Pittsburgh Metro Area

Update - we will be looking at 7.75+ shipping for apples for anyone local interested. I don’t really want to deal with shipping as I already have a bunch of trades going on and too many plants to dig holes for :grin:

I am east of the city near Irwin but travel north to Mars for work. My brother is in the north hills and beaver weekly so he could meet up with you too.

Jason, I can go halfsies on the pineberries with you - was going to trial some this season as well

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Anyone interested in going in on an order for rootstock? I only need 25 or so but there’s a 100 minimum order. These are all free-standing varieties:
https://www.treco.nu/products/apples/geneva-890/
https://www.treco.nu/products/apples/geneva-969/

Good prices for a half inch stock! Interested in a few (maybe). Keep me posted if you have any other interest.

Will do.

If I ordered 25 from Cummins or Burnt Ridge its 100 dollars. Which is crazy when you compare to how much you get at Treco or CopenHaven. It’s like 1.50-2.00/ea vs 3.50-5.00/ea

I will leave this for you to check through as well… I have stuck with M111 mostly for my stocks and plan to prune to maintain size. Bud9 I’ve heard has some weird disease possible in our area and this thread on Geneva gives me pause.

At one time Cummins got the rootstock it sells from CopenHaven. Don’t know about its current situation.

I have seen threads mention a weak graft union for Geneva stock. I personally have never had any problems (sample size n = 10, 3rd year or greater). It is mentioned that budding may be the problem and since I’m terrible at budding I’ve gotten lucky with whip and tongue.

I’m hesitant to go MM.111 or MM.106 because they seem to take a long time to come into fruit. Even my M.7 trees have yet to do anything while my G.41 which are much younger continue to impress. Anecdotal, for sure.

B118 may be the next up if the graft union thing is a true concern.

Rootstocks are so controversial. To me G.890 is the pick if you listen to WSU:
http://treefruit.wsu.edu/varieties-breeding/rootstocks/

Happy to jump in on a order if anyone is up for it.

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How is everyone faring through the 2022 March blooming snowpocalypse? My Jeanne gooseberries and honeyberries have already leafed out and my Seckel pear branch is ready to bud out, but otherwise my stuff outside is still pretty dormant and I think it will survive just fine. I’m not terribly worried about the berries, they like the cold.

My pears and plums woke up a little but everything else is still dormant. This is just too cold. I was able to get my tomato and pepper seeds started today.

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I’ve been out of town for work for the past week, getting back tomorrow, so haven’t had a chance to check on things. I have an in ground fig which I uncovered last week that was still fully dormant. Rest of stuff should be fine. Most of my plants are on a north facing slope and generally leaf/bud out a week or 2 later than elsewhere.

As a side note, northern exposures can work well for stuff tends to get hit by early frosts. Everyone always wants a sunny southern exposure but sometimes a northern exposure can be your friend.

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Does anyone know of a place that might have early pawpaw pollen? I may have flowers on one tree for the first time and wanted to try my hand at hand pollination. I’m not sure when I will have blooms but wanted to be prepared.

Mine will likely bloom later than yours, but I can offer you some flowers/pollen when they do start blooming. Also, I can tell you the wild spots I know of if you want to try getting wild pollen, but those are all further north than where you live as well.

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Well the damage from that 15 degree day is starting to show. Looks like half of my plum buds at least were fried.

Peaches and pears look ok still.

Is half a good amount that you shouldn’t have to thin? Trying to be optimistic over here…

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My experience is similar. One of my plums (Superior) had many flower buds get fried, but there are still plenty left that weren’t damaged. Other trees don’t appear damaged, but I’m still keeping an eye on the pears.

@disc4tw Don’t worry, the plum curculios will thin them out for us!

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The full damage from that 15 degree day is finally apparent. 95-100% loss on the plums and 75% loss on all my peaches. The peaches actually looked ok but the flowers opened brown and dead inside this week.

Surprisingly the pears seem completely fine, I didn’t see a single lost flower.

Blackberries, grapes, strawberries, and blueberries all seem fine, they were further back and are just waking up now.

That sounds rough for the plums… A reminder that having lots of different fruits helps to have a harvest in challenging weather. Do you have any persimmon/ /pawpaw or jujube? All of mine are still asleep now with a few pawpaws just barely starting to leaf out. Good options for surviving late frost here.

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Public service announcement -

Forbes State Forest is hosting a “Spring 2022 Making the Most of Your Piece of Nature Workshop” (my wife and coworkers have been organizing it, I will be attending).

Details: Join us on May 14th at
Mammoth Park, Mt. Pleasant, PA
8:30 am-Noon

Spend a morning learning how you can care for your “Piece of Nature.” With the increased prevalence of development and urban sprawl, learn how you can transform your property into a refuge for native birds, pollinators, and wildlife that better serves you and your family. Experts will be on hand to inform and answer questions giving talks and exhibiting throughout the morning. This free event is made possible through the generous support of Westmoreland County Parks.

Agenda

8:30am: Registration and visiting exhibitors in pavilions 4 and 9

9:00am: Pavilion 3 “Native Plants that Thrive,” Melissa Reckner

Pavilion 10 “Climate Change in Your Backyard,” Bonnie McGill and Nicole Heller

10:00am: Pavilion 3 “Eat the Invasives: Spring Edition,” Barb McMillan

Pavilion 10 “Backyard Birding," Gigi Gerben

11:00am: Pavilion 3 “Permaculture Principles," Tacumba Turner

Pavilion 10 “Trees as an Investment,” Kalaia Tripeaux

12:00pm: Wrap-up

RSVP

The event is free, but please be sure to register.

Tree Adoption!
Thanks to the generous support of the Laurel Highlands CRSP network, free tree adoptions will be available for workshop attendees. Trees will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to interested attendees. The trees will be native species from Tree Pittsburgh Heritage Nursery approximately 1-4 ft tall in 2-gallon pots.

Available Species:

Shagbark Hickory
Yellow Buckeye
Sycamore
Tulip Poplar

Who wouldn’t want a free tree!? In all seriousness, I would love to see some of you folks there. This would be a fun get together event in a neutral location to meet up and learn some new things and get to know each other, hopefully setting the stage for future local orchard/garden tours!

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Some leaves slightly droopy, but no frost last night.
Apple blossoms look good.

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