Andy,
I have Redlove Calypso, Rubaiyat, Mott’s Pink, Pink Pearmain, Pink Pearl, Geraldine. They all have lovely pink bloom, Redlove Calypso might have the pinkest flowers. But my memory is not that good anymore.
1 Like
Here’s Redlove Odysso from earlier this spring. Definitely has some ornamental value even if the apples don’t end up being that great. My Calypso from Burnt Ridge never leaved out sadly.
From all I read in the forum, even Odysso which is supposed to be “sweet”, it still is tart. Redlove series are pretty apples.
My Calypso is too tart to my liking. Pink Parfait and Rubaiyat taste far better to me.
2 Likes
@mamuang That’s my reservation about the red fleshed apples too. I don’t personally care for tart apples. I’m going to do my best to have some self control and not plant too many red fleshed varieties. We’ll see how that goes.
2 Likes
well finally it looks like my 7ft mountain ash grafted to 6 types of pears is going to at least have bud clusters on it. its the stacyville pear graft that putting them out. unfortunately, there’s no other type flowing yet to pollinate it. the few other pears i have are too young to flower / fruit yet. i have Sierra pear grafted to ivans belle that’s going to fruit for the 1st time but the pear graft is slower at leafing out than the rest of the tree so its too early to tell yet.
2 Likes
@mrsg47
That is so beautiful. Ornamental and edible. Best of both worlds.
@steveb4 so happy for you that some of your pears started to flower. Wish you luck in getting fruit soon.
When my Abbe Fetel bloomed the first time, I had plenty of other pears blooming at the same time but Abbe Fetel set no fruit.
2 Likes
i read up on the stacyville pear. the original tree in the same named town, is near 300yrs old and was likely planted by a French fur trader as southern Aroostook county hadn’t been settled yet. it is one of the oldest and most hardy pear trees in Maine. the great part is its self pollinating which is rare for a pear. that means i may be able to eat some pears off it this fall.
3 Likes
So far, persimmons surprise me the most.
@aap I left this pitted Rojo Brillante in my garage through the winter. It was in the 20’s at times. Thought it was dead.
I did not have time to remove it from the pot. A few days ago, it showed signs of life above the graft union.
I should not be surprised because last year Nikita’s Gift looked dead. The whole top did not wake up in the spring. Two months later new shoots came up on the lower trunk but above the graft union.
By then, I had enough of NG dropped fruit years after years so I took the tree out. JT-02 now occupied that spot.
2 Likes
Twenties will not hurt the tree. What will hurt the tree if it wasn’t fully dormant in the late fall after a cold spell. (Vortex).
1 Like
Being in a pot in the 20’s did set Rojo Brillante back quite a bit, Bob.
Usually I put the pot in the basement with temp in low 40’s. The tree would leave out in the basement and grew well after it came out to the yard.
This year. it laid dormant until May. The new growth is lower on the trunk. No sign of life on upper part of the tree. Similar to my inground NG. Then it suffered setback, it only produced growth on lower partof the tree.
Abbe Fetel really likes a warmer climate zone.,
The fruit I had last year did not ripen well. To make matter worse, the tree only gets 5 hours of sun. It probably is another fruit that I love but can’t grow!!!
@clarkinks
Can you grow Abbe Fetel? Your area has intense heat. That could work.
I don’t know about its fire blight susceptibility, though.
1 Like
My tree has grown happily, bloomed and set fruit but the fruit have not ripened well. Bummer!!
My experiment with pawpaw pollination has not worked out.
My Shenandoah and Mango pawpaws are about 10 years old. I grafted Sunflower and Wabash to them. With hand pollination, Shenandoah has set fruit for the past 3-4 years. So has Sunflower. Last year Mango and Wabash started setting fruit.
This year all four varieties set a lot of flowers. On dry days, I saw tiny flies hovering around the flowers. I thought let’s see if those insects would pollinate pawpaws for me. So, for the most part, I did not do hand pollination, except for a few.
Well, turned out it is a costly experiment. There is almost no fruit set. All those flowers went through process and dropped without setting fruit. I saw 3-4 potential fruit but it is too early to tell.(they could be a few that I hand pollinated.
@hambone - now I know why people hang stinky stuff on pawpaw trees to attract flies.
@SMC_zone6 I know you do not hand pollinate your pawpaws and let nature does the work. Your pawpaws have set a lot of fruit.
How mature are your trees? How many varieties you grow?
I am jealous.
This will be a very low yield or even no yield for me. Back to hand pollinate next year.
1 Like
Even hand pollination largely failed here this year. All but Shenandoah resist setting fruit in my orchard. I have ten other varieties.
1 Like
Pawpaw pollination is such a pain.
With the 10 varieties, which one(s) is your favorite? I can only grow early or mid season varieties.
Even Susquehanna is often late to too late where I am. It does not help that my trees are in half-shade.
I do hand pollinate. Although this year I was a lot of bugs in the pawpaw patch and it seems like they helped the process along, because there’s more fruit set than just what I pollinated.
2 Likes