Colorado Front Range Thread

Regional Chats
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I experienced more winter damage than most years, but now that I’ve seen the total impact it wasn’t too bad all things considered; -15/-20 degree nights are definitely not the norm the past 9 years at my location.

I ended up only losing one apricot tree (Pixie-Cot) all told. Lost all stone fruit buds with the exception of my Contender, which had probably about 1/4th of it’s buds survive. Tip die back to some degree on all peaches and nectarines, but plums and apricots didn’t get much.

As rossn mentioned, the cool and wet spring was a nice surprise and helped many plants recover some.

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Curious… what rootstock is your contender on?

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Unlike the rest of my peaches, I don’t know this rootstock.

It’s a very interesting tree in that it’s quite a bit different that the others I have. I used to think somewhat poorly of it, as it would experience frequent tip die back that no other variety would experience. I think it had to do with it being close to an area of grass that I fertilized in late summer. Since I’ve held off fertilizing this area the tip die back has decreased.

It is also very, very late blooming. This year it was the last tree to bloom in my yard, being over three weeks past my Elberta, and after even my jujube. And it’s the only stone fruit that had surviving buds. I’m thankful I’ve got it.

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Anyone have any updates to this year’s season in Colorado?

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I’ll try and go down the line based off of time of harvest:

Typical harvest for honeyberries. Only have a Tundra and a Sugar Mountain Blue honeyberry that are big enough to put out a significant amount but they did well and are a great start to the growing season.

Very nice year for June strawberries, everbearing though were underwhelming. No sure why, maybe very wet spring to quickly hot and dry threw them off. Some SWD in the strawberries (more on that below).

Sour cherry bushes - Carmine Jewel and Juliette - set a bumper crop only to get decimated by SWD. I’ve seen few before but nothing like this year. Probably just the wet spring but I’m going to be all over sprays next year.

Floricane raspberries hit hard by SWD as well. Primocane have some now, but not nearly as bad. Think I’ve got a virus in the raspberries and might need to replace…

Plums, apricot, and nectarines all froze out. All peaches spare the Contender froze out. Contender had a few dozen buds bloom in early June! Have harvested a dozen peaches last couple days with just a few more left. Although it’s hundreds less than normal, any tree ripened peaches are appreciated.

Apples had a tough year minus Honeycrisp; that thing always is stingy but actually set well this year.

Oldest pears are sitting at about 7 years old with no spurs in sight. One day…

Honeyjar jujube has a couple dozen fruit but not looking close to ripe yet.

Other fruit successes: JT-02 persimmon taken out of pot and in the ground - 3rd leaf now. Growing better in the ground. Hope it survives this winter. Got a young potted pawpaw to make it through the summer in a sheltered, wet corner. Would be cool to see it succeed in CO.

Other fruit disappointments: Grapes (all stolen by something), blackberries (never come close to setting fruit before fall), potted figs (not a lot of growth nor fruit, not sure why).

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Hi! My name is Chris and I’m new to the forum here, but I’ve been living in Colorado springs for over 20 years and thought I’d say hey.

In regards to your question, Dan, I’m still establishing my yard so I doubt I’ll get any significant harvest for a few years yet, but so far I’ve seen some really good signs from my black currants, wild strawberries (good ground cover, not so great for productivity), and if the deer would stop eating my thimbleberries down to nothing I imagine those would be rather large by now as well. We are also still getting a good amount of raspberries with new fruits being set.

On a side note, according to BONAP and iNaturalist there are some naturalized populations of peach and apricot trees in the state. Is there anybody who has experience or anecdotes of using these as rootstocks? I would very much appreciate any information.

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Great update. This year was a bit disappointing. I have grapes also and I’m pretty sure rats and racoons were responsible for the missing clusters overnight. I purchased a solar powered electric fence which I plan on using next year to keep the grapes safe from poachers. I have a webcam and I’ve seen both the rats and racoons around the yard. Just something to be on the lookout for.

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I’ll keep an eye out for both. I’ve had rats before but never raccoons - until this year (as least I think). Went out one morning to find every ear of corn not only eaten, but the stalks broken down to the ground and many dragged at least 20 feet. Only thing I could possibly think of that could do that, in the middle of Denver, would be raccoons.

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I grow Somerset, Himrod and Jupiter grapes. To discourage animals, I remove all grape bunches whithin about 42" of the ground. I know that they can climb, but why tempt them.

I bag my bunches in organza bags. It protects from birds and especially wasps. You can bag anytome the grapes are still green, but easier bfore the vines become a jungle.

The Somerset crop this year was good but below average - I probably picked 60-70 small bunches. Late to ripen.

Jupiter, only in its third season produced about 50 medium bunches.

Himrod had almost nothing, maybe 10-12 bunches. I think that the10 below in Feb must have damaged buds. Himrod is my least hardy variety.

I have seen racoons on my Ring cam, but they have not been around during harvest time yet.

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Things are wrapping up here at 8300’ in the foothills. Most things have been harvested with some corn, potatoes and onions still to go. Has been a rather poor year, especially fruit-wise. Most of my apples did not bloom, and about half of the ones which did did not set fruit. Add to that the bird pressure has been very high this year even well before the apples are close to ripe; not sure if that is due to less other food for them.

On the good side, this wet year has had me watering much less than usual. And there has been good growth on most of the perennials. Hopefully that will translate to a good fruit harvest next year.

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Anyone care to call out favorite apples that do well on the front range (FB/ Powdery mildew/wooly aphid resistant, drought tolerant, etc)?

Looking to add a semi-dwarf apple this year, and was considering a William’s pride, but would like to hear some other ideas. Ideally, would be late blooming, mid-sept or earlier harvest, and a good candidate for grafting.

Also, anyone have good luck with M7 or Bud118 root stock (or another one)? I understand M111 does well here, but would prefer slightly smaller.

Edit - disregard my question on rootstocks, as I found some notes about info already received here.

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Wish I could provide any insight but most of my apples are too new to give any good information - this should be my first year with a number of trees/cultivars coming into bearing. I’ll be interested to hear any recommended selections as well. I’m a bit concerned that a few varieties I’ve chosen (Gold Rush and Sundance in particular) are just too late ripening for us here.

On a side note, I’ve been pleased with our Fall/Winter so far. It was a nice, slow transition into Fall, no 50-60 degree swings that we sometimes get. Hopefully it’s a nice, mild Winter and we get can back into stone fruit next year!

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Here at 8300’ in the Front Range, there are several apples which do well here for me. Lodi is probably the most reliable and best producer, but not an eating apple; Zestar is probably my favorite eating apple for up here. Wealthy, Mantet, State Fair, and Honey Crisp are good and do well usually. Summer Crisp is a good apple but prone to fire blight.

As for root stocks, Antonovka seems to be the best up here (for me), B118 is pretty good too and M111 is OK too. Have not had much luck with the dwarfing root stocks, but they may be OK down lower.

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Thanks! Definitely keep us posted over the coming years on how they do for you! I feel like I may have grafted Gold Rush, but can’t find my list right now. On Sundance, I see in my notes that the local Masonville U-Pick orchard lists as having them in Early October (I think Cummins lists it as mid-late October). We definitely have some years without freeze by that point, though I have some pears grafted that are around the same harvest time and share the same feeling. Yeah, a mild winter would be great!

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Steve333 - thanks for sharing. On varieties, I’d think most that do well for you will do even better down here, though you might have some slight advantage with staying consistently colder, later into the spring. Do you get many late frosts, or usually have a pretty clean transition?

Have considered Zestar before (and think I may have a couple grafts), and will have a look at Wealthy, Mantet, and State Fair… I don’t think I’ve looked at those previously. At a minimum, if you’ve had good luck with them and they have good reports on flavor or use, may try to get some scion wood and do some grafts this year.

On Honeycrisp, while I know a lot of folks here aren’t keen on them, we like them. I planted one about 11 years ago, and moved away maybe 7 years ago. It produced and set well the year before we left, and the flavors were way better than the ones you find in the grocery… and my daughter loves those, so still an option, but ours did get hit by fireblight that almost girdled it at year 3 or so. I think I shaved down the central leader to maybe a 4 or 5 mm wide swath of cambium remaining, but the tree is still there, so guessing it recovered ok… at least it looked like it was originally (pic, below). However, I’ve also heard they can go biennial, and I’m not clear how that impacts grafted varieties. Anyone know?

On root stocks, I should have looked deeper into my notes, as I had already gathered some information from you, a few others here, and some other sources. However, Antonovka is a new addition to the list. Who are you finding is selling trees on that rootstock? I haven’t seen it much.

On the rootstock topic, and sharing some general information with others: I did talk with the guy who used to own the U-pick operation at Masonville orchards, and he seemed to indicate that Bud 118, M111, and M7 all do well here. That said, I am pretty sure they spray in their orchard. Interesting is that USU Extension says “In apple orchards, not all rootstocks are equally prone to sucker. We recommend avoiding planting apple trees on M.7 rootstocks.” However, I’d think suckering is a lesser concern than our concerns of fireblight and powdery mildew.

image

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I’ve posted this before in another thread, but stumbled across this on my computer today, and thought it very relevant to this thread and worthy of posting up here in the front range thread for those looking for hardy variety information.

The below deck is a readout by Douglas County on the impact to fruit trees of the 50+ degree temp drop the front range saw in Nov 2014, following an Indian summer. So, there is some worthy information in here, though unfortunately, more information about cultivars versus rootstocks.

https://www.douglas.co.us/documents/small-fruit-in-colorado-presentation-may-2015.pdf/

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I’ll try to answer your questions…

I have had some issues with Honeycrisp and FB, but mostly minor ones. But I do spray copper. The few strikes I’ve had on it did not do much damage and after being cut out, the tree has carried on just fine.

On root stocks, Antonovka is considered a “standard” sized root stock (although up here is is more semi-dwarf). Russian originally (as you can probably tell from the name), very hardy. B118 is similar (also Russian originally), maybe a bit smaller tree size; my only negative with B118 is I seem to have poorer grafting results to it, but that could just be me. Both those root stocks are sold by many of the nurseries that sell roots (Fedco, Burnt Ridge, etc). And some also sell grafted trees on them, or used to; it’s been a while since I’ve looked for full trees from a nursery. I can’t say that I pay much attention to suckering, as it seems to be a minor problem, compared to the other variables with root stocks.

Zestar has become my favorite eating apple. Very good taste and texture (IMO of course) and very productive. (Zestar, Mantet and Wealthy were the only trees to have good production last year, when many trees failed to flower or set fruit from the quick temp drop the previous fall and a wet cold spring) Zestar also is early and keeps fairly well for an early apple. Mantet used to be a favorite, and still is good as is Wealthy. I do still like Honey Crisp, at least the ones I grow. I suspect it is a victim of its own success, in that the quality of the ones in the stores went down as its popularity increased.

If you want to try grafting any of these, let me know and I can save you some scions.

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I haven’t watched it yet, but you might be interested in this video from CSU about apple varieties.

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Interesting on the B118 and grafting. Have you seen others report issues related to grafting and rootstock selection? Definitely interesting, and yes I will want to graft this tree.

I’m going to read up more on those, and thanks for the offer on the scion wood. I may well take you up on that. I’m happy to reciprocate or share with others as I get more of my grafts going and have more wood to share.

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Thanks for pointing out that one - will try to scrub through it later as it seems there is some discussion on cultivars and rootstocks for Colorado.