If picked when nearly ripe, as in only a couple days away, I can tell no difference at all. The earlier you pick beyond that the more flavor you lose.
I am starting to pick Tomcot and Ilona now, I have a bunch of Ilona on the counter which will be perfect tomorrow I expect.
So far no squirrels, I’m not sure what’s going on as there are quite a few in our general neighborhood. I put out massive numbers of traps in the expectation there would be a ton of squirrels bearing down, but I only caught one.
Interesting. I feel like I am seeing fewer squirrels as well, but I’m also seeing them stealing different things. I’ve seen squirrels in my Gerardi mulberry multiple times, which they’ve never bothered with, and now one of them is stealing every single small green Kerr apple and ignoring the apricot. Last year my Kerr apples were untouched all the way through ripening. The last few years they’ve also started to eat all the seeds off my large Japanese maple, which they never touched for at least a decade before.
I sometimes think they are running some type of game, like a Casino, where they let you win a little sometimes so you won’t give up and walk away from the table.
I haven’t seen too many JBs this year so far. I have seen more nocturnal brown beetles that have been feeding on stonefruit leaves. Two types of nocturnal brown beetles: one type is small and soft at about size of a JB (maybe Asiatic garden beetle), the other is much larger (probably 3x) and more crunchy. The larger one likes to eat like a caterpillar, instead of making tiny holes like JBs.
I live in NW Philly and have had a pomegranate for years (planted against S side of house.) The season isn’t long enough for the fruit, but I love the flowers. Yr welcome to cuttings, but I’ve forgotten the variety.
Hey there!
I’m new here, to Maryland, and to fruit growing. I grew up in a farm in Texas but not much there has really applied to here We currently live on half an acre in olde towne Gaithersburg.
I have planted raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, fig, hardy kiwi, peach, and sour cherries—all of which produce pretty well.
The two I’m struggling with are Granny Smith and honey crisp. After reading a bit on here I’m thinking we chose the wrong apples to try and grow I’m hoping to learn a lot and excited to be here!
A perfect opportunity to learn to graft, if you don’t have that tool in your bag now. You could ask for a forum member who lives near you to show you bark grafting the first week of April.
Scott is in our region and has a lot of stuff. I usually search on here to see if he’s said he has had problems with it, and if he grows it in his list. As a way to kinda weed out some stuff I might think of planting.
My yard isn’t big enough for trees so I gotta squeeze in bushes. But my parents are in western MD on about an acre so I plant stuff in their yard
Hi neighbor! I’m in Gaithersburg too. Deer Park. Although, most of my trees are still young I did get a few apples from my newton pippen this year. I have bought a lot of trees from Willis Orchard and they do well. I’d research the root stocks to see if they would do well here.
Today makes 36 days of no appreciable rain here in Arlington, VA. After the long spring and summer drought, we got some nice rains when the hurricanes were active, but now the tap seems shut off again with no real relief in the 10-day. It looks like we could get .25 of an inch on Sunday, but that will barely wet the fallen leaves.
I stopped irrigating as the temperatures dropped. Now I’m out there with the hose just making sure things don’t die before they go dormant. Maybe tomorrow or this weekend. Still crazy that we’ve had such a long run of nothing.
Things are still looking OK in my yard so I haven’t watered, but I am keeping an eye on the new plantings and may need to hit them at the rate we are going.
Psych, I just rechecked to see when to expect the rain. Looks like we will have another week. Boo.
Hopefully the winter isn’t dry all the way through. I like to see a few snows in the year but I’m so close to the Atlantic that it hardly ever gets to the ground. 5 miles west of me will see snow or rain and I’ll get bupkis.
Crown Rot: Caused by poorly drained soils or overwatering
Root Rot: Caused by poorly drained soils or overwatering
I didn’t include apples, pears, etc. since I don’t plan to grow them… yet
Is there anyone in the greater philadelphia area who can advise on what I may have missed or what listed is not applicable? I plan to contact my local extension but wanted to provide this info to the regional group too!
Hi folks from Harford County, MD (7b).
I’m just curious what everyone here is growing for blackberries, raspberries and blueberries and what’s working best for you? Currently, I’ve got Arapaho, Tripple Crown and Sweetie Pie for blackberries, Double Gold and some wild black caps for raspberries and sunshine blue, chandler, sharp blue for blueberries. I’m also curious what currants and gooseberries people are having luck with in our area.
We currently live on half an acre in olde towne Gaithersburg.
I’m hoping to learn a lot and excited to be here!
