Questions not deserving of a whole thread

Hey folks, I have a question that is sort of important to me and probably easy to answer so I hope someone who knows can tell me…

A couple years ago I bought a cheap tree on sale at a big box store and just stuck it in the ground in the very back of my property where I rarely go. That winter the tree died- or at least appeared to die. The next spring it did send up a shoot from the rootstock but I didn’t do anything with it. Fast forward to today, when I noticed that it ended up becoming a really nice looking tree about 3/4 inch thick- but of course its just some kind of semi-dwarf rootstock tree, not a known fruiter… So I’d love to graft something on to it and take advantage it its now established rooms .

The problem is, I’ve completely lost track of whether it is a pear or an apple rootstock!!! You’d think I could tell from the leaves, but I cut some off and walked around and compared them to apple and pear shoots I have and it just isn’t clear to me.

All that background is just to ask one simple question: Doe any apple rootstocks ever have thorns? The little rootstock tree I am talking about has thorns on it, so I am 90% sure that makes it a pear rootstock- maybe a callery one. I know for sure most of my pear rootstocks have thorns, and I don’t remember any of my apple rootstocks having thorns, but I’d like to be sure. thanks

Sounds like a callery pear rootstock. Those things are EVERYWHERE here in Ohio.

pear with out a doubt.

I have a peach that was supposed to be a Belle of Georgia, but we have determined that it is not a Belle of Georgia but some other variety. The impostor Belle of Georgia set fruit this year, and it has a unique (to me) looking fruit. The fruit has a shiny smooth green look to it. None of my other peaches look this way. I am curious if someone can point me as to what variety it might be. My other thought is that it might be a nectarine (I have no idea what a nectarine looks like at this stage). Below is a picture of the unknown peach and an Elegant Lady to compare it to.

Unknown Peach (Belle of Georgia imposter)

Below is Elegant Lady as a comparison

Just some further notes the unknown peach (Belle of Georgia impostor) had showy blooms, is a fairly early bloomer. It was a Sam’s Club special, had a Simpson Nurseries tag on it.

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Nectarine for sure.

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Received my order of seedlings from the Ky division of forestry today and the quality seems pretty poor on many and im curious if i should attempt to get a refund?
All the seedlings tap root have been severed and some hardly have any roots at all.

Persimmon



Disease?

They will survive without the large tap roots. You can grow them for a year and graft them the following year.

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I’ve got a RedHaven peach on a Lovell rootstock. It was planted in 2013. Two years ago I had a great peach crop off the tree, probably 2 bushels. Last year I had only 6 peaches off the tree. This year I only see one blossom. The tree looks healthy, plenty greening out. I have three more peach trees planted in the same row. The Contender peach trees (2) did fine last year and have a lot of blossoms on them this year. The 4th peach tree was only planted in 2017. All it is doing is greening out.
Any suggestions/ideas as to why the RedHaven peach tree is not producing blossoms?
Leaves look fine as do all my peach trees. I fertilize them all with the same thing and spray them all the same way.
Puzzling, to say the least.

Mike, can you correlate blossom amout to Winter temperatures? Contender is supposed to be a little more cold hardy than Redhaven.

Did you check for borers?

I checked for borers, nothing there. That I could see.

We had some very low temps this last winter as well as last winter. That was the reason I chose the Contender and RedHaven, because of the low temp viability. The Contender does not seem bothered by the low temps- if that is the reason for no blooms.

graft on Winter Banana apple…

It is supposed to be compatible with both apples and pears. then you can graft whatever you want onto it.

Scott

Might it have more nitrogen then it can handle? unless you are trying to get it to bulk out the nitrogen load should likely be about 0 or nothing more then might be in strait compost.

I’m in an almost similar situation, all four of my peaches, including Redhaven and Contender didn’t bloom this year. They’ve already started to push out leaves, and some of my apples and pears are blooming now, so that means the peaches’ time has passed.

No explanation other than something must have killed the fruit buds, I suppose it was the cold temps, but it wasn’t that much colder this year than last. Maybe they came out of dormancy briefly during a short warm spell, and then some really cold temps got them?

Puzzling, and considering the weather’s been cooperating, it’s disappointing to not get any peaches this year.

I am not going to add any fertilizer under that tree this year. I will let it just “be a tree” for this summer and see what happens next year. Perhaps you are right and I gave it too much nitrogen last year.

It is strange that it happened like that this year. We did have some really warm days in a row and perhaps that is what threw the tree off when it got cold again. I know there were flowers starting to come up because of the warm spell. Then it got below zero and those flowers all died off, the parts that were starting to grow. It is just frustrating not to be able to figure out as THE one thing that made it not bloom. Last year we had the same issue with the weather. We had a week or more of warm temps and then it went straight back into freezing temps. Perhaps the Redhaven is more susceptible to not producing with the temp swings we have been having. A fruit tree that does not produce fruit is just firewood standing up.

I’d go ahead and do a soil test or two before continuing with any fertilizer. If it’s an issue with over or under fertilization it’s going to effect other trees eventually. With the test you’ll know what you do and don’t need. Too much of certain nutrients will inhibit uptake of others.

Good idea. TY.

I have an odd question that might be pretty simple to answer. I bought a four in one grafted apple tree from a nursery it has granny smith on it and I am not too keen about granny Smith. I bought the tree for my son because he likes Granny Smith apples. I would like to branch graft A sweet 16 scion on the Granny Smith that I got from Bob Purvis on one side of the tree. It should come in the mail in the next few days. When I purchased the tree the tags were a little off. They were all on the center trunk in what I think is an order of top to bottom. So I arrange them on their branch structure. I am thinking the Granny Smith is the one to the right In the photo. But my question is, is there a way to tell which variety is what based on the first one to leave out or flower?

I should be home in about 10 minutes and will take a top of view of the tree.

Leaf out or flower. Dang Siri.

Top and side view. The one I am thinking is granny Smith is starting to flower. Looks like red/pink flowers

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