What is going on today 2017?

It is suppose to be Krymsk 86 (according to the order form i dug up a while back)…it is from Raintree…maybe been in the ground 8 ish years…

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Well I can’t say for all fruit, but in some the flower is pollinated before it even opens. If not, wind is usually enough. I shake my tomatoes, that is probably overkill. I save seed from the first tomatoes as chances of cross pollination is less due to fewer bees out that early. I haven’t had a cross yet.
Prunus species though do require insects to help. Mine are usually pollinated by small native bees. Whereas many nut trees the wind is enough.My peach trees all set fruit already and Indian Free is not self fertile, and it is loaded this year. Looks like every flower got pollinated. Zone 5b/6a here too.

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You are all in agreement, but I am not sure you entirely agreed on the right answer. You are correct that pollen is required, but it is not necessarily the case that pollinators are needed, for most fruit. Sf fertile means the pollen from a tree can also pollenate ovaries on that tree. In many (most?) fruit, the way the stigma and pistil grows, the pollen is physically rubbed from the anther onto it with assistance from breezes jostling. With tomatoes, flowers of many varieties are self pollenated before the petals even open, which makes breeding tricky.

From my apricot yesterday…honey bees were delivered next door at Swan’s Honey so they were working it over…

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I’m not sure if I’ll see them this year. It might be next year when they come up. I’ll let you know. It usually takes a while to go from spore to fruit, and it will be warmer than their fruiting temps by then.

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Well I guess until I have fruit hanging on the tree’s and actually growing I can’t be sure, but I’m very optimistic. All my apples are starting to bloom and they were ice sculptures as well

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Arctic Star coloring up…

Thomcord Grapes putting on some size…

An excellent way to start a Friday!

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Who is excited about the impending arrival of Californian pluots to the markets in a week or two? I believe the season for supermarket fruit will start with Flavorosa.

http://familytreefarms.com/availability-chart/

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I like the looks of your AS, love the sugar speckling. How do you like Thomcord?

Man it must be warm in Santa Ana. Your fruit is as far along as my greenhouse…!!

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Very nice, what kind of apricot are we looking at? Surprised you can get them to fruit at all in Maine. Is this something you get every year?

Thanks fruitnut. I like Thomcord a lot. You do get a bit of residual seed where you can feel the texture, but nothing large enough that you would want to spit out. This is third leaf on the Thomcord and they were great last year. I really like the purple-to-black table grapes and this one has been my favorite.

Been an interesting weather year in Orange County so far. Didn’t get the 90 degree spikes we saw last few years, but a lot of consistently low 80s days after the weekly rains stopped. I did lose about 1/3 of my fruit crop with some Fall-quality winds last weekend – but the trees needed the thinning anyway.

I’m a little slow I guess, because I’m still not completely clear on this, and I appreciate your help…what I was saying was that I thought flowers on a self-fertile peach tree still had to receive pollen from another flower on that same tree. Is that right or wrong? For example, if you covered a flower (on a peach tree for purposes of this discussion) with an impenetrable plastic bag from before it opened, would it ever form fruit? Or do self-fertile trees somehow just form fruits from a flower independately of anything else that happens?

I’m sorry if your other post answered this and I just didn’t get it, so please try again! :slight_smile: Thanks Ryan.

I believe a peach flower could pollinate itself.

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Depends on the exact fruit. Some fruit, ie squash, have male and female flowers, one of each is needed. A bagged squash blossom is good for decorative and lightly flavored stuffed dishes, and nothing else.

Peaches have male and female parts on the same flower. Self fertile flowers just need pollen from the male part to move to the female part. These are called “perfect” flowers. A single bagged self fertile variety of peach blossom can pollinate itself either by being jostled, or by the stamen growing through the anthers as it opens. In tomatoes, this often happens before the bloom even opens, and the first thing you’ll see on the end of the bloom is the already fertilized pistil.

Edit- If you look in the hybridizing fruit posts, I believe there’s some discussion of the need to neuter self fertile flowers if you want a cross, this is what they are talking about; cutting the male parts off the perfect flower before the female parts are receptive.

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That is hands down the best explanation I’ve seen on how peaches “work”. I know everyone here except me probably already knew this since its pretty basic fruit tree 101 stuff. But I wasn’t clear and now I am and I really appreciate your educating me!

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Today… Growing an orchard is hard! I have plum curcs already, I have trees with not 1 single bloom/apple,
I have other bud9 trees that must have a 1000 apples on each and they can handle about 30.
Tested my soil and it’s deficient in everything… PH around 8.

Added 40 lb of 12-12-12 today. Waiting on my 40lb of sulfur…

I have one year old trees that bloomed and made apples and had to clip them all off!

Grrrr.

LOL!

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OUCH !!! :persevere::disappointed_relieved:

Mike

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Daemon,

What kind of Ph meter/measurer do you use? I just determined today that my Rapitest Mini Ph probe is worthless and doesn’t work. I did lots of experiments with it. White vinegar and baking soda was involved. The thing is a piece of junk.

Count your blessings. Which fruiting plants are you most excited to taste out of your orchard this year?

Nooooo!!

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This time I used “Environmental Concepts” soil test kit.
https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Concepts-1662-Professional-Tests/dp/B003JCMKEK

I have used several different ones over the years and it’s always been 8. I just decided to do something about it this year. (or rather try)