adding to say: local talk is that the inland northwest is all about two to three weeks behind in everything this year, I’m not sure why. how’s the rest of the cold dry zone going?
I’m easy 2 weeks behind here. Tree buds and just starting to open.
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Shackleford buds opening ahead of the others, with Gold Rush in second place, altho GR blooms mid-late. Twenty Ounce/Blessing in third place for bud opening.
Saffron leaves have curly ends from the sudden change of seasons last fall.
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This spring is far and away the latest I’ve experienced in my 30+ years as a gardener. We’re more than a month behind right now. My earliest flowering tree, an apricot planted against the south wall of the house, usually starts blooming at the beginning of March or even late February in a really warm winter. It started a few days ago and won’t reach full bloom for another week.
Apples and pears could catch up a bit if it warms significantly (nice weather in the 2 week forecast, though nothing really hot), but they’re still likely to be multiple weeks behind normal. The plus side is perhaps the delayed bloom will give things a chance at staying on the trees rather than getting frosted off, which happens to most of my stone fruit far too often.
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my concern is things coming into bloom just as we hit the big heat weeks, pollination is always iffy when it starts to get that hot. I’ve got a few things that may now be flowering into that window. or that might not ripen in time for the autumn frost.
my hellebore are usually awake under the snow; I usually see them in early March. they are just now poking up new leaves.
Yeah, Spokane is behind 4 or 5 days. I looked at the Bing cherry across the street, which leads the charge around this house. It was at 10% bloom on April 16 in '21 and April 18 in '22. No flowers opening yet.
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Here in central Idaho only my apricot has bloomed so far. Hoping everything blooms and gets pollinated during this 70-80s next week.
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There is an apricot just beyond the Bing cherry. The apricot is so small by comparison I forget it is there and most years it bears no fruit. It is at 10% bloom today. Buds swell on the cherry, but no flowers yet. With the warm spell we are finally enjoying the whole line-up of flowers on fruiting trees among neighbors & my trees may happen in short order.
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60s-70s every day, 40s at night. there’s no more frost forecast but locally it’s certain we’ll have one or two, one likely that first week of May of course. it’ll pick the worst night to do it
I need to unwrap my hoophouse, having the door open in the day isn’t enough to keep it under 80F in there now in the day. but at night it’ll drop to outside temps if I do that. I do this dance every spring
Spring is finally here. The Bing cherry tree in a neighboring yard is at 10% bloom today, 10 days later than last year, 12 days later than 2021.
Earlier in this thread I estimated this season at 4 or 5 days late - apparently I spoke more hopefully than prudently.
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in the 50s at night from here on out except the 8-10th. it’ll be low 40s. been 70-80F every day. a great thunderstorm came through tonight just after I had watered things.
ran all my starts I’m hardening off back into the hoophouse until morning. it is getting up into the 90s in there so I can’t have things in there in the day.
a daily shuffle for this week. pain in the back, sore.
I won’t be waiting to the 15th this year as usual, I’ll be planting out with abandon after the 10th I already put one of each plant out; one of each kind of thing, just to see. I do it on may day every year and sometimes regret it. sometimes it’s fine.
my cold crops are trying to bolt. spring lasted two weeks.
weather from the 8-10th will be the end of “spring”, it’ll be hot until then. we’re 2 inches low on rain this year already. going to be a bad one even north here, how does it look further south?
30 day even warmer, no late cold predicted here. I’ll be planting most all things out the next few days, except peppers, melons, cukes. maybe even a few of those.
mound beds are full. all the cold crops are going and things are starting to leaf out finally. hellebore just now pooping out of the ground, and asparagus- after my tulips and lilies are already flowering. weird year. lots of rain this week, a good thing.
anyone else notice it’s still a bit behind, but warming up fast? you all too the south seeing any real cold come through still?
what’s weird with you this year? we had squash blossoms before we had hellebore. dry week or two right now, and already hot in the day.
my peonies are just now coming up. time of year I feel like everything stalls out
this weekend will be very hot here. hoping the okra likes it and the melons. how are things to the south
Reno here. Espaliered Tydeman’s Late Orange, Kidd’s Red Orange. “Little Tree” GoldRush, Sierra Beauty. Those 4 have been growing for 5 years with one apple. I’m pretty sure my summer pruning was waaay too aggressive for a few years so I’ve backed off.
This spring, planted a Rubinette, Wickson, which will be pruned to stay small, but I was much gentler with them. There’s a mix across the board of dwarfing & semi-dwarfing rootstocks.
While just saying hello to get into the mix, a question for those doing summer pruning: It looked like the trees were finished pushing leaves mid-July, I pruned, was gone for awhile, and now they seem to have pushed out another 6-12" stems with leaves. Should I just let them be or go back over them to back them up to 3-5 leaves away from main stem?
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Depending on how strong a winter you get, I’d leave the new growth as is, since it will be the most vulnerable to early freeze. Winter, and how the new growth handles its onset, will teach you. Also, most apples set fruit on two year old wood, so you could be keeping first fruits on hold if you prune too heavily on young trees.
Here in Spokane two winters began in October with killing frosts - one to 16°F. I lost several grafts to the ground and half of two whips. One of those was Twenty Ounce, which now carries its debut fruits. I try to summer prune in June very lightly while the trees gain size and shape.
Only one, Claygate, needed a strong hand to get a proper shape, which I did this last season directly after petal fall. At six years in the ground I came around to understanding what it needed rather late, but it responded to treatment. It is now at least seven feet tall and will be as wide after it carries fruit.
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Whoa. 7x7 is too big for me! We’ve kept some very productive cherries at less than 6’. I appreciate the suggestion to let them grow some; you’d think with all my reading I’d remember things set on 2 yr old wood! I didn’t know that! And I read A LOT about all this. Grrrr.
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The literature & experience have taught me to cease pruning after early summer, at least here in zone 6 & colder, so that new growth “hardens off” in order to handle freezing. I think that is a common concern through most of the High Desert Group.
GoldRush is a natural semi-dwarf. I put it on Budagovsky118 to get nearly full size and fairly precocious blooming. This one is 10 feet tall and building limbs. Its second crop is sizing up nicely. (Am so grateful to have a big enough yard to do this.) I will never have too many of this apple!
If memory serves, Wickson is pretty vigorous, so I hope you’ve got it on something dwarfing, like M9 or Bud9.
If you have questions that pertain to your locale, message High and Dry. He lives very near you & is an excellent mentor.
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Looking to plant a Topaz next spring; offerings out there seem to be on G11 or G890 or G935. I’ve looked at the studies with the G11, and I’d sure like to keep this tree small, but actual results? Anyone have experience? Glad for cold-hardy here in Reno, but how does it do in the heat? Wind? Etc. Many thanks.
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When I ordered the French cider apple that was lost in the shuffle, at least it was on the stock as advertised. Gen11 performed well enough (it is so dry here it would have been quite a small tree with Honeycrisp on it). The summer heat of Spokane seemed to be manageable, while it was shaded from the worst of afternoon sun. It had fruit only two years before I took it down, but winds were no problem as far as its light crop was concerned.
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