Anyone else notice that some evergreens are going on a growth spurt now? My eucalyptus and feijoa are putting out quite a bit of new growth despite the cold weather and lack of sunlight. I wonder if I should fertilize now?
Also I am noticing feijoa continuing to swell into December!
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Should I be jealous? My feijoas are looking smashed from heavy snow load. They lost a lot of height. 
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I might have a good micro climate. It was pretty snowed out even 5 mins from my place. Feijoas would not have been happy in that deep snow.
I live in the Gulf Islands (Near the San Juanās). Even though weāve had a few good dumps of snow, many of my fruit trees still have their leaves. The fall weather here was so warm that November was more like a normal Sept-Oct.
I think my trees are rather confused at this point.
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^ From 2017. At least 8 inches of snow, but it was dry snow. It does indicate how much bending this particular feijoa bush will take without damage.
A couple of years later, two 1" diameter branches were broken with a ~1/2 inch ice load.
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The last one ended up milder than forecast, but looks like an even more intense cold air mass will settle over the PNW next week. Hopefully this will also end up milder than the models are showing, but if not then this might be the coldest temperatures weāve seen in many decades. Hereās the model output for next Thursday:
And hereās a sounding showing a surface temperature of 3Ā°F in the immediate Seattle area:
This would definitely kill all my outside avocados! Hell, that might kill the ones in the greenhouse, which only holds about 15Ā° over ambient with the heater onā¦
Letās hope thatās just an outlier model run and the forecast improves over the coming week!
It shows 1F in the eastside where I live!
I am about 99% sure that this model will get revised in the days to come.
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Portland TV forecasts have been nudging up the 7-day lows the past 3 days running.
The lowest I see here in the 10 day forecast at weather.com is 27 degrees.
Reminds me I need to shut the water off to the remote faucets and bring in the irrigation timers.
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It looks like the model is shifting the cold air mass a bit north so itād miss most of us here in the PNW. The rest of the country might get quite the āpolar vortexā though!
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I went to a great talk today at my local extention service.The speaker was Sam Benowitz, Raintreeās founder. In his years at Raintree, Sam worked with WSU and Gary Moulton at the testing site in Mt. Vernon, where fruit and rootstock are trialed for this area. (Some of this info may not be applicable for sites south of Seattle.)
Samās talk, titled āPlum Crazyā, featured plums that he felt would thrive here. He started with praise for the trio, Methley, Beauty, and Shiro, all early Asian plums that are vigorous growers, produce abundantly and are pretty failsafe in terms of disease. I would agree that they are foolproof, but over the years I removed Beauty and Methley because I thought they were juice bombs. I kept Shiro just because its color is so incredible. Sam had special praise for Hollywood, which I, too, think is a beautiful specimen with its small size, red leaves, and blood red fruit.
As for European plums, Sam emphasized the longevity of prune plums, noting that you can often find 50year+ Italian plum trees planted all over the Northwest. In addition to Italian, he also praised Prune dāAgen, Seneca, and Imperial Epineuse. Sam shared that the Imperial Epineuse that Raintree carried years ago (the one I have and love) turned out to not be the real Imperial Epineuse which Raintree now carries. Oh no, I see my list beginning!
Sam extolled the flavor of the Mirabelles, a type of European plum. His favorite was Geneva, which he thought was the best. OK, another one I need!
As far as hybrids, Sam felt that plum/cherry crosses (pluerries) perform much better here than pluots. I remember how we all marveled at the store-bought Dapple series last summer, but, according to Sam, pluots need more heat than we have to achieve that flavor. So, of course, Iām looking at pluerries now!
So, in the end, I came away with a need for more trees, or scions if Iām luckyā¦happy to share that my addiction is thriving!
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That sounds like a fun talk. I miss getting that sort of thing from the Home Orchard Society.
Iād like to hear more about your Imperial Epineuse. Did they say what they think yours really is? Do you have pictures?
For years I didnāt try pluots because I heard they donāt do well here. I think some do better than others. Iām very happy to have Splash, and think Flavor Grenade is very promising.
Thereās something to the cherry-plum hybrid thing, though, I think. Nadia, so far, has been one of my most care-free and reliable fruit trees.
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We have Geneva Mirabelle from Raintree but so far Iām not too impressed. Maybe after another year I may change my attitude about it. Glad to hear about Methley, Beauty, and Shiro. Those are recent grafts that have not fruited yet, but the scions have grown well for me.
Dennis
Kent, wa
What has been unimpressive about Geneva?
I think I have New York and de Metz. I used to think them bland, but they have really grown on me. Just when I came to think of them as great to have after my 2021 harvest, 2022 was a complete flop. As it was for all of my European plums.
Size of the fruit is too small for a domestic and its taste is nothing to compare with my green gage which we truly love.
I like that my mirabelles are firm, high brix, and fully free stone. Small for plum, but good sized for a cherry 
So far my best Europeans are Stanley and Empress, hard to beat either for flavor, texture, freestone and sweetness
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I didnāt ask the true identity of my 30 year old Imperial Epineuse. Sam described the new one as having a slightly longer shape. Whatever mine really is, out of my 10 varieties of plums, itās the one I like the best. But what if the new one is even better?! Does anyone have an Imperial Epineuse that is 6 or less years old? I would trade scions for my older one!
Mt Flavor Grenade had 1 plum on it last year. It seemed only so-so. Hopefully will get better. Also have a Flavor King that hasnāt fruited. I had an order in for Dapple Dandy (after loving itās summer store-bought taste) but after hearing Samās opinion, I replaced it with Flavor Punch.
I think a lot of folks here have said that they are happy with Nadia.
To the non-initiated this aquisition of plums must seem crazy, but then there are years like this past one when you get just barely enough!
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I grafted my IE in 2014. I didnāt note where scion came from but it was a yearly fest either Seattle, HOS or Western WA.
Thanks for the report. I loved attending their lectures. Iām surprised that Opal wasnāt mentioned as it can be sublime and is beautiful.
I used to buy all my fruit trees from Braintree when Sam was running it. The new owners jacked up the prices so high that I can no longer justify buying their products. Nearly all their fruit trees are $59.99 this year. The Flavor Grenade Pluot is $79.99!!! One Green World still has reasonable prices. I just ordered 2 apricots for $34.99 each. Half the price of Raintree.
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