Hello everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Matt Brown and I live just outside of Pittsburgh in Franklin Park, very close to the Camp Horne exit off of 279 or Mt. Nebo off of 79.
We moved into this house 7 years ago and at that time the back yard was just grass. I’ve planted about 35 trees and 100 or so berry bushes since moving in. Also trying my hand at bees to increase pollination. My next goal is to get a handle on grafting. I’ve run out of space, so I need to graft to introduce more variety.
I look forward to connecting with Pittsburgh locals and seeing/discussing growing here!
I think I have been hit or miss on frost issues. I’m 7 years in on my apricot and have never had it make it through the late frosts. I attempted to cover it this March with 2 frost blankets (see pics), but it wasn’t enough. I’ve only lost peaches/nectarines to late frost one year, everything else has made it through.
My biggest issues by far have been fungus with our wet springs and high humidity. Every year I make progress, hopefully this year is the one I keep everything under control.
So far Bartlet pear, Stanley plum, Redhaven peach and surprisingly a few Santa Rosa have set fruit.
Paw paw blossoms opening in a few days.
Hoping frost warning tonight results in no frost.
I have Bartlett, Harrow Sweet, Seckel, Clark’s Small Yellow, and Red Clapps Favorite with fruit set this year. I need to protect some persimmon leaves and potted figs and pomegranates again…
Here’s my damage report. It got down to at least 30 here this morning.
It looks like around 10-25% of pawpaw flowers were killed. Around 15-50% of vegetative buds were killed on my younger pawpaw trees, but no vegetative damage on my older trees. Damage did not seem related to height with the pawpaws, some branches got hit and others were unscathed regardless of height on tree.
Persimmon damage was very obviously related to height from the ground as vegetative buds from Prok and JT-02 had ~90% kill rate from the lower branches, but the higher branches looked practically unscathed. Maybe 50% buds killed on my Lehman’s Delight branch that is at eye level. Yates, Rosseyanka, and Nikita’s Gift all had zero damage.
No noticeable damage to anything else, including the medlars and quice which are the furthest leafed out of all my trees. The stone fruits are mostly past bloom stage and forming small fruits. It doesn’t look like any of those were damaged, but it’s hard to tell with those and the damage signs can be delayed.
Thanks for the report! Sorry to hear you had damage, Tony. I hope the trees recover and give you a good harvest this year. It remains to be seen if Wednesday will be a frost.
I put a blanket on my Zirochka persimmon, I didn’t want another year of struggling through late frost. Pamjat Pasenkova I left alone, we’ll see how it does. I looks like the pears and probably the apples are fine, we’ll see!
Yeah, it’s looking like Wednesday night will be the deciding factor on whether I get much fruit this year from those trees or not. The forecast is looking pretty warm past that point and then we’ll be in May. The persimmons and stone fruits sure have been frustrating in recent years with these early springs and late frosts. Apples, pears, and berries seem to handle it just fine, so that’s been nice at least. And of course the potted figs are very dependable since I can shuffle them around.
Good luck with your persimmons! I’m not familiar with those 2 varieties. Sounds like you are becoming quite the collector. I admit I have lost much of my enthusiasm for persimmons due to my experiences with late frosts in the past 4 years, but I did acquire scions of a couple new varieties to graft with this year (David’s Kandy and Kassandra). Hopefully they will be late to push buds. David’s Kandy is late ripening, so I hope that it will be late to leaf out too. That seems like the most important trait to actually get fruit in my location.
I have 1 apricot that made it through! I love my family but that apricot is mine.
I see you guys mentioning persimmon. That is one fruit that I have not had much luck with. I have tried a couple times to get an Ichi Ki Kei Jiro persimmon tree to take but both times it didn’t make it through the winter. Are you covering your “cold hardy” persimmons over the winter? I do cover figs, pomegranate and mulberry to get through the winter.
Glad to hear you had an apricot survive the frosts!
Ichi Ki Kei Jiro is a straight Asian persimmon. Even if it is one of the most cold hardy Asian types, it still isn’t likely to survive our winters most years. I don’t think any Asian type is worth growing here without serious protection through winter(perhaps in warmer microclimates in the city, but I wouldn’t know as I live out in the country). Most of us are growing the straight American types or hybrid American/Asian varieties. I have Nikita’s Gift, Rosseyanka, and JT-02 for hybrid types and Yates, Prok, and Lehman’s Delight for American types. The American persimmons are plenty cold hardy for our region. For hybrids, it’s best to pick the ones that are more cold hardy, like JT-02. Nikita’s Gift is supposedly cold hardy down to -10F, which is still risky for our region. The coldest that we’ve seen in recent years at my location was -7 a few years ago and it survived that unprotected. I wouldn’t plant anything less cold hardy than that one. There are a bunch of more cold-hardy hybrid varieties to aim for nowadays.
The issue I’ve been having with my persimmons is damage from late spring frosts rather than cold-hardiness through winter. Mostly on the trees that are quick to start pushing growth like Prok.
I don’t cover any of my persimmons. I covered Nikita’s Gift and Rosseyanka the first 2 years in ground while they were small, but not anymore. Best to grow the straight American types or hybrids that don’t need covered. Or grow Asian types in pots. I don’t cover any plants except for a crape myrtle. I, personally, really don’t like covering plants through winter. That involves too many issues that I don’t like dealing with (voles, susceptibility to late spring frosts, ambrosia beetle attacks due to late frost damage). I grow lots of fig trees, but all are in pots that I overwinter in the garage. I should consider growing pomegranates in pots, but haven’t looked into that much yet.
And if you go to Stark’s site they list Hachiya as acceptable in my area. I’m not a big fan of controls but it feels like that needs to be some labeing requirements
My sister bought American Persimmons from Gurneys and was upset when I pointed out that they were not grafted and had about a 30% chance of having average fruit.
It seems like there should be a minimal disclaimer. 1) variety is thought to be survivable for 15 years in your zone 2) this is not a grafted cultivar and may not be true to the parent cultivar 3) species is dioecious and this plant may or not be fruit bearing
Yep. I spent an afternoon, grafting apples with her imparting the little I know. I explained that the persimmons could be grafted. Hopefully the apple grafts take and I can graft the persimmons next spring. She is relatively close to you (in WV about half way between Wheeling and Washington PA) so I may hit you up for scion wood.
Since you have quite a list of fruits, are they’re any that have been especially notable at avoiding the late frosts?
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