Post by Shibumi-Mandeville I-12/Hwy59 on Apr 6, 2022 16:58:44 GMT -6
For those into or interested in growing flowering and maybe fruiting trees and berries:
This sounds much more impressive than it is...at least for now.....as only 5 of the fruit trees are of a size and age to maybe fruit.
Apparently I have 18 fruit trees on my modest 150'x75' lot. Oh wait, 19. Just bought a small (12 inch) Key Lime I will keep potted.
All are on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock and will also be pruned for size to keep them manageable and not to overtake my yard.
X-Denotes older tree
Plumcot -X Tropical Gold Apricot -X LSU Gold Fig -X Shinseiki Asian Pear -X Pluerry (plum-cherry hybrid) -X Weeping Santa Rosa Plum -X Flavor Grenade Pluot Cot-n-Candy Aprium Katy Plum 3-on-1 Asian Pear (Shinseiki, 20th Century, Hosui) all on 1 rootstock. Chikasaw Plum
Apples: these are cut back to create an espalier. Fuji Granny Smith Arkansas Black Spur Pink Lady Gala
Berries and Other Fruit: 4 Issai Kiwi - small, immature 3 Arapahoe Thornless Blackberry - bearing 1 Thornless Loganberry - bearing 1 Anna Yellow Raspberry - bearing
New 2 - Razzmatazz Gape ( grape-muscadine hybrid that continues bearing all growing season. This is a first of its kind as all grapes and muscadines bear on new spring growth and stop to mature those bunches only) 1 - Flame Red Grape
I didn't know apples would grow here! That's pretty cool.
We're putting in blackberry vines. I hope they do well.
There are several varieties of apple you can grow down here.....they are not maintenance free though as there are issues with different insects, molds, and mildews.
Hope you chose a thornless variety of blackberry. Mine are Arapahoe.
Post by Shibumi-Mandeville I-12/Hwy59 on Apr 14, 2022 17:23:58 GMT -6
Planted two more fruit trees today. Chickasaw Plum and Lapins Cherry.
The plum is a native plum to the southeast cultivated by the Native Americans - thus the name. They are small plums, maybe the size of pingpong balls, but it is a good pollinator with an extended bloom time, which is why I planted it. If I get fruit, that's great too. Should bring more pollinating insects to my yard.
The Lapins Cherry is a low (relatively) chill requirement, self-fertile sweet cherry. I have always dreamed of growing a cherry tree but we live in the wrong place for it. This tree is by no means a sure thing, but perhaps after a cold winter I might get lucky...assuming the tree survives the hot, humid summers here. At the least I am hoping for some nice flowers in spring and perhaps some fall color.
Post by Shibumi-Mandeville I-12/Hwy59 on Apr 14, 2022 17:57:18 GMT -6
The proper use of branch spreaders. More horizontal branches accomplish three things:
1) Opens up the center of the tree for better sun penetration and air flow.
2) Horizontal branching promotes the development of fruiting buds.
Those fast growing vertical branches in trees are called 'water shoots', and are not condusive to fruiting or good shaping.
3) Helps limit how tall the tree grows.....I for one don't want to spend a lot of time on a ladder picking fruit.
For home fruit trees always chose a dwarf- or semi-dwarf grafted rootstock to keep the trees manageable.
This is a Lapins Sweet Cherry, self-fruitful. Nursery fruit trees are all grown on a central leader...meaning a main center trunk. This is not now almost all feuit trees should be grown, bit it is easier to ship and place in the stores. These arent oak trees that you want to grow that way.
Store bought fruit trees should be pruned by cutting off the center leader 30-36 inches from the graft. This is best done while still dormant, which is why I order my trees from online nurseries. The photo shows after the cut made. There are a good many branches pointing in each direction...maybe too many and I will deal with those as I see how the tree grows.
We have a grape vine at our new home. So far they seem to be doing well. Just hoping the birds don't get them. Looks like we'll have tons of satsumas later on in the year as well.
Hammond, LA NWS COOP ID: 16-7425-08 CoCoRaHs ID: LA-TG-23
We have a grape vine at our new home. So far they seem to be doing well. Just hoping the birds don't get them. Looks like we'll have tons of satsumas later on in the year as well.
Birds will get some....it's hard to tell if it will be bad or not. I netted one year but ended up killing two birds who went under it and couldn't get out....so using a net has to be done properly.
I'd be curious what type grapes they are. Find out if you can. There are billions of videos on pruning and training grape and muscadine vines so I'd read up if I were you. It's not difficult though wacking away at a plant sometimes feels wrong. Need to have a long view.
Post by crashtestdummy on Jun 23, 2022 6:36:52 GMT -6
Best of luck with all that. That looks great. I've tried raspberries, as I remember picking ripe ones off my aunt's raspberry bushes in Sacramento when I was a kid. Awesomely-sweet. The stuff we get in the stores are picked literally green and taste as such. Alas, it's too hot here for raspberry in the summer, and the variety we had didn't like the occasional freeze... at all.
We had some canning figs that came with the propery when we bought the house, but I think the june bug larvae killed them. We also have a pear and pecan tree, but those seem to mostly feed the treerats. The pears appear to be a canning type, as the fruit are hard, and sugar content low. We've _never_ had a pecan off the pecan tree, and we've been here 25 years!
We've had the best luck with citrus... up until February of last year. We had two huge satsuma orange and one big ruby red grapefruit trees. They got severely-frozen back in February. One orange is now just root stock, and I'm going to try to graft a blood orange to it. The other orange was frozen back, but still has growth on the orange wood. It was covered in flowers this spring, but I don't think any fruit set. The grapefruit didn't bloom this year.
We also have some things in pots we need to get in the ground, but just haven't done that yet. There's a fig we got from my Dad's property that made awesome fruit. I'd love to have more f that fruit.
Best of luck with all that. That looks great. I've tried raspberries, as I remember picking ripe ones off my aunt's raspberry bushes in Sacramento when I was a kid. Awesomely-sweet. The stuff we get in the stores are picked literally green and taste as such. Alas, it's too hot here for raspberry in the summer, and the variety we had didn't like the occasional freeze... at all.
We had some canning figs that came with the propery when we bought the house, but I think the june bug larvae killed them. We also have a pear and pecan tree, but those seem to mostly feed the treerats. The pears appear to be a canning type, as the fruit are hard, and sugar content low. We've _never_ had a pecan off the pecan tree, and we've been here 25 years!
We've had the best luck with citrus... up until February of last year. We had two huge satsuma orange and one big ruby red grapefruit trees. They got severely-frozen back in February. One orange is now just root stock, and I'm going to try to graft a blood orange to it. The other orange was frozen back, but still has growth on the orange wood. It was covered in flowers this spring, but I don't think any fruit set. The grapefruit didn't bloom this year.
We also have some things in pots we need to get in the ground, but just haven't done that yet. There's a fig we got from my Dad's property that made awesome fruit. I'd love to have more f that fruit.
Pears are one of the few fruits that can ripen after picking.