Move to another Zone? LOL
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I ate them too as a kid and they werenāt very palatable as a raw fruit but my aunt made jelly out of them and I remember liking it a lot.
Getting rid of all the tall banana varieties. The ones with pseudo stems (ātrunksā) that exceed 12ā. They are just too difficult to harvest, need to be propped up, and donāt produce more fruit that the shorter varieties. And they get snapped in strong winds.
Got rid of a Big Jim loquat this year. Nice fruit and a nice tree, but one good loquat tree of modest size makes more than enough fruit for our small family. So, the MacBeth stays and the Big Jim got the axe. A Reed avocado took its place.
Most of the dark-skinned fig varieties are getting grafted over to green-skinned ones because the crows that invaded our neighborhood after wildfires took out there former homes are too smart and strong to be deterred by bags surrounding the fruit. But they donāt understand green-when-ripe fruitā¦ yet.
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After 5 years, this will likely be the year my 2 Moorpark Apricots come out. In 5 years only 2 fruit, and this year they were hit hard again by a late frost. Just not the right choice for my area. Might try a different variety in the future, but for now I think theyāll be replaced by a Hawkeye and a Wickson Crab.
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This is probably the last year I try to grow currants, and possibly the gooseberries too. Iām just too far out of their range. Even varieties labeled mildew resistant or immune or heat tolerance lose most of their leaves to something.
Iām thinking of pulling the cherry tree too. Nothing year after year. But then i donāt think anybody actually grows cherries successfully within a couple hundred miles of Richmond.
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It looks like my pomegranates didnāt make it, the buds I checked are all dead. Same for the figs. So, above I mentioned they were on life support but I think Iām taking them offā¦ will start digging things up. I already planted a couple apples where the figs are and will put in a few pears where most of the pomegranates are.
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THAT takes me back to my childhood in Warren Co., Indiana. Mom would buy a bushel of falls from an ancient orchardist nearby, make sauce, and feed the peels to the chickens. The ancient orchardist had taken a degree from Purdue back when only a handful did. He may even have had some credentials to have been raising apples. I donāt know. As a kid, I remember thinking his trees were enormous, so probably they were full-size. All were bulldozed years ago along with his pawpaw patch.
I bought my trees from Tony Dembski in Gillett, WI. He wouldnāt talk to me about trying to raise Yellow Transparent this far north.
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im in z3b in n.maine and y. transparent are by far the most numerous wild apple here. i make sauce /apple slices from all the wild apples growing on old farmland. they never get cold damage. we get to -40f here occasionally.
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Steve, what did you have for a low this past winter? My low temp was actually fairly mild in comparison to most years, the opposite of what most everyone else experienced. I had a low of -17.5F. However, that was in mid-November, a bit early for such lows, and Iām not sure if Iāll see damage from that or not.
this winter was colder on average but didnāt hit the real cold we had last winter. i donāt think it hit much below -20f without the wind. but overalll the days had more cold if that makes any sense. we didnāt see any thaws this winter like we have in the past. with all thew snow we had ,Iām expecting no freeze damage but much damage from the deep snow that pulls the branches off my bushes.
@scottfsmith
Scott, Iām sorry to hear about your poms. 
Thatās a shame. _But, Live and Learn, right?
Figs and Pomegranates are just about the only thing Iāve ever had any luck with. Apples, and all stone fruit . . . trees live - but no decent fruit. Squirrels wipe out any pecans on the 3 trees I planted years ago. We didnāt used to have squirrels . . . until my husband agreed to let a āsquirrel rescue nutā put some babies on our property. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. 
I was not happy about that, but couldnāt stop the āprojectā soon enough.
If I ever have a ābumperā crop of pomegranates . . . Iāll mail you a box! - karen
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Hey it looks like I may have been a bit premature on the poms ā I see a few live buds!! Any pom that has some live buds I will keep. Kaj acik anor is definitely budding and there may be a few more. The figs I am pretty sure are all toast, the wood is that light brown/tan color which means death.
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Scott,
Have you tasted Kaj Acik Anor?
Not yet ā¦ only Kazake and Salavatski (sic) and one or two others I canāt remember. All taste good if they ripen enough. Kaj Acik Anor seems to be the most hardy by a notch, it only died back right after I planted it. Kazake wood is very hardy but the buds often all die. The wood is all green and super healthy looking now, but it needs some live buds to push!
I had two Salavatski and two Kaj acik anor, all in pots. Thought I gave a friend one of each, only to find out that I made a mistake by giving her two Salavatski. Now I am an owner of two Kaj acik anor 
I donāt have any hope that they would amount to anything as I have a short growing season. They grow well. I probably will pot them up this year. I wonder how old a pmegranate need to be for it to start flowering.
Cucurbits always die on me around early July. Between the squash bugs and squash vine borers, I cannot seem to keep them under control.
Tried everything synthetic and organic. Nothing seems to kill the bastards.
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Carbaryl. The old Sevin was very effective for cucurbit beetles. I donāt know about the new active ingredient though.
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about the only thing to stop horntail wasps from infecting my cane fruits. been planting more resistant cultivars so i barely need to spray anymore. my heritage raspberries were full of them.
Iām not too far from you, i have just put in Hooples Antique Gold, Gala and Goldrushā¦would you say pink lady is worth it? Sorry commercially itās not working outā¦Iāve expected it to be just backyard only. I plan to hand bag (sock) each fruit.
Pink Lady grows as well as the other varieties you are growing but suffers from normal problems especially Fire Blight or some type of rot. Because itās such a late apple there is plenty of time for something to go wrong. Iām not crazy about the taste or texture of the Pink Lady apples but a lot of customers ask for this apple. Pink Lady ripens just after Goldrush.
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