Ya know i mainly do the primocane harvest so i can maximize all that amino acid absorption. My aunt focuses on floricanes so i can ask but usually i just leave around 1/3 or so of my primocanes up so i can get a smaller floricane crop also. Blackberries i have only gotten a few handfuls of total
I am happy with joan j, anne and heritage and trying out a few new yellows this year based upon some recommendations.
@RichardRoundTree
I have several Joan J, I purchased from Berries Unlimited…about to give up on them. They wilt when placed outdoors for a couple of hours —> 70 degrees, shaded by 25% shade cloth and moist soil. I’m tired of babysitting them.
Did you do anything special to acclimate your Joan J?
Well I acclimate all my plants as they can never hang from where they are from directly to my full sun. I start in shade and increase sun each day
That being said for raspberries I just plant em out take care of the crown they will resprout from the roots
I know It’s kinda late but if anybody wants to try out methley or Howard’s Miracle here I have xtra scion wood.
I may be interested! However, I haven’t had much luck grafting stone fruit. Only Toka has been successful for me so far. 2/2 for Toka grafts. 0/5 on some others. Any suggestions?
Well practice makes perfect and the scion wood make quality makes a difference also. Also peach and apricots for me are the hardest with the plums being in the middle and pears and cherries being fairly easy. My first time I must have done about 20 grafts and they failed because they were wrapped poorly and dried out. So make sure the unions have good cambium contact lined up and pressed tightly together. Good cuts no whittling, just one or two nice cuts on the scion and the rootstock depending on graft type. keep the union and scion from drying out by keeping the union well wrapped and sealed. I also use a antidessicant such as Wilt Pruf on my scions. Some people here I think I’ve read cover them in bags with a few holes poked in it for ventiliation. I’m sure there are other methods and Im sure others have great pointers also. There is also a whole thread I think devoted to grafting on this forum i think also
Beginner Grafting Guide. PM me if you want the scions Ill be available tomorrow I76 and Federal area between 1145 and 1400 and all day Monday. @danCO
I don’t know if you have done much reading but here is a couple of good articles on grafting.
Bob Purvis on Stonefruits
University of NH
Washington State
Thanks for the wealth of information. This is extremely helpful. I may hang tight on the scionwood for the time being. I have a few plum grafts that I want to see how well they do.
For those who spray Surround - have you already sprayed your first round? It looks like a somewhat clear forecast for the next 10 days, after quite a wet spell. This will be the first year for me.
Np hope it helps you in your grafting endeavors @danCO.
Wondering if anyone here would like 2 blueberry bushes, Blueray supposedly and patriot. Five years no fruit and the blueray constantly dies back to a foot or so of the ground. They will be disposed of if no one wants them.
You could hit your stone fruits but probably too early for apples depending on how far along they are. I have not seen any signs of pc yet on my cherries but they will probably emerge soon. I don’t spray surround as they just do not build up much for me.
Thank you for the offer of those and the scions Mike, You know i made a bad decision and bought the jellybean and then a patriot blueberry after hearing all you guys talk about them but i really think they need to be in a greenhouse to succeed here. Its really more of a kick in the ass for me since i figure they will do okay in pots outside and when i want fruit i can put em in a greenhouse (That i build)
I’ve actually had a similar problem with blueberries. This year I transplanted them to pots so that’s the way I’ll have to grow them going forward.
If I were to move to be near my daughter in Arvada CO how bad is the soil likely to be for fruit trees? Is the drainage in Denver area soils fair, poor, or worse? There are decent trees both native and planted in Arvada. What needs to be done to the soil if anything to grow good peach and nectarine trees.
I’d be thinking about growing in a greenhouse. So the trees would be protected from the extreme cold and temperature swings.
Also how bad are the SWD?
Fruitnut - I’m not the best or only to speak to this, so I hope others will chime in… but will provide my experience with the soil conditions. My experience with peach production is limited, but I do know that nectarines are more of a challenge here than peaches, though some do have them. To your point to me in earlier posts, I would think you would want a pretty good sized greenhouse here to do what you do… hail is a threat late April through late June; cold snaps a risk April through mid-May. Last frost is often considered Mother’s day, though not always spot on, and warmer vegetables practically go in the ground (unprotected) later.
On soils… I live maybe 12-20 miles from Arvada, depending on where we are talking about. Arvada runs from foothills east, and I believe there is also some more urban country lots there, as well (though lots of subdivisions going in currently).
I think soil composition is pretty diverse and localized. For instance, I lived about 4 miles closer to the true foothills of the mountains… where I once estimated clearing about 3000 lb of rock out of 200SF of garden bed, going down about 12" and it took the excavator replacing 50’ of sewer 2 days to cut through versus 1. His comment was that they could do a sewer in the same neighborhood and hit very little rock. I think it is a factor of where mountain runoff would run historically. Where I live now, I have done quite a bit of digging and have about 1000’ of garden that has been sub soiled and tilled with basically no rock (this land was farm land in the 50’s). I’ve also hand dug holes I can fit into, and between all these, I could probably put all rocks I’ve found into a 2 gallon bucket.
My current soil is around 62% sand, 17% silt, and 21% clay, and if you want to PM me, I could send you two soil lab analysis I have had in 5 years, to give some idea. I think it is decent by local standards (nothing like what soil would be in the midwest) and produces veggies pretty well without much amendment (have added some compost and use some neem seed for nitrogen). My fruit trees on this property are not established yet, so I can’t speak to that, but my neighbor across the street has a number of 50ish year old apple, pear, peach (maybe not that old) trees that have quite a bit of production when we don’t get a late frost.
Sun… almost endless here, and intense/powerful. GREAT for growing, and there are some who can manage passive greenhouses for all but the coldest snaps… I have thought about it, but am tree challenged. Water is probably another consideration… if you want to grow a lot, know that some unincorporated lots (I’m not sure how much property you would be after) will have well water rights (and in my case I have both well and city water).
Buying property is a whole separate challenge… has been for years, but REALLY challenging at the moment. Residential property offers might be $40-100k over asking and cash buyers are up to 25% of the market, versus 17% last year.
Anyhow, not sure how much help this was but I figure more info is better than less in this case.
BTW, maybe 40-70 miles north of here used to be a major producer of montmorency cherries for the US. There is significant commercial peach production here in Colorado, but it is on the west slope near Grand Junction (also booming for land values)… climate is much more temperate there.
I’ll let others speak to SWD.
Edit to add: My soil seems to drain very well (almost too well for water spread), but if compacted, it will hold water, as well. The septic guys said my soil was amazing for drainage, for what that is worth.
You could grow fruit anywhere. Colorado is a challenging area its a cold high plains desert. The people i know there can grow things but it’s not easy. West Texas has less regulation.
@rossn Thank you for that information. Your soil sounds good for fruit trees. The soil near my daughter is clay from what I’ve seen. And often wet. Poorly draining clay is a challenge for most stone fruits. The soil around Grand Junction/Palisade is also on the heavy side but that’s 250 miles away so might as well be in Texas.
Arvada, Amarillo, and Alpine are all on the front range, just east, of the Rockies. That’s some of the worst weather in the US for growing fruit. I grew 30 yrs in Amarillo, now 16 in Alpine, so why not a stint in Arvada. Not my top choice for locations. Grand Junction is protected by the high mountains east of there so temperatures are much more stable and much less hail.
I do appreciate your input. Maybe there are pockets of good soil in Arvada. Or maybe I could improve on what’s there. The regulations/ building permits etc will be much worse than Texas. Building a greenhouse may not be feasible. And without one I’ll be shopping at the store.
Are you taking your green house with you
That would be nice but it has 10,000 lbs of concrete on each side holding it in Texas forever.
I have a contractor friend who built his house in ‘Golden’, which is really right on the border of SW Arvada. I’m sure he has had some soils work done there and will check and see what he had for composition. I thought my soil was ‘clay’ as well, until I had the tests done… it does gum up in wet weather like clay, sticking to my boots, but holding water seems to depend on if it was compacted. The soil does stay moist and cool a ways down, but not pooling. I also walk outside at night and have night crawlers galore (not a bad thing). I am, roughly the same distance east of the foothills as Arvada, if that gives any context.
FWIW, one of my favorite nurseries (Timberline Gardens) that sold out for land a few years back, and grew a lot of their owns stuff, was located in Arvada and I see other commercial green houses around the area. Depending on how close you want to be to them (i.e. 5 mins vs 40 minutes), there are other options, but there are definitely more plots of land that are horse properties, etc in that area than a lot of others. I think it is also becoming more popular, being between Boulder and Golden, and not too far from downtown Denver.
I’m not sure the regs in Aravada around greenhouses. In my county, you basically get 400 sf (I believe) that can be deck, gazebo, greenhouse, etc – and I think if it goes over, it counts as square footage, from a tax perspective. If you are in an unincorporated area, I would think you will get a lot of leeway with a greenhouse, given that area has a bit of a country/ranching/horse farm background to it.
If you wanted to talk to someone who has done a greenhouse that is mostly or all passive, you could call Mickl, the owner at Harlequin Gardens in Boulder (interesting old nursery focused on xeric, sustainable planting). He is a character, and does know about fruits, etc and could tell you about his successes or failures experimenting with the passive greenhouses - he is an experimenter for sure. The one greenhouse I am thinking of that he has is dug out maybe 3-4’, and a double layer plastic pressurized covering. I think it’s fully passive, but he could say for sure.
I also know some have the growing gardens geo domes, such as a place where my daughter went to school… I’m quite sure that has no supplemental heat. Lastly, solar thermal water panels are very effective year round here, and I’m sure a few panels could generate a lot of heat.
This Arvada doc seems to limit portable structures to 220sf (High tunnel, I assume is included in that)
You might need to call and ask about non-portable structures… know that (from my own recent experience)… building departments are absolutely slammed right now.
Unincorporated Jefferson County - ADU’s/Barns/Greenhouses PDF. Being in an agriculture zone might offer more freedom.
As you can see here and in other mapping resources for jeffco, Arvada essentially has some areas within its boundaries that are unincorporated. How the land is zoned will probably greatly affect the ability to have a large greenhouse, but where I live there are a lot near by.
We are right up against the foothills and the soil is rockier and sandier than east of here. Back when we lived in Denver, the soil was thick clay. However, in both places there are plenty of healthy peach and apple trees growing in people’s backyards including our own. I would say that late frosts and hail will be your biggest enemy. Careful with a greenhouse since a moderate hailstorm can shred it apart pretty handily.
On the bright side, there is endless sunshine and limited pest pressure (compared to Midwest/Southeast/East coast). Main threats will be coddling moth, peach tree burrower, Japanese Beatle, powdery mildew, and most importantly fireblight!!!
Birds, racoons, squirrels, deer and elk as well depending on where you live.
This year we will have a huge peach harvest from a single tree. We even were lucky enough to have some apricots growing. Apples and pear trees are happily growing as well. Grape Vines are going gangbusters. Sour cherries are doing awesome. Sweet cherries have failed miserably in the past. Fingers crossed that we don’t see any significant hail.
