It’s a great inspiration for people planing to grow fruit trees and vegetables on snow areas! Thank’s! 
This shows the different color of the cherry tree bark, and viewing from the silver tree to the direction of the brown tree, and viewing from the brown tree up towards the direction of the silver tree.
Does anyone know of a supplier that sells first year fruiting-sized Lapins or White Gold cherry tree?
I recently discovered I have wild red currants growing everywhere in my grove, good news at first because I would like to try using them. However, I have planted around 100 white pine as part of my windbreak and learned all about white pine blister on a thread on this forum recently, now I’m contemplating spraying all of the currants with roundup. Would rather give them up than all of the time invested in my windbreak. Should I spray or is the risk of the disease really low for me? I’m zone 4 NW Iowa, my grove is an island about a half mile from the nearest bush or tree. All corn and soybeans in this area. According to an ia state article it says don’t plant them especially black types if next to a large number of white pine, but probably OK for most Iowa gardeners…
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Red Currents are resistant to WPBR and are a source of resistance genes. Some cultivars are completely resistant. Wild populations can the disease but are far less susceptible to it then black currents.
The short lived spores maximum effective range is about 1000ft. Its recommended to remove ribes less then 200ft from white pines. Reds being resistant between greater thane 200ft away could stay and simply be monitored.
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@lordkiwi When you say just monitor, is it possible to prevent the white pine from dying once they are infected, by killing the currants and ending the cycle or are they a lost cause once infected and you’d just be preventing the rest from getting it? From what I’ve read it kind of sounds like it’s over for that tree but I wasn’t sure on that part. Some currants are under 200ft from the trees.
I do not know about the White Pines. Just repeating what the USDA and extensions offices say about currents. Restrictions on Red Currents have long been rescinded (1966). Where there still restricted at state levels Reds I know are not in NJ and OH at least.
The best thing you could do is call up your local extention office and ask if the local Red Currents are known carriers ot WPBR
the info i read from the Maine ext. service says most infections are on less than 9ft. from the ground and can be pruned out when seen. in n. Maine we are allowed to grow gooseberry and red/ white currant due to the very low chance of them harboring W.P.B.R.
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Are blueberry varieties able to grow to tree form? Ultimately, I have the perfect spot I’d love to plant my blueberry bush in, but would hope to not keep it fenced from deer when tall enough. It is a “star” variety which says it can grow 6-12’ tall (per the tag). It already is about 5’ tall.
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I have ordered a “fruit-bearing size” Lapins cherry, and it should arrive in a couple of days. I am hoping that it is nicely branched with lots of fruiting buds!
Because I have two trees far apart, I am debating about keeping it in a large pot and moving it from tree to tree, until grafts are established on the existing trees… Also, if the weather is especially bad next spring, it will allow me to move it under the roof, potentially saving the blossoms from wet-condition infections. Thoughts?
i would just plant it.
they tend not to thrive in pots.
It’s better to plant. and if you really want to, you could prune of a branch with flowers and hang that in your other cherry tree on a nice day.
The extra growth from not being in a pot, will more than make up for the little bit you pruned off.
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I just noticed today that all of sudden wasps are infesting my plums. I’ve never had to deal with that before. It looks like birds peck at the fruit, ruin it, and then wasps take over.
Do wasp traps work? I hung up scare tape to try slow the birds down. Go figure, I solve my deer problem and now I’m presented with another problem.
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This means your plum is getting ripe. I used wasp traps last year and had trapped many wasps but not all of them
Yellow jackets are the problem in my area, and the wasp traps do work. If you can deploy them in the Spring when the queens are out, they are really effective.
Update on the old peach tree. I decided not to cut it down… It has a lot of disease, but is still thriving. As you can see in the photos, I attempted to cut it out ( it has actually healed over quite a bit ) but the infection was never ending, and doing so ultimately led to even more visible gumming. Again, its produced a fair amount of peaches. They are currently larger than previous years, and not yet ripe. I believe they have a month to go.
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Was at the local nursery looking for an early apple. Earliest they had was Red Free. Anyone know if it is a worthwhile addition.
Is it ok to trim out black knot when rain is in the forecast or is it better to wait for a dry spell?
Hi YumYum,
This thread is so long, I haven’t kept track of all the comments (including my own) of your tree.
I will say it doesn’t take long to replace a peach tree with another. At the same time, I’ve nursed old peach trees along and got lots of peaches till they finally call it quits.
Pruning a lot of wood off an old peach tree can reinvigorate it a bit. It works with a lot established fruiting plants. It’s even mentioned in the Bible.
All I have to say is congrats. Keep it going till the tree finally tells you it’s not up to feeding you anymore. I’ve had several peach trees I’ve nursed along and got a worthwhile amount of peaches from. Eventually the scaffolds just keep breaking down till the tree gets smaller and doesn’t produce much. Sort of mirrors humans, I think. Meaning as we get older we get less and less productive, and get smaller.
There is a sad saw of humans. It’s “go go” for most of our life, then it’s “slow go”, finally “no go”. That’s something we can see acted out in short order on peach trees (sadly, as well as our pets).
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On the subject of rejuvinating a peach tree, would it work to chip bud lower on a non-bearing branch to start a new productive tier?
A couple of my trees have developed a great deal of “blind wood” due to my mis applying the little bit of pruning skills that I had at the time
I try to keep my trees at a mazimum of 8-9 feet tall and that is proving to be a challenge with peaches in particular. Stone fruit are the anti-espalier denizens of my orchard.
Mike
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Hi Mike,
I’ve seen lots of pics of your orchard. May I say you are pretty much an expert on espailer or close plantings. Not trying to flatter you, just calling it as I see it.
I think it would be difficult to renew blind peach wood with chip buds. I think the best bet would be to allow sunlight to hit the wood, which will generally force a few adventitious shoots. Those shoots will grow upright, but can be pruned short to force some lateral shoots. We’ve done this numerous times.
I will mention that if the blind wood is big and gets a lot of blazing hot sun, it will cook the bark. I don’t know a whole lot of the climate in NY. It may not be as big a concern there, but it may be something to think about. When we cut trees back in the summer, we try to leave a bit of shade on the scaffolds, whereas when we prune earlier in the spring, we cut the trees back ruthlessly. Especially in years like this where there are no peaches.
We butchered the peach trees earlier this year, but on varieties which are prone to blind wood, we headed back shoots where there would have been blind wood. On varieties which aren’t prone to produce blind wood, we thinned all those unproductive shoots off.
It’s kind of tough to create new shoots on blind wood of an older peach tree, but with slow methodical care, it can be done.
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I wonder if I was kinda hoping that you would say, “forget about it, it can’t be done” 
because as I can’t seem to let a challenge go unchallenged, I now will be adding another “project” to my to do list.
Someone told me grapes would be a problem for my space so… last fall I planted a potted vine and this summer I have two bunches growing… yay !!!
Mike
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