April 9th and the first flower is officially open on my seedling Hunza type apricot tree. Most of the buds still have a ways to go before opening. Given that overly early bloom seems to be the #1 reason apricots don’t reliably produce here this late blooming seedling is quite promising. Even factoring in that everything is a bit behind schedule this year…
Is anyone else here in the PNW growing an apricot that is so late blooming?
Depends on the fruit most likely. Our apples are a little behind, maybe a week or so, but peaches are just now at about 70% bloom which is a month behind. Pears are about 2 weeks behind. However, in cold springs like last year we have barely any growth in peaches until May regardless of bloom time. Then things speed up a lot when it gets warm finally. And even after all the cold weather we had last year, peaches were only a week later than the very hot spring of 21.
Who has Hollywood blooming in pacific northwest now or when did yours bloom if it had already?
I have a few Puget Golds in a peach orchard that just started blooming, however I have one at my house that started March 17th, but it is still only at like 70% bloom. I don’t think a whole lot of data can be gathered from this year other than relative bloom times.
Here’s what I’ve grafted whip n tongue this year and status as of apr.10.23
Do you have any feral (or planted) cherry plums around for bloom time comparison with your ‘Puget Gold’? Where I’m at cherry plums have been in full bloom for the last couple weeks.
@JohannsGarden Probably started on about 3/22 or so, which was the first peach blooms opening too. That’s usually my gauge of what we can grow at our place because we have frost protection for our peaches. The Puget is about equal to our latest peach varieties this year. I have one “Creswell” apricot in the same row and it hasn’t started swelling. Looks like it has flower buds, but might be an illusion.
I think hollywood is right at full bloom for me. it started opening a week or two ago. I could be off by up to a week I didn’t keep notes this year
edit - I just looked and I’m actually at 70% petal fall. full bloom was a week or two ago
My Hollywood has dropped ~40% of the petals. There are still some flowers that have not yet opened. It began flowering a few days after Black Ice and AU-Rosa. The last blooms will probably be open for Alderman and Toka.
Yes, your Hunza is later than my Harcot and Harglo apricots which have been blooming for 1-2 weeks.
I’m normally about 1week behind Seattle.
My Hollywood is in bloom now. Maybe 5% yesterday, probably more than 50% today in the rain.
It’s a young tree on its own roots. Had first fruit last year.
Maybe 80% plus bloom. Looks much prettier in real life:
Hollywood is such a neat tree between the colors and the dwarfing. I think I’ve said this before but I think it should be in every front yard in the maritime pnw, if the fruit is acceptable
here are my notes from 2022, a pretty epic year for stone fruit here with full set on basically everything -
Albion strawberry: June 2->, a few every day (it’s day neutral)
annapolis strawberry: June 2, only made a few this year (it’s june-bearing)
Hood strawberry : june 14 or so → July 8
Lapins and lambert: about July 11 peak. Lapins a couple days later than lambert but lambert had a light crop so they were about the same
Early golden: not sure, I only had one, a week earlier than methley? Can’t say anything other than that it had a light crop in the same conditions as others (it’s on a multi-graft tree)
Methley: about July 14-july 27. Not my favorite, simple juice bag/sugar flavor, small size. Gets worse as it softens on the tree, maybe it should be picked before it’s soft to retain some sourness and better flavor. Friends and family liked it even though I didn’t
Beauty: July 13-aug 1. Not sure it really has a longer hang time than methley, but it doesn’t get worse while hanging like methley does. Extremely high vigor, I now have a 2nd 8ft fully branched tree from a small graft made last year. I liked this a lot, very good for this early in the season. Having this means there’s no gap from the last cherries to the first plums
Flavor supreme: july 20-August 2? seemed to hang well though, probably could go much longer. My DWN FS tree has fruit that exactly matches the unnamed “pluot” grafts I got on multi-graft trees from local nurseries, so I think I figured those out. Extremely high quality fruit, incredible flavor, it defies the usual “early season stuff is worse than late season stuff” rule. Had probably a half set this year
Necta zee aug 2 - let it overbear a little, still sour, but good size considering
Shiro Aug 3-10. Complex, “tropical”? flavor. Let it ripen on the tree to where it’s fairly soft, it gets better and better
Sugar Twist Aug 3? crazy fruit set, needed a long time to thin. Not sure when to pick exactly. First few were bland and almost pure yellow inside. Last year the single one on the tree got some nice color inside. last pick around August 10. I think this tree needs water restriction and a lot of attention to pruning for light to hit the fruit. Next year I’m going to pick it just before it gets soft and counter ripen, I don’t think it improves after that. A lot of the fruit set in the core of the tree where there was poor light. They split as they hung from excess water
Nanaimo aug 3? maybe a little later, first one was slightly sour. the ones in the shade are still not ripe on August 10. I think the first one must have been ripe from bruise damage. Most of these ended up dropping while I was on vacation, around August 18
satsuma august 11ish, peak August 23. they’re starting to get loose. Flavor is sweet+sour, nutty, floral? Hard to describe but very good (my favorite plum). Small to medium size. Consistent fruit set, so much so that I suspect it’s self-fertile
Hollywood august 11ish. Could go longer? Sweet+sour, complex flavor, I guess like a raspberry? But mild, freestone, good size. Great, and pretty (red foliage). Low vigor, I wish it grew faster so I could have more
Suncrest august 11-sept 1 - picked one just starting to soften, I think they’re best picked this way and counter ripened. Full set this year and awesome, a favorite
Frost August 12-28 - better this year, still compares poorly with suncrest (smaller size, less color, more fuzz, more watery)
flavor grenade: I picked a few of these really early (August 13) because they had bird pecks and were going to start rotting, and they were still good! even when crunchy and only half colored, still tons of flavor. DWN advertises this with very long hang time, and I believe it, considering it’s good well before it softens
spice zee August 23-sept 6. not pretty (had powdery mildew netting) but good
fantasia August 25? I lost a lot of fruit to bird pecks at this point in the season. once pecked they start rotting. the ones that ripened were stunningly good, high sugar and high acid plus nice berry flavors
Vanessa seedless red grape august 26. Great flavor, crispy, only strike against is it has small berries which I find tedious to eat
dapple dandy Sept 2, only had one, not sure when to pick
sprite plum Sept 4. may have been a little past its prime, I didn’t like the soft and slightly mealy texture. my wife liked it
Candy heart sept 9, 2nd leaf tree only had one. I picked it slightly soft, like a pluot. It was very nice. Small (2”?) and sweet
redlove Calypso finished dropping Sept 17 and put into fridge. I think the tree was stressed from being pot-bound and should have held onto them longer
Unknown euro plum (either stanley or italian) - first decent-tasting one 19 sept. probably will be better in a week though
Remaily grape: sept 26. Was good a couple weeks earlier than this but I think this when be where most would want it in terms of sweetness
belmac - Oct 22. probably was ready before this
red Rome - Nov 24. probably ready before this. gets lots of scab but makes awesome pies and it’s incredibly productive with zero biennial tendency. I wanted to graft it over because I don’t spray for scab but it’s just so productive and the pies are great
My Hollywood plum has been blooming for a week or so.
I haven’t grafted any plums yet. It’s been so wet and somewhat cold. I agree that it seems more likely in a bit, although some little ones are already leafed out.
John S
PDX OR
Fantastic report Michael. Thank you!
Any other fruits to compare it to for timing reference?
Puget Gold just starting, Suncrest peach just finishing, Redhaven about 70%, Harko and Fantasia nectarine full bloom, Santa Rosa plum full bloom, Yoinashi Asian pear 10%, Hosui probably a few days away.
I’d say the Creswell tree is about 10 days to two weeks behind the Puget that’s next to it. They are small trees though. I don’t know how widely the Creswell is grown, I’m pretty sure only Eugene Wholesale Nursery grows it, but I’ve seen it in retail catalogs. Eugene Wholesale is also on their last season as the owner is retiring next year. I’ll make sure I keep the variety going though.
oh no! do you know if anyone is taking over eugene wholesale?
is creswell new for you this year? it’s incredibly late, I’m wondering if it came out of cold storage or something. I saw cuttings of it at the exchange last weekend but didn’t think anything of it but now I’m pretty curious
As far as I know, no one is taking over. Said he didn’t plant any rootstock last year, so he won’t be budding any this year.
That’s a 3rd leaf tree, it’s replanted in a peach orchard just to experiment. Two others died of canker, but that’s not surprising given it’s situation. It was planted in 2021, which was a pretty rough year for new trees, but that one is doing well now. And I’ll get you some wood this summer if you’re interested, and we’ll find out if it’s self fertile as well.
