Definitely, would love to see them!
Colvis Spice. Starting seeing some critter damage on some so decided to pick. Very tasty. 16/17 brix on 3 so far.
Reinette de Chenee. Perhaps not completely ripe yet, but these all came off without issue. Started sampling a couple of weeks ago and they were tasty as well.
Clark’s Crab progress. Graft on Cox.
An older Clark’s graft with a single apple. Slightly larger than the apples in the cluster. Less sunny location, likely why the others are coloring up faster.
I’m looking at apriums and pluots varieties for my backyard orchard. Most say they don’t fruit well here in PDX, but yours look like they’re doing alright! Any standouts that are particular disease-resistant and productive (and hopefully tasty?)
I’ve had good tasting flavor delights and flavor grenades from the farmers market, but I think they’re mostly from east of here, where it is drier.
Take this as very anecdotal based on my little pocket here in SE Portland over the last four to five years, plus, the warmer winter entering 2026 might have been a strong influence as well. Although, previous winters were colder and wetter and Flavor Grenade set well then too.
That said, Flavor Delight did great this year with zero issues. It’s only three years old; its first year was in a pot sheltered from early spring rain, but this year it stayed out in the rain all spring and set about 20 fruit with no pest or disease problems. My Leah Cot is in a covered spot, so it’s hard to judge how well that one handles the rain.
Overall, 2026 just seemed like a great year for stone fruit across the board. Splash set a ton, Flavor Finale set a decent amount for its age, and Flavor Grenade flowered and set well even after I pruned it back pretty hard for getting too big. Dapple Dandy turns three this spring and is growing really well, so hopefully I’ll get to taste that one soon. I don’t do a lot of spraying either, just copper and maybe some horticultural oil. But like everything around here, next year could be completely different!
We live in a pretty warm spot of NE PDX - I think they updated our zone to 9a in 2023 maybe?
Since Flavor Grenade and Flavor Delight are my favorite pluots/apriums so far this year, sounds like a no-brainer! Thanks for the insight
So… I went and got my 28th citrus tree this weekend.
I swear I fully intended to stop buying citrus after that Key lime I picked up on sale from Portland Ave nursery in Tacoma. But Restoring Eden had a 5gal Centennial Variegated kumquat, so I HAD to get it. “HAD TO.”
Poor thing needed to be watered and up-potted, so I did both, and pruned off all yellow and any pest damaged leaves. Now it looks happy, and I’m looking forward to trying the fruits next year. I counted well over 50 baby fruits on it, and it’s limbs are nice and lignified so I’m sure it’s fine to hold all of it. ![]()
Haha, I know the feeling…
I lost my Centennial about 4 years ago I think, following our record freeze ven. I made an attempt to plant in the ground, which I regret so so much. It would have been 7 years old this year. Beautiful plant and tasty fruit.
I finally got around to getting another one as a replacement about a month ago.
Ooh, mine looks about the size of your old one! Beautifully shaped like yours.
Glad to hear that it’s a tasty fruit, as I almost didn’t get it because I thought it may be too sour. But the tag says it’s larger and sweeter than most kumquats (clearly not as sweet as a Meiwa, but you know what I mean), so I’m taking a chance. Besides, as I mentioned, I love collecting all things variegated.
Yayyy, glad you got another one! ![]()
Justin, what size pot was your original Centennial in, in that photo? I’m curious because even the guy at the nursery asked what sized pots my fruiting citrus was in, and he was shocked when I said my Cara Cara that gave me 30 fruits last year was only in a 10 or 15gal pot.
Pretty much all my citrus are in 5gal buckets or smaller, lol.
Here at the nursery I work at, Centennials can start fruiting in 3s, but do better in 7s (we don’t have a 5 gallon size, so I’d equate that to a 7). 10-15 gallon is typically when we consider a citrus bearing size, especially for the larger fruited citrus like oranges, grapefruits and pomelos. But they all start fruiting in 7gal after about a year from being in one (except maybe pomelos but we don’t normally get them that small anyways).
In terms of pots…all of my 1g citrus graduate into #5 Anderson deep pots which are a little under 4 gallons. Typically, they will stay in these for a few years, sometimes longer if I forgot to move them up. The largest I will go, which I believe the Centennial was in, was a #10 pot which is a little under 10 gallons. I probably will never go larger than this size for the ones that have to be moved inside during the winter. I really like the #5s.
Thanks, Ryan and Justin!
Yeah, I prefer my citrus to be “moveable” because I have to put them in my winter tent or polytunnel every winter, so I am more likely to root prune in future years just to keep mine all a manageable size. My 10gal Cara Cara giving me 30 fruits was more than enough for me and my family, so once all 28 of my citrus are producing more regularly, I’ll be perfectly content with an average of 25 - 30 fruits per tree! ![]()
Your Centennial will give you more fruit than that probably. It is typically our best producer among the kumquats of the same size. Big fruit too, around triple the size of a Nagami. Different climate, but kumquats are pretty tough, so I would expect it to do similar.
Awesome! I’m looking forward to that! Yeah, I counted well over 50 fruits on it so far. Are the seeds soft? I saw one youtuber say that he eats them whole, seeds and all. ![]()
Yeah, from what I remember they were hard, but I would still eat the whole thing.
They are hard but edible and small. You don’t really notice them, similar to other kumquats.
Some apples so far…Mix of primarily, Swayzie, Padley’s Pippin, Wickson, and Colvis Spice. First year for a decent amount of Swayzie. Very tasty/unique apple.
Windham Russet. Still seem like a couple weeks away. Not bad at the moment.
First year for fruit from 4.5yo Northern Spy (M7). This is one of 2 that dropped recently. Largest apple I have grown as of yet. The other was around 450grams. The remaining few also are very large. Despite the lack of color, which may be leaf related, the two drops were very good; dark brown/black seeds.
More Northern Spy. Bursting through the bags. Probably won’t use those again next season.
Golden Russet progress. One of my favorite apples. Planted as a bareroot in 2023. It is now probably around 15 feet tall. Winter of 2025 I bent the central leader down into an upside down J, which anecdotally seems to have prompted formation of the fruit cluster in the picture. I have since bent down a number of other branches on this tree and others. The practice seems to have worked with Northern Spy as well.

























