Check Orangepippin and some other british sites before they change your import laws! Some crazy good british nurseries and french nurseries out there. I would focus on getting what you can from britian but beware most english apples like cold and wet and usually do not take to heat and many have high chill hours so you would have to manually defoliate the trees before winter and other stuff i would rather not do (or need to keep them small or as espalier). In my mind the spanish, japanese or italian ones would be your best fit.
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I usually buy from Italian nurseries…
I’m in 5b and growing mostly ones that are rated down to 5, so a lot of mulching, and bringing inside what I can. The plants were ordered a while ago, just started to receive them. Starks isn’t shipping my order from them till mid August, so I’ll be most likely putting them in pots to grow out for next season too 
no point putting them into the beds and not get enough time to develop a mature root system before winter hits. I currently have fall gold (already fruiting when I got it) in a pot. I got a new Anne yellow bare root that also just arrived with the one I posted, again, in a 2gal pot to start it. I think I’m just going to move all the berrys to 20/21” pots as soon as I can get them, even if It’s up potting “too big” too soon.
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Good luck with them. Blackberries and raspberries are fun to grow. I’m in 5b/6a.
Sounds like a reasonable plan. I know I was frustrated this year as I wanted to prepare a raised bed too, but could not obtain materials because of the lock down. Then I got the nectarine tree. So it went into a mound instead of a raised bed. Soil from other parts of my yard. Which is what you should do anyway. The tree has to grow in native soil, best get it used to it.
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Another question though. My new neighbor recently redid his whole yard. Even clearing out the weeds and brush around the garage, putting down weed cloth, gravel, and installing privacy fence to replace the post and beams that divided the property. There are a few small blackberry canes that have popped up under the fence, from a plant that I’m sure the old neighbors didn’t even care/know about. It has survived being on the west side the the garage and treated like a weed for at least a decade. is it worth digging up a cane or two and growing them out and “saving” them? They’re clearly hardy enough to have survived the conditions of my driveway. Or is it risking my cultivated plants even having it in a container or separate bed nearby? Granted, I don’t remember if the berries were any good.
Hey everybody, does this photo matches your Zard apricot? Please note the very characteristic “nipple” at the flower end. @scottfsmith @mamuang
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That doesn’t look like mine, it is more white and not nippled. The main ID for Zard though is the seed, it is huge, record sized.
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Thank you Scott! This one seems to be a white apricot (although the skin is a bit more yellow than other white apricots). Have you ever seen an apricot with such a nipple?
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Taste? Where is Fruitnut?
Here are more pictures of the nippled apricote. The skin is actually lighter than the photo shows, pale lemon.
The taste is somewhat mushy, the apricot flavor not pronounced, a hint of lemon. This was the first year the graft fruited, so both the size and the taste can still improve.
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What rootstock nurseries usually use to graft hybrid or Asian persimmons?
It depends on the nursery and their location. Some use D. Lotus. Others use D. Virginiana. Each nursery should have their rootstock choice listed somewhere.
Some of my grape leaves have grape phylloxera. I am thinking about controlling it by spray some pesticides. But I thought this guy. My question is : is this guy having some grape phylloxera for dinner or it just curiously browsing? I will be more than happy to let this guy to have feasts on my grape vine if it actually is doing something good
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@IL847 Thats a ladybug nymph and is definitely eating around 350-400 aphids in this cycle. However if you want to stop phylloxera the key is to treat the soil, you could use beneficial nematodes HB are the most effective but sf are effective on many larval forms also
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I’m in Illinois too and also have lots of leaf type phylloxera this year. The problem is not in the soil. Generally speaking leaf phylloxera is considered cosmetic. The infestation doesn’t do any harm to the crop. Supposedly there are some very expensive insecticides to go after them, but few people are using them.
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My question is if the young lady bug eats phylloxera? The phylloxera is sheltered inside that bump, can lady bug dig it out?
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@IL847 Oh yeah thats why they are there, its literally its life purpose. Yes they eat tons of the phylloxera who are in the aphid life cycle (they have up to 18 life cycle stages and are a pretty gross colony insect).
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I found this really interesting!
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Very interesting article, thanks Kevin for sharing it. You must read a lot. Didn’t know the Scotch whisky was aged in Sherry barrel.
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Glad you enjoyed it too. Like you, I learned a lot from the article besides about Phylloxera- but that too. I read a lot but often its useless things. haha I found this because my city is getting a huge distillery and cooperage (barrel making company) so I’ve been trying to learn about the industry . Fun to come across a fruit tree related article.
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