I guess you haven’t been getting our excessive rain. The monsoon seems to have finally subsided and brix readings are rising. Early peaches have often been too bland to be good.
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No the rain kept staying south. We have had only a quarter inch in the last three weeks. Before that very little. Of course it looks like rain right before harvest. I have some plums I never had before so I’m curious to try them I tried Nadia and thought it was very good. But I don’t grow all the great zaiger stuff. From my experience, it was top rate.
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Yeah, I get to try lots of new varieties this year, especially plums from wood I got from Plumhill Farm- including varieties not commonly available. It is one of the best parts of growing your own fruit and learning how to graft. If it wasn’t my job it would be my hobby- actually it is both now.
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Drew,
Glad you mention the red flesh of Arctic Glo. I looked up Dave Wilson. The pic was just like you said even though it also said it was a “white nectarine”.
It is supposed to be mid season nect , late June to early July for CA. It is " spritely sweet. No wonder you like it so much. With that ripening date for CA, it will be in Sept before it will ripen here for me. Its skin already turns red now, very deceptive by color.
Arctic Star is a real white nect and early season, early to mid June for CA. I think I have a real Arctic Star, with white flesh, semi cling stone, low acid and very sweet. Those who like sweet fruit like me or @thecityman would love it.
It should ripen here some time in August. Even the one that I pick yesterday has brix at 20. I like it already.
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Wow, I like that too. I just tested a ripe Jade at 16 but it didn’t taste quite as sweet as some others I’ve eaten from the tree.
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Keep an eye on it. I think it will be ripe earlier. Did you see the thread on June Pride peach? I managed to negotiate scion. It better take! @alan if any of the new plums are good, give us some reports. This spring I added a bunch. Plums make it fun to graft as if you’re close it takes. Even when cold out. A couple really grew and should fruit next year. Others I may pull fruit or leave one until the grafted part is bigger. Vermont is one I’m curious to try.
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Plum and pluot grafting is as easy as apples and pears, in my experience.
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I used to have trouble with plums until I learned from Scott to wait until well after first growth. Now my takes ratio is equivalent to pomes also.
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My own expience is different than most. Best success is when it flowers. Waiting here doesn’t work. Like zero success when warm. Except for figs and its best to wait a little bit with peaches. I just did two fig grafts yesterday.
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I’ve ate a few A Glo …still a half dozen left. Mine are container grown. Small size (i didn’t thin enough)… I’ve also had a few A Rose…both have had rot issues but its been dry now for a week so that has calmed down. I prefer A Glo…Rose is just sweet…Glo actually has flavor.
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That surprises me- are you grafting mostly J. plums? My latest grafts were J. plums and the success rate was good although we had a couple of 90 degree days after grafting. How many seasons and grafts are you basing this on?
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A. Glo season is over here in Nor. Calif., but A. Jay season just started. What I like about A. Jay is that it’s freestone — much easier to eat. It’s subacid but flavor is very nice.
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Three seasons. The only peaches that took for me were done early in the year. Not every plum graft took, but every cultivar I tried took. Two I only did one graft and they took.
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My experience is that vigorously growing trees tend to take very well to grafts. There are reasons other than temps and development of leaves in play on this. Container trees are restricted and don’t graft as well, although my grafts of them usually take, but establish slowly and precariously. Trees recently transplanted are a waste of time to graft on with grafts often growing at first, bleaching out and dying because of failed callousing. If a tree and its graft has leafhoppers or aphids that aren’t controlled it is also a waste of time- and these pests build up in late spring into summer, especially hoppers that have no predators. I think your problems may be related to something you aren’t aware of because results shouldn’t be so different there. Our spring, early summer temps aren’t that different from yours.
When I do some grafts on any given day I usually do at least 50 and often a lot more because I do a lot on my free standing nursery trees. Results based on more data can help clarify things more than just a few grafts with various wood. The only reason I care about this is that I wouldn’t want people on the forum with a similar climate as yours to think their grafting window is so small unless it really is. I hope others try to graft later so we have more experiences to work with for verification. You are the first one to suggest this narrow window exists.
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I tried your method for two years. I was not even going to graft this year as I had zero takes in two years. I gave up defeated. A local grafter told me to do it at flowering said it worked better. @Antmary also has grafted early with good results. My trees are established and I never seen an aphid or any bug beside Japanese beetles on them. So I too want to get out word on this. As I was ready to throw in the towel using conventional wisdom on grafting.
All gardening is local - Fred Hoffman
Everything you know is wrong - Fred Hoffman
Here in Michigan you tap sugar maples in April as sap pressure is at its highest. Seems to be true with other species too. I think this is why it at last worked for me.
Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not truth - Frank Zappa
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Drew, I’m happy for your success but you don’t have to go overboard defending the legitimacy of your grafting timing. I really get tired of defensiveness when the only goal here is to establish facts, not dominance. When you get defensive it makes me wonder about the legitimacy of your observations because you make it more about you than the process. I’m just trying to figure out the why here and the local explanation is just a way of saying you don’t know and don’t care as long as it works, which is fine, but I want to know why.
I was thinking about it today and the fact that I use bigger wood than most people on this forum- I know this because every time I do a scion exchange I receive what I consider tiny wood, Maybe that gives me a level of insurance against hot spells. Almost every single one of my 80 peach grafts took even though it was quite late when I made them and some 90 degree weather followed shortly after. I did some of my E plum grafts at the same time and they took well also, but it was much fewer grafts. Most of the wood I use is thicker than a cheap Bic pen- what diameter do you use?
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I like the thicker grafting wood too.For me,they produce more branching faster. Brady
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I like the bigger wood too. As Brady mentions it branches faster and can bear fruit sooner.
I cannot control how people take my responses, they have to work that out for themselves. Repeat the Zappa quote applies to what I post too. I lost two years using what I read worked and it’s not really being defensive, more of a disappointment on my gullibility. If it’s on the internet it must be true. I should have talked to the locals first (all gardening is lical). Just trying to help others not waste time and try to avoid what happened to me.
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All due respect, would it be possible to move this grafting discussion to the Grafting thread, please?
This way, those who are interested in learning from your experience would not miss the opportunity. Thanks.
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I’m going to move A Glo to a bigger pot. 25 gallon or so. See if that helps the cracking. I really think i’ll enjoy them better if i can get better size. I’m going to prune the tree back some this year and repot before fall. I’ve ate a few and really enjoy that acidic? flavor of them…they have some bite. Nectarines have been a huge challenge for me. This year hasn’t been nice with all the torrential rains from April Thru mid July.
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