selling pie cherries a full month later than my trees were bearing. Seems to me the trees are quite sensitive to temperature. It's a full zone to a zone and a half colder at the university than on the coast where I live, though the day length difference can't be much at all. (Swamper, this probably explains your tree being so much later than mine.)
My peaches were a total bust, as usual. Need to plant a full-size peach somewhere away from a fence so the tree rats can't steal 'em. My crab apples are looking good, as are the apples growing untended around the university grounds. (I have a favorite in a hedgerow right near my office.) And it looks like it could be another mast year for the black walnuts....
Anybody else got any fruit/nut harvest to report?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 6, 2015 13:44:33 GMT -5
mskrieger: We had unusually warm weather for a long time this spring, and then a few days of normal cold weather, so the apricot and peach flowers got frozen. A few cherry and plum blossoms survived, but in such small numbers that the birds cleaned them up before they could be harvested. The grape crop this year is tremendously productive. I ate a few today, but they are a little tart still to be taking to market, so I'll plan on starting the harvest next week. The grapes set fruit twice this year, so I will have a harvest at the regular time, and a second harvest about three weeks later. Pears and apples are doing great. Goji fruited really well. We has super hot weather just as the spring raspberries were starting to fruit. So that shut them down for the rest of the season. The fall raspberries are currently flowering. The Carpathian walnuts are looking good. I have perhaps 40 hazelnut seedlings that are in their first or second year. Wondering what to do with them.
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Post by taihaku on Aug 6, 2015 15:35:42 GMT -5
I seem to have had quite a poor fruit set this year - much of the orchard are still very young but I was expecting to do better than this this year. A couple of my plums got plum leaf curl aphid and dropped all their fruit and none of the apples seem to have done anything this year. The exception seems to be the apricots. It seems to be a very big year for them in the UK and this was the first year mine produced so, naturally, we celebrated....  |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 6, 2015 19:33:43 GMT -5
This has been a horrible year for fruit trees. One apple tree died, one grafted plum tree died, both cherry trees died, the presumably almond tree died (although more likely a nectarine), and the peach tree almost died. One cherry tree and the almond/nectarine tree are growing new branches from the stumps. I think borers got them. Not sure if what killed the apple tree was the same that killed the stone fruits. Plus this year we never had any blossoms, so no fruit on any of the apple trees that are doing ok. got a bowl of chokecherry's though.
The gooseberry bush produced some yummy fruit though.
My golden kiwi plant is dying though, so i tried to transplant it into a pot to care for it better. One hardy kiwi is doing well though. I've never seen any kiwi blossoms though. ever.
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Post by mskrieger on Aug 7, 2015 10:18:38 GMT -5
keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) That sounds really tough. Sorry to hear of all your losses--I'd hate to lose my cherry trees! We get some borer damage each year and it's very obvious, lots of gummy sap and frass at the base of the tree. Stone fruits can also die from freeze/thaw cycles in middling climates--did you have weird weather that made them break dormancy early, maybe? Regarding your hardy kiwi, that's weird that you have no blossoms. I'm told that kiwis are either male or female, so you'd need at least two to get fruit anyway. I hope next growing season treats you better! Joseph Lofthouse About your hazelnuts...is that an invitation to sell/trade? I have a hankering for hazelnuts and space for a new hedgerow (I also have a daughter nicknamed Hazelnut, incidentally.) How genetically diverse are the parents of those seedlings? Might some of them thrive in a humid climate?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 7, 2015 11:14:59 GMT -5
mskrieger: My hazelnut seeds were grown locally. Someone with a few trees in the back yard sold them to the farm-stand that I got them from. They are small nuts and looked like clones of each other. So diversity is likely to be low. Send me a PM in early October about a swap. I don't know if they have any tolerance to hazelnut diseases, or about their preferred environment.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 7, 2015 12:55:21 GMT -5
Cherry trees have a history of dying here. Maybe in a spot with better moisture, but it was a long shot planting them. Peaches do ok, but i think we are on the edge of their climate tolerance. Some years the blossoms get frozen. Yes this spring was very warm and then a cold snap came through, so perhaps that damaged the trees.
The kiwi's are only about 4or 5 years old, but i've never seen any blossoms. I planted 2 hardy kiwis and 1 golden kiwi i sprouted from seed. No idea how many are males or females. But i love golden kiwi fruit and i like hardy kiwi berries ok, so it would be very clever if they crossed and i got golden kiwi berries some day. One can dream.
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