I have a love / hate relationship with these grapes. Even with a fair amount of thinning, the grapes are pretty uneven in size and most of them are pretty small. The leaves and grapes are pretty susceptible to powdery mildew. The grapes turn dark way before they become sweet. However… when they finally ripen, they have a complex flavor which I find really unique and enjoyable. The Concord’s have been starting to color up this last week:
Anyone in our region have experience with either tea plants (camellia sinensis), silverberry, or loquat trees in a high deer pressure area? I’ve recently moved from one to another, and I won’t be fencing the front yard at the new house and am imagining an evergreen edibles vibe. Not super concerned about the loquat anyway because it will grow out of reach eventually, but curious if I could get away with not protecting it while young. I’ve already verified that cold hardy citrus go largely untouched by deer here, and sources on the internet allege that tea, silverberry and loquat are mostly deer resistant. Anyone with experience?.. and speaking of edible evergreens, the olives and feijoa will be in the fenced backyard because I already learned the answer there
The multitude of deer on Guemes Island must have different tastebuds than Vancouver Island deer! They leave my feijoa alone and strip leaves from my loquat, yuzu, and olive.
I’ve always struggled with my Glenora, Got them at Swansons. They seem to always flower when I go on vacation and my neighbors underwater so I rarely get a harvest due to that and birds. Trunk keeps growing on circumference so maybe one day.
Huh - I never water in the spring, don’t really water that area at all so maybe I’m lucky getting anything. But the vine is crazy vigorous, way more vigorous than the Concord next to it, growing probably a yard a week on some shoots during the summer
deer devoured my tea plant on sight. I was lulled into a false sense of security by the healthy uneaten decorative camilia but it was only uneaten because it was next to the house
I have a couple of camelia sinensis, goumi (related to sliverberry) and loquat in an enclosure with other fruit trees. The “enclosure” is just cattle panel, just a few feet tall. They can, and apparently sometimes do, go into the enclosure. But I haven’t noticed that they’ve touched those things yet.
They did eat all of the leaves off of a 5 foot root sucker, probably St. Julian coming from Nadia.
I think the low fence offers some protection against lazy well fed deer. I’m sure if I had apples in there they’d strip all of the leaves they could reach.
And one ate the young tender growth off of the goumi I transplanted to the open (that was in the spring when there were fewer options) But its since grown back and they haven’t touched it again.
I can’t think of a particular individual who drove HOS into the ground. I think Joanie is nearly a saint. We just didn’t have enough volunteers, IMHO.
John S
PDX OR
@JohannsGarden I saw you commented about olive tree to ‘let them flop…’ something like that- anyways, I planted two olive trees this spring. One is still attached to the stake it came with, the other is in a tomato cage because I saw the ‘flop’ and got nervous!
So I should just let 'em go?
I also did not prune them because I read that ypu shouldn’t since they grow so slowly.
Is there an easy to grow must have Euro pear that folks recommend?
I have an Asian pear I grafted to an OHxF rootstock that isn’t vigorous enough for it. I plan to take scions of that and put it into my multi-grafted Asian pear. Then the rootstock will be available to graft to something European.
I already have Seckel, Golden Russet Bosc, Taylor’s Gold, Thornley, Abate Fetel, and Shroyer’s Sunset plus a little Bella di Guigno.
Preferably something resistant to rust and blister mites.
Any of you folks in the PNW ever heard of or did business with
Santiam Nursery
9383 Golf Club Rd Se,
Aumsville,OR,97325
Email: SantiamNursery@gmail.com
I saw them on Ebay this am and they have several thing I’m interested in. Seems to have good prices and reasonable shipping rates.
They sent me some diseased raspberries earlier this year however they did refund me after I had contacted them. They have great customer service; i didn’t have to fight to address the situation. I’ve only purchased from them once.
