If you’ve never been to Atlanta, expect traffic to be a disaster any weekday morning and 4-6PM. Atlanta is very spread out which can make getting around a challenge. MARTA, the local mass transit/heavy rail/bus system, often won’t get you where you want to go when you want to be there, but the rail system especially is usually a much more pleasant experience than driving. Uber or Lyft might be your best bet. The Atlanta Beltine is an under construction pedestrian/bike loop that is popular, but take a look at the very well done map to plan your ride. Little five points is one area with a bunch of bars and restaurants. There’s always some rock music playing somewhere like Smith’s Old Bar. Oh, and right now we’re beginning the summer weather misery season, with blazing temperatures, high humidity, and little wind. Temperatures predicted at/above 100 next week.
Ha ha That is my street name by 5 points
I suppose I could try to keep my location hidden
(OFF the main street but not my side street )
but I was just on the Chicago news anyways by my street
so to keep anonymity of my location is not possible.
I hope this trip will be good
when in san Antonio Texas I meet friends for life right by my street name as well.
I am not even going to get into why I am going
that is a very strange reason (PM me),
but something is leading me there.
I’m a bit of a misnomer in this group since I’m 6b. South central Virginia in the Shenandoah mountains. I don’t really have a closer group to post in. I’m thinking of attending this conference in Roanoke Virginia in January and wondered if anyone else had an interest. It’s not cheap, a couple hundred dollars, but lots of workshops including my favorite topics. Here’s a short description
I am 1 county away from northern AL.
South west of North Carolina… zone 7A …
TNHunter
Virginia is north of Tennessee, Georgia/Alabama/Mississippi are all south of Tennessee… Be nice if the name of this regional chat included Tennessee. If the intent is to define a region inclusive of it of course.
Pecans… I’m in south central Virginia. 7a. I see some pecan trees here that have dropped all their pecans, and some that haven’t dropped any yet. I see pecans trees offered as northern varieties. What should I be buying?
Dean,
Looking at the map, you are almost the same distance north of the TN line as I am(I’m 20 miles north of the 6b/7a interface, more or less on the KY/TN border)… but 500 miles east of me. IDK how much ‘buffering’ of winter conditions you may get from the coast 200 miles or so east of you.
You may do OK with some Southern pecans - as some do well for me here - but scab-resistant northern/midwestern pecan varieties should be mostly bomb-proof for you if you have a suitable site for them.
If you are like me… still buying pecans (have not grown your own yet)… we found these pecans from GA and wow they are very good… thick and meaty and sweet… just excellent.
When we dont have them… and have to go back to what is available at out local stores… yuck.
I dont know what kind of pecan they are growing at this place in GA but they are excellent.
Fresh pecans are hard to beat. Right now they are falling in my town, which means I often gather a few from the road or sidewalk during my daily walk.
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I’ve been looking around locally for a pecan tree that I thought would be a suitable source for seed. I did find a couple of trees 30 minutes east of me. So I have some seed from those trees, plus i have some seed coming from a member here. I’m building another seed bed.
Does anyone have a European plum variety recommendation that does well for them here?
Hi all. Lee here. new to the forum. I live in west GA, west of Atlanta.
I’m only 5 years into my fruit growing journey.
started with Muscadines. Summit, Cowart, Ison, Scuppernong varieties. Scuppernong being our favorite.
up to 30 apple trees now, 1-3 years old. old southern varieties. hope to see our first apples this year!
2 ea of pear, peach, and plum trees. All trees have grown vigorously over the past 4 years, but not much fruit to show for it yet.
Excited to find this forum. Lots of learning ahead!
Hi Lee, what varieties of peach do you have planted? Last year was a favorable last frost date, and I would have expected a third year peach to have produced well for you.
Belle of Ga and Red Haven. Checked my notes and this was their 5th year. They’ve grown vigorously and I’ve pruned them well to an open center. Every single fruit will drop when they are about pecan size within the span of 1 week. I haven’t had a good spray schedule due to the amount of traveling I do, but it doesn’t appear to be insect damage. I even hand thinned the fruit thinking this would help, but didn’t.
Grubs have killed all but one of our 7 blue berry bushes, and most of the few blueberries that we have got, get taken before we could get them.
I am too new to growing pears to give an answer on that, I have only gotten one fruit so far, and it fell off under ripe, last year ‘I am guessing squirrels’ stole the 3 or 4 pears we had, first decent crop too. Next year I am netting the tree. I am hoping that the grafts I am doing start cropping much faster than the nursery bought tree did. Way slower to crop a first crop than normal. I think that it was the root stock that they used. I think that if I don’t give up, that I’d eventually have great pear crops here.
I feel like giving up on pitted fruit here, the spring cold way too often seems to destroy the crop, and all the spraying that needs to be done, which can be useless considering all the rain that we get that time of year. The only pitted fruit so far that crops every year for us are seedling peach trees. Yet they require spraying for the same exact things.
Things that you did not mention:
Grapes are going great here, figs despite all the splitting most years we still get a lot of good to great figs. I think that we will get great pomegranate crops here as well, I am too new to that too. I think that the grubs have been doing a number on their roots as well.Yet the roots of the pomegranates seem way tougher, and I think that they will be too tough for the grubs eventually. I am using a natural grub control that is supposed to work for 10 whole years. Yet it’s only for Japanese beetle grubs, which we have a huge problem with here, beetles and their grubs.Yet I do wonder if there is also a problem with grubs of other beetles, like June bug grubs.
@SoMtHomestead … on euro plums…
I started rosy gauge and mt. royal spring 2018.
Last year was yr 4… still not a single bloom.
They are nice healthy trees and have grown well… but they do require patience. When I planted them I was expexting them to start fruiting early like JPlums … but nope these EU plums require patience.
Perhaps this next year will be the year for blooms and fruit …
I have been thinking that for 3 years now.
I have both of those peaches. I’m in Virginia 6b. My best harvest has been from Belle of Georgia. One thing I enjoyed was quartering the peach slices, freezing them, and using them as ice cubes in tea.
My peaches are about 8 years old, very open center. In fact the growth has moved so far outside the tree that the inside has absolutely no growth. That section also refuses to take a graft. I did almost all my pruning this year as summer height pruning which is a big change for me. I have used Orin Martins recommendations for pruning of apples. I’ll either have a lot or none I’m guessing.
I have not had the issue of dropped peaches. I did use some mesh bags and the ones I bagged looked really nice. My trees have had very few peaches this past year so the ones I had were really big.
If the fruits are making it to pecan size, it is very likely plum curculio. Your description is their MO. Timing your sprays for them is not easy. Here, we get two waves of them. The first coincides with the group overwintering in the orchard and is timed for the first warm night (55f or so as a low) after shuck split. You need to get a spray on the fruit, trunk, and surrounding ground when you see that temperature forecasted.
The next wave coincides with the first warm night after the local wild cherries shuck split. Same spray techniques.
Finally, you will need to fight the stink bugs, which will damage your fruit and allow brown rot to take hold.
Picking up the dropped fruits (as soon as they drop or before if you can identify pc egg laying scars) will reduce the severity of the first PC attack.
I find liquid sevin works well and provides a solid two weeks of protection per spray (always follow label directions).
very useful info SoMt. thanks! the trees are otherwise very healthy. My plan is to also have a good spray schedule as the apples and plums come into fruit bearing age, but i know it will be a challenge!
Almost certainly plum curculio, as I’ve had the exact same experience in this area. For me two sprays of zeta-cypermethrin and a sticker provide excellent control on both peaches and plums. I wait until after the trees and done blooming and cut my orchard before spraying to remove other flowering plants, because zeta cypermethrin has a high negative impact on all kinds of bees.