This is a popular way of growing sweet cherry in China in recent years, leave your comment

Yes that’s correct.

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Actually some of the oldest apple trees on earth are likely in China. Same general area as Kazakstan…home of the apple.

And, China produces far more apples than any country on earth…the USA is a distant second place. This per USDA.

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Sure, if you want to include wild apples.

I mean land set aside specifically for cultivation. I think a better example might be the malus breeding program out of Japan. Every single one of those (as far as I can recall) are desert apples (with the exception of ornamentals). They don’t really bother with cider/cooking apples. The closest they might go is a dual purpose desert apple.

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I still am wondering about pollination. Do your trees in a greenhouse bloom too early for local pollinators to find them? If so, do you bring in pollinators as needed? In an intensive system it seems some management of polllinators would be critical.

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I buy a hive of bumblebees. They do a great job of pollination. There are no local pollinators other than honeybees. The honeybees can’t get into the greenhouse and I don’t think would anyway. Bumblebees are much more at home inside a GH than are honeybees.

I sometimes have ripe apriums inside the GH before the last freeze outside.

To be honest I no longer have stone fruit in the GH but hope to again at some point. Right now it’s figs and a few other things that don’t need chilling. So the GH is 50F at night and upper 80s/low 90s during the day. I’m still harvesting high quality main crop figs that would have initiated growth in Sept/Oct.

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Thanks for specifics. Heading into more sub - zero weather here, I could sur use a few hours in your greenhouse.

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:scream: I’m scandalized! :smiley: Always loved seeing the amazing bloom of the nectarines in your greenhouse and look forward to seeing them in the future if you decide to try again.

If you’re getting a fig crop from growth started in Sept/Oct, I’m assuming you didn’t have a chilling cycle this year? Did the figs have any dormancy period at all and if not, any negative side effects? Are these in ground figs for growing fruit or are these container trees primarily to support your fig business? I’d love to see a greenhouse update thread/pics if you have the time.

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You make a good case for your point.

I think of winesap
as
an eating apple, though…after some storage time.

No chill cycle this winter. The figs have mostly been cut back for cuttings. The few trees with fruit still have leaves. I’ll cut all that out when the fruit ends. Or maybe leave a few and see if the leaves drop.

I have both in ground and potted nearly all aimed at growing cuttings not fruit. But I do get a lot of fruit. The dried fruit I’m eating now is about as good as fresh figs. Figs are a pretty amazing fruit. They can be grown in many different environments from the tropics to Canada. I think my greenhouse is about as good as it gets for figs. Still harvesting 2021 fruit and plants setting 2022 crop.

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