Videos of the transgression!
In all honesty though we have had a lot of raccoons this year and its the first year they invaded my backyard in my compost, they have always avoided my yard since it smells like real dog and since we have not had our compost skunk in two years i just let them out at night and they very sadly ripped the thing up and luckily did not get hurt.
New to the forum in general. I live in Loveland at the moment. Big fruit lover.
My parents have a seed grown peach tree that is at least 25+ years old. Still growing okay, usually produces a good crop, occasionally flowers freeze. I may try to clone it this year through air layering. They also have some old apple trees and a concord grape vine (the leaves make excellent crunchy pickles).
I am convinced that grafted trees die in our harsh climate, so i am a big believer in non-grafted trees. The ones that don’t die come back from the rootstock and those are usually not the ones you want to eat.
I myself am on a bit of a raspberry and watermelon craze right now. Wanting to start a Rubus deliciousus centered breeding project, our native raspberry. I need to travel to boulder to collect some more genetically diverse specimens. I bought one from foco nursery. Best raspberry flavor I’ve ever had.
Im working on a localy adapted watermelon landrace for those interested. I have a sub- project involving citron melon x domestic watermelon hybrids (and a winter watermelon project). You can find more info about it on the OSSI plant breeding forum and on the Experimental Farm Network.
I have a really good tasting wax currant i collected near Fort Collins. Might be good to breed with a gooseberry. But good on its own. Native, so it is super drought, alkaline, and shade tolerant.
I love asian pears, persimmons, mangoes, and nearly any fruit really. Want to eventually grow as much fruit as possible once i get land enough to do so. I also like pushing boundaries. In fact three Asian persimmons are growing at my parents property. I have a friend who grows paw paws, also in Loveland. He is starting a U-pick orchard.
Im also getting into pluerry hybrids! I ate one a few years ago and can’t get them out of my head.
Welcome Keen101!
CO fruit friends - has anyone used St Julien A rootstock on plums here? It sounds like it is very good for our late cold spring and variable weather, but also read one user’s feedback that it may not do well with sandy soil or with dry soil (not sure if that is different than drought tolerance… likely).
The alternative is Marianna 2624, which @RichardRoundTree, I think you have mentioned good success with. I worry a bit about the shallow root system, though.
Also, is anyone aware of rose family shipping restrictions to colorado currently? I had one vendor tell me there were some in place.
Edit to add:
Looks like Krymsk 1 is another one to look at. If anyone has experience with Krymsk 1 vs Mariana 2424 vs St. Julian A vs Myrobalan (assuming this one gets big) here in the front range, I’m all ears.
Also - I located the CO restrictions, which are just on the San Luis valley, due to potato growers.
I have some one year old Krymsk 1 that I’ve grafted last year, just to experiment, but it’s too early in the process to report out anything of substance - sorry.
I’ve always thought St. Julien A sounded like a good one for our climate but never found the right tree to buy with that rootstock offered.
You know i was told by an older guy i respected to not plant st julien a rootstock for our location and i listened to him. I have had great success with marianna 2624 with 3 different trees and had success with krymsk 1 as well. All my mariannas are free standing and have handled drought cold and heat well as well as my krymsk.
I also would like trees and bushes on their own roots that have a tendency to die back however there are many centennial grafted trees in colorado so the right rootstock/scions can do well here. I am not sure if it has made it through the last two cold snaps but you can go see if the 50 year old peach tree at fort collins nursery is still there it was just south of the first retail greenhouse by the stream, If you ask anyone there they will know which one it is and will tell you how long it made it if it did not as its real old for a peach even in good weather.
Thanks, Scooter and RIchardRoundTree…
That is great information! Truth be told, with the information I could find, both Krymsk1 and St JulienA sounded like a bit of an experiment here locally. From what I could find originally, it sounded like both were pretty good on the cold side, and both were questionable with dryness and in sandy soil (My soil is 21% clay, 62% sand, 17% silt and seems to drain pretty quickly, yet remain damp below a few inches). Of course, that makes sense with a smaller tree (and smaller root system), in general.
The fact someone knowledgeable suggested against the St Julien, and that albeit a small sample size, you have had good luck with krymsk 1 is some good information. I’ll go with the Mt Royal on 2624 Marianna and will think about the Empress on Krymsk1. I sent the researcher who did the below work a question about if he thinks these results translate over to other fruits, such as plums, as it seems Krymsk1 has less tolerance late season for bud loss at colder temps.
Anyone have any experience/knowledge on Bailey for peaches here? It seems Lovell is standard for just about every study, and is rumored to be more cold hardy by a few sources, but couldn’t find anything about drought tolerance.
Anyone have any favorite apples or pears that have done well for you here, and are fireblight resistant? Last year was my first year attempting to graft, and all but one graft took, so I’ll give it another go. I don’t have much real-estate for pears, but have a massive apple tree to graft over.
I have a few pear trees, and for some reason there is always some fireblight. No idea why.
It sounds like you have a great opportunity to try a variety of apples and see what works. It may be getting late though to order scions. However, I’d be curious how things go for you. Part of the fun is experimentation unless you are dead set on a particular variety.
Fireblight resistance is/was my #1 consideration for all the apple and pear trees I planted - the neighborhood crab apples are full of it. My stuff is still really young so unfortunately I can’t provide much feedback on what’s done well, though I’d be interested as well to know of those who have had successes and failure along the front range. For example, I planted a Sundance apple primarily because of it’s fireblight resistance, but I have doubts that it will be able to ripen before our first major frosts.
I have hope to one day have some Gold Rush fully ripen. But that may be a 1 in 3+ year occurrence like apricots.
Some places are sold out of some scion wood, but most seem to have stock available.
Last year I ordered real late… like mid-April. There were few places I could order from that late, but did get wood from Masonville Orchard (near Ft. Collins). They sold part of the operation, now Adam’s Orchard.
Due to schedule issues, I didn’t get to grafting until June 14 (Apple) and July 5 (Pear)… all grafts, except one apple, took successfully.
When do you all typically do your grafting in CO? How long do you wait to let it bear fruit?
That’s awesome. I ordered last year from Masonville also. I probably have 15+ varieties grafted, but no fruit just yet. I’d say I graft in late May. Previous years I’ve purchased from Fedco or, USDA/GRIN for “research”.
I was just looking at obs around Colorado. Denver at 0F while Leadville (10,000ft) is 27F. So today would be a day to escape to the mountains to warm up.
Denver usually is 0F all winter and gets 30+ ft of snow. We have tornadoes in the spring. And, between tornadoes, we get locusts in the millions that defoliate fruit trees within minutes. Stay far away of Colorado unless these things are for you… 
Front rangers - do you all feel like we’re still OK on timing to some ‘winter pruning’?
I was planning on going after some major pruning on an apple tree this weekend… was going to do it a few weeks ago, but it has been pretty wet.
Looking at the forecast for this weekend and upcoming week it looks like a prime window for a number of orchard activities. No sign of bud swell on anything yet but with consistent 60’s in the forecast I wouldn’t be surprised to see some trees start to wake up.
Perfect time to prune now especially apples. They are not going to wake up anytime soon. I have a few things I want to transplant so the next few days are absolutely perfect for that. The biggest risk to this year’s plans is the USPS. I purchased some scions and they were shipped via USPS 2 day shipping. 10 days later I finally received them.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I might have missed the window. I guess it is OK to prune during silver tip. Thanks for the references.
No way on the scions. I also ordered a bunch, and the ones from 39th parallel / kansas shipped USPS the 24th Priority and arrived yesterday 
Funny that you mentioned 39th parallel. That’s exactly where I ordered as well. I can’t really blame them for the shipping delay however. I think it’s going to be a difficult shipping season for everyone unless the USPS gets their act together.
Yeah it’s hard for me being a sixth generation coloradoan and having so many people move from other areas that do not keep the Colorado pact of being pro turn signal, environment, weed and guns. What can ya do though other than tell people to stop wasting water?
For me it’s still early to cut on them as we probably have another hard frost coming and hopefully lots more moisture and snow. The ol timers that taught me told me not to prune until spring here and to take scions early March and be fine with having some tip death on the ones you cut.
I have always had a hard time at timing the weather for grafts and usually busy on the best weekends to graft. I just accept it’s likely going to frost after I graft.
Are you guys apples waking up? Literally nothing of mine is waking up right now
@Scooter what fruits do you not have or want to try.
