I am planning to make a couple more apple Frankentrees next spring, and have been trying to find the bloom times of the scions ordered so I can group them together in similar blossoming times. Does anyone know of a source to easily find the bloom times? Thanks.
1 Like
Have you observed any varieties that donāt adequately overlap blooming in your zone? I donāt even consider this issue in all the orchards Iāve installed and have never had a single problem with pollination. Iām in Z6, but as you go further south the range between bloom times expands.
I admit, out of the hundreds I manage, there are a couple of old apple varieties that I havenāt identified that bloom silly late and screw up my spray schedule because I canāt spray them when itās time to spray the other trees, but the average late varieties loose their petals right about when pests arrive to attack all common species of fruit I grow, so I usually delay first insecticide spray until they drop their petals.
3 Likes
https://www.orangepippin.com/ lists flowering groups for many varieties. Use their search function to find a variety youāre interested in, then click on the āFruit IDā tab and look for flowering info in the āGrowingā section. The flowering groups are from 1 (the earliest) to 5 (the latest). Blooms in adjacent groups partially overlap, for example, a variety in group 3 can cross-pollinate with varieties in groups 2 and 4.
http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/ has a lot of useful info about many fruit varieties, especially apples. Once again, use their search function, then scroll down to the āFlowering timeā info. The actual dates are for southern England, but you can use them to compare bloom times of different varieties. Moreover, if you click on the >>> link next to āFlowering timeā, this will open up a list of hundreds of other apple varieties whose bloom times at least partially overlap with that for the variety youāre studying.
P.S. You have two topics with the same question. You can delete one, where nobody commented yet, and, if you wish, edit the title of this one.
3 Likes
Lots of fruit orchards are located on the shores of the Great Lakes because the thermal mass of all that water holds back the progress of the seasons. Here in Sheboygan, WI, the trees are ready to go before the weather is. The flower buds swell but donāt open. The land warms. The air rises and pulls in a cold on-shore breeze that keeps everything in suspended animation for days. We donāt have spring. People hold their breath, waiting for the wind to change. On the day that the Westerlies begin to prevail, we have summer. On that day, the apples all bloom at once.
4 Likes
Not perfect, but somewhat useful.
Iowa here. Iāve only observed the potential for issues in some of our weird springs where we have an warm-up that sends all the earliest bloomers into bloom followed by a extended cold/windy/wet period right after first bloom. That was this year, for sure. That sort of weather really seems to separate the early bloomers from the late-bloomers. Otherwise here there is considerable overlap among all blooming groups.
A couple of the English cider varieties have extremely late blooming. I think maybe Harry Masters Jersey or Dabinett were the worst for that. One of those two would be pushing flowers almost two weeks after the rest of my apples were done blooming. Seemed like they didnāt like something about our spring weather (there is not much to like, truthfully). I think they would be a real risk for fireblight infection because of that.
3 Likes
Have you observed any varieties that donāt adequately overlap blooming in your zone?
Alan,
I used to have a five-on-one old-fashioned apple tree I bought from Jungs when they had some special anniversary. One of the varieties on it was Lodi, which was earlier than the rest and would get buggy right away.
Someone on here mentioned trying to keep similar bloom times on the scions you put on a tree to facilitate spraying, so I am going to attempt that with my new scions this coming spring. Thanks for your input.
The flowering groups are from 1 (the earliest) to 5 (the latest).
Stan,
Thanks for that info. I had seen flowering groups indicated on orange pippin, but didnāt know what that meant. That helps a lot.
Thanks, everyone for your replies. I have so much to learn yet about grafting.
I have about 25 apple cultivars. This year I started keeping track of bloom times. Next year I should make a better effort of it. Itās hard to know the best time to note- first open, full open, late open, and there is a range from first flower to last. This year I saw that Gravenstein, Dolgo, Airlie Redflesh, Rubinette, and Queen Cox were all blooming on April 23. Those were the earliest bloomers in my orchard. These were all on the same day. Most of the others were just in bud. The faint pinkish is Queen Cox, the much pinker is Airlie.
5 Likes
Interesting. Goldrush was listed as mid to late blooming on one site, and late blooming on another, but you show it in your photo of first blooms.
I agree itās odd. I think there is a significant regional affect that might change the picture for some apples. The other possibility is mislabeling, but all of these have borne fruit and they seem right.
I donāt list bloom times or flowering groups on my own orchard page in part because of years like this one. All the apple trees were late, so Gravenstein, often one of our earliest to flower, is blooming at its peak at the same time Northern Spy, about our latest, is in full bloom. Most years there is at least some overlap with all our apple trees.
1 Like
In Maryland, I have not seen a big enough spread to where itās an issue, either. Not including some ornamental crabs, which can be significantly earlier, all fruiting apples Iāve observed overlap at least some.
2 Likes
Thanks for this! I have been wondering about bloom time. I assumed all apples would bloom at about the same time, here, but my Karmijn appears to have its very first flower bud, and itās still very much a bud, when all the other apples are in full bloom. OrangePippin indicates itās a medium-late bloomer, so probably this one bloom is just very slow to develop because itās the treeās first ever blossom, and should it decide to bloom more seriously next year, it will likely bloom at the same time as all the other apples.
1 Like
is also a good website to lookup pollination. If you fill in an known apple maturation date for you. it will even estimate harvest dates for other varieties for you (look under tools)
http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=3150&&fruit=apple
also listst different bloom stages.
Both those and some other usefull links if mentioned in
You might try pomiferous.com
although data on bloom time
is missing (so far)
from many of the
7,000 or so varieties they
list.
For instance, Redfield bloomed first this year for me, and second last year.
Both years, too early to be cross pollinated by non-red-flesh varieties.
Last year, it had a heavy fruit set and then the freezes came. But this year, I should have all my tree of about 7 years needs. I assume it got pollinated by itās daddy that is just a bit later and 50 feet or so apart.
This year the bloom came quick and probably 5 days or more earlyā¦(in Kentucky)ā¦so sufficient overlap on everything.
But some years, not necessarily so. (Rome Beauty is a late oneā¦but Iām sure there are others laterā¦I just havenāt personally observed them in the same orchard if so).