I like most of the university of arkansas ones like jupiter, saturn, etc. (and there is a new series with names like passion, compassion). plus vanessa
if you live near the willamette valley a great trip to sample table grapes is broadacres nursery. they open for 4-5 weekends in the fall, september-ish, and you can try 30+ varieties that work here and buy most of them as one season rooted cuttings
most of my peach trees are an year old or less except Frost peach which is 3 yrs old. I have probably 3 dozen peaches between 5 trees. I think the Frost peach could have had more if I hadnāt done extensive pruning last year in the month of July. Year old Hollywood plum has couple of dozen cherry sized fruitlets.
You havenāt seen a rhododendron until you have seen them in the spring rain in western Washington or Oregon. They make you stop and stare.
I grew up in Spokane and they never grew like they do w of the cascades. They never cease to amaze me how pretty they are in full bloom.
mine are also flowing right now. i gave them some manure and you barely see any green they are so covered in blooms. almost looks fake.
They are excellent plants, but are commonly mis-used as foundation plants in Portland. Also best viewed from a distance, as close approach may result in fallen flower parts sticking to shoe soles.
I was tending my plum trees yesterday and found 4 areas that I thought they might be the early stages of black knot. I did a bit of Googling and it seemed they were indeed early stage black knot. The nodule color was more greenish brown at this stage, but Iām pretty sure it was nodes of black knot before it turns its unmistakable black color. Sorry no pics, as I was in too much of a rush to be rid of them.
I removed one smaller growth from my small satsuma plum tree, I was glad it wasnāt on a main scaffold at least. There were three more growths on my shiro plum tree. The one removal cost me a red heart graft from last year further up the limb. I removed another small insignificant shiro branch that was also infected. As well I also had to remove part of a satsuma branch grafted to the shiro last spring. Shiro and satsuma were the only stone fruit varieties that appeared to have these early stage black knot infections.
I didnāt spray this year, hoping I could make do without it. I sprayed twice last year during dormancy and I only found one branch with black knot during the summer on the shiro plum after spraying. I guess I may have to spray again this fall/winter, as I donāt want my infection rates to climb higher. This is the first time I can recall having to remove more than 1 branch in 3-4 seasons because of black knot.
On the bright side, there were no signs of fireblight on any of my apples or pears. I was also pleasantly surprised to find many of my small apple trees (most still potted) have quite a few apples on them. Even most of my apple grafts from last spring were sporting many small apples. Sadly Iām going to have to remove all the apples as these trees are far too small to carry an apple crop. On the negative side, I did find caterpillars starting to infest my young apple and pear trees again, but nowhere near as bad as last year (so far). 
Apparently these caterpillers really liked my nijesheiki pear, as they stripped it bare, all except for two grafts of yali and seuri pear. I guess they donāt find those two varieties of oriental pear quite to their liking. 
All in all, most of my fruit trees seem to be growing really well this year, with many of my young trees cropping for their first time.
How is your 2024 planted bare root trees doing? mine were planted sometime in February-March, they all leafed out but those in the ground are growing slow compared to the ones in the pot, in-ground tree have 2" to 3" of growth while the potted one have 6" to 8". Wondering is this because of persistent cool nights?
Where Iām from in Sonoma County we have a rhododendron reserve along the coast. While it is beautiful and a lovely place to spend an afternoon they donāt come close to the explosion of color you see in the Pacific Northwest.
Starting out the fourth year in my house with a preexisting mature pear tree, and every year it kinda looks like crap, and every year I try something a little bit different to see if I can alter its course, but Iām not so interested/experienced in pears that Iāve come to understand the problem. Bugs eat the leaves, and there is black crusty dieback on leaves and buds around now. Fruit falls off one by one from June until harvest, when I get ~ a dozen nice big ones and two dozen small warped ones. The ~50 yr old tree is planted in the middle of the cement patio so Iām very limited in how Iām able to fertilize it. Never sprayed it with anything. Anything I can do to help it for next year? Otherwise Iām going to give up on it this winter and plant an olive tree in its placeā¦ on a related note, a lot of younger pear trees in the neighborhood arenāt looking much better.
I like the really strong flavored fox grapes of the Labrusca variety like Concord. I bought Campbellās Early/Island Belle and Van buren because they tasted like Concord but ripened earlier. 25 years ago, Concord only ripened some of the time. Now it ripens here every year.
John S
PDX OR
Over here in Bend, all of mine have leafed out, aside from the pear. Iām still waiting to see if it will actually grow. Weāve had a cool spring, more morning in the 30s this May than in past years.
Before you give up, try spraying a couple times over the winter with horticultural oil and a little copper. Itās really very easy, and relatively benign. I tend to mix a batch in my sprayer in the fall and then spray around Thanksgiving, New Years and in the spring before the buds open. I suspect youāll see a big difference, and pears off the tree are delicious, nothing like youāll find in a grocery store. Fruit trees require some care, but its definitely worth the small amount of effort.
Thanks, Iāll implement your suggestions over winter and give it one more year!
Iāve had a Montmorency sour cherry tree in my urban yard for over 35 years, and it gets powdery mildew on its leaves every year late in the season. Since it doesnāt seem to hurt the tree noticeably, I havenāt done anything about it. However, this rather large tree has been infected with Turkey Tail fungus in several of the main branches; so it doesnāt have long to live. With this in mind Iāve planted a replacement right next to its trunk, and Iād like to prevent the mildew from retarding the replacementās growth. What is the best treatment to stop the mildew from developing later this year?
Hi. Not sure where you are located, but if there is horsetail growing wild (Equisetum spo.) I have had excellent success controlling powdery mildew in apples using a horsetail tea spray.
hereās an extension page for cherry powdery mildew (not 100% sure this applies to sour cherry but itās the closest thing they have)
of the listed fungicides, you can get rex lime sulfur at wilco (read the msds and be careful). itās ānotā listed for home use but it was in the pastā¦ it was pulled for some kind of safety concern
some others are sold online. āeagle 20ewā is available in a small size ($45) at keystone or amazon, I havenāt used it, but itās listed for home orchard use for powdery mildew
https://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_43&products_id=382
Thanks, @z0r. The referenced site also shows sulphur as an effective control, and that is still available for home use. Iāve seen websites that say that sulphur is not very effective for grapes at temperatures below 18 deg C. I wonder if that applies to applications on other fruits.
Turkey tail is a natural, medicinal fungus that is not closely related to mildew, which is a ālower fungusā. It is among the most helpful medicines and among the most plentiful and easy to identify of all the mushrooms. I make a tea out of it every year to help my immune system. It helped me not get sick even once last winter. I am over 60 years old. The presence of turkey tail shows that there is something wrong with how your tree is growing. I would check the soil, make sure it drains well, and that there is sufficient organic material in it. Then Iād cut off dead branches, put them in fungal compost tea, and spray it on your tree when the leaves are green and growing. You can also pour a drench into the soil. I would also spray it on the new tree as a preventative.
John S
PDX OR
Yes, JohnS, I know that there is something wrong with the old cherry tree. I removed some of the upper branches years ago to open up the canopy and reduce the height of the tree. I knew that sunscald was a potential problem; so, I painted the main branches newly exposed to the sun with white latex paint. However, the paint didnāt prevent sunscald; and the cambium layer on most of the large branches died and later peeled off, exposing the wood to fungal spores that eventually infected the limbs and spread through the inner wood. By the time mushrooms (Turkey Tail) appeared, their mycelium had spread throughout the limbs and probably into the main trunk. So, there is no hope for that tree, even though it continues to provide plenty of cherries.
Iām just trying to speed up the growth of the replacement tree by reducing or eliminating the mildew that damages its leaves.
greenhouse columbia sunrise (I think? I canāt find the tag but itās the earliest)
I havenāt gotten good pollination on columbia [sunrise, giant, star] in my greenhouse so Iām looking to phase them out. this one is by an open wall so it does better
I didnāt notice till today but one cane of āwillametteā raspberry snuck into the greenhouse and it did awesome this year and is my earliest fruit and apparently doesnāt care about pollination problems. it started harvest today, ~2 weeks ahead of the outdoor canes
