Thanks @clarkinks, I saw where you mentioned grapes and blackberries. I’m not interested in wine grapes, but curious what varieties of table grapes and blackberries have done the best for you. Thanks for the help
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I grow heirloom blackberries primarily though prime ark 45 and prime ark freedom both seem excellent in my trials. If you want seedless table grapes I would highly recommend red Candice and pink reliance though they are not overly easy to grow in this area. Blackrot is a problem for most grapes. I like to grow seeded juice grapes such as concord, seedless concord (has seeds), mars, Glenora, etc… Catawba, marquis,Niagara etc I’ve had mixed results with. @tonyOmahaz5 lives in nearby Omaha may have other suggestions as well for additional fruits.
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Duck hunter,
You might try calling Starks. They should be able to tell you what rootstocks they are using for the trees you are interested in.
You are probably aware, peaches are a good bet in KS. Just make sure the ground drains well, or put your peaches up in some type of raised planting.
I’ve spent some time out in Rock Springs. so I think I have a pretty good idea of the area. It’s drier there than here, which is good for you. If your river bottom ground is south of the river, you might have the added benefit of some temperature buffering from the river.
Winters can be a little harsher the farther west in KS you go, so as Clark mentioned you might stick with more hardy peach varieties.
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ctduckhunter,
Something else you could try as well would be to collect a bunch of seeds from it and try growing seedlings from those. (Of course you may not be interested in these kinds of experiments.)
While they won’t be identical to the mother tree of course, stone fruit seedlings tend to more like their mother tree than apples, for example.
If you let the seedlings grow big enough to start fruiting, you could pick the best ones and grow more of those via grafted trees.
Just something to think about…
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Thanks for all the recommendations! I will definitely be ordering some reliance peaches this year to give a shot. I was originally thinking about trying a row of Apache or Triple Crown blackberries, but might try a Prime Ark variety instead like @clarkinks said has done well for him. Hard to believe that Spring is just around the corner, I’m pretty excited!
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The prime ark 45 has thorns but seems slightly stronger than freedom which is thornless. This is my heirloom Blackberries by the gallons . @39thparallel has trialed these and traveler and has an extra year of experience growing them. He suggested the varieties to me and I shared my heirloom field variety with him that does very well in this area. We are all here to help each other out so just let us know if we can help with scion wood etc. @39thparallel and I go in on rootstock orders /trade scion wood etc. Once in awhile and I buy trees from his nursery.The prime ark thread is here Extending the blackberry season
@clarkinks or @39thparallel, what kind of spacing are you using between the prime ark blackberry plants and also the bush cherry
I would go 6 feet apart on the carmine jewell cherries knowing what I do now. The blackberries I would space 48 inches. They will both send out suckers if you go with prime ark 45’s and carmine Jewell. The carmine Jewell are slow growing at first.
Thanks for all your help!
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@39thparallel I forgot to ask when ordering trees from you this morning, what do you or @clarkinks suggest for spacing on the pears with semi dwarf rootstock?
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I’m going to let @39thparallel answer that since I’m not sure what the rootstock or scion wood combination is he used.
15’-18’ would be a reasonable spacing for the Semi Dwarf pears.
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BTW, I found Lakemont to also produce seedless grapes here. It’s a white grape but, it has thicker skin then the supermarket grapes. I also really like Somerset Grapes. They are small and will have seeds but, the strawberry flavor is a treat.
Do you or anyone else have a favorite place for ordering grape plants? I’m also wondering about the carmine jewel bush cherry. Would the EZ start potted ones be a good choice from Stark brothers? I would normally always go with bare root, but the price isn’t bad. Price really doesn’t mean much though if the potted plants don’t take off growing like the bare roots.
Best grape vines are from Double A Vineyards
You’ll get roots sometimes as much as 3-4 times as long as the already large cuttings they send.
Dax
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their other plants are just as good quality.
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I don’t know about Stark Bros’ Carmine Jewel plants, but a lot of folks get their CJ and other bush cherries from honeyberryusa.com . I ordered a Romeo, Juliet and Crimson Passion from them last year. The CP didn’t make it through the winter but it was a very small plant (8-12") when I got it. The Romeo was slightly bigger but the Juliet was huge, it had foot long roots. The Juliet is huge now, about 4ft tall, and the Romeo is about 2ft now. Neither has fruited, but the J might next year, it’s certainly big enough.
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I ordered Juliet as well @subdood_ky_z6b but skipped the others from the romance series for now.
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Thanks, I was going to order my carmine jewels from Stark brothers but they ran out before I got them ordered. I burned up my gift certificates on other trees. I will order from honeyberryusa.com now. Let me know if there are any other Kansans out there that want some to get a quantity break.
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Mike, I planted a bunch of somerset seedless cuttings and most are coming up and doing pretty good. I was curious what you use for a trellis system or pergola for these grapes? I was thinking about making some kind of cedar structure to walk under, but didn’t know how long the vines of this variety get in Kansas. I was also curious what spraying regime you use on these.
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