Backyard Orchards, chronicling, musing and more

[BobVance]

@mamuang

They were picked bright red/early

They were soft to the touch though, so they weren’t really “unripe”…They could have hung longer and added more brix, but are perfectly serviceable for jam. Not bad for fresh eating either. I actually prefer them to white currants. I told my brother to pick all he wanted from my Primus white currant. They are OK, but not impressive IMO.

He picked ~6 pounds of them the other day from just 2 bushes. And there are still some berries on both bushes.

Today, I did a 2nd picking of the one Juliet bush and am up to about 3.5 pints from a relatively small bush- planted in 2019, from Stew Leonards grocery store.

I’m not sure if these are really darker, or taking the picture on a cloudy day makes them glow less…

I decided to mix a few mulberries in with them for the jam. Normally, I’d feel that mulberries are too boring (mild, sweet, not a ton of flavor). But the ones in the pic are Oscar mulberries. They start out tart and get mostly sweet if dead ripe. Very tasty. I’ve saved a lot of the not entirely ripe ones to add to the jam.

@mamuang

This round, the taste was very diluted because we have had a lot of rain including a downpour two days ago. Otherwise, they are large and flavorful starwberries.

My father brought a bunch of strawberries over the other day. He has a big 20x20’ patch that he made by planting a few that I gave him a year or two ago and letting them spread everywhere. He’s getting a lot of production, but the berries are very small. Everyone was saying how good they are, but I think I prefer the ones from the store (organic Driscols). Not only are they a bit bigger, they are also sweeter. Maybe without the rain, his would have been more comparable.

Here’s a pic with one berry from the store and the rest from my dad.

That 3.5 pints of juliet is my only sour cherries. Even though I have 8+ trees/bushes at home and 3-4 at another rental, they’ve produced maybe 5-10 cherries total.

I suspect that it is blossom rot, but I did spray a couple times this spring and it evidently wasn’t enough. Maybe my timing is off.

[mamuang]

Bob,
Your Juliet is a head of mine. Your are completely red. Mine still have some green on them. Chipmunks and birds managed to get a lot of them before I set up netting. I have no space but may remove my Black Gold this year and plant a second Juliet. I have plenty of suckers but have mowed them over so far.

Yes, I do have some brown rot blossom blight. I think @scottfsmith spray before bloom. I usually spray after petal fall but will get first spray before bloom next year.

[mamuang]

I don’t remember if I tried white currants but I tried black ones. There was a hint of spiciness. I don’t care for it.

I wish I could graft Oscar mulberry here but I think it is not cold hardy for my zone, right?

I hope your dad’s strawberry patch does not get gray mold and botrytis. After 3-4 years, my original patch got it badly. This year, I sprayed Captan once during bloom, it has really helped. However, it has rained off and on for two weeks. So, the later picking suffered from the diseases again. I wish I could grow strawberries without spray.

[PharmerDrewee]

Tippy, maybe it’s pear scab. I posted something regarding my “moldy” Harrow Sweet fruitlets a few weeks ago. I think we determined it was pear scab. I applied 1 spray of Immunox after given the feedback which seems to have stopped its further progression. However, the survivors all have scabby symptoms as the disease name would indicate.

[clarkinks]

@PharmerDrewee

Pear scab is similar but not normally even rings like that. It is more like this usually

Pear Scab

Pear scab

This will better illustrate the difference https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/pear/how-to-treat-pear-scab.htm

These pears bloom early and frequently get frost rings Improved Kieffer pear (see post 33 on that thread)

[mamuang]

I tnink @PharmerDrewee is on to something. I went out to check Harrow Sweet again. While most fruit have “ring” around the calyx ends. Some did not go all around the calyx. Like this.

Some fruit have clear sign of scab.

.

[PharmerDrewee]

I thought it was frost rings too but none of my Asian pears were affected yet they started blooming over a week before Harrow Sweet. Then the Harrow Sweets started getting “moldy.” Some of mine look like that last picture you posted as well. Scab is a listed vulnerability of HS.

[mamuang]

I agree that HS is susceptible to scab. This tree has HS and Potomac on it. HS showed scab on fruit and leaves.

Potomac is clean

[clarkinks]

@mamuang

That last photo in your post 2h ago was scab. Those leaves in that last top photo of your most recent post also show scab. When you see clear leaves without black dots and pears that look like below it is frost . As you are aware the conditions are not mutually exclusive you can get both.

[mamuang]

Yes, they got scab.

I remember seeing frost ring in the middle part of the fruit like what your pics showed. None of my pears has marks in the middle of the fruit.

Of several pears next to this HS, none shows scab.

Docteur Despirtes

Abate Fetel

Aurora

[BobVance]

@mamuang

I don’t care for it.

More than a hint IMO. I don’t like them fresh, but they make very good jam. At one point, it was my favorite, but I think it’s now 2nd after sour cherry or sour cherry/boysenberry mix.

Black currants test my patience to pick them. Especially when there are either a lot of small berries or only a portion of the bush is ripe. It takes a lot of time to look at both sides of each tiny berry to check for full ripeness. And when you do it fast, you get some underripe ones like here. These were from a couple bushes planted at a rental in 2021 and picked a few days ago. I’m going to wait longer on the ones at home, to hopefully get more uniform ripeness.

@mamuang

I wish I could graft Oscar mulberry here but I think it is not cold hardy for my zone, right?

I’ve never had trouble with it. It isn’t like morus nigra or Pakistan- both of which I’ve had survive some years without issue but have trouble in others.

Oscar is zone 5-9 from what I saw online, which I think would be OK for you.

I’ve bounced back and forth between

“Oscar has the best fruit, it is all I’ll grow”

“Gerardi dwarf is the most productive and compact with fine fruit, it’s all I’ll grow”

Right now, I’m favoring Oscar, which is a bit of a shame, as I just went around this spring and grafted a lot of Gerardi. I’ll be sure to save a bunch of Oscar wood next year.

It has occurred to me to cut down my Kokuso and graft it’s stump to Oscar. The only reason which makes me hesitate (other than having to wait a year or so for it to grow back), is that maybe the large amount of fruit on it distract the birds/squirrel from the better Oscar fruit next to it. Both of the productive Oscar trees I have also have more productive neighbors with inferior berries (Kokuso on one and Wellington on the other), so I’m not sure how much that impacts the amount the birds leave me.

I only started getting significant fruit from the Oscar after it was pretty big/old. It had fruit before that, but it got eaten by the birds. I planted in 2013 and it was 2020 before I got more than 1-2 berries in a year.

@mamuang

I hope your dad’s strawberry patch does not get gray mold and botrytis. After 3-4 years, my original patch got it badly.

No problems with that so far. Though when you are approaching 80, the main hope is that you’re still able to bend down and pick the fruit in 3-4 years…

[PharmerDrewee]

Happy to hear Docteur Desportes and Aurora are less susceptible to scab. I grafted them.

[mamuang]

@BobVance
Glad to hear good things about Oscar mulberry. Thanks for mentioning varieties I should avoid.

Do you think this rootstock will grow big enough for me to graft before I retire?

[Ahmad]

@mamuang

Do you think this rootstock will grow big enough for me to graft before I retire?

I would graft on the small green branch near the top directly. Will be easier, and higher chances of success.

[BobVance]

@BobVance

@Ahmad

Ilona and Sugar pearls are clearly under ripe.

I figured that the SP was probably underripe, but there is so much fruit on it, that me picking one is basically thinning what is left

My total crop of Ilona last year was 1 fruit, which I just happened to notice and pick on 6/30, at which point it was quite tree ripe. I’m shocked it made it past the squirrels, etc. So I figured I’d start testing just a bit earlier this year.

I sampled the Ilona and the Early Blush after 4-5 days on the counter. Early Blush was dead-ripe and and 22 brix, while the Ilona was ripe-enough and 15 brix.

I went back on Thursday and picked everything from Ilona and Early Blush.

Actually, “picked” isn’t quite right (more “picked up”, as the Early Blush had already fallen on the ground. They are a bit overripe to my tastes, but still good. I tested one of the new ones and it was 23 brix, so they didn’t add much in the week since I picked the first one.

These apricots were all planted in 2021, so this is their 3rd year in-ground and the first time they’ve fruited. This was the whole Ilona crop:

There are more Sugar Pearls, but I probably have a few weeks until they are ripe.

For next year, I’ll probably target around 6/12 for Early Blush and 6/24 for Ilona.

@mamuang

Do you think this rootstock will grow big enough for me to graft before I retire?

It will either get it in gear and start growing well (as mulberries often do), or it will sit there and do nothing. If the latter happens, I’d say just replace it with one of the potted ones I have, assuming they put on decent growth. Or, there are few mulberry growing as weeds that I should tag, so that I know what to dig next winter.

[SoCalGardenNut]

They look good @BobVance, I picked some yesterday but my tree is still loaded, but next week we have 80s weather, maybe I will pick some more next week.

[mamuang]

`Thanks, Bob, for the offer of mulberry rootstock. I may take up your offer.

Re. Apricots, what varieties do you like? Your taste and my taste is similar so what you like, I usually do, too.

[BobVance]

Regarding apricot varieties, I’d be happy to find one that doesn’t keep dieting on me. This year, I only lost one, an Ilona at a rental, though part of the Mirsanjeli Late (which also isn’t very productive, as it was planted in 2016 and finally has a few fruit) wilted and was removed.

Aside from the Mirsanjeli Late and a few grafts, most of what I have is the apricots I planted at 2 rentals in 2021:

Early Blush: Very early, which is a great quality when there aren’t any other fruit around. Early Blush was ready a couple weeks ago, while the first peach, Rich May, is just getting there now. And EB is much sweeter than RM, by about 10 points of brix.

Rich May:

Ilona- Slightly behind Early Blush, but still very early. There weren’t many fruit (EB didn’t have many either), but Ilona’s were quite large. I’m not sure if that will continue in future years, in the event I get a heavier set.

Sugar Pearls- later than the others, so I haven’t tried it yet. But the SP at both rentals both have the heaviest fruit sets by a wide margin. I’m not sure if it is because they are more precocious or more frost resistant. Either would be a good thing.

Another first yesterday was the first ripe yellow raspberry in my yard:

[mamuang]

Life us good for you, Bob.

Your area was not negatively affected by minus temp in early Feb.

How Illona taste?

I think several people like Sugar Pearl including @alan and @Ahmad?

I don’t grow any raspberries. I don’t have space. My friend grow a red one. I go to his house for pick them.

[alan]

I think recent cloudy weather must have knocked a point or two off of Rich May brix, but I’m very surprised your Early Blush is off the charts for a cot,. although I have never measured brix on my cots. EB has never been great except for its earliness, which is pretty great, except I think it may also contribute to a short life at most sites around here. Mine died and on my property I never have gotten a good crop from it. It has done well in more favorable ones though.