Backyard Orchards, chronicling, musing and more

[BobVance]

@alan

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

This is just the 2nd crop of Early Blush for me. The first was in 2015, when I got 2 fruit from a young tree (16-17 brix on 6/20/2015), before it died the next year. The EB this year were higher brix, but smaller than normal.

Hopefully these EB don’t follow in their predecessor’s footsteps and die the next year- if they do, I’ll have gotten 8 fruit from 4 trees, not a great ROI

@mamuang

How Illona taste?

I’ve been eating the Ilona after a few days on the counter and there is some variance in their brix. I just had a very juicy 16-17 brix (the lowest so far) which was very good.

The ripest Ilona was 22 brix, which brings it close to the EB (first one was 22 and a later one clocked in at 23). Maybe it is just a good year for apricots, at least those which survived the frost.

@BobVance

Sugar Pearls- later than the others, so I haven’t tried it yet.
… heaviest fruit sets by a wide margin. I’m not sure if it is because they are more precocious or more frost resistant.

I was just checking online to see when I could expect it to be ripe and came across this in the description from Cummins:
So, maybe what I am seeing with the heavy set is it’s frost resistance, rather than its precocity. Combining the Cummins and ACN info, it looks like it could be ripe around July 10th.

From Cummin’s Sugar Pearls desc:

it is slightly slower to produce than other apricot varieties (taking five years to bear), but it is very productive once it begins to crop.

@mamuang

I don’t grow any raspberries. I don’t have space.

Raspberries don’t take that much space, but they might not be ideal for your perfectly manicured yard. I always have trouble keeping the weeds down and the raspberries tend to expand into the lawn and I feel bad about eliminating them, especially the Anne yellow raspberries. I completely got rid of Royalty, a bland purple raspberry and several of the red ones. Actually, some of the red ones got rid of themselves- not all of them are as vigorous as Anne.

@mamuang

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

I don’t think I got minus temps in Feb, though it was close. It got down to about 0F here (and +3F at some of the rentals). Enough to kill the tops of most of the figs (one Bryant Dark next to a building almost completely survived). All my Asian persimmons survived, with only one having significant dieback and a few others being a bit slow to leaf out (seem fine now). I guess living close (0.5 to 5 miles depending on which property) makes a big difference.

@alan

recent cloudy weather must have knocked a point or two off of Rich May brix

It may not get better anytime soon. Here’s the next 10 days for me.

At least I won’t need to water anything, like I had to after a month with no rain earlier this spring.

[alan]

@BobVance

Maybe it is just a good year for apricots, at least those which survived the frost.

Never judge a variety on a slim yield. When you are mostly growing leaves it’s not surprising that there’s more than enough sugar for a few fruit. I actually don’t care if cots are superb so much. Sure, that makes them more fun to eat off the tree, but what I love them most for is their sauciness when lightly cooked as the base of a fruit compote (the rest of the fruit is warmed but not cooked) I have at breakfast every morning with either whole grain waffles or steel cut oats. If I don’t get enough crop to get through at least fall and winter I isn’t a good year. This year I only have a dozen cots ripening, but E. plums set well and they also sauce up beautifully. There’s also a light crop of Burgundy Queen, which makes the most beautiful sauce I’ve ever seen.

I’m still watering- we haven’t had a soaking rain for over a month. The half-inch rains that keep being forecast end up being clouds and a bit of spit. Drought keeps beating the so-called odds.

[mamuang]

We have had rain here almost every other day. My strawberries went to mush and mold. Got soaked yesterday, sunny mostly today but will rain this evening and looks like forcast for rain in the next 10 days.

Pawpaws are happy. Not sure about other trees.

Also, we have had only few days over 80 F. My hot peppers are not too happy.

[alan]

@mamuang

My hot peppers are not too happy.

Mine only started growing in the last week- tomatoes also. None of the hot spells they thrive under but at least the nights are now warm enough to keep the roots happy.

[scottfsmith]

@BobVance

Ilona’s were quite large.

They are always large… if under-thinned they will grow into each other. I just about finished my crop for this year. They were excellent before the rain but were a bit mushy on the skin after the rain. Besides that negative they are all positive: super big fruit set, great taste, very large fruits. I got many this year, we gave a lot away.

I’m getting an OK crop of white apricots this year for a change, Shalah and Lasgerdi Mashaad. They are just ripening now. Florilege is also just starting to ripen. Bob I want to see your Mirsenjeli Late when ripe, I’m not clear if that is a white one or not having heard conflicting information.

[mamuang]

Just came back from the friend with a raspberry field. Can’t call it a patch. It covers a huge area in his backyard.

[steveb4]

Damn! welcome to the jungle!

[SoCalGardenNut]

I wonder how do they pick the berries.

[mamuang]

His patch is like a jungle indeed. He practices permaculture. It is only him so he let a lot go to waste. Whenever we visit him, we pick and eat the whole time.

This was from another spot on his raspberry “field”.

[steveb4]

i also practice permaculture but its somewhat controlled. id at least mow some lanes thru there every 5ft to allow some circulation and accessibility to the berries.

[mamuang]

What lanes?

The only comfort was that my friend assured us that there are no ticks in that jungle!!

[thebentonpeach]

@mamuang

They were still sour but not as sour as Carmine Jewel. No disrespect to CJ as a lot of people like it. I can’t eat CJ fresh

I’ve found some people really like sour fruits. I was on a trip in college to a cranberry bog and for the life of me could not stomach a whole fresh cranberry.
A classmate of mine? Well didn’t he have a handful and just munch on them.
Go figure.

[thebentonpeach]

@BobVance

Maybe it is just a good year for apricots, at least those which survived the frost.

Sounds like you have at least one thing in common with people in my area (Philly) who grow apricots.
Frost damage.
Have you had much of an issue with bacterial spot?

[BobVance]

@mamuang

His patch is like a jungle indeed.

Wow- looking at that brings back memories from when I was a kid and would stay at my grandparents house for a week during the summer. Not only did they have a in-ground pool, but if I went through the woods behind their house, I would come out at the “Friendlies” sign on the Mass turnpike. All around it there were acres of wild blackberries. Of course, they were so tightly growing that I never dared to push into the middle. Even if I wasn’t stung by bees or bitten by a snake, I’d have been torn to pieces by their thorns. But, my brother and I could still pick a ton of berries around the outside perimeter.

I went to Google Earth and tried to bring up old satellite imagery to see if it was viable. They do offer historical images from the late 80’s and early 90’s, but they are so poor in quality that I could barely see the sign, let alone anything around it.

As far as I can tell it was 1.5-2.5 acres of thorny blackberries. Here’s a current street-view of it. The berries were in the large field to the left of the sign.

Thinking about it now, I wonder how much lead I consumed, given all the leaded gasoline (before it was banned in the 90’s) which was burned on the turnpike 100-200 feet away from those berries. Though I have no idea how much would get picked up by the roots and get to the fruit.

@mamuang

The only comfort was that my friend assured us that there are no ticks in that jungle!!

Is their assurance due to the brambles growing so tightly that deer won’t be able to get in there and drop off ticks? I thought that they had other hosts as well…

@thebentonpeach

Sounds like you have at least one thing in common with people in my area (Philly) who grow apricots.
Frost damage.

I thought that was a universal issue for apricots. Some places see issues 10% of the time and others have problems 95%. I think I’m on the lower to middle end of the spectrum, but as noted above the trees have high mortality at a young age.

@thebentonpeach

Have you had much of an issue with bacterial spot?

I haven’t noticed any problems. But, they do get at least one fungicide spray after fruit-set (along with insecticide), so that may help. Leaves looked pretty clean last I looked, but I’ll take a look next time I am there.

@scottfsmith

Bob I want to see your Mirsenjeli Late when ripe, I’m not clear if that is a white one or not having heard conflicting information.

I’ll be sure to post. Though I’m not sure exactly when I should be targeting. Based on the name alone, I assume that it is on the late side. Maybe late July or early August. There are only 2-3 fruit on the tree, so I can’t waste many as tests…

[Ahmad]

I used to have a graft of Sugar Pearls at my old property, it fruited once, and ripened lose to July 10 in Wilmington, Delaware.

[mamuang]

Bob,
I remember that Friendly sign. I sure hope there was little to no lead in those blackberries.

So far, there has been no deer in this neighborhood. My friend keeps free range chicken so they eat all kinds of bugs. However, he has discovered that this year there is a family of groundhog and 3 babies on his property. The damage is quite extensive as they have gotten into his fenced in area and finished off most of his valued veggies and fruit vines like melons. Even flowers like zinnias were all eaten. Feel bad for him.

[mamuang]

@thebentonpeach
Talking about sour fruit, my friend asked me to find out what a cherry tree someone has in her front yard a few street from him so I stopped by to check it out. The lady owner said her husband planted it 20 years ago. She did not know what it is. It is a beautiful tree cover with cherries.

.

It is definitely sour cherries. I guess it is Montmorency, as it is more common sour cherry than others.

@mrsg47 and @scottfsmith can you confirm, please?

The lady said she does little with the cherries. Mostly the birds eat them. She did not spray so there is quite extensive brown rot on many fruit. The leaves are clean so the tree is not affected by cherry leaf spot which is a bonus.

It is such a beautiful tree for a front yard.

[scottfsmith]

Yes that looks just like Monty. I just picked my last ones last night and made cherry sauce. Lots of previous cherry desserts and twenty pounds in the freezer as well. I love my Monty!

[mamuang]

Thank you. Does your tree has cherry lead spot or just brown rot?

I wish I had know about it when we bought this house. Instead of a maple that turns ugly yellow and brown in the fall, I could have a beautiful Monty in my front yard.

[scottfsmith]

Now it has nothing, I did lots of rot sprays like maybe five. Even the cracked fruit are not rotting. I never get cherry leaf spot badly.