Rob,
You seem to do more work than i have to do for my potted stock. I water every so often… Maybe once a week. I fertilize at the beginning of the season using ozmocote plus and then around July. Other than that my trees all got the same treatment that everyone in the community says is worthless, organic fertilizer. I use a mixture of bat guano, kelp meal, lime, and some cotton seed meal (with a few other goodies added in). Does it help… i don’t know. All i know is that my trees that were whips last year at planting ate going like gang busters (you’ve seen my pictures). I don’t know if that’s normal or not. It may be but i can tell you this i have trees that have been in ground for going on 4 years that haven’t done squat.
Rob,
What kind of mix is in your containers.It sounds fairly fast draining.I have some fruit trees in 15-20 gallon,in a greenhouse and don’t remember watering every day last Summer,even at 90-100F.
Maybe try some Coir.It holds water very well.I just added some to the mix this year in some pots.There is a large nursery in California that switched from a Conifer bark base to Coir and that’s all they use now.They grow to sell to wholesalers and all their plants are in containers.The mix and ratio they use is:50% Coir/40% Peat moss/10% Rice Hulls(Husks).The husks are used in place of Perlite because of cost. Brady
How are your Nadias doing, everybody?
Any fruit, yet?
my picture could not uploading.
I’d say over half the mix is woodchips…along differing amts of peat moss/compost/sometimes perlite … Maybe i over water, who knows. I’ve never seen ill effects from it though. Majority are 15 gallon. I don’t use any fancy mixes…i use whatever i can find cheap/free. I have slowly upped my fertilizer amts over the years.
Only issues i see with my potted trees are new growth is very sluggish to almost nonexistent when the tree is fruiting. I’ve been slowly hacking the pluots to try to encourage new branching. I hope this year they push some new growth.
Wood chips when breaking down do use nitrogen, so yeah if you up your nitrogen it should help. Bark takes a lot longer to breakdown, so is ideal and also the bark I’m using is not fresh but composted bark, so it doesn’t really tie nitrogen up.
I can get better pine bark sizes non-composted, I might try it now, just add more fertilizer.
I’m of the school if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. the composted bark with finer pieces works well. I don’t have time to sieve the bark for more ideal sizes. I just have too many pots, and too little time. It takes a long time to mix this stuff up as is.
Mine has plenty of flower buds and should be opening soon. In addition to what is in the pic, there are a bunch closer to the ends of the larger branches.
Within 10-12 feet, I have a bunch of plums and pluots which looks like they are going to flower at about the same time (Flavor Supreme, Flavor Grenade, Geo Pride, and Mariposa). About 15-20 feet away I have a White Gold cherry with some flower buds as well, so hopefully I have pollination covered.
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I have FS, FK, DD, and FQ, plus White Gold too. I might lose buds though from the freeze coming April 2nd. My flower buds are not as developed as yours. i also cut the central leader out, so I cut off a lot of potential fruit. I guess I’ll see what happens?
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Looks like there’s a lot of excitement about this hybrid, as there’s now over 11.7 K views about this threat!
Hopefully, I get to taste the remaining (1) fruit this year. I’m also hoping that Raintree sends me my Nadia tree with flower buds. Thus, I have Rainier cherry and peachmond pollen stored in the fridge, just in case.
My friend’s tree will also be arriving this Month. I’m thinking of adding a Flavor Grenade pluot to his order so FG could serve as a pollinator for Nadia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRCFEbM79Q
You shouldn’t use wood in potting soil because it breaks down to fast gives off heat and robs N. Here’s a video on it. Bark is what you want because it breaks down slowly and has more nutrients. Pine bark breaks down really slow.
Gotta love Mike Mcgroarty. He got me started in propagation work years ago.
I find the quality of wood chips depends on whether they are obtained in winter (no leaves on trees) or summer (lots of green leaves went through the chipper). The green leaves add much nutrition to the mix plus promote the breakdown of the wood. Summer wood chips stay hotter longer and I wouldn’t use them for anything for a year or so. Winter wood chips I’ll use for weed control.
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Okay Nadia fans,here is today’s photo of my tree.The fruits are starting to show and there are a fair amount.I will know more about numbers in probably a week or two.
With others fruit totals not very high,I hope mine had the correct variety label or maybe the tree liked the pollen that was given. Brady
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Alright Brady, no pressure, but the entirety of growingfruit is banking on you my friend! 
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I’ll try not to disappoint.Maybe I should hire an armed guard or at least a dog. Brady
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What were the pollinators?
Think I’ve got three fruit in the pit hardening stage. Size is already in the sweet cherry range so it will be a lot bigger than that when ripe.
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The major ones were Burgundy,Santa Rosa Plums,Flavor King and Dapple Supreme Pluots.Smaller contributions from Mariposa,Elephant Heart and Emerald Beaut Plums. Brady
Very nice Brady. I will try Flavor King and Dapple Dandy pollen. I may not get a lot of flowers? Hard to tell at the moment, still probably 3 weeks or more from bloom. Most of my other trees are showing some color, so it appears to be a little late in blooming which is good for my area. Plus I have some cold weather coming, so yet another test for it (and all my trees!).
In future years I’ll have Satsuma and Weeping Santa Rosa nearby, and possibly more if I can get some grafts to take.
If all goes well Fruitnut will be the first to get a taste, hopefully the report is a good one.
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May you post a couple of pictures tomorrow, please?