When should I start pruning stone fruit seedlings? I have some apricot seedlings that are a few months old, should I pinch off the top to have them start spreading out, or should I wait until they are closer to a year old?
I was thinking, from the first image, that it could be purple coneflower. The second image, not so much.
Scott
I have plenty of tree’s traint to stepover that branch low (like 18")
I think the advise has to do with rain hitting dirt that than gets launched upwards and hits fruit/wood. And that could make diseases worse. Also higher up, usually dries faster. Especially if stuff grows below your tree that gets close to the lower branches.
I’m planning on growing some really low clover (micro clover) and some creeping thymes below my low branching trees. Might help with dirt hitting wood/fruit from rain.
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That sounds fun! Where can a gentleman like myself get some of this creeping thyme?
Thymus serpyllum?
if got them at
They have a lot of different Thyme.
Unfortunately my plants are still small. Otherwise i would have sent you some cuttings.
I have spare micro clover (turf clover) seeds i can send you some off though.
in winter those stay green and lower than 1" for me. See the p9 pot (9cm) for scale
in summer they get a little higher. Usually around 4" (10cm) but sometimes 6" (15 cm)
if you don’t have to spray your tree’s. I find them excellent groundcover. They can however flower quite early. So if you spray that might become a problem.
here is a photo end of summer with a homegrown shitake and the clover at the background
the spots you walk on often als stay really low (sub 5cm = 2")
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Would you plant this out (Japanese plum at least 4-5 years old in a fabric pot, soil-free mixture) or let it go another season potted and wait until it goes dormant again? It will semi-bareroot itself no matter what I do when I cut off the pot as the mix I use really doesn’t ever compact too much and the fabric pot keeps the roots pruned. Our temps are still freezing today but this coming week we are getting into real spring temps with lows above freezing consistently. Just worried about putting too much stress on the tree. I wish I had been feeling well enough to get it in ground earlier.
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You said it’s a potted tree, if you want to wait until next week to plant it in ground so the flower buds won’t be affected by this unusual colder temp, that’s fine.
When people said planting trees when they are dormant, they often talk about planting bare-root trees. Potted trees can be planted at almost any time when soil is not frozen solid.
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My first two plum trees were container trees from big box stores. They came in a soil less medium and I planted them 3 years ago. Today, both tree are so wobbly and has such poor anchorage that I feel like the roots have not penetrated much into the native soil. I imagine the roots may be encircling and in bad shape.
I’m planning to dig my two trees up to inspect the roots, remove the soil less medium completely, and replant only in native soil. I’m not sure either if I’ll do it this year as the trees also have started to wake up. Messing with roots after leafing out may un-invigorate the tree, and sometimes could kill it.
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That is somewhat my concern, that they are in the process of waking up. The medium I use will fall right off the roots no matter how careful I am, based on previous experience, so they will be at least semi-bareroot and semi-dormant. I might just go for it though. The idea of irrigating pots all summer is unpleasant.
Would you rate Liberty apple more on the fresh eater side or more on the cooker side?
If the medium will just fall off the roots with a good shake, it means there’s probably not much fine roots to damage. I would just shake it and plant it then. You might keep a spray bottle handy to ensure the roots are moist.
Hey all, hope this is the right spot. Was wondering when I can transplant these peach tree seedlings outdoors in their forever holes? Bought a locally grown peach and the pit had twin kernels. Started germinating them indoors around November, they were in 12oz pots until I put em in 1/2gals a few weeks ago, now they’re about 2.5+ ft tall. I’m growing in zone 5, avg last frost may 14 but it seems usually earlier recently. Either way nighttime temps are definitely below freezing 9/10 of the next 10 days. Do I absolutely need to wait until the danger of frost has past? Realistically I wouldn’t put em outside for another 2 weeks minimum, I dont want them to be too shocked/lose all the foliage, but I really need the light + space for my spring vegetables.
Pic for reference-
I have 8 blueberry plants I planted 2 years ago and they are not rooting in, I could literally pull them out easily. Since they have already leafed out and have flowers should I pull them out now and fix the soil or do it in the fall?
I seen a article saying to add mulched pine needles when planting young blueberries but I think that is causing them not to root out so maybe I need to add soil and get the mulched pine needles out of there?
I’d put the peach seedlings outside during the day but bring them in on cold nights.
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@danzeb Thanks for the vote of confidence! I’m actually currently in zone 7 but they will go into ground zone 5. I will start putting them outdoors the next sunny day, guess I will bring them in at night the first few days at least.
I guess i’ll aim to put them outdoors at the end of april or so, should be pretty safe.
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While in pots, the roots will be way more vulnerable to low temps than the top. So I agree if it’s going to freeze during the night bring them in.
I would expose the potted tree to outside as much as possible to harden it off. Then plant it out as soon as there is no longer any deep freezes to prevent before roots start circling in the pot.
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Pear flower buds have black spots near base of bud. Some flowers are totally black. Is this damage from a late frost or is this a pest/disease I need to deal with ?
I’ve only seen this on one tree so far and it is the tree that had the most open buds when we suddenly had two nights in the low 20s.
Anyone know whether a peach on a controller 6 rootstock would be able to grow in a 50-100 gallon pot?
My orchard was in low 20’s also in the last cold front in VA and it definitely did some damage.
One of my pear tree has totally black flower buds while others seem okayish. I think the cultivar also matters on how the tree reacts to the frost. Some cultivar seem more obviously sensitive than others.
do pear trees want full, blazing hot sun not near a structure, or would partial shade be better? it’s high desert so the sun and temps get high and the wind too.
to get them sheltered from wind they’ll lose the southern exposure and will get western light.
additional note, I’ve got seckel, harrow sweet to put in.