For Iowa.
I wonder what will happen with the muscadines I ordered…well, I am still glad I ordered them - good to know what I can and cannot do.
I am sure I will never be done learning.
I do hope you get muscadines this year! What varieties did you choose?
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One thing to learn early on is that experiences and plant suitabilities in western states can be very different from states east of Utah – even if the USDA cold-hardiness zone is the same. These differences exist in soil characteristics (esp. pH), climate (esp. Spring), pests, and disease.
@DragonflyLane … i planted a isons muscadine a few weeks back and have a (oh my) ordered to be delivered this spring.
I was told… not to let them fruit year 1 and in year 2 to remove most blooms/fruit… leaving only a few for a taste… year 3 let them fruit.
There’s no reason to accept a tree that takes so long to bear fruit-/-even pear trees. I can guarantee you that there wonderful varieties out there that are reasonably precocious.
As a practical matter, premature fruiting is a much bigger problem. Even a test fruit or two will really slow the growth of a fruit tree, if not stunt it out completely,
I say let the tree grow to at least 2/3 of what you would consider a minimally successful fully mature tree before you allow it to set a single fruit. After that, agressively thin it for a a couple of years.
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The only place I’ve seen early fruiting stunt a tree is apples on very dwarfing rootstock like M27. Other than that I’ve fruited very young fruits of all kinds without stunting anything. The key is thinning enough and only allow fruit on a tree with good vigor.
I’m going to crop my 2nd year stone fruit next year. I have zero concerns about stunting the trees. I’ve fruited 2nd yr stone fruit on K1, the most dwarfing rootstock I’ve used. It didn’t stunt them at all. Now my trees are on Lovell and other vigorous roots. I wish leaving fruit would stunt the trees. They’re planted 3x7ft and some filled their space the first year. I’ll be pruning at every opportunity hoping to slow them down.
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I was waiting for another opinion on allowing early fruit.
I’m sure location setting, soil, climate, etc. play a role, but it’s hard not to keep a few fruit when you have a young tree.
Obviously it takes some resources to size and ripen fruit, but how much I’d imagine is different even between two identical variety and rootstock trees in the same location.
With nothing to back it up, it think a fruit or two would not be a huge setback…and though I’m not growing in a high tunnel / greenhouse, I’m not in any particular hurry to have huge trees, just healthy ones.
Lastly that first year fruit also I know may not be the quality of what I get a few years down the line.
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It won’t be any set back on a tree with good vigor. The tree doesn’t need excess vigor, just normal growth. The real issue is most people don’t thin enough. That’s the cause of way more issues than early cropping. Not thinning enough causes limb breakage, biennial bearing, reduced fruit size, and reduced fruit quality.
Thin a small tree enough and it won’t set the tree back.
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I am hoping this coming spring and summer is the first year I need to even think about thinning fruit. My few trees old enough to fruit haven’t set more than about 2 dozen fruit 2 years ago. This past spring the late hard freeze eliminated any chance.
This coming year my Flavor Grenade Pluot and Cot-n-Candy Aprium should flower very well and hopefully set.
I’ve heard FG is a heavy setter so I will be thinning… It will be a good problem to have.
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Yes, FG is a pain to thin. The fruit hide in the leaves and it way oversets. I hope you have thinning issues come spring. Here in my greenhouse bloom is mid Jan thru Febr. March is a whole month of thinning.
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I’ve got a Golden Delicious (forget which one) from GRIN that I grafted to b118 in 2015 that has yet to produce a single blossom. It is maybe 7’ tall.
I allow it to stick around because I’m curious how long it will survive before a test winter takes it out. It clearly isn’t fully “winter hardy” here.
Growing very near that G.D. is a wild apple from Vermont that I grafted to b118 in 2017. It bore two fruit last year and maybe a dozen this year.
I’ve got a number of other apple and pear varieties grafted to a variety of standard/semi-standard rootstocks that took anywhere from 3-9 years to bear fruit.
Time before setting fruit certainly isn’t uniform across environments.
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That is good news to me, as the two Emerald Beaut plums that ripened on the tree were very good. I had it under a bigger tree in a pot and somehow it still got a good red blush from the sun peeking through.
If it gets even better with time - I am sure glad I picked that plum! 
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The Golden Delicious that came with a nice sized apple on it is on M111.
That is a tree I picked up this year, when I went to go get a Toka, which I had a hard time finding (that will ship to CA).
But, the Arkansas Black, Fuji and Honeycrisp I have had longer, also on M111 - none even had blossoms this year. However, I protected them last winter, like an idiot, because I felt it was “cold” here, because I am from Sonoma County.
Now I realize, zone 8A probably seems hot compared to others and the trees should be fine unprotected right?
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Not many apples have a problem anytime it’s above zero F.
The thing is spring frosts or perhaps sudden 60 degree temperature drops.
I’ve seen in-ground older trees survive -19F and colder…and there be zero trees die.
Multiple varieties.
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@smsmith — you might try summer pruning your GD.
I summer pruned my Akane and HGG in year 3 (last year)…(they had no fruit spurs)… and was hoping some fruit buds would develop… but spring year 4 (this past spring), still no blooms, no spurs.
I summer pruned them again late this summer… and when I was doing that… I noticed several fruit spurs had developed.
I was sort of expecting those to develop soon after summer pruning in the fall… but pretty sure mine developed after bloom this spring during the summer months.
I have several spurs now… hopefully some blooms and fruit in year 5.
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I’ll take a pic of the “tree” someday. There’s really nothing to prune, either in summer or dormant season.
Other factors to consider are pest ,frost ,critters and fruit drop all can set you back a season each time. I’ve had pawpaw in ground since 2017 and between late frost and fruit drop I’ve only had one fruit set and then it split this season. I’ve had persimmon in ground since 2017 got fruit set last year and an opossum eat every one while still green. Peaches in ground since 2017 got one fruit last year with a worm in it best believe I ate around it. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get tested.
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I laughed in irony when I read your post, sounds like us with gardening.
Tomatoes and peppers hit with 22f (weather said above freezing), all dead before we get anything, same with all other plants, frozen.
Last year we had one Candystick Delicata and one morning it was just missing and my husband even had put hardware cloth around it.
This year we got two Candystick Delicata and here is a pic, they are smaller though but I also saw smaller ones at Trader Joe’s, so they might taste ok. We will be trying them soon.
I bought a dome to protect things and it caved in from snow the first year and broke apple tree branches. I was able to fix the branches by using grafting compound and splints and now we have a pole supporting the center.
I’m not putting those apple trees in the dome this year. They should not have been there in the first place.
A whole lot of work, time and $$$ just to get hit with devastation one way or another.
I could go on and on but I still have not given up hope.
We did also get some cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, greens. That is better than the year before. My husband said we had $200 zucchini’s because so much was put into it all with so little return on investment.
And I sure am proud of those two stupid little Candystick Delicata.
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True. But even with a very aggressive thinning or even a token fruit or two on a young tree, setting fruit will slow it way down.
I let my 3-4 year old “Gala” on dwarfing g.41 set like 18 fruit. I’m glad I did. I didn’t have much else setting fruit last year. But the tree grew only about a foot instead of two feet this year.
I say don’t let your tree set a single fruit until it reaches about 2/3 of what you visualize as the minimum finished size. Very aggressively thin for a couple of years after that, even after it reaches that point.
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Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
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