Warmer Weather: Game on!

Yes isn’t it sweeeeet! :grin: :grin: :grin:

Too bad I have been inside all day fixing an annoying computer issue. Finally its done and now I’m going to catch up on some pruning!

Scott

We are having 40s and 50s is on the way in Chicago. a foot of snow is still on the ground , melting fast. Will the trees wake up and flower soon, repeating of 2013 early bloom and later frost cycle? BTW people are woken for sure, I went out on Sunday, every parking lot was full like in X’mas time.

55F all afternoon here and sun… 60Fs tomorrow and again on Friday and maybe warmer on Monday…cool down for the weekend… Snow is about 90% gone here.

Bay Laurel order came today. No way its going in the ground without a jackhammer.

franktank I just got my order from Bay Laurel too. 3 trees in all, Weeping Santa Rosa, Laroda Plum, and Emerald Drop Pluot. The latter two came branched and the laroda even had a few flowers way up high… to bad they got whacked… Lol. No need for a plum tree with a 5 foot tall central lead. The Santa Rosa however came in around 3/4 inch caliper with zero branching… taller and thicker than my WSR from Raintree last year, but I hope it doesn’t follow the same route that one did… didn’t sprout the whole season and finally completely died late fall…

I’ll try to take some pics. My driveway is starting to get a tad full of potted trees.

They sent me Monique white apricot and Shar kae something apricot which Scott says is actually an aprium… Both are on Marianna 2624 —which i’ve never grown before. I’ll take some pics before i pot them up…

I got 2 boxes today, each of them part of an order.

Roger Meyers: 50 jujube rootstocks (5 bags in middle of pic) and 3 trees (top of pic). I’ll start another thread on this order, as I haven’t seen much in the way of reports on Roger’s plants before.
To Be Sent: scionwood

Bay Laurel: 3 trees:
Liz’s Late nectarine on Citation (15/16" caliper)
Autumn Gold apricot on Citation (5/8" caliper)
Loring Peach on Lovell (17/16" caliper and 15/16" at the top almost 3’ above the graft union)

To Be Sent: 6 more BL trees should arrive tomorrow

I know these descriptions are incomplete without some info about the roots. But, I haven’t opened them up yet and will probably wait a week or two until the snow melts enough. Until then, I have them in my garage, which is in the high 40’s.

Bob,

Have you ordered from Bay Laurel before? This is my first time offering from them and I must say I am very impressed with the trees. Most had new root growth, there was some leafing out, flowers, etc. The roots looked awesome, and every tree (besides the WSR, which is a good thing) had good low branching. On a scale of 1-10 of who I’ve ordered from in the past I’d have to give BL a 10 for sure!!

This is the 2nd time I’ve ordered from them. I got a couple trees (Gold Dust and Tomcot) and a blackberry from them in 2013. Both were big 15/16"+ trees. The blackberry appears to be the wrong variety (Natchez isn’t supposed to be thorny…) and they are replacing it for me this year.

I think it is Dave Wilson which is responsible for the nice big trees- the trees from Sanhedrin (another DW distributor) last year were just as large.

The diameter is one thing but what I hate is they remove almost the entire root system. Sets them back almost a year. I’d rather have less diameter and more root.

I ordered from sanhedrin last year and placed an order for well over $300. Dave and Jenny were super nice people. The only gripe I had was in order to easily fit the trees in the shipping box they were whacked off pretty severe. Many of the trees I received were easily 3/4 caliper and above but no more that 30-36 inches tall with zero branching.

You can only guess how the peaches turned out… every one of them only sprouted from right above the graft and had to regrow a new central lead. The Fantasia nectarine they sent however only pushed out from the rootstock. Now the plums and pluots fared way better, but then again they always do.

I would say as far as root size, BL and sanhedrin are both in the same grouping, but Grow Organic by far had the largest root mass.

A yr, really? I haven’t seen that difference. My feeling is roots are like tops. The more you cut them back the faster they regrow. Maybe that’s wrong. But with irrigation I’ve not seen root mass make much difference. All my trees grow great if I take care of them.

I have had bad luck with hacked back roots. I have also seen plants with huge root systems take off like rockets compared to their neighbors. So from my experience root size (and condition) matters.

Scott

I’ve had trees with little roots that took a long time to get going…

Shorts weather!!! In Wisconsin it doesn’t take much warmth before those pasty white legs come out :slight_smile:

The first signs of life!

I looked at my trailing blackberries that were covered. Well just a small part, it was very green! I will uncover as soon as the ground is workable. I have garden staples holding burlap, and they are frozen in still. Very late last fall i stuck in 8 cuttings of 4 black currents. and all of them have buds, wow that was easy! It was like November when planted, almost winter, and so far so good!
Everything else is still sleeping even the tulips!

Warm this week in the high 60’s and colder next week in the low 40’s. I hope for no buds break. On 3-22-15, predicted low of 26F overnight and potential for a freeze. Keep my fingers crossed.

Tony

Tony…

I hear you. I doubt anything happens here…going to take warm days and warm nights and we still have plenty of frost in the ground (i tried digging today and i hit rock hard soil—frozen–and that was south facing snow free spot)… I actually am glad the models showing reality coming back next week with 30Fs and 40Fs on the way.

64F and sun…

Pruned a big branch off my Aldreman plum (big tree) to make room for some chip buds i placed last summer… potted up my Bay Laurel trees…

Fn Actually, I don’t believe that is necessarily true of roots or tops. Pruning does not generally create a larger tree than a tree not pruned, no matter how you do it. I think peaches and nects can be an exception to this because by pruning you are also reducing cropping (years ago a read a study that confirmed this). Pruning spur wood can also create a net gain, I believe.

It is not quite a controlled study because trees were from different nurseries but I planted 2 peaches and 2 plums from Bay Laurel right next to a bunch of peaches and nectarines from Adams last year and the growth of the Adams trees was significantly better. I didn’t provide any supplementary water, though.

I’ve long noticed that peach trees with a lot of root intact plug in with significantly more vigor. Not that they would if you were putting them in pots. I transplant a lot of larger bare root peach trees and they do better than the ones I produce in Whitcomb in-soil grow bags where you pop up the tree with a lot of soil but lose a lot of root in the process.

I do think there is a big difference between species though. Pears really suffer from butchered roots and their roots are usually butchered with bare root orders from nurseries because they grow straight down. They are also non-fibrous (and yet they transplant well form grow bags). Apples as small trees hardly suffer at all when most of the roots are removed. Peaches are in the middle of the equation.

Didn’t mean to imply that the tree would be bigger. Just that the more a trees top is cut back the stronger the regrowth. So maybe the more roots are cut back the stronger the new roots, if there are new roots.

I imagine that some rootstocks might suffer more from being butchered than others. Just like peach are less likely to sprout from big wood than some other fruits. Some rootstock might be the same way.

My experience is that trees with major roots 6-10 inches long do fine. I haven’t had many with those 2-6 inch stubs and while not ideal I still think that’s doable. Foot long roots requiring a 24 inch hole are a luxury item seldom seen in these parts. And to be honest if I got those trees I’d likely prune the roots some to get the hole under 24 inches.

The 2nd part of my Bay Laurel order arrived today. Some of the trees are the smallest I’ve seen from DW before, with 4 of the 6 in the 9/16" to 11/16" range (along with a 3/4"). In my two past orders, the average was > 15/16", with the smallest 3/4".

I wonder if it is because I ordered so many this time. In the past, I never ordered more than 3. By choosing smaller trees, they were able to fit 6 in the same box that they would have put 3 in, at the larger size. But, I’m actually OK with the size, as anything 5/8" and up is fine with me. Most trees ACN sends seem to be in the 5/8" area and they are great trees.

Today’s box had:

Sprite-Delight 2 in 1 cherry plum on Citation- The rootstock is pretty tall before the grafts, with a single branch for each. The rootstock is 1.25"+, while Sprite’s branch being 5/8" and Delight at 1" (a pretty big branch). You can see it sitting on the top in the pic with a spot of yellow paint.

Monique apricot on Marianna- 11/16", with 5 nice branches

Geo Pride on Citation- 9/16" whip

Elberta on Citation- 11/16" with 4 side branches (2 thick, 2 thin)

Mericrest on Citation- 7/8", with 3 med-small branches

Flavor Grenade on Citation- 5/8" with 5 branches, 1 awkward

i think they trim the roots to get it in that box. Mine was really stuff in there. As long as they grow, I don’t care.