Northern Mid-Atlantic: SE-PA/N-VA/MD/NJ/DE Region

Regional Chats
#81

I have only one arguta (that hasn’t flowered yet) and the rest are chinensis (which now have made it through several winters here). If nothing else, I may try to find scions to graft named varieties onto them.

My muscadine came through a friend from a wild vine found on Long Island. It took a few years to get established but has fruited heavily the last two years. I have learned the local racoons really like them :<( I have rooted hardwood cuttings in the past, so if you would like some material (I have to prune soon) I’m glad to share! Just send me a PM.

1 Like
#82

There’s another thread about Bob Vance’s reservoir fig, which grow unprotected where he lives. He was kind enough to send me cuttings, as well as some black bethlehem fig fittings. I’m excited to roots those and see how they do here.

1 Like
#83

Here is what this Long Island Muscadine looks like:

3024×4032 1.69 MB

Grown organically with no spraying involved. Unfortunately, a bit astringent for eating out of hand but the wine batch came out well.

7 Likes
#84

Wow! Those look very interesting. I’ve never seen muscadines growing in huge bunches like that. Sounds great that you can grow them spray free. How much of them did you need to make your wine?

Do you have problems with spotted lanternflies? I heard those infest grapes. They mostly infest my new blackberry canes, young plum shoots, and young fig shoots. It makes them easy to kill in large numbers with pesticide when they bunch up like that. They also had a thing for the flower spikes on my sorrel plants.

That’s great to hear the chinensis surviving well for you. I’m looking forward to hearing your progress with them. I much prefer the yellow chinensis kiwis to the green deliciosa.

#85

I picked about 3 lbs of muscadines in 2020 and turned them into about 3 quarts of wine.

Yes, unfortunately the lanternflies are attracted to the vine more than anything else in my gardens. On the bright side, it was easy to eliminate a lot of them by just walking along the vine with a container of soapy water and getting them to jump into it. It take a little practice, but once you figure them out it is quite effective.

4 Likes
#86

I’ve only grown it for 3 years (edit: it was growing at the site for 30+ years before I bought it, but they protected it in most years). The first year, I tried to protect it with cardboard, leaves, and a patched up tarp. That time, there was significant dieback, but some above-ground growth was still alive. I didn’t bother for the last two winters and both times it came through very well. But, it was the two warmest winters in the last 10 years, with the low being around +10F. Before that, the low has been anywhere from -9F to +1F. So, that could be a big part of why the Reservoir fig did so well last year (decent sized early crop around Aug 1st, as well as the usual September figs).

This winter, I see 6 different days that got down to single digits in the town with Reservoir (per Weather.com), with a low of +3F. So, it will be interesting to see how it does this year.

I checked Weather.com for another rental site that I have a Reservoir clone planted at (planted in July 2019). That town only got down to single digits once (+5F) and 10-14F a handful of times. Also the fig is planted with a couple feet of the building on the WSW side, so that should help it.

Further complicating things is that both towns are rather large, so it’s hard to say how accurate the weather.com data is for any particular location. Both towns extend 8-9 miles inland and the properties are within 1-2 miles of the coast, meaning that the temps may be a bit higher than the “overall” town figures.

July 29th initial crop:

Reservoir_fig_stair_07-29-2021
Reservoir_fig_stair_07-29-20213024×4032 4.57 MB

Reservoir_fig_07-29-2021
Reservoir_fig_07-29-20213024×4032 2.63 MB

Main crop 9/10/21:

Reservoir_fig_09-10-2021
Reservoir_fig_09-10-20213024×4032 2.52 MB

Whole tree:

Reservoir_fig_whole_08-06-2021
Reservoir_fig_whole_08-06-20214032×3024 3.96 MB

And I see many are listing what they grow. I think it might be a shorter list if I just include what I don’t grow :slight_smile: That list is basically just Sweet cherries (way too much trouble and I like the ones from the store better than the few I got long ago on my trees). I think there may be a few niche berries I haven’t tried (Aronia, Seaberry, Ligonberry, etc). And I tried growing Rhubarb, but it’s died several times. And I haven’t tried fuzzy kiwi, just the hardy arguntas, as I’m not sure if fuzzy kiwi will be hardy over the long term and have been hesitant to commit the space (and am not thrilled with the tingly aftertaste from kiwi). I am growing several muscadines though.

My main focus right now is on jujubes. While not always productive in our climate, some varieties and some trees have been and it is one of the few fruits here which can get 20 (or 30, and even 40 rarely) brix and not need any sprays. Some people complain they are too dry, but I think the best jujube are crisp, with an apple texture. And I don’t really like my fruit to be too juicy (like peaches with juice running down your wrist, etc). I’ve got a number of rental properties and I use jujubes as landscaping at them. Between the properties and my 1/2 acre yard, I’m around 100 jujube trees and always looking for more varieties to graft on.

6 Likes
#87

Yes, we are very close indeed. Thank you for the warm invitation. I’m nearby the Belvedere Square in Chinquapin Park. I stay organic, but have used copper fungicides on my cherry tree – ideologically pushing it – to minimal success after brown rot took my whole crop a few years back. Then I learned about and had great success with DIY soap/milk sprays. And since getting the cover my challenge is restoring the vitality of the tree.

I may take you up on the invitation. Not much to see at my place and all of it can be seen from the sidewalk or alley, :laughing: but you are most welcome.

#88

About 2 feet on outside of box and 4 to 4.5 feet on inside. Elbows facing down on each end. Outside elbow stuffed with hardware cloth.

Important to keep the pipe close to a corner wall and not close to the tree.

1 Like
#89

I’ll put in a vote here for another important fig characteristic that sometimes gets overlooked when reading fig reviews from dry climates: the ability to resist splitting in rain or even high humidity. My Battaglia Green splits at the drop of a hat. So does my RDB and possibly AJH

2 Likes
#90

That difference in a couple of degrees could very well be enough to affect outcomes. That’s a very impressive haul from your tree. They look pretty sizeable too. Maybe I’ll have to see if I can trade you for some cuttings one of these winters. Hopefully those warmer properties are allowing you more success growing Asian persimmons too.

That’s a very good point, Steve. I have this problem with Florea. Otherwise I would’ve put it in a better spot. It only got planted due to precocity, productivity, and hardiness. Most Mt Etna varieties resist rain pretty well. A lot of Adriatic type figs also split as you’ve observed. Pratt Street and Dalmatie (Adriatic-like) seem to resist rain much better than others I’ve grown.

1 Like
#91

This would be the place to ask, how have honeyberries/haskaps done for those of you in zone 6b and warmer? The extra earliness of the fruit is tempting me. Is afternoon shade needed? I have plenty of that!

#92

We are on the Severn River, outside of Annapolis. We have 3 pawpaws (don’t know what type, bought them from some guy in the Eastern Shore), 5 figs, 30 blueberries, 4 pears, 12 currants, 3 peaches, 8 cherry and 8 apple. I hope to use the antique fruit press that I bought at an online auction this year to make mixed fruit juice/cider. I might be overly optimistic, but I also built a concrete cold cellar near the fruit trees to house all the fruit that I dream of having…someday

3 Likes
#93

I made a note about Dalmatie, thanks.

Do you grow Rockaway Green? Big Bill at Off The Beaten Path said in 2016 it was his favorite Adriatic- ripe August, tight eye, split-resistant. Sounds like a winner.

1 Like
#94

I have some in 4 hours a day of direct sun in the morning, and some in full sun. The ones is full sun look worse by the end of summer than the shaded ones. However, the shaded ones don’t fruit as prolifically. They’re very frost tolerant while in bloom. Got hit with 26 degrees, frozen solid, and still set fruit. Birds really like them so you might have to net them. These are the Yezberry Sugar Pie and Honey Bunch varieties. These particular ones grow quite slow, standing at around 2 feet tall after 4 years.

Not yet, but it sounds interesting. I’ll have to remember to ask Bill next time I chat with him. He’s VERY local.

2 Likes
#95

Anyone going to the New Jersey Home & Garden Show – NJ Expo (njexpocenter.com)

If so maybe continue the conversation in the lounge. New Jersey Home & Garden show - Lounge - Growing Fruit

#96

I’d be very interested to hear what you are using and how often you are spraying. I tried soap and milk for rots, but I might not have put enough commitment into it and I didn’t get good results.

#97

I’ve got several honeyberries and they produce plenty of fruit for the birds. Similar to blueberries, I rarely get any. I vaguely recall that my brother got a decent amount last year. I need to ask him if he netted it.

Mine get sun for most of the day, minus a few hours each in the early morning and late afternoon. They are located at the bottom of a hill, so while it you would think they would be hurt by late frosts, I haven’t really noticed that. The soil is generally moist, but without standing water. I have a few bushes with more sun, but in a dryer area and they haven’t been as vigorous or productive. So, I think 2/3 of a day is plenty of sun and adding more doesn’t help as much as dryer soil hurts.

2 Likes
#98

Maybe my cat will get me get a few…guess I’ll look into getting a few!

#99

Is anyone else getting at least a bit concerned about the weather the next few weeks? A bit warm for my liking this early. Then again it’s NOTHING like February, 2017, and with a couple exceptions the nights are forecast to stay pretty cold, so hopefully no major bud swell occurs yet.

#100

Yes, after a pretty consistently cold (for us) winter, it looks like a significant warm-up for a bit. I need to grab the last of the scions I plan to cut off my trees today before anything starts waking up. I see what look like some flower buds on my young apricot, so those will probably be the first casualty if we get warmth than late freezes.

The worst looks like next week where it will be warm and three days of rain, which always seems to speed things up to me. Of course, that is the long range forecast so we’ll see…

2 Likes