Just give it a quick buzz cut (take out half or more of those long limbs). In the winter you can then thin out the excess shoots. I don’t bother with the summer pruning any more myself, I just let the new shoots get 20’ long or whatever crazy thing they want to do, then completely remove many of them in the winter.
Quick question. On your figs. How many years out of 10 do you get a crop?
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10/10 for me and there are usually too many for me to eat them all fresh.
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5/10 for me. When they all die to the ground I get no figs for several years. Last winter was close, I lost a lot of wood and a couple died back to the ground. It can Yo-Yo, you can go ten years with figs every year and then ten with only two years of figs. All based on the winters.
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I spent about 20 minutes in the garden this morning before work, just getting what I could before the rain today. Sun orange and sun sugar tomatoes, dragons tongue beans, and most excitingly THREE summer delight apriums!
This is the first year my summer delight aprium tree is bearing, so I am very happy. Especially since some earlier disease issues had me worried that I wouldn’t get any at all. BUT, there’s still probably 50 or so apriums on the tree, so hopefully I get to eat most of them! These first 3 aren’t totally totally ripe yet, I’ll probably leave them on the counter for a day or two to get soft, but I wanted to pick them before the rain knocked them off, or a squirrel got them, or they decided to spontaneously get moldy or rotten.
I’ll be honest, when I planted the summer delight aprium, I had zero fruit tree experience, and just got whatever was available in Spring 2020 (when the world was ending and everyone, including myself, started gardening, and all the nurseries were sold-out). So I’m pleased that it’s working out so far, but slightly bummed at how late the apriums are ripening!!!
My summer delight aprium tree has 4 main scaffolds. If I wanted to change 1 or 2 of the scaffolds over to an earlier ripening variety of apricot or aprium, would that be possible? If yes:
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What variety or varieties of apricots or apriums work well in the mid-atlantic, that ripen in June or early July (particularly for someone with not a ton of experience)?
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What would be the best method for changing the scaffold(s) over?
(a) If I were able to get summer budwood, could I chip-graft or T-bud lower down on the scaffold this summer, and then chop off the rest of the scaffold sometime next year after the grafts take?
(b) Or should I wait until Spring 2024 and use dormant scions? In which case, could I just stub-cut the scaffolds and essentially topwork them with the dormant scions?
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Check Scotts Stone Fruit Experiences Through 2022 for Scott’s suggestions.
I don’t have experience with chip graft, but IMO if you want to remove the scaffolds eventually anyway, it doesn’t sound like it’d hurt to try a chip graft now. If it fails you could chop off a little wood and, just cleft graft in spring.
Early blooming is a big problem for me. My Tomcot is just too early in my South Richmond area, and I’ve got some kind of trunk problem too.
Even the later blooming plums and peaches have big frost problems.
However I know some people even somewhat close by do good with them. Nonetheless I suggest something as late blooming as possible.
Top right and the foreground have similar shape and russet pattern. Looks like 2 apples and a pear.
You can see the matching dots on both the pears.
I see it. Still hard to believe : )
Do you try to protect them at all (by wrapping or similar)? Does it actually help when people do that?
I wrapped them for about ten years. I used aluminum bubble wrap insulation, a big tent I stapled together and nailed to the ground around the figs. It worked great, no dieback at all. But the figs got too big for the covers since they were growing so fast, and I didn’t have the time to make the covers yet bigger. If I had fewer fruit projects I would have worked on trying to keep them smaller with regular pruning, I think they could be kept to an OK size that way.
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These store bought Avocado seeds sprouted in our compost . Is anything can be done in our zone 7A to grow these or just a waste of time ?
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I have the same geobin.
Regarding avacado… like oranges, papaya, lychee, and many other tropical fruit, they’ll die from the zone 7 cold. Maybe better as a free kid’s project.
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Any of your picking Shen Li and Korean Giant pears?
Shin Li and KG are both October pears here.
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My Korean giant are not ready 6b
That is good to know. I picked some Shen Li due to heavy load. Pears taste good. But I figure they are not 100% ripe yet.
I was lucky enough to be in the area of Scott’s Orchard in VT for their heritage apple event. The apple that landed on top for me and my family was the Ananas Reinette. We like punchy apples. I’d love to add a branch of it to my orchard but I’m not seeing much on its disease susceptibility. Has anyone in this group given it a shot?
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