Nice trees with good roots
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I know, they look really nice, Pod & Bill. Great trees, probably some of the best I’ve ever bought. Going to have to provide some nice feedback for Trees of Antiquity. Pretty excited about them, have to say. And Susu, I sure hear you. Lived in N. Indiana for 10 years, and also in Maryland for 3. I know how cold it can get in the winter out where you are. Any my gosh, what a tough time to have to do home reno, Susu! We went through some winter home reno in N. Indiana after experiencing a chimney fire that required us to have to re-build our fireplace and entire back wall of our family room. That was rough.
Patty S.
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First bloom of the season! I didn’t think anything could compete with Dorsett Golden apple from a low chill standpoint, but Dapple Supreme Pluot is making a run at it. Tough to see in the wider shot, but it’s not just the one – 5 blooms and a few more on the way. We’ve had a decent amount of chill for us so far (which means about 80 hours under 45 degrees, but probably more like 150 using something between the Utah Model and the Positive Only Utah model), but this is way early. We were up above 80 degrees a couple weeks ago and over 70 today. And there is the matter of the waterly liquid regularly falling from the sky which this third leaf tree has never experienced before. Of course, there is nothing else around to pollinate it, but hopefully some of the tree will wait to bloom until there are a few others around. Might have to look to add a Flavorosa Pluot graft to see if there is something that might bloom at about the same time.
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Those are really nice trees. I thought TofA was pretty pricey with high shipping costs, but it might be worth paying more for such well developed trees. Would those apple whips be considered “feathered”? Also, don’t they only sell apples on M111 rootstock? How soon would they produce in yer environment?
BTW, I also have a King David, planted last year, it’s on M7. I have never tasted one but heard it is a very good apple. I understand KD is an Ark Black + Jonathan or Winesap offspring?
I have tried some AB recently that we’ve had in storage from the orchard we visited, and frankly they leave me unimpressed after a couple months in the cellar. Hard fruit, not very sweet or tart, and just a slight spicy flavor. Hope the KD has more traits of its non-AB parent.
Bob, I think it is a bit of, “you get what you pay for”. These trees are some of the nicest bare root trees I’ve ever received, noticeably so. As far as M111, nearly all my apples are on M111, it does very well here. In fact, having to seriously hack down my Fuji’s and my Golden Dorsett. Here in my mild climate, I can’t say M111 is “semi-dwarfing”. More of a standard root stock, and it is very vigorous. It is a very common rootstock here in California, especially in milder areas. Probably not the apple rootstock of choice in wetter, colder climates, but seems to be the most common one around these parts. I have a few on M7 and a few on M26. What I don’t care for with M7 are all the suckers. Only 2 apples on M26, and that’s because that was the only rootstock available short of getting scions and grafting myself. We’ll see how they do. So far, so good, but I watch those two trees the closest for FB. From what I’ve read about KD, it is speculated to be either a cross of Jonathan and Arkansas Black, or a cross of Jonathan and Winesap. That’s from TofA as well as a couple of other places. Excited about KD as well as Hunge to produce.
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Yah, I thought M111 was close to a standard tree, but probably a nicer looking tree in the long run. How long does it take for them to produce once in the ground tho? Here I don’t think they would do well, our soil’s probably not good for them, and they could get “wet feet” with the heavy rains we get sometimes.
You must have lots of property to have so many semi-standard trees! Unless, you aggresively prune them back, like you said. I have five M7 trees, mostly because I couldn’t find any other rootstock for the varieties I wanted. All my other trees are on 60% or smaller Geneva RS.
Well, I certainly hope KD is a Jonathan + Winesap cross, I really liked those two varieties when we sampled them at the orchard. Jonathan was very tart, a bit sweet, and the Winesap was a real juicy, nicely balanced tart/sweet big apple. Ark Black, have to say, not a fan. We prob tried at least 30 varieties of apples, and it’s near the bottom of our lists of favorites.
We’re growing a WS, got it from Lowes in a 5gal pot. The label says “semi-dwarf”, but no idea on RS. It does have about a 2ft long root sucker, so it’s prob a M7! It’s our biggest tree, almost 8ft tall after planting (was ~6ft in the pot), might let it fruit a couple apples this year.
Seen the big rains hitting Cali now, saw a guy surfing down a street in NoCal from all the heavy rains there. Seems like rain in your state is either a feast-or-famine situation. But I guess the trade off is lonnng growing seasons most of the time.
For me, my apples started producing in their 4th leaf. So, pretty quickly. And no, I only have 1 acre, and my trees are planted intensively. I keep them pruned WAY down because I’m only 5’4" 
I have a wicked way with my Felco pruners and wicked sharp pruning saw.
And yes, this “feast or famine” is how it is for us with rainfall. This amount of rain was very much unexpected, but very welcomed. I feel badly for some of our northern neighbors who are experiencing local flooding, though, at the price of filling up our reservoirs and getting some really significant snow pack in the Sierras.
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Hah, sorry, but I just pictured you as a female Edward Scissorhands wielding your pruners and saw in both hands shredding your back yard.
I thought folks in yer part of the state got most of their water from the Colorado River, and the people up north got theirs from the Sierra reservoirs. Guess there are few lakes in your area, just not as many. Don’t have to worry about droughts here, but it was 10° last night, so we have that for now…
OK, getting a bit loopy headed, it’s almost 2am, so calling it a night…
Hah, well yes, I do sort of look like that about twice a year, lol!! I bought a Felco pruning saw that is so wicked sharp, I can even use it with ease.
And, there are actually six main systems of aqueducts and infrastructure that redistribute and transport water in California: the State Water Project (Feather River watershed), the Central Valley Project, several Colorado River delivery systems, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Tuolumne River/Hetch Hetchy system, and the Mokelumne Aqueduct. We also get water locally from various local reservoirs (depending on where you live) that collect local ground water. The Colorado River delivery systems provide about 55-65% of our water here in S. California, in general, and that can vary from area to area down here. We also have a local desalination plant that went online last year, and is providing a decent percentage of our local water here in San Diego county, and we’ll probably see more and more of them being built, or being “turned back on” in years to come.
Y’all’s water bills must be crazy high, having to import all that water from the river, plus the desalination plant probably ain’t cheap. Plus I think I had read an earlier post from you on how expensive it is to drill for it.
So, do folks there make it a regular practice of harvesting their own rain water? I had heard of some states regulating that practice, tho.
Yes, water is very expensive here. Prices vary from water district to water district, but it’s all some permutation of expensive. And yes, lots of folks harvest rainwater around here. There are some regulations around that practice here in CA, but you can also qualify for rebates on your rain barrels. For my yard and the amount of water I use, I would need several very large underground tanks. There are folks who have actually installed those. One of my neighbors down the road a piece just did that. He’s a landscape designer, and just moved into this home. He basically clear out his back yard, brought in a (large) back hoe and dug 3 large hole and dropped in 3 storage tanks. Two really huge ones, and one medium sized one. He will be setting up a rain harvest system from his roof top, down into his tanks. That’s a big deal and a big system . Requires a filter, pump, a lot of plumbing, etc. And, my yard is just too well planted to be digging gigantic holes to bury these tanks (I’m talking about the size of a Mini Cooper, lol!) One of our San Diego Hort Society members built their own home here in Vista, and they, too, buried some very large rain harvesting tanks in their back yard. Both of them are engineers, so their home was built specifically to collect rain water, and drain it into these tanks. They built the entire rain harvesting system right into the construction of their home and yard. It was amazing.
Patty S.
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Oh, that sounds very interesting, and very expensive to boot. I wonder how long it would take to pay for itself, I imagine a long while with the scant rain y’all get. But at least the water’s there if you need it.
Weve lived here in the boonies of NE KY for about 3 years, and my wife has said they’ve only had city water here for maybe 20 years. It’s that kind of remote. Our water bill runs about $30/mo. The water has a strong chlorine taste to it, so we use a double stage filter for our drinking water, makes a big difference.
People used wells before that, we actually have a drilled well that was done about 20 years ago, and a dug well that’s been there over 50 years. I’m planning to drop a hand pump down the drilled one in case of water outages. Our water table is maybe down 15 feet, lots of water veins run thru our limestone soil here.
Patty and Richard, if you don’t mind me asking, what do you pay monthly for water in the San Diego/Oceanside area?
For reference, I’m in the Mid-Atlantic and my family averages about 3,500 - 4,000 gallons of water a month and our water bill is generally about $30/month. I’m also on city sewage which is an additional $45 on average.
Dave, we’re on a tiered system here, unless you qualify and ask for ag rates, which is simply a flat rate I think set somewhere at the mid-range of the tier. I investigated that, and it was less expensive for me to remain on the tiered system. I’m on an acre lot, and it is completely landscaped, along with all my fruit trees (bought the house with most of the existing landscape already planted). Richard I believe is on a very well-planned quarter acre. My bill will be higher than Richard’s, as I have a lot more landscaping to water. My bill will range from high $200’s/low $300 every 2 months during our rainy season, to about $1,000 for a two month bill during the summer. I was on a well in Indiana, so my bill was zero (not counting the electricity it took to run the well pump), and I think my water bill in MD was about $65 every two months if memory serves me. And as I mentioned, water rates vary from water district to water district. Vista Irrigation District’s water prices are not as bad as other water districts here in San Diego county. My friend who lives in El Cajon, and her water rates are significantly higher. Her water bill in the summer was over $300 a month for a very small yard (small urban lot, probably 1/8 acre or less), mostly zeriscaped, but with a small lawn in the back she kept for her dogs. She pulled out her lawn, put down pavers and artificial turf. Pretty terrible.
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Yikes! Really makes me think twice about complaining about my water bill. I love your part of the county so much but not sure I could afford to live there.
That’s what I have in California (we live not far from San Joaquin river delta, so hopefully our well will never dry out).
The roots wick water to keep it from burning.
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Many years ago when I was living in upstate NY, I had to put some drainage tile and shape some land to get rid of excess water. I was gripping to a friend who had moved to the area from CA and they told me “It’s much cheaper to get rid of water than to get it.” No doubt very true.
They Say our well is unlikely to dry out, but it still costs to replace motors and pressure tanks and the like
Compared to municipal water rates - priceless!
@speedster1, that’s about what we pay a month, for about 2200gal of water, for this month anyway. We don’t really do any irrigating, except just filling up 5gal buckets to water the plants. We get so much rain in the summer, we usually don’t have to water our plants. A lot different than when we had a garden in Texas!
Also, we have a septic system, it was installed when this single wide home was assembled here about 13 years ago. So, no sewage bill, yay!