One more order last night (or early this morn). Since I dragged my feet with my Cummins order, I lost my chance to get a Maxine pear. So, I went with Stark’s, and got one, albeit they call it a “Starking Delicious”.
I also picked up a Blushingstar white peach, folks seem to really like them, and they have pretty good bud and tree hardiness.
I’ve never ordered from Stark’s before, and I don’t know what rootstocks they’re on. Hope they turn out OK. They’re saying the shipping date is around March 1st, so I’m going to call them and move that to at least mid March. Maybe I can find out the rootstocks while I’m at it.
I may order a hardy kiwi (I’m thinking Ken’s Red) along w/a male, and I may order a jujube (I’m thinking Honey Jar) from Edible Landscaping here in VA, but I can be talked out of it.
I have ordered scions from derek of more than a few limbertwigs and also some chemicals. kocide 3000, imidan 70 and some nu film 17 for starters along with all of the scions I have received and have yet to receive (thanks to everyone involved in pushing my addiction]. The only thing left that I would like to get is a cherry tree on a dwarfing rootstock that I can grow in a pot.
Raintree sells cherries on Gisela 3 and 5. We had some discussion about those two roots recently when I asked about them. But I am putting them in the ground.
Me and Mrs Dood went out yesterday for a VDay lunch at Cracker Barrell. Afterwards, she dropped me off at Lowe’s, while she went across the lot to Kroger’s. I was looking for a fitting for our propane heater, but wanted to see what they had out plant wise.
I was disappointed to see no fruit trees there, but not surprised, as it’s still mid-Feb. They had lots of of veggie and flower seeds in several displays. I picked up a hex planter that I’ll grow my veggie starts in, along with some starter mix. Prob going to start some in a couple weeks.
Anyways, I also saw a few stands with various blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, grape, and other fruit bushes in compact little packages. They had some some very popular varieties, like Jersey and Bluecrop blues, Earliglow and Ozark Beauty strawbs, Heritage and Anne rasps, Apache thornless blackberry and so on. They even had a hardy kiwi, hardy fig, and a goji plant?!?. I was geeked to see so many fruit bushes, but I do wonder how good of plants they are.
The prices run at $6.99 per bush, or 10 strawb plants. They also had a big selection of flower bulbs. The company from what I gathered on Lowes’ website says that they are Garden State Bulb. So, something to keep an eye on if you are ever there. I might pick up a couple raspberry and blackberry plants next month just to try them out.
I have actually bought some of those cheapo blueberry plants in the cardboard sleeves in the distant past, long before it was time to plant them out. It took some babying them, but they grew and did well. Still have them.
Called Stark’s today to move the delivery of my two trees back to the end of March. I asked them what the rootstocks were on the trees. For the standard sized Blushingstar peach it is a Lovell, and for the standard sized Maxine pear, it’s Bartlett or some other variety seedling. So, not my first pick for the pear, but it’ll have to do. The Lovell on the peach is fine.
What kind of vigor can I expect out of a Bartlett rootstock? I’m a bit worried about its fireblight suspectability, but the Maxine variety is supposed to be pretty FB resistant. I would imagine it’ll be a pretty large tree. When would I expect to see any fruit on this tree, 3-4 years?
I have some pears on seedling and they are fine, no worse on the FB front. All Euro pears can take a long time to fruit if they are not on quince, 5-6 years may be a better average.
Wow. 5-6 years to fruit? My multi grafted DWN pear put on little to no growth last year. Is that pretty common for a first year pear? My peaches, pluots, apples and plums doubled in size. Same soil and same watering schedule. Sounds like pears are similar to persimmons?
Oh Scott, my three Euro pears grafted on quince took 9 years to fruit. And last summer I had fruit for the first time. All of the pears were horrible! Hopefully one last crop before I leave in Sept. just my experience.
That’s what they all say, “I can quit buying apple trees any time I want”, another fruit growing going down the dark path! hahahaha
I started with 4 apple trees now I have 25 apple trees and I am buying more this spring. I need therapy
“Hi, I’m Mike. I have an apple tree buying problem”
Heh, are fruit trees like Lay’s potato chips- you just can’t have just one? At least it’s a nutritious addiction. What do you think you’ll do with all that fruit when they all start producing? I’ve contemplated that myself, maybe donate some to neighbors or our church.
My wife suggested if we have a lot, we ought to sell it at the county’s farmers market. But, you gotta get certified to do that, don’t know the full process, but don’t think we’d do it.
I still haven’t pulled the trigger on my apricot and nectarine trees order with Bay Laurel, I just don’t know if we’d get a lot of fruit off those trees in our location. At least with all those apple and pear trees, we should get a decent haul every year.
I agree with you. What the heck am I going to do with all this fruit. I have thought the same thing. Farmer’s Market perhaps. You need to be certified to sell at a Farmer’s Market there? I am not sure what we need here. I thought just a selling space. I had better look at that requirement. I have some neighbors and also church. I have horses so there is always the barn to give some away.
You can never just have one. I’d go crazy just trying to decide just which “ONE” it would be.
Oh boy, if that’s true, then I might get pecans from my trees before I get pears! I have a couple of pears on Callery rootstock- how long before those produce? I planted those last year…
I think they are crisp when picked. I think I got 3 lbs of them about 2 weeks after they were picked and after 2 weeks of having them the final one was softening, but not like Red Delicious mealy. They are sweet enough to compete with the tart. I’m not sure how Alkmene compares to Cox. It has been probably 5 years since I’ve had Cox. No one grows it here in any quantity because of its fussiness. Alkmene appears to ripen at the same time as Zestar. I think Zestar has a long picking window though based off my tree’s crop last year.
