I’m pretty stoked to see this. Had about 10 ripe apricots for the first time ever. Peaches still have a ways to go, but there will be a ton of them ready in September if all goes well.
Sungold:
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Contender:
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Thanks - I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and for fickle fruits (for CO), have been thinking - try one in-ground and one in pot. I’ve also been brainstoring some quick and dirty coverings for trees, given that would make a huge difference here with production of many fruits.
Do you think for the potted plants (i.e. brought into garage with poor weather), it is necessary to find something that might have a fighting chance here in ground (late blooming, hardy, etc), or if putting it in a pot and the garage as needed, going for earlier bloomers?
Those look awesome. Do you think you’ll be able to keep away the squirrels and other fruit predators?
Good question. I’ll let you know how things go closer to harvest. I have some netting that I plan on putting over the tree. Last year a raccoon tore right through that and confiscated my harvest of only 10 peaches. I may try putting flashing around the trunk. Squirrels are less of a problem here, but there are one or two that are a nuisance. I mostly dislike the birds however. They peck a hole in each fruit…I guess they don’t like double dipping.
Hey colo folks, how big are your peaches (havens and mid-late season variety) now? Im starting to get some color change and feeling like my peaches are really small for where they should be. Lots of 2-2.5” diameter. I thinned as per usual (6-8” spacing) and after all the initial rain im beginning to wonder if i have backed too far off watering. Historically our peaches get full big farmers market size and are ready and of august-ish
Steve333 is asking for friend about apple tree leaf issues. The tree is located in the Colorado Front range at 8900 feet within zone 4b. If you could take a look at pictures of the leaves in the thread linked below and help him identify the issue I am sure he would appreciate it.
I looked, and don’t have any useful ideas, though I am not the most well-versed on apple diseases.
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Things seem to be sizing up nicely! Here is my peaches from a month ago
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Here are the peaches from two weeks ago
This is them over the weekend. I’m not sure how to get the girth measurement for peaches
Has been a good year so far I have been extremely busy and barely able to keep up with harvesting.
It’s too bad no one out west is willing to start making changes so we can breathe again!
This on us for accepting all this!
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What variety sour cherries are you picking now, Surefire? I picked my Evan’s a few weeks ago.
Yeah buddy those are surefire and montmorency cherries we finished picking all of them last week. Montmorency was the best cherry for me again this year but surefire pie cherry has mellowed in astringency a bit and was excellent this year.
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I hate to be skeptical of your cherry variety, but our montmorency cherries were done at the end of June. Are you sure they are montmorency cherries? When did they bloom? Just curious! There is a good chance that your climate could have triggered a substantially different growing pattern than ours so that’s what made me curious.
Thanks again?
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It’s definitely spot on for montmorency taste wise! That cherry picture was taken 7-28 and we had harvested the rest of the montmorency a few days prior to that they were at their end and surefire still had some that could darken up. We wanted to finish up processing all our cherries though. I never harvest montmorency before the fourth however and wonder if you should try to let them hang longer (definitely need to wrap em in cloth or netting though).
While it gets more sun Juliet is the first ripe and first to bloom for my sour cherries and surefire is the latest
Well another one of my posts got deleted did you guys know Denver had the 7th worst air quality in the world on Friday and the fifth worst air quality in the world on Saturday. It’s sad we all just let the west burn
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That makes good sense. However, I’d be hard pressed to keep our cherries from rotting out after July 4th. I could go longer if I net the tree. That would keep the birds at bay, but our kids would somehow find a way around it…they are our resident little garden thieves 
I think the tree’s location plays a big part when it blooms and the cherries ripen. It’s in full sun year round so it kicks off pretty early in the spring.
Yes, the air is terrible. California and Oregon are in pretty deep trouble at the moment. Fortunately CO is doing ok this year. That can always change in an instant, unfortunately. Let keeps our fingers crossed that we stay wet and fire free
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Richard, when do you seed carrots? You were harvesting them pretty darn early. I have certain seeds that I plant early as possible, like radish and most every type of green that I grow, but I usually do carrots with the last seeds I plant for the season.
Speaking of last seeds of the season. What is the latest veggies you all plant? Seeing our killing cold comes fairly early, meaning we seem to pretty much be done sometime in October. Has anyone found any veggies that they plant mid to late summer that come in late fall early winter? I’m not really talking about root crops, those are obvious.
My honey berries and apple trees are blooming in March & April, but honeybees in my area are not active until July and hand pollination is not something I enjoy. Has anyone out there purchased and maintained mason bees for early pollination? If yes, how is it working out?
“Mason bees are very effective pollinators. Just two or three females can pollinate a mature apple tree.“
I had mason bees in the past. But, I ran into two problems. One, I got them the first spring following the polar blast we had the previous fall which decimated or set back nearly every fruit tree in the Front range (something like 8 years ago) and there was nary a fruit tree blossom to be found. Two, I didn’t really have good clay mud and the stuff I found and brought to them wasn’t really any good either. It just crumbled when it would dry. It was a real bummer for them. To top it all off Crown Bees goofed up on my order. I ordered 3 boxes of a dozen bees (36 bees) and they sent me 36 boxes of bees(432 bees!). When they showed up I was like WHAT! I called them immediately and they made it all right and told be to just release them. So, I delayed the release of about half of them and distributed the remaining bees in the area wherever seemed like a good habitat with some blossoms around. Really sad for those bees, it couldn’t have been much worse of an environment for their release.
I had just a few cells filled on my mason bee house, most of which were only partially filled. Later on the leaf cutters used a good number and a few other resin bees as well as some strange wasp (I think) or something that would stuff pine needle debris in the holes.
I plan on giving them a go again in the next couple years as the trees I have planted at our new place are starting to get productive. I still need to figure-out a good clay mud source.
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Any of you front rangers who have pears care to share the variety and when they are harvested here on the front range?
I’m trying to get some sense of how pears work here, given I have a tree full of pears and no idea when they should be picked, other than trial and error.
I’m curious as well! All I can offer is that fireblight seems to be consistently present. I have not harvested any pears yet…have about 6 hanging from the trees this year, but the trees are still young. I would have thought with the amount of ornamental pears growing just about everywhere in the neighborhood that I would have had good pollution. But, that has not been the case.
My modest list consists of Bartlett, deanjou, red sensation, sekel, aurora, butt, henry hubcap, and gin…all on three trees.
Nice list of pears, danCO… bummer on not getting many yet, but it sounds like that is likely with time. I have no idea what my pears are, but there are a ton. I grafted several varieties on this old tree, but that was just last year and this year. Hopefully I harvest them at the right time, without squirrel issues.
I did find this blog from a CSU horticulturist, which provides some interesting information. Interesting tip on when pears are ready to eat, based on applying pressure at the neck and checking for give.