zone 7b Alabama
- shangri la mulberry - gets zipped by frost about a third of the time but had ripe berries last week and is still fruiting, taste is okay, silk hope mulberry still a few weeks from ripening and has excellent taste
- rabbiteye blueberries - first fruits here May 6 in 2017, May 30 in 2018, June 8 in 2020, may be even later this year.
- thornless blackberries arapaho and navaho, wild blackberries usually start a week or so later than the rabbit eye blueberries
Mayhaws can fruit this early but I never had luck with them so I took them out. For what it’s worth, apple expert Tom Brown (applesearch.org) advised me to not let my apples fruit and remove the flowers the first couple/few years to reduce fireblight risk. He said the trees are much more resistant to it if you let them age up a few years.
I have Ilinni blackberries… they start getting ripe Mid June… and with a few good rains in July will continue into early August. I saw SWD for the first on them last year in late July early August. I did not know what they were then, but I do now.
I also have Ouachita, loaded with blooms and small fruit now… expect they may ripen for me starting end of May, early June. I will hopefully avoid SWD with those.
At some point I will have to try some PAF… and possibly the Obsidian, Columbia Star… for earlier blackberries.
Drusket, I hear you on the apples.
I am hoping that now that my Bradford Pear is gone… my FB risk will be lower.
I have a Mac Apple in my orchard that survived with no sign of FB… when several pear trees and other apple trees all eventually died of it.
When my little pears got around 3 years old and were blooming good, the FB showed up one spring on them… then the next spring they got worse, and the apples nearby got it too…
Red Delicious, Fuji… FB wiped them out in no time… along with the pears I tried.
I eventually just quit trying pear trees… and if I do ever plant those again, they will be a long distance from my apples.
TNHunter
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Got home from work about an hour ago (hate having to work on Sat). I was out checking the blackberries, and to my surprise my Osage has a few blooms already, along with Traveler. The others (particularly Ouachita) have buds on them, so they could pop open soon.
Went back out to check something, and also saw that my two bigger gooseberry plants have develeping fruit on them, seems a bit earlier than usual.
Of course, since something else is blooming, we have another freeze threat next week. “Supposed” to be 37 on Wed night, which means a hard freeze. Figures.
It turned out very nice this evening… rain stopped sunshine came on… got out and worked in the garden and food forest several hours.
@drusket – what your apple expert suggest sounds like good advice… but with my pears… it went like this… first and second year they bloomed some… small amount and no FB … but around year 3 they started blooming nicely… and that is when FB started. I cut them back and fought it… but in 2 years after that started my pears and apples were goners.
I spent about 8 years trying to get pears going… and another pollinator for my mac apple… and failed like that twice.
Pears got FB in year 3… and in the next two years pears and apple died.
My mac apple has had no pollinator except a crab for years now. It still fruits and makes some very tart apples.
I have a Illinois everbearing mulberry… lots of green fruit on now. Plan to add a silk hope in the next year or two and a gerardi.
I have 10 rabbiteye blueberry and they are looking good now… loaded with fruit… but still a few weeks from ripening.
TNHunter
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Pears have been a bust so far for us here, we have 5 trees, one produced a couple fruit two years ago, it wasn’t too tasty, and very gritty, not my favorite. And it looks like we won’t get any this year, thanks to freezes, except for a few from that same tree.
I lost another in-ground apple this year, and one that I had potted up after I had grafted it last year. My other three that I did last year did survive. I’ve lost three other apple trees last year, none of them produced.
You might be alright with PAF in the summer, they were developed in Arkansas, so they should be used to the heat, unless it’s just really hot.
This is the first in 5 years my currents will produce more then a handful. I got most from Raintree in 2016. The cuttings I got from @Drew51 are producing in 2 and that’s after they spend the first year in the nursery pot. now that there in the ground I guess I will be able to tell by next year if its my native soil they don’t like.
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My currants and gooseberries got off to a slow start, but look like they are setting a good crop this year if the frost doesn’t get them. Have patience. That’s the name of the game in fruit growing.
You might try the Geneva rootstocks. G890 for M7 sized trees. For fireblight resistance in the rootstocks. (Then, graft your desired varieties. Especially fb resistant ones.)
That is so dissappointing on the fireblight. I do believe it may be a crap shoot with too many unknowns to even consider. A nursery accidentally sent me a double order when I first got pears about nine years ago. Long story short, ended up with improved kiefer, orient, and pineapple pears planted in two places a few hundred feet apart. There is to me very little difference between the two sites. At one of the sites the trees have gotten some fireblight, survived it, look vigorous, and produce something like half a dozen pears per tree. I also had two moonglow at the first site and both died from fireblight. At the other site the trees are smaller but are giving me nice pear harvests (dozens to hundreds) for a couple years now and have shown no fireblight. Luck and possible microclimates seem to be the only difference.
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