Does anybody know what kind of bug this is? They have been on multiple apple trees around my yard.
My Saint Theresa grapes are doing well. I want to add a green sweet grape for fresh eating. Does anyone have any suggestions for the Denver area?
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hi Folks. Hope you are enjoying this lovely fall.
I want to add two peach trees to our yard. One will be a replacement for another tree lost to borers (in a different location) and one will be a new addition. we are in denver proper (5b) and these trees will have SW exposure. We like eating peaches the most, generally freestone. We have one elberta and one redhaven and unfortunately I do not know which is which, but one makes the most delicious eating peaches ready in August and one makes peaches that are horribly grainy, ready late and fairly good cooked but not at all eating peaches. I’m trying to find two more eating peaches -medium to large fruit, ready august-ish big juicy, like most of what we think of coming from Palisade. Any suggestions on both What to get and where to get them locally?
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Codude - in my experience, it depends on if you care to know what the rootstock is. I say that mainly because I haven’t found any local vendors who have fruit trees and can tell you the root stock, and because of that, I have ordered from online sources. The good thing is that for Peach, Lovell is a common recommendation and common root stock, so chances are good you will get one.
If going local, some places to consider (South to North; I only have direct experience with a few of these):
Phelan Gardens
Holly Acres
Tree Farm
Harlequin’s Nursery
Fort Collins Nursery
Bath Gardens
As to varieties, I’m not the best to say, as my peaches are still young, but went with Contender on Guardian and Red Haven on Bailey.
Good luck in your search!
I’m Denver proper as well. I have two mature peach trees that I’ve harvested for a number of years: an Elberta and Contender. When you say that
one makes the most delicious eating peaches ready in August
is it early or late August? If it’s early, my guess is it is the Redhaven. If it’s late, there a good chance it might be the Elberta; I harvested my Elberta this year on August 27th.
First, if you ever look at some the websites from Palisade, their peaches are all over the place, from some of the earliest windows to the latest. In my opinion, the only thing that really separates Palisade from the metro area is the yearly low temperatures (7a vs 5b), which allows them to grow less cold hardy peaches, as well as the slightly less frequent spring frosts. Otherwise we have the same dry climate with hot days and cool nights; as long as you can avoid late frosts and hail, I think Denver is a great area to grow peaches.
Though it’s an early September peach, I would generally recommend Contender. This year it ripened about 14 days after Elberta, though in prior years their window is closer together. It’s a good tasting peach that has hardy blooms for our late Spring frosts. That said, I have experienced winter die back on the tips on the years we get into the minus double digits. Reliance (which I have one of, though it’s young) is probably a good bet as well, though it’s in the same general harvest window as Elberta and Contender. If you want to extend your harvest, their are some other options out there, but I don’t have an personal input. Checking out some of Olpea’s peach observations might be beneficial.
As far as where to get your next tree, I might go against the grain in my recommendation, but I would go big box - assuming you come across one that has decent nursery tags for it’s type and doesn’t look too dicey. In Denver you can go to Home Depot or Lowes and find a pretty decent Contender or Reliance for a decent price. Sure, you won’t know the rootstock, but for peaches in Colorado and don’t think it’s as big a deal as other locations (peaches in the South) or fruit types (apples, for example).
If you want a nursery experience and are willing to go on a bit of a drive, I’ve gone to and recommend Holly Acres Nursery in Elizabeth when they have their bare root trees on sale in the Winter. Looks like this year they’ll be $30 bucks each. Otherwise, if you go the tradition metro-area nursery route, a place like Nick’s Garden Center, will have you paying $~250 for a more mature 3-4 year old tree - pretty standard for a lot of metro nurseries.
Thought someone in Colorado might enjoy this website or to tour their farm https://crmpi.org/ . Im not in Colorado much.
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I planted a 5’ Contender from O’tools about 5 years ago. This year the peaches ripened the first week of September. We had about 400 peaches which was insane. They were fantastic.
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Yep, peaches are probably my favorite thing I grow. Last year was an awesome year for peaches, not a lick of hail damage which is super unusual.
I’m hoping the -15 degree weather we had didn’t do too much damage - I’m thinking it’ll probably be ok.
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You know you’ve got a problem when you’re buying trees that you know you don’t have room for…
Anyways, I wanted to give a heads up to @elivings1 and other CO members who struggle to find reasonabily priced trees in CO, without ordering online, that Home Depot’s got a very large, and quite diverse, selection of bare root trees this year - at least at the one off of Arapahoe and 25. Most were less than $30. I ended up getting a 3-in-1 sweet cherry (which ended up being a 5-in-1) for $37. For that price and selection I couldn’t help myself, even though I have no space and sweet cherry’s are probably very marginal.
Clear nursery marked tags, not the typical “Peach Tree” tag that the potted plants get in May.
Checking in to see how everyone’s trees are doing. With the warm weather everything’s starting to wake up, but I’m thinking a lot a lot of flower buds died off, especially the peaches. Guessing it was the -20 we had back in late December.
That’s a bummer… 
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Hi Scooter,
I have been pre-occupied and haven’t been watching closely, but did notice the 2nd leaf montmorency waking up. I do think some of my container trees got their buds fried.
Maybe the -20 will at least kill off some of the pine bark beetle?
Our trees are waking up. They are about 15 days later than last two years. Fingers crossed all goes well. I’m actually more concerned about any upcoming cold snaps that can zap the fruit.
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Indeed, my stuff is all 2 weeks late; makes sense with the long, cold winter.
As more and more is waking up, I’m starting to fear that I’ll be losng more than just some fruit buds. At least one apricot is toast, a second is probable, and my pluot is concerning as well. Kind of a bummer that I’m waiting on if the trees wake up or not as I can buy a replacement now, but not for much longer.
That’s a bummer. Odd too since I thought apricots were relatively cold hardy.
I accidentally girdled one of the larger branches of my apricot. I had a rope tied to the branch several years ago to align the branch the way I wanted it, but forgot to cut the rope later on. The first snow this year tore the branch off. That was unfortunate. The tree is not showing signs of waking up just yet so we will see.
Also, don’t forget that you can never have too many trees 
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It’s a DWN Pixie-Cot that I got tired of bringing into the garage every winter, not unexpected that it didn’t pull through. My other apricot is a Montrose with a few grafts of Zard. That was is a surprise to think it might be dead, though I still think it might just be really delayed in waking up. We’ll see…
So far all peach trees have started pushing growth and I have yet to see a single flower. Bummer, I’m really going to miss that harvest.
Just wanted to chime in. My peaches are struggling, not dead but struggling and no blooms. This is the same with my sweet cherries plums and apricots.It’s really a bummer because this spring was pretty good
Pear doing ok with lots of blooms and fruit set now. My really cold hardy berries and such have no issues.
@Codude I have a really great peach it was mislabeled from Burchell. You can have cuttings if it survives. Mid April bloom and mid August ripening.
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A month later, it looks like 100% losses for all outdoor peach, nectarine, and apricot blooms. Lots of tip die back as well. On the bright side, sour cherries, apples, and pears all came through with flying colors. Other successes as well: my Honey Jar survived, as did the roots to a lot of the Ark series blackberries. Both of these I bought thinking they were marginal for my climate.
One exception to the peaches might be my Contender peach tree. It is literally just starting to wake up. I know it’s a known cold-hardy, late blooming tree, but my Jujube and grapes broke bud before it! There’s a chance maybe some of the blooms survived, but I won’t hold my breath. If it does have some viable blooms, I’ll sing it praises to all.
Oh well, as many who have lost their crops this year put it, it’s a good opportunity to prune and shape…
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