Korean Giant seems by most accounts to be pretty tasty, and then I’ve got Shinko as my even more disease-resistant backup. Though Southern growers especially seem to report Shinko has good flavor too – maybe it needs more heat/light?
Yeah, this was the kind of info that has dissuade me from try stone fruits, at least when just starting out. Hoping to get a few easy wins in instead.
I’d read that Meyer Lemon is citron crossed with mandarin, so that probably accounts for the taste difference (and the hardiness). Sounds good to me though!
Asian pears as a lot of other types of fruit, some varieties prefer a lot of heat, some prefer a colder winter, some are way more sensitive to a lot of rain. I have tried what I believe was a Korean Giant pear that I bought from a store, a one pounder, I could see why it’s so popular, even though it was clearly not fully ripe. I also had what appeared to be a Chojuro, same store same purchase, also 1 pound in weight, even more obvious that it was not ripe enough, and noticeably more course. You did make great choices.
Yes, improved Meyer is very good it’s growing on me, I was going to get rid of it. I was just making sure that you knew it’s not like a real lemon. Meyer lemon actually went extinct, they all died of some nasty citrus disease, a university hybridized the Meyer lemon with some sort of mandarin, so that people still could grow lemons despite the disease. So Improved Meyer was created. Improved Meyer lemons, are easy to peel too, almost as easy to peel as the most easy to peel mandarins, at least they are when their peels turn real orange like an orange peel. I have never tried to peel them when they were less ripe.
I believe that’s not exactly correct. The original Meyer and the Improved Meyer are identical except the original was infected with a virus (but asymptomatic), and it was “improved” by some kind of cleansing process that removed the virus (I think it involved tissue culture and chemical treatment).
The original Meyer (and thus also the Improved) is a lemon/mandarin or citron/mandarin cross, though. That is correct.
Congratulations on your new place! We grow a few acres of commercial fruit about an hour east of you.
I’m only knowledgeable about a few of the things you are growing but can offer these thoughts
Blackberries produce a pretty big crop in the second year. Although, larger containers are a lot more expensive and will not produce a lot of additional fruit in the second year. The floricanes in the large container will produce some fruit the first year. Triple Crown ripens late about when SWD hits hard. Ponca and Caddo ripen earlier.
SHB blueberries bloom early and frost is a problem in most years. They much more sensitive to PH, organic matter and moisture than Rabbiteye. We have 300 SHB but 10 SHB do not produce a much fruit as 1 Rabbiteye for us, including our 12 year old Legacy… Legacy is more reliable than most SHB but their vigor and yield has declined over time.
All of my best performing Blueberries come from NCSU. Premier- early, Columbus -mid, Powder Blue-later.
@Xander, I just want to concur with what @blueberrythrill has said about Rabbiteye blueberries. They’re much easier to grow here in the piedmont and much more productive. One workaround that you might want to consider for earlier blueberries is to graft SHB on to rabbiteye rootstock. I’ve done that with O’Neal and Reka. When they were on their own roots, they really struggled under the same conditions that the rabbiteyes thrived. Once grafted, they give me an earlier blueberry crop. The downside is that they also require more maintenance to prune back any competing growth from the suckering rootstock. And I’ll have to re-graft once these scions lose their vigor. But for a couple of bushes, it might be worth the trouble. The first fruits always taste the best to me, and I’m glad to have an early start on blueberry season. As for Rabbiteyes, my favorite cultivar for flavor is Yadkin, and I’ve recently started growing Krewer and they’re huge and sweet too.
Thanks @blueberrythrill, I think I’ll forgo the Triple Crown in that case and stick with earlier ripening varieties. Given the less than stellar feedback on SHB from you, @ncdabbler, and others, I think I’ll try two small plants as an experiment but in an out of the way area I can pull them up from when that experiment has run its course
I know you want to avoid peaches from what you have heard. But with all this support you can make it happen. We had the pest issue here where every peach was oozing from OFM. Then I joined this group and learned how and when to spray. Bugs are not my issue now.
Peaches are fast growers, we got two peaches the season we planted and the trees were only 3 ft tall.
Most important before planting; do you have deer pressure?? Often people plant all these nice trees and berries and the deer will eat your trees to the stump!
we use an E–fence on a timer, no more critter damage…
Good points – my answer can only be, so far I don’t know! I’ll start with just a core of easier fruits, and then will have to see over the season what pests crop up and how things grow on this new spot. Haven’t even met the neighbors yet, so it’s possible I’ll need to net my berries against them! Maybe some Home Alone style booby traps…
But yes, I’m sure I’ll be adding over time. Peaches could very well be on the agenda next year.
Heavy rain in our climate washes away the spray for peaches and plums, that is why I have lost interest despite all the spraying information on here, constant heavy downpours when you need to spray.
I bought a bunch of 3-gal and 1-gal blueberries from them a few months ago (hopefully will get around to planting them soon), they’re mostly rabbiteye varieties with a few highbush. Most of the 3-gal are 4-5 year old plants and the containers are mostly root mass at this point. They look healthy.
Congratulations on your new home and I just wanted to say I think you’re very smart for buying fruit bearing trees to plant at your new property.
I am doing the same and I am also 8A, but I am in northern California, so I have a Mediterranean climate.
I am not really a pepper, but I think it’s very important that we all take a step back and maybe try for some level of self-sufficiency. I say that also because I find grocery store fruit mostly lacking and incredibly limiting in choices.
Agreed! Grocery store berries, especially, are so sad I almost never get them, but if I had access to them straight off the bush like how I grew up I’d eat them every day.
I remember just finding excellent quality blackberries from bushes in random places as a kid. Now I’m lucky if I get good ones from the store.
We have raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries, and I have more blackberry bushes on order. I tried to pick freestanding ones this time. I also ordered elderberry bushes and one poorman gooseberry.
We really haven’t got to sample much yet but all of our plants are new and we are still learning. So far none of our berries have knocked my socks off. I’ll just keep trying till figure it all out.
