Scott,
I highly respect your opinion. Please keep letting us know what are duds for you. People with limited space like me, benefit from your posts on this matter
(and all others, in fact). Thank you.
I just went out to check on my trees. I have no regret about the four trees that I removed for one reason or another.
Iāve removed my goji berry bush a few weeks ago. The reasons:
Iām thinking of removing my Che tree. I donāt seem to have a long enough season for it to fully ripen its fruit. Iād rather use the space for something more productive and that I can multi-graft onto.
Scottfsmith: I shake my head when reading your posts, because we deal with such widely differing conditions and challenges. Rots? Sooty Blotch? Ripening too early for heavens sake?Of course, my list and space are restricted, but it may be safe to say I cull one variety for every two that seem to work. Maybe that is a good percentage when so few other people are attempting a home orchard (a nod to HighandDry!)
This season I bought a boxfull of Wynoochee Early apples. My first taste of these. These were grown in full-blown desert and some (most?) of their flavor has gassed away in the heat. They are superior to Williamās Pride in many respects for growing out this way, but I had hoped for more aromatics and tartness. My Wynoochee Early whip has struggled for several reasons, and I thought just yesterday that it may be worth selling to someone who is enthralled by Honeycrisp. The crunch is lighter, but the flavor is just as light. BTW, Wynoochee is a seed factory! Iāve never seen 18 seeds in a single apple, and these typically bear 14-17 each.
I hope for flavor bombs: Lamb Abbey Pearmain, Margil, (Court Pendu Rose?) all of which are also smaller trees. If CPR is not strongly flavored but very interesting, it may live on just for that reason.
In the meantime, Claygate Pearmain is proving to be much smaller than hoped, so will probably sell one of the whips, since they cannot go by the sidewalk/street and contend with depredations of passers-by.
Iād thought to top-work the NOT-Medaille dāOr, but it appears to be Twenty Ounce/Blessing and we really like this apple. Weāll give it a few more season to prove itself.
With prevailing heat and high chill hours, and my preference for flavor and some tartness whenever that may be a proper expectation, the crowd of apple whips will sort themselves out in a few more years.
In the meantime, life is full of discovery and delight.
Iāve got two areas I grow apples and itās too much work. So Iām going to try and take the best trees from my small orchard and move them to my vegetable garden and just cut up the ones I donāt need. I grow Tall Spindle in my veggie garden so Iām going to down size the veggies I grow and plant four trees in the middle and grow veggies around them. Itās too much work mowing and keeping two areas cleaned up. Iām also thinking of removing a pristine apple itās okay, but I grow Gravenstein and Williams pride for late summer and donāt need that many apples early on. Also Iām starting to think about grafting over Crimson Crisp and Crimson Gold apples. They are good, but I have enough similar apples that maybe I need to try others.
Iām thinking of eliminating my European pear trees cause they are very prone to rust. Minimal production so the space would be better used for more hardy, disease resistant and productive trees.
Anthony
Your Che is such a good one I would hate to see you remove that!
Thanks, Clark. Iāll see if I can find a spot to move it to instead of just getting rid of it.
I am contemplating removing my multi grafted Shiro. It has 15-17 varieties on it .
Here are the negatives:
I am convincing myself that it should be removed butā¦could any of you talk me out of it.
I agree, sounds like itās not worth the effort.
What are the other varieties?bb
All 10 of my jap plum trees are going to be on the chopping block this winter. Due to late spring freezes, I am getting a good crop only 1 out of every 4 to 5 years so not worth the trouble to maintain them.
Topwork them to Euro plums? Peaches?
Probably not Tony, already have 9 peach trees on guardian rootstock that grown like weeds in my area and need to be pruned 2 or 3 times a year to keep the height down.
I have around 100 fruit trees total, it is getting to be too much for 1 fellow in his mid 50ās to maintain so looking to lower my total tree count.
From the top of my head, Beauty, Broken Heart, Dragon Tears, Emerald Drop, Flavor Delight, Flavor Granade, Flavor King, Flavor Supreme, Honey Blaze, Laroda, Lavina, Reema, Splash, Spring Satin, Superior, Toka, and a couple that Ilost tags.
Have not tried many because of various issues including bug damage and squirrels.
Not technically trees, but Iāve removed many banana plants over the years, mainly because they were either too tall to prop and harvest easily in my small yard, or were not productive in my climate, or were acquired under different names but were essentially the same, or were taller versions of dwarf varieties I already had.
Iād have a selfish reason to let the tree stay,because of wanting scion wood,but thatās not enough.
I remember Tom Spellman saying in a pruning video for Dave Wilson Nursery,that if there is a question about making a cut,then just make the cut.Maybe not the same in your case,but it sounds like this has been considered for awhile.bb
Brady, some of those grafts donāt grow much because part of the tree is in shade.
Most of these plums taste similar and often diluted due to our wet weather.
Maybe just keep a few varieties on it. Some Japanese plums do better in adverse conditions. My Satsuma always tastes at least very good, no matter what the weather. The inner shaded ones are less sweet but still taste really good. This consistency is one reason why Satsuma is my all-time favorite. It is the only one so far that I would say is so consistent. Weeping Santa Rosa was really consistent but this year I let it overset and many are bland. Satsuma just makes smaller somewhat less sweet plums if you let it overset ā¦ still yummy.
