Observations of stonefruit in bloom this season

Actually Contender has non-showy blooms.

I have just about all the yellow NC varieties developed recently and they all have non-showy blooms. I’m sure I’ve got the “correct” Contender because it matches ripening times, blooms later, and is winter hardy (compared to other peaches).

NC also states it’s non-showy.

Bummer.

https://yancey.ces.ncsu.edu/peachtreevarietydescription/

Alan has a pretender!!? Whatever it is, I hope it’s good.

I just grafted Contender this year. If they take, I need to watch the flowers next year. Thanks for pointing it out, Mark.

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It is not a single tree, it is all the contenders I was sent in a bundle from Adams. Guess I may have been struck by the foibles of the nursery.

We have a volunteer tart cherry tree close to some really old trees that are just about done with. This tree started to bloom about two weeks ago and has set a fair amount of fruit, maybe a couple dozen. Unless I net the tree, the birds will get the fruit like they did last year. I don’t know how old the tree is, but it’s about 7ft tall.

I transplanted a wild plum last year in the lower yard and it survived the winter and bloomed about 3 weeks ago. I was worried that brief cold spells, plus wet weather might not help with pollination. But, I saw a bunch of bees and flies buzzing it. So, I guess they did their job as today I saw that it has set at least 4 dozen fruit.

Our two year old peach trees bloomed over a month ago, and we had a few freezes after that, including a 25° night. So, nothing on those trees. The peaches planted last year bloomed a little bit a week later, but nothing set, but no surprise.

Not stone fruit related, but what bothers me is that only 2 out my 17 apple trees haven’t bloomed yet. On some of I did the pull down method on branches while some other trees have almost horizontal limbs. Some of the trees aren’t big enough to support fruit yet, but there are several that are and no blooms on them. Even my 10’ Winesap has no flowers on it. There are much older apple trees on the farm that already bloomed and have set some fruit. Is it still too early for these trees not to bloom? They just started leafing out in earnest about 2 weeks ago.

How old are your 17 apple trees and what rootstocks they are on?

At this point I net just about all my fruit. So sick of losing it, and reminds me to buy more netting.
The best netting I have found is the green bird netting from American netting. It tangles up in trees the least, is strong, so you can pull off with some force. I’m going on 4 seasons on some of them. If handled carefully these could last a very long. I do not. i figure 5 or 6 years and it will have too many rips to patch. I use 15x15 which runs about 14 bucks. i can get this over my trees. 20x20 would be better, no such option.
I made this PVC cage with a 15x15, 4th or 5th season. it has holes patched with zip ties, and secured to PVC with them too. It stays outside all year, I have collapsed it before as pieces are not glued together.

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I planted 14 apple trees 2 years ago, and 3 a year ago. They are on a variety of rootstocks, some are M7 (5), G11, G16 (3), G202 (2), G222, G210, G890 and G30 (3).

Not that it matters, but most of the trees were from Cummins, three were from Wallace Woodstock. The Winesap is a tree I got from Lowe’s two years ago.

I should also mention that my big Moonglow and Pineapple pears didn’t bloom either, and I also pulled down a lot of their limbs. The Orient pear did show a few blossoms. These three are also two year old trees.

Generally speaking, 2 years are too soon for apples. Peach yes, not apple (except for on dwarf rootstocks). You may get some to flower in year 3. My M7 Gold Rush had some flowers in year 3, more in year 4.

So, be patient :smile:

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That is a bummer.

I’ve had plenty of odds and ends mislabeled from nurseries. The latest of which I discovered this spring when one of the Intrepid trees I planted in 2015 was showy and didn’t match the others.

I’ve also put in trees from nurseries which clearly didn’t fit the ripening window, but so far haven’t had a nursery send me several of the same variety which were a mislabel.

I’m pretty easy with suppliers, but I’d probably push for a refund if it was a very many trees, unless they looked really promising.

At least with peaches I can find out what they are before they are too big for me to move to customers. I hate throwing trees away and have converted several Flavor burst to other varieties with grafts. Not really cost effective, but what the heck.

Bob,

I just picked the cherries off the Danube and Jubileum trees at the house (one of each). They were especially low production this year. I got about 12 lbs. off the Jubileum and about 1/2 lb. off the Danube. The Danube is a little smaller tree, but a half pound is really pathetic, barely enough to feed a bird.

Speaking of birds (intentional segue) here’s the bird netting on the trees at the house. I’m in love with this American Netting (as in, where have you been all my life?) Thanks to @alan @mamuang @Drew51 @mrsg47 whose posts finally convinced me to try it.

It is sooo much easier to put on, than the monofilament, and the nets are big enough to cover my trees (got a couple of 30’ X 100’ rolls to cut up for individual nets). Because the nets are bigger, they don’t blow off the trees as bad either. This stuff is twice the price of monofilament, but, so far, worth every penny. It was a dream to put on. And it doesn’t tear!

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Yayyyyy! Olpea, it’s the best. Mine goes up this Thursday, when I have help. My Montmorency cherry tree is as large as one of yours!. It is easy to remove and refold as well. It does not tangle easily.

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I hit one with a lawn mower, and I still use it. It only messed up a section, stopped the mower when it happened. Strong stuff! And it didn’t unravel and cause further damage. Super well made. You can use it over and over too. It does snag, but pulling won’t rip it, you can at least pull enough to see where it’s snagged and clear it.

Mine has so many holes because birds got stuck in it and I could not see it stragled to death. Some of them were so entangled that I had to cut the net to them go.

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You’re a better person than me! All i did was have a moment of silence. I use zip ties to try and close holes up.

Mark,

Your trees look for healthy. You have such a green thumb. Re. Danube, it is really a waste of space. Let’s hear from @BobVance how productive his Danube is. I don’t regret removing my Danube.

@Drew51, I did curse those darn birds and threaten to kill them if they got caught again (I would not know if they were the same birds but made threats anyway :smile:) .

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Thanks Tippy.

Sometimes I don’t feel like I’ve got a green thumb at all.

Yesterday there were so many weeds in the orchard I sprayed the whole orchard with glyphosate. This morning I realized I had sprayed over the top of one of my new trees, because it was buried in weeds. Weeded it by hand a cut off all the foliage hoping the herbicide hasn’t translocated to the trunk yet. But it’s probably a goner.

Mark,
Spraying it accidentally because weeds were blocking your view was a better “reason” than stepping on a few peach seedlings (without weeds blocking them). My deed was plain carelessness.

I also stepped on newly planted dahlia while looking up/checking my persimmon tree. Have you noticed a trend here? :smile:

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I’ve done both! I hardly ever use glyphosate, that’s my excuse! I sprayed a newly planted Contorted quince. I realized it about 20 minutes after I did it. i stripped the leaves and it worked! The plant looks fine with it’s new leaves. I have stepped on so many, not enough room in the thread to list them all. Let’s limit it to this year. I stepped on a pepper seedling, even with a tomato cage around it . So much for that helping! . It survived though.

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I bought two nets from American nettings. But they are still in the packaging. No fruit to protect. I Do have some blue berry and some grapes. I think I’ll buy cheap tulle kind of netting for the couple of clusters of blue berries I have. Don’t want to break out a net to protect half a cup of blue berries. But for the grape I should use one. There’s enough fruit on it if nothing goes wrong I should get few clusters of fruit.