What Are You going to Order for 2017?

General Fruit Growing
#81

Haha! You are right. Ive spent way too much time looking at the 2017 catalogs I’ve been receiving. My wife always gives me that little grin as to say “you are still looking at that catalog”. Maybe I’ll get a couple and grow them in pots this year until I can figure out what to do with them. I have a few Nankings that have done nothing so far in 3 years and I could end up yanking them. When I bought them I had never heard of the romance cherries and since have learned that they are far superior.

If I were to only buy two I’m thinking CJ and Juliet. What about best supplier? Are the bushes from Honeyberry nicer then those from Henry Fields/ Gurneys? I’ve read that they are often just a small twigs.

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#82

I would like to order a 4 in 1 with all white cherry varieties. Has anyone ever seen this.

#83

You can buy a Whitegold and bark graft 3 more white varieties to it.

Tony

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#84

OK, another order placed last night. Getting bleary-eyed from these late night exercises. Anyway, this order was done with Indiana Berry. Each plant was $8, so a good price, just hope they’re decent sized plants.

Blueberries, in order of ripening:

Patriot
Blueray
Bluecrop
Nelson

Gooseberries:

Hinnomaki Red
Poorman

Haven’t got a notice on when they’re supposed to ship, they said they go out according to my zone (6b). Hope that’s not until the end of March at the earliest.

Next order is maybe going to be from Bay Laurel, getting some apricots and nectarines, supposedly hardy for our area.

I’m looking at getting a Tomcot and Tilton, I read that they’re self pollinating, but was wonder if they’d cross pollinate each other for better yields. Does anyone know if these bloom at similar times?

Oh, the two nects are maybe Arctic Glo and Fantasia. Anyone have any comments on these as far as production, and hardiness in this part if the country? Theyre supposed to be good cold weather nects. Thanks.

#85

Those are the only vendors of the Romance Series bushes that I know of. Honeyberryusa’s are one to two feet tall, I can’t comment on Gurney’s sizes. Since they are bushes and not trees, it kinda makes sense that they’d be small little plants. In a couple years they ought to be quite a bit larger, I hope.

I wanted the Carmine Jewel, but read that the Crimson Passion had a higher brix at maturity, and the Romeo + Juliet were not too far off the CP in that aspect. But, folks on here rave about the CJ, so any of them would prob be fine.

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#86

Thanks for the info Bob. At first glance CP sounds like the best of the bunch due to high brix and firmest texture but it also seems to be the worst grower out of the bunch. CJ on the other hand seems to be the least sweet out of the bunch but the best grower. It also is the darkest with the darkest juice and strong flavor. So it seems like it would be the best for baking. Juliet and Romeo seem pretty similar. I read that Romeo has a better flesh to seed ratio but it’s softer. I think I’ll order CJ and Juliet

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#87

I bought Indian free, and Saturn peaches, Harko Nectarine, 5 Bud 9, and 5 EMLA 111 from Burntridge. I also ordered the following strawberries from USDA GRIN:
1 PI 551904
2 PI 551903
3 PI 551842
4 PI 551763
5 PI 551606
6 PI 551560
7 PI 551543
8 PI 551503
9 PI 551499
10 PI 551436
11 PI 231090

#88

Arctic Glo and Fantasia should do fine for you. @scottfsmith is fruiting Fantasia in Baltimore. @Drew51 is fruiting Arctic Glo in Wisconsin.

I have tasted Arctic Glo and it is one of the best-flavored nects in existence. Its only drawback is a thick skin and fierce tendency at cling-stoniness. But the super sweet zippy flavor forgives these sins-- and it’s an early-season ripener, so you can’t lose. Around here, it is the first viable nect to show up at the local farm stands, and it is the best locally-farmed nect of the whole season. Here is the flesh of an Arctic Glo I ate one early summer after I peeled back the skin. The white flesh is dripping with sweet juice and speckled with ruddy anti-oxidant pigments.

3264×2448 1.08 MB

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#89

Duh! I should have said:

@Drew51 is fruiting Arctic Glo in MICHIGAN, not Wisconsin.

Drew lives in Michigan.

Sorry.

#90

This year I ordered:
Whitegold cherry on Gisela 5 from Raintree
Challenger, Intrepid, and Carolina Gold Peaches from Vaughn Nursery
Scions from Hocking Hills Orchard
and for experimentation: Malus fusca from Raintree

It will be interesting to see how M. fusca (Pacific Swamp Crabapple) does here in the Midwest. I’m planning on planting it in a spot where an apple and a pear died from inundation.

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#91

Not much difference, a little warmer here! I’ll have scion of Arctic Glo this week, looking for any good yellow peach, Redhaven Redskin, etc.
I’m not going crazy with peach grafting this year, as I have had only one take, and it’s not looking great. I have learned a lot though. Trying plums this year, Hoping for better resuts this year!

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#92

Good to hear someone trying M. Fusca. Keep us posted. Are you grafting onto it?

#93

Yes, I’m planning on grafting to the M. fusca. I will have to see if it is this year or next based on the size of the stock I get from Raintree. I’m considering putting in an interstem of G.969 for precocity.

No idea if the M. fusca are seedlings or from stool beds.

#94

Alright, another late nite spending spree. I keep staying up past 2am, so I felt guilty about not doing something.

SO, here are my latest binge buys, one each, from Cummins:

Alkmene, 11/16" on G11
Suncrisp, feathered (11/16" ?) on G30
Zestar, 11/16" on G30

We tried the last two at the orchard last year, and really liked them, so of course, we (or I), had to have them. The Alkmene is a blind buy, I’ve never had one, but heard it is a very good Cox Orange offspring, and thought it’d be a good one to try. I waffled between that one and a Kidd’s Orange Red, and a Keepsake (a Honeycrisp parent), and ended up with the Alkie.

I would’ve preferred two of the trees on something other than G30, but I waited too long, and the other rootstocks that I wanted, like G935 or G210, were gone. The other tree was only on G11 the whole time I visited the site, so I’ll have a small tree there.

I’ve noticed that the inventory has really been draining down, so thought I’d better get my order in today.

That will give us 17 apple trees, I hope that will be enough…

Next up, maybe some stone fruit trees, and strawberry plants? And that ought to do it for this year. We’re going to be busy enough with getting our veggies started and the ground worked, and add to that, more fruit products to deal with.

Now, to figure out where all these bushes and trees are going to go…

#95

I’m putting mine in the ground in Wisconsin. Right up against the house…south facing…

#96

ROFLMAO :grin:

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#97

A good start…

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#98

Alkmene is a good apple, here in Iowa they are ripe sometime between the last week of Aug and the 2nd week of September going off of buying them. The Cummins description is spot on. They are one of the earlier(est?) Cox-like apples that I have had. They are sharp, even when on their way towards soft. I like a good dose of malic acid, so they are good to me. I think G11 is probably a good choice for that apple since it is not a keeper.

Excellent choices on the others. Probably the top 2 favorites of mine at opposite ends of the season. :smiley:

#99

Nankings are beautiful ornamentals, and in my experience when I had them in zone 7 central/east VA they required really no care. The cherries were super tiny though abundant, fun to taste, but you’d never pit them. Jam would probably work. (If the birds leave any.) But if space is an issue – they easily will grow 8 feet tall, 6 feet wide. Seems the romance cherries would be about the same size so you could swap them out…

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#100

On the way to town today, I said at the end of March, we will be the parents of a Suncrisp and Zestar tree. She was first excited, then said, “OK, that’s enough!”
I didn’t tell her about the Alkmene, tho…

We were discussing about what the next few years will hold, fruit wise, and we hopefully will be awash in tasty fruits, to go with all the veggies we grow every year.

I really do think this will be the last of any more apple tree purchases. I think after these get to fruiting, I may need to start learning about grafting.

We have tasted all but 5 of these 16 varieties, so I hope our King David, Pristine, Macoun and Alkmene turn out to be good apples for us.

There are a few more varieties that sound good to me, like Crimson Crisp, and Kidd’s Orange Red among others, but I think I’m done with apples.

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