Questions not deserving of a whole thread

Harvest enough of them so a few rips don’t matter. They do stick to that stem, so I suppose you could use a needle-nose pliers to pull the stem while cradling the fruit in your other hand. I haven’t really thought about it because if the fruit is fully ripe I do manage to get most of the tree unscathed. I will look at it again this season.

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Is below observation in sync with your experience? (in zone 7b)

bloom time (from early to late):
plum < cherry < peach < apple < pomegranate
sweet cherry bloom time (from early to late):
whitegold ~ vandalay < Tehranivee << blackgold

Thanks

I’m not sure I understand your question completely, but in my zone 6b/7a area, it happens as follows:
Plums-peach-sweet cherry-pear-sour cherry-apple-persimmon I dont have poms nor do I have the varieties of sweet cherry you mentioned

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I thought apricot is the first to blooom

He didn’t list apricots so I didn’t include them. But if I had included a lot more of things I have, my very first bloomer is a pluot called Dragon Tongue. My second blooming tree is a plum called Ozark Premier. Next would be a tie between spring satin plumcot and all of my apricots. At least that is how it always starts for me.

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Citymans sounds about right but I don’t have Persimmon. Peaches bloom before sweet cherries in my area. Last year they started blooming 2 weeks before my first cherry. I’ve not noticed a whole lot of difference between sweet and sour cherries. Although my only sour is Montmorency (with the exception of the romance bushes). Apricots are definitely early. My earliest bloomer is Flavor Delight. Lucky its only a single graft or otherwise it would get the boot ASAP.

To show how environments differ, my trees tend to all bloom together. Within a week plum, peach and sweet cherry are all blooming. At least the last three years.

Thank you all for sharing.

I never have apricot tree. I have no experience with apricot.
Interesting thing is most of you saying peach bloom earlier than sweet cheery. My peach is RedHaven maybe due to it’s a northern peach need more chill requirement?

I am getting genetic dwarf peach and nectarine this year (sensation and necta zee) both seem have low chill requirement. I wonder these actually will bloom earlier than cherry.

Thanks

my peach blooms later than sweet cherry. In my backyard, J. plum and Asian pear blooms at same time, right after that is the sweet cherry and nectarine

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That’s strange that your Ozark Premier blooms so early. Here it blooms with other J. plums and well after cots. I’ve never heard of it mentioned as being so early- are you sure that is what you have? What is the fruit like- if you ever get any?

Amazing how different our regions can be. Asian pears are a good 3-4 weeks behind japanese plums here in WV.

Stem pick damage is by far the biggest problem with Saturn (it doesn’t happen with other donuts). What makes it even worse with Saturn is that the white flesh browns very rapidly, so that the skin tear looks even worse after a short time.

I’d love to find a solution to this problem. My Saturn peaches hug the shoot they’re attached to so tightly, there is no chance of getting a pair of needle nose pliers in there. On other flat peaches like TangOs, I “roll” the peach the same orientation as it’s on the stem. I never twist the peach which causes the shoot to twist into the soft shoulder of the peach and damage it. It’s not necessary to roll TangOs to protect it. The flesh is so tough on that one, it doesn’t matter how you pick them, but that’s just how I do it for extra protection against pick damage.

I sort of try to pick Saturns like round peaches. That is, sort of make a circle with my index finger and thumb (but not a complete circle). Put that semi- circle between the peach and shoot, and then pull the peach straight down. Many times it will break the shoot, but it keeps the shoot from digging into the shoulder if the peach is soft.

If the peach is a little firmer, it doesn’t matter. The flesh is tough enough you can just pull the peach straight down.

The problem is that with Saturn, even this method causes plenty of skin tears at the stem. About the best method is to pick Saturn a little earlier, but if picked too early, they don’t quite develop the high sugar they are known for. It’s really a very fine line.

The good news about all these flat peaches is that there are very few drops. They hang very well.

This is my newly planted Asian pear. Any suggestion as to where to cut it off for size control? I’d like to keep it at 7 ft. First white ribbon from the soil level is the graft point. Around the white ribbon on top there are 3 nice scaffolds. But I’m thinking if I cut around there tree would be too tall.
How about around pink ribbon? I’d be taking off most part of the tree. Suggestions?

On a peach if I cut off the whip I do it at 30 inches. I would think if you do not want it getting tall than 7 feet you would want to cut 30 inches on a pear also so it branches out low. Usually the branches that come out at 30 inches are hard to train so I keep the second set of branches below the top of the cut so they can be trained to a better horizontal angle. I would wait and hear what others have to say - i do not have a lot of experience with pears.

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Did anyone here graft black currant to Josta berry? currant in general is easy to root, however,I had never successfully rooted a black currant cuttings. Out of the desperation, I grafted some black currant scion onto Josta berry, I am wondering if these two are compatible for grafting?

:grapes:What do you consider a good price for grape vines? After reading some threads here on grapes, I think I would like to try a couple of Somerset plants. I don’t know if I can find them locally, I don’t recall seeing them before. The cheapest online source I have found so far is Gurneys 1 yr plant, with shipping they come out to around $13 each. Good price?

I don’t know anything about grapes or their prices but I wouldn’t buy anything from Gurneys, You’ll get a dead little stick. (based on other flower purchases)
Again I’ve never grown or bought a grape but Stark has them for 12.99 and I would trust Stark before Gurneys.

Just my opinion, worth exactly what you gave for it. :slight_smile: :smiley:

I used to trust starkbro’s quality and they are my first place to looking for trees. I ordered 4 fruit trees from starkbro last year, one had never shipped, was cancelled by starkbro, one had never leafed out, one struggled growing few leafs and withered. One was sent in Nov. A tiny stick, I still can’t determine if it is still alive or not.
I called for a replacement. Guess what, one was no longer available, one they don’t have the same super dwarf available, I have to choose another cultivar that is available in fall delivery only. It looks like starkbro not only sales trees grow in their own nursary, but also sales trees of other nursary’s overstock that they have no control of the quality

OK price I just bought Summer Royal for 7.95. I only ever bought 2 grape vines, the other was free from Raintree. A bonus plant.

That is not typical, many of us here have received very nice plants from them. Many of us are surprised that such a huge nursery delivers good stock. Our biggest complaint is the fake names and marketing gimmicks, but for such a nursery stock has been reported to be good. They also back up their stock if dead, , so you should have received replacements if you complained.

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Thanks for the feedback.

I don’t have a problem with Gurneys either. Granted, I have only ordered a few times, mainly seeds and small fruits when sales promotions have made them affordable. However, I got Carmine Jewell and Romeo bush cherries from them this spring that have good roots and are almost 3.5’ tall, multi-stemmed plants. I was impressed! Much nicer stock than I expected.
I still think $13 each for a common grape is a bit high, but I haven’t seen them cheaper. I had already checked out Stark, and while their plants are $10.99 each, shipping is $14.95 for 2 plants. I don’t need anything else to reach the ‘spend $99 and get free shipping’ promotion. I like to shop around… I hate paying more for shipping than I have to!
Is Somerset considered a popular grape, like Concord or Reliance??? Maybe I can find it at a TSC, Lowe’s, or farm store selection. These places are just starting to get their fruiting stock in around here (I called TSC), but are 30 to 60+ minutes from me, so I don’t shop there unless it is something very specific I need.