I have had Golden Russet growing on one cordon of an espalier for three years in my yard in Winnipeg. It has had only minor winter damage through three winters and it doesn’t get any winter protection other than what the sheltered urban location provides. But since it is a tip bearer, Golden Russet does not work well on espalier and I am going to give it one more year to produce. If nothing, off it goes. It apparently ripens very late and needs some storage to be at its best. You might have a better chance of ripening it in your greenhouse if you are willing to heat to extend the season. Let me know what you think of the taste when it fruits for you.
My Sweet 16 is one of the most vigorous trees in my orchard. Never any winter damage near St. Paul in northern Wisconsin.
Problem is access. Many of the varieties I would love to have simply aren’t available in canada.
Have you tried Oak Summit Nursery. They are out of Manitoba and have Scion wood for apple, pear, plum and cherry.
I heat in the spring so my season is extended in the greenhouse already. I mistakenly planted it before I learned it was a tip bearer, but I have decided that since it is almost to bearing age I will allow it to remain with all it’s little branches and whips attached until I can taste it and decide if it is worthy of remaining and taking up space. For me, a few apples are enough, I am not looking for bushels to process, just enjoyment.
If I remember to log in here in early winter next year
I can contact you and you are welcome to some snippets of what I have.
They also have a series of articles on their blog about grafting experiments onto Serviceberry and I think Aronia that were pretty interesting from a few years ago. Now I need to go see if they have any updates on how things turned out. ![]()
I graft plums onto Nanking cherries and they are in their 10 th year. I also grafted pear onto cotoneaster and it is producing pears.
I have them on my favorite’s list but haven’t purchased from them yet.
I haven’t tried any grafting, been just experimenting what will survive here. (ya never know till you try). This yr have air layered our better plums(lee red, ivanovka and fofonoff; another couple weeks and we can see if any sucess)
Thinking this winter I need to research grafting more, would have Never thought of grafting to nanking.
Have some cherry plums, our experience, manor is tough as nails, kappa, not so much, mustang by far the Least winter hardy, which is weird as it seems to be the popular rootstock?).
Planted some mara this yr. Not going to winter protect them(wrap in burlap and small square bales at base); we’ll see.
I have a European plum from BC grafted to a Nanking cherry it is not a large tree but It does produce prune plums below the snow line. Kinda cool and they are pretty good. My Wawaneta is on Nanking as well. They make great hardy plum rootstock.
Try Mount Royal, mine has been living for 8 years here as well, minor winter kill and does produce.
Brookgold is a stellar plum, very hardy here. But be aware that years back there was a mix up somewhere in the nursery trade and many trees labeled Brookgold actually end up to be a red plum. I have Brookgold and it is yellow.
Try your hand at grafting, it is actually quite easy and cuts the costs considerably when experimenting with varieties.
I am not sure how much rootstock plays in the success of winter survival but all of mine are grafted onto American or Canadian plum, and Nanking Cherry. It could be that some of the loss of a variety is due to the rootstock, that is why I started grafting.
@ECSask just curious about whether you had any fruit on your William’s Pride trees and if so, what you thought about it. We had about a dozen apples on a graft in the part of the orchard with winter protection. The two photos immediately below were of fruit picked in early September (fully ripe), middle one taken Aug 28, and the bottom two taken mid-August.
Beautiful apples as you can see, and they are crisp and juicy for an early apple. In mid August the seeds were about 3/4 brown and the apples were quite good with interesting flavour that had me hoping for more as they ripened. They were fully ripe in late August but sweetness and flavour didn’t quite hit the heights I was hoping for. But still possibly the best combination of texture and flavour of the early apples I have grown. I grafted a few scions in the main, unprotected part of our Z3 orchard. Remains to be seen whether they can hang in there long enough to fruit.




