Pretty impressed with what survived (or at least think survived) the low temps last week. Opened up some swelling buds on both peach and plum and pistils still looked green and viable. The 10 day forecast looks pretty nice as well. Fingers crossed…
Finally finished putting in 2 peaches and 2 plums… and am thinking maybe there is a certain sickness driving us to do this?
First there was the 50’ pine removal to make enough sun, and then the stump from hell removal, (digging maybe 4 yards of dirt to cut 6-8 7-9" roots, and tap root about 16x8), then the re-filling compacting and leveling of dirt, then planting time - just before the storm… er, not quite… steady rain, lightning, and hail for a few hours in the 40’s with slippery mud. Now, wait 4 years.
Does everyone have this much fun planting fruit trees 
?
I was looking at the forecast also and am happy we might and I say might escape anymore killing frost. I’m almost excited there might be a small crop of peaches, cots, E plums and a few cherries, this year👏. Mike
I agree there is some madness driving people like us. My wife also thinks so also. I couldn’t pass up a Contender peach on Lovell at Lowes the other day. Its always just one more. Lol Mike
Yeah i am definitely not making a official comment on that which must not be named but i am smiling hard these days. I agree that it is both always and never just one more. My wife has learned to ride the wave and enjoy it now however it was not so when I started this we had two master gardeners telling me to give up and what i wanted to do was not possible tree size and spacing wise from both of them and organically would never work from one (the other converted me to no spray) and i help order trees for them now 
The first year when i ripped out all of our plumbing and electrical but already spent a thousand dollars on fruit trees was a rougher sell with outside influences but once the fruit comes everyone changes their minds.
Ross what a nice undertaking and behemoth of a tree i feel you gotta make that a chair buddy! Great job on the plantings
Fingers crossed, though my only mature fruit trees are not that inspiring, and hope you all have a great start.
Yeah, Richard - if only I had time for a project like that. I already ‘lost’ 3 days to getting trees in, which were supposed to be used this week off to re-plumb the house… that now kicks off tomorrow, and is a whole other sickness. However, it was good to get going what I’ve been trying to get prepped for a couple years now. I still need to go out and trim those new trees down.
Thanks for the support along the way, as well, Richard!
Sorry I meant my last reply for you Nice work on getting the stump out. Mike
I have peach, plum, bush cherry and apple all blooming. Extended forecast looks good. Feeling like I may actually end up with a decent fruit set this year. I love Colorado, but the spring yo yo weather is certainly not for the faint of heart.
A little concerned when I looked at the forecast this afternoon; didn’t see mid 30’s yesterday.
Hopefully it stays there. If so it looks to be a really nice spring. Been loving all the moisture.
If we can just get through this weather, we may have an epic fruit year. Fingers crossed that we stay above freezing. My apricot tree actually has apricots on it already!
Video of me vs the weather not sure who is who yet
Anybody have a Satsuma plum? I bought a bareroot from Lowe’s on Citation from Burchell and have found conflicting information on hardiness. Lee Rich zone 4, Michael Phillips and Burchell zone 5, and Dave Wilson zone 6. I put it in the ground anyway. One of my plums just randomly died so I replaced it. Also put Contender peach in on Lovell.
I do not have a Satsuma, sorry I can’t provide any feedback.
Are you planning on having it in-ground or potting it up? I’ve got a Santa Rosa that I have potted; I don’t think there’s many J-plums that I’d trust along the front range to survive our late frosts.
In my zone 6a central MA, Satsuma flower buds are less cold tolerant than I wish. When we have temperature swing in early spring, its buds were fried quite a few times. Sometimes, it was a total lost. The tree was fine.
After almost 10 years I removed it. Not worth a wait, too much hit or miss for me.
Gotcha, thank you. So it seems the wood may be hardy but not the flower buds. Bummer. Well I side grafted several other J and Hybrid cultivars anyway as a insurance policy. At least its supposed to be on Citation so that’s a winner for Colorado anyway.
I don’t think citation is any good for us sadly. I feel satsuma is going to bloom earlier than the cold hardy apricots and your tree will be super vulnerable to cold snaps. Hopefully it works out but that is a rough combo
Well I think planting things is finally going to do me in. Either that or I’m done tomorrow
The J plum that has fruit buds a lot hardier than Satsuma is Shiro. It bloomed every year but it needs cross pollination. Fruit may not taste as good as Satsuma but you have a better chance to get fruit from it than from Satsuma.
Ya I put it in the ground. I already have several pots of figs and guavas so no room for a potted plum. Ya our unpredictable spring frosts are not conducive to early blooming and bloom tender fruits but I grafted few J plums Golden Nectar, Luisa, Methley, Howard Miracle and several hybrids on the Satsuma as well as onto another E plum that didn’t die. We’ll see how they do to see if it was worth it. 
Why wouldn’t citation be good as a rootstock here on the Front Range?