Mrs. G,
What is the difference taste-wise between Reine Claude de Bavay and Bavay d’ Oullins?
Well I’m sold if they do ok with disease!
Reine Claude is sweeter. You will have to spray for curcs, borers, scab, black knot, mold of all sorts. They come with a price.
Last year I got Bavay scionwood from you. The graft took but I don’t know which Bavay it is?
I thought of fruitnut when seeing this picture.Did they leave an “e” off the end or is this another fruit,maybe Apricots?
The photo may be from Andy Mariani’s Orchard in Morgan Hill,CA Brady
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Thanks everyone.A lot of good info here. Brady
It is Reine Claude (the really good one!)
probably peach or nects, they seem too big to be cots
My bet would be those are apricots.
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Very similar.
My prune plum D’enty 707 from Raintree nursery finally has fruits after 6 years of planting. During that time a couple of big branches trimming because I thought it was not suitable to fruit in Western Washington. The tree most the time very clean from diseases and never spray any chemicals yet. I almost remove the tree away. Now every excited looking forward for tasting the fruits this summer 2023.
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The same thing it been 6 years, my Imperial Epineuse plum from Raintree nursery never fruit yet.
Don’t know should I wait more time or replacing a different fruit tree (Oregon curl free peach)?
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My prune de ente 707 from Raintree been in ground 5 years and nothing yet or even any of the ones I planted that year. It is getting frustrating waiting. My Italian I planted 7 years ago is finally going to produce a good crop been only a few pounds a year for the last three.
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It is a combination of things that contribute to delay fruiting. For example:
- Rootstocks , Myrobalan takes longer than krymsk or Marianna
- Varieties, some plums are more precocious than others
- practice, like Branch bending to more horizontal will redirect the tree’s energy to flower and fruit than letting it go vertical pushing tree’s growth
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Does the Prune D’Ente also go by the name of “Robe de Sergeant”?
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Most of my plum trees have Marianna rootstock. Raintree said Imperial Epineuse plum is standard to judge prune flavor in Europe. Therefore I really like to taste it. Keep waiting and waiting. It has upright growing habit. Hopefully it will fruit next year for me.
Another technique to induce more flower production in fruit trees is to girdle the trunk or branch(es) around blooming time. I’ve never tried it on plums because mine all flower profusely, but I have tried it on cherry and apple trees that were growing lots of succers/watersprouts. The girdle should be about 1/8 inch wide, cleanly removing all of the cambium layer, which will grow back in a month or two.
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I have only heard of using this for apple trees. Do you have a reliable source that suggests using this for stonefruit? Seems risky otherwise.
A thin label wire will kill a peach branch while an apple will grow over it. I can’t speak for cherries.
Even for apples it is often recommended to do half rings a few inches apart on the trunk or a branch. That is how I’ve always done it and it works… for apples. I needed it for N. Spy trees on 111.
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A Google search quickly turned up some academic reports re girdling of peach/nectarine trees. Mentions of girdling cherry trees were not common; I did find one but can’t find the link again. I’ve tried it myself on a cherry tree, but I was checking to see if it would increase fruit set after blooming, which it didn’t. I girdle all of my grape vines every year; so, I’m pretty familiar with the process.
OK, you wouldn’t do it so here are a few paragraphs from UC Davis on the subject of girdling peaches and nectarines- it isn’t done to encourage earlier fruiting so much as to improve the fruit and bring earlier harvests. I’m glad you brought it to our attention… I’d never heard of it being used on stone fruit at all. I expect the results are similar to root pruning, which is an ancient practice. Note that it is performed later than you suggested and must be done with great care, according to this source.
Early season varieties are prone to being of small size and are what commercial growers seem to use this method for.
“Trunk or scaffold girdling is performed on early season peaches and nectarines to increase fruit size, advance maturity and reduce the number of harvests. It is most effective when the seed length in the fruit is about 10 mm (3/8”), which generally occurs around one month after bloom.
The procedure involves removing a strip of bark completely around the trunk or scaffold. It is important to remove the bark just down to the cambial layer - a more shallow cut renders the girdle ineffective and a deeper cut can kill the tree.
If done correctly, the girdling wound heals over in 6 to 8 weeks, even though some gumming may occur and leaf nutrients may be decreased for a period of time. The practice should be treated with caution as some varieties do not respond well or show negative effects such as increased split pits, poor coloration or decreased fruit quality."
Here is a summary of research done on the subject which should give home growers some pause.
“Girdling was found usefully to increase fruit size and advance maturity in six early-season peach and nectarine cultivars, but injuries were caused in some trees because of poor healing. The degree of callusing was found to depend on the cultivar and the width of the girdle. Cv Springtime was the most tolerant cultivar to girdling and a girdle width between 5 and 10 mm gave the best results. A girdle width greater than 5 mm decreased callus formation on the other cultivars, and even caused the death of some trees of cv Armking, the most sensitive cultivar.”
If anyone is still interested here is as complete a guide as I can find. With this info I would feel confident to experiment with this method.
https://ssl.acesag.auburn.edu/department/peaches/peachgirdle.html
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