I’ve never thought about what I’d identify as Colorado-defining attributes, but those four hit pretty spot on. A funny mix of the political spectrum.
For me, I’m looking to fill in the last few open spaces in my suburban backyard with CO proven winners. I’ve got a number of zone pushers (U.Ark blackberries, jujubes, J-plums and pluots) and plants that don’t love our climate (trying out a JT-02 persimmon, blueberries in pots due to our alkaline soil, honeyberries that hate our sun), just because it’s fun to try. With the last few spaces I’m looking for consistent production. Most of my stuff is young, so I don’t have a lot of notes on what works and what doesn’t.
I think I’ve committed to cold-hardy peaches simply because I know they can produce most years, love our sun and minimal water, and don’t get fireblight. I probably should be more considering of E plums…
We are not great for consistent but most reliable is probably raspberries and strawberries followed by sour cherries and american plums Euro plums and late blooming fb resistant pears and apples. Surefire pie cherry has been my most consistent producer and montmorency sour cherry is the real and the romance cherries seem to do great also. I think all the late blooming E plums do well. Cold hardy late blooming peaches like contender, intrepid, veteran, polly, reliance are all great but not super consistent. Im trying out american persimmons and have hope they make it here. I think you should plant what you like the most.
All my thornless blackberries some from the u of ark have now reverted to being thorned after dying back to the ground. I did think they were dead and with advice from some guys on here I left them alone and they came back and my dog is a jerk and pisses on them all winter long so that is the amount of care they receive. To date i have gotten maybe a handful of berries? How are your blueberries in pots doing production wise?
Not great but alright. Last year was their first year, so no berries, just growth (btw, it’s a heck of a time finding blueberries online that are not tissue culture, or at least very, very young - TC’s are just too tender for me, I’ll steer away in the future). I picked very low-profile bushes (Top Hat, North Sky, some of the Bramble and Berry varieties) to fill in some space underneath an espalier. Put em fabric pots full of peat and buried in the ground. I tried to not use irrigation as to keep the ph low but I’m pretty sure that resulted in stress from the dry summer. Some died, some survived and did alright. Probably just not meant to be though in our climate.
I worry our dry air hurts them. Even with shade netting i really have only seen them do well in greenhouses here. However those guys were quitters and i think you should keep trying. I would irrigate with our hard water and just use soil sulfur to remedy or some citric acid infused in the feed lines?
Hey everyone. We live in Boulder CO. I have about 260 grape vines with 2/3 being Marquette and 1/3 being Itasca. They have been in the ground 2 years. Its been difficult and I still don’t have a main trunk on any but I am seeing positive signs as we end winter that I might be able to get a main trunk going for most of them. I have about 29 fruit trees. I will update later this spring on how things look and I will identify the trees that have survived. So far the worst fruit trees are cherry. My romance series cherry bushes look good but the cherry trees are all struggling. I have done a lot of exploring and tasting of wild apple trees and I plan on rooting some cuttings this spring. My personal favorite is a crab at Wonderland lake in North Boulder. Its actually nice for fresh eating but would make an excellent cider. I can tell you where the tree is if you want to take cuttings.
Rosseyanka looks to have survived our subzero temps this winter so far(-14F is what my truck said). So does the native persimmon’s shoots which grew after Nikkita’s repeated die backs. I am planning to graft JT-02 to Nikkita’s root stock. I am moving both of them this spring, so I’m sure that will delay things and mess with cold hardiness next winter to some degree.
Redhaven on Lovell is doing fine. All my grafted apples are doing fine with the exception of Honey Crisp. Bummer, I went out to take some scion off of that miserable little tree to graft to a different tree and it looks like the whole thing may finally be toast.
Evan’s Bali sour cherry and Juliet bush do great.
On the note of grapes, at my first house I planted a few trellis of different wine grapes because I was single and had all the time in the world and wanted to make wine. Anyway, Marechal Foch and Landot Noir both did extremely well with zero die back or any other problems. Nowadays, I feel like grapes are just JB magnets so I leave some of grapes that were on our new place just for salvaging a few leaves to make pickles.
Blueberries, ugh. At my wife’s old house we had the right micro climates along the fence and they did okay. I was able to maintain a 3-4’ tall bushes with some annual tip die-back. At our new house, I put in some extensive beds based on my former knowledge of growing them at my wife’s house. I get massive die-back every winter, haven’t had a berry in few years. My present thought is I need to make some sort of individual winter shelter for each plant which does three things 1- blocks the dry wind, 2- shades them from the sun, 3- doesn’t warm up from the blocked sun. Other things I think are needed are an open top to allow snow and rain in as well as let heat not build, and something simple to remove and replace. When they are small a white 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut-off would be just the thing but when they get bigger I’m still trying to figure something cost effective. The big white food barrels would work but cost and summer storage are the thing. To top it all off, I know what I need to do but it seems things always get in the way of accomplishing it every fall. This last fall there was that cold blast which toasted the BBs while they still had leaves as well as all my potted fig trees. Over-all our winter low temperature is not the problem, it’s the freeze-thaw fluctuation. Growing them in pots didn’t work for me.
I got on to say the same thing - almost everything started popping in the last 72 hours. Hopefully the cold-front coming Tuesday slows everything down but doesn’t bring a severe freeze. We’ve got another month before we’re probably out of the woods…
Spring can be great here until mother nature decides it’s no longer spring anymore. The worst is when mature trees get zapped by a 15 degree front in late April/early May. Next week looks chilly and wet, but not too cold (so far).
Yeah it’s always fun running the gauntlet of spring and I just expect to take some hits. This year is late for crocuses, right on time for tulips, a week or so early for the apricot and a x a plum and really early for the pears. Honeyberries always starting right around this time it seems.
When do you front rangers typically plant bare-root trees? It has been probably 5 years since I planted any, and had a few arrive from cummins yesterday. However, I have a lot of ground work and a tree removal to handle first.
Now, or whenever your soil is ready, id keep them in the garage overnight in pots or heel them into some loose moist soil.
My apples have been focusing on my apricot and plum who started flowering and figured it was time to start pushing some green for whatever reason today. Honeyberries are threatening to flower soon
So, you’re saying if I need to wait a week or two (or month) to plant, that I should temporarily pot them… then pull and plant them? Am I generally good planting here through mid may?
If ya have to wait a month I’d pot them up and keep them in a cool shady area to keep them dormant as long as possible. It’s ideal if they stay dormant but you can plant them when they have woke up just the roots are more tender and they will have some transplant shock usually
Thanks. Hopefully just a week or two, for at least the two peaches. In the cool garage… I might have to think if they all get planted this year - removing that tree might not happen that fast.
