Can you please update me on your success with Paw Paws? I’m up in North Bay, ON and our area is classified as 4b, however i think 4a is a safer bet some winters. I ordered some Paw Paws online and planned to try to keep them in containers and overwinter them in my heated garage, however based on your posts I’m thinking about throwing them into the ground.
Did you bury your named variety past the graft junction point? I believe the scion wood would put out more roots and may lead to a hardier tree while still ensuring the proven fruit quality of a named variety.
Tons of flowers. Less than 5% pollination. Then Pluc Curlico gets whatever forms. I have something like 30+ other plums grafted nearby that have full pollination (PC still kills all the fruit though). I’m pulling all my chums and sask sour cherries out this year to make room for better stuff.
One is seedling. Other is NC-1 and I did not bury graft. 5+ years in and they are still under 2’ tall. Not huge winners but not dead yet. I’m keeping them for now as at 2’ tall it is not like they are taking up space!
Hi @hungryfrozencanuck4b. Thank you for getting back to me. I’m really interested in what you have been up to since we are in a similar USDA gardening zone. Do you mind telling us what you plan on replacing your chums and sask sour cherries with?
i don’t like hearing this as I’ve put in quite a few u of sask cherries and some plums. neither has set fruit yet and I’m not that far east and downwind of you.
Dont give up hope just yet. I have carmine jewels here on pei, just two years old, which produced a decent amount of fruit last year for their age. My plum situation hasnt been good yet either but they are only 2 years old.
mine will be three this may and should put out a crop this summer. plums are 2 yrs old. i plan to spray for leaf spot and black knot as I’m surrounded with chokecherry infested with it.
I also have those problems here. Im starting to think peaches might be my best option as they dont seem to effected by either of those diseases (atleast the bacterial spot resistant varieties). If i can avoid leaf curl im home free it seems…
Last summer I planted a peach tree sideways just barely sticking above the ground. It sat around for a month or so and then started happily growing. In the fall I put some straw on it, a vole trap set-up, and tarped it over. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Moose, I don’t think it is climate. I have heavy clay soil that is wet in fall/spring. They don’t seem to like that while haskasps just seem to laugh. I tried it, moving on to something else.
@ OldMacDoland, I am going to replace a 7 plant row with 3 pears. They don’t seem to mind my soil.
@ Caleb. Tried peaches, never survived my winters. So far my apricots are growing, time will tell if I ever get fruit though.
i also have the heavy clay strewn with fist sized rocks. currants ,honey berries and elders are the only thing planted direct that grow well . everything else in in raised beds or mounds. other wise they would slowly die. lost 3 apples before i figured this out. 3 winters ago it stayed -20f or colder during the day and hit -35f maybe 10 times. just to the west of us along the river hit -40f. i don’t thing any peach could survive that. it was so cold that the governor told people not to go out unless absolutely necessary. sound familiar? didn’t shut us down but made you think twice before going.
How are things going with your pears? Which rootstocks are you using? Most of my stuff is in Lanark county and I have much difficulty getting pears to survive. Going to switch over to Russian varieties and graft onto Harbin pear from Goldenbough nursery.
I’m 1/2 to 1 full zone north of you. My most mature tree is currently a Northbrite pear on ??? rootstock. One of the few trees from Greenbarn that actually survived. I have 20-30 pears multigrafted to this. I am currently doing all my grafting onto OHxF87 but nothing mature enough to talk about survival yet.
I am in 5b and I have lost about as many USask cherries as I have left …about 25. I have yet to figure out what the issue is with Crimson Passion…there IS information stating that it is harder to get going…to get established…but I wonder if buried somewhere in that statement is the truth that they are clearly, at least at my place, MUCH less able to get through a winter…I think if you manage to get them through the first and second winter (that’s a real trick if you ask me, and yet they are rated as hardy to zone 2/3) then you have a chance of keeoing them going. Just my observation , and NO it cannot be coincidence that I lose these every year while all the other varieties pull through. Why do I keep buying them then ?,well they are supposed to be the sweetest variety, although moderately productive, I wouldn’t know as I haven’t had any USask cherries as yet.
I’ve read a lot of comments on here and elsewhere that CP is difficult to keep alive anywhere. i don’t think its zone hardiness but something the breeders missed when introducing this one. i don’t have CP and the ones i do have are very vigorous here. CJ, romeo and juliet… about as vigorous as my b. currants are. should fruit for me this summer.
@hungryfrozencanuck4b how are the bob gordon and wyldewood elderberry working for you…i have heard reports that they ripen late and may not be better off with other varieties north of 50deg latitude. Thanks for your write ups…always interesting to see how things grow around the continent
Negligible to no die back. Winters down to -34C. I do not find they ripen to late for me but I am only at 45 degrees lattitude. Spring thaw is usually mid april. Wyldwood flowers first, usually 1st week of July and is indeterminate so flowers smaller amounts into September. Bob Gordon flowers 3-4th week of July. BOTH ripen berries the first 2 weeks of September. Early frost can be 3rd week of Sept but usually not until October.
The cymes are HUGE. Why not give them a try? You will know within 2-3 years.