I didn’t have good luck until I started to make a barrier all around the tree - use long strips that get within a foot or two from the ground and have one every couple feet around the tree so it is a bit like a fence. That seems to raise their anxiety levels enough. Also get it up well before any fruit gets near ripe, once they have tasted the forbidden fruits there is no stopping them.
3 Likes
Would you consider this a candidate for no spray growing? I really, really don’t like the idea of spraying pesticides, and I’m pretty tolerant of blemishes. Many peaches just won’t survive to ripen without pesticide.
For reference, I don’t spray anything on my Montmorency cherries. I’ll soak them in water before going into pies or canning. Whatever gets missed is extra protein that won’t impact flavor.
1 Like
It’s hard to say without trying, but it gets fewer bugs/diseases than my Montmorency and they both get the same spray regimen… so it sounds like it could be up to your standards. It really is cooking-only, great in recipes but not so exciting fresh.
Perfect! I really just want it for jam/canning.
Great information! Much appreciated!
Hello and good day !
This is a wealth of experience !
I come from an area where apricot, plum, grapes, apples, pomegranates were grown in huge quantities. Every house had grape vine and other fruit trees depending upon area. These trees will produce in huge quantities. Only problem was insects and birds as it was very dry and cold area and fungus etc were less problematic. So I thought apricots will produce here also but your experience shows otherwise especially Zard, Lasgerdi, Aghan white etc. Only Shakerpareh seems a hope as per your experience.
Have you grown Harcot apricot in past ?
I only grew Harglow and it was enough of a dud that I didn’t try any of the other Har ones. The Rutgers apricots do much better, Orangered and Ilona for example are awesome.
1 Like
Scott I’m trying to pick up another super early plum other than SS. I noticed your Early Magic review made it sound like it was not worth fighting the rot for. Do you know anything about Early Golden or others in that bracket?
I know early is pretty bad in all stones, but I’m trying to move all the stone dates forward so there is no over lap with pomes. That overlap period can be overwhelming.
If you are doing a synthetic spray program for rot then you should have not problems with Early Magic. Once I got my synthetic program fully in gear I didn’t have any problems with brown rot on any fruits.
If Sorriso di Primavera can be grown in your area,the Asian Plum is very early,vigorous and fruits easily.I like the flavor.
1 Like
I was reading Scots reviews for plums again and an early fruit that I noticed that sounded good from his list was sweet treat pluerry. He described it as kid candy sweet which to me sounds. amazing for an Asian plum. I think I read somewhere sweet treat was early which may be why some nursery rate it to zone 6.
1 Like
It’s Asian with an Italian name?
Edit: I see it was created in Italy from Asian parents
1 Like
I have Sugar Perils Apricot, it’s 14 years old nice tree but it’s never produced fruit so i added another apricot verity called Moorpark this year, i hope that will produce in a few years, i just keep holding out hope Sugar Perils will give me something someday, that’s why i never cut it down. i seen about 12 apricots that didn’t fall off. so we’ll see if this will be the year i get one.
1 Like
Sugar Pearls does need a polinator. Adding the second variety should help tremendously.
1 Like
Are sour cherries less prone to rot than sweet?
I know you can find sour cherries more cold hardy than sweet cherries. Kirstin in the only zone 4 sweet cherry I know of and black gold is a self fertile sweet cherry that just tends to escape the frost due to producing when tart cherries typically produce. I also heard black gold can live down to something like -25. Meanwhile the romance series is zone 2 or 3 from what I hear. I also have heard that the self fertile trait is honestly a trait that is believed to be from sour cherry. Some disease resistance can go based on the cultivar. I believe white gold is more disease resistant. This article claims white gold to be resistant to brown rot for example The Whitegold Cherry Tree - Minneopa Orchards
1 Like
It is worth noting the biggest challenges I have faced with cherries at least in my zone 5 CO area is pollination problems. This is my first year I have cherries forming and it is ironically on my new 4 in 1 tree I got this year. I got my first cherries in 2020 and they did not produce that year of course. Second year they flowered but one tree was on the north side of the house and one was on the south side. This caused them to come out and bloom at different times despite Utah Giant and Rainier both being mid season from my understanding. I added black gold last year but it was too young to flower on standard rootstock and the same thing happened with the bloom times. I got a 4 in 1 and finally I have fruit on that. My other trees have not flowered yet. For that reason at least I would try to get some self fertile cherry trees or some multi grafted trees.
Your facing different problems out there. On the east coast the only problem that matters is brown rot. I’ve got lots of cherry trees and 0 pollination problems. I’d be happy to switch problems with you.
Would like to give you some warning about the ones on standard rootstock. About half of mine are on standard and they desperately want to turn into huge monsters.
2 Likes
Depends upon where you live and the humidity you get.
Tart cherries are much more resistant to brown rot than sweet cherries. They can get brown rot but I have only seen it on my trees in really bad years where the conditions highly favor brown rot infections. Even in the bad years I think it only effected less than 10% of the total tart cherry crop. Here is a link that talks about the relative resistances of the different stone fruits to brown rot.
1 Like