To me, a big difference. Unbagged apples in my crisper have become wrinkled and lost their crunch in a couple of weeks. Those in closed bags have stayed crisp for months esp. Gold Rush.
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My experience as well, esp with Gala
What Mam and Lois said, for sure!
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Brought my ten potted trees over to where I’m living now. Am surprised they survived last year, given where they were hanging out (lots of shade and little care). There’s not a lot more sunlight where I am now but it’ll have to do. I may try to consolidate trees through grafting to save some space.
I’ve been weeding in preparation for a vegetable garden too. My landlord said it was okay so I’m plowing ahead trying to get everything ready. It’s the sunniest spot on the property—not sure if it gets even six full hours but it’s what I’ve got. I know it sounds terrible but I have just as much antipathy for shade trees as I do useless lawns. I’ll do a 2x16 strip along the fence—almost done with that—and then three 4’ wide strips coming off that.
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I think I read that oxygen is what makes them go bad. I think they use co2 in cold storages to protect them. You might want to check me on that though.
Here’s a thread we got into a while back- it might address some of your questions:
Blueberry Day!!!
We got these planted today and I am so hoping I can keep them going! Premier, Climax, Austin, Brightwell, and Tifblue rabbiteye blueberries.
My pH is 5.7 and they are planted in at least half peat and mulched with pine bark. Now my problem is water for the summer. Rainwater gets scarce here in summer.
Katy
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Our local orchard in Northeast Ohio has fantastic Goldrush apples this year. I just bought another 10 lb. bag. This is the first year I’ve bought them this late in winter and they are about as good as it gets. I hope they have them for another few months.
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Those look huge already, were they like potted plants?
Good luck with them.
Um, look at all that empty space behind them. Looks like it needs to be “filled in”.
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Picked some Lady Williams apples from my Frankentree today. They are firm, juicy and have a lot of acid. About a dozen more are still hanging on the tree.
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They were in 5 gallon pots.
First plants in our new area. There are trees behind me as I took the picture.
Wow here’s comes the polar vortex, yikes!! My poor plants! Time to separate the men for the boys. The high here for Wednesday is -1F the high!! The low is -13F
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Things are definitely waking up. Desert Delight nectarine, May Pride and Eva’s Pride peaches, Anna apple flowers.
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We were out today shoping and stopped by Tractor Supply to pick up some dog food.
While there I noticed they have veggie and flower seeds out, and already have their berry plants out. These include Heritage, Joan J, Fall Gold, Canby and Killarney raspberries, Chester blackberry, goji berry, Loganberry, thornless Boysenberry and a few strawberry and blueberry varieties.
It was tempting but I had to pass on the berries. This time.
Oh, and they also had a few bareroot fruit trees, like Redhaven, Kiefer, Damson, Jonathan and Honeycrisp for $14.
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Lowe’s in our area also got seeds out already. That was nice to see. No plants yet though. That would really take my winter blues away.
I saw racks and racks of fertilizer and herbicide coming in to Lowe’s too! Few more weeks and we’ll be out of this frigid temps. Can’t wait.
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those stores always put out thier plants and fruit trees way too early here. i did manage to save a montmorency cherry from TSC them last year. got it for $7.it was a 5ft tree, was dead except for the last bottom branch so i cut it down to there and planted it. it grew 3 more shoots from below the cut and they were 3ft long! put on more new growth than my other u of s cherries did that were planted the same time.
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I think putting them out here in January is a bit early too. Then they sit for at least 2-3 months. I think they sit too long even though they pack the roots in a bag of damp moss or whatever.
I’ve bought quite a few of these boxed berry plants from TSC and Lowe’s, maybe half a dozen or more, and I think the only one that sprouted was an Anne raspberry from Lowe’s. Usually I’ve bought them in April or even May, so I’m betting they were dried out or the roots rotted. So, it’s tempting but if I want another berry plant, I’ll order it.
The big box store trees might be a better bet, I’ve bought potted trees and they’ve all thrived. Even a bare root pecan tree I bought for my Mom a couple years is still doing well.
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I’m starting to try and trick my apple trees into thinking that their dormant. I’m doing this by slowly stripping off their leaves. If I do not, they’ll still have leaves come spring and then they’re just a mess. I do not necessarily want to strip all the leaves at once, but gradually over the course of a week or so. Plus I need to prune the Pixie Crunch as it has some crossing branches.
The closest UC calculator/weather station to me reports about 100 chilling hours so far - not bad for us, but not great for a good apple crop.
I’m not a person that likes to shop in a mall. Give me Lowe’s, Home Depot, or Tractor Supply. This is my most exciting purchase in a long time.
Today we went from this
To THIS
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The Gorilla Cart is awesome! Nice side effect is that it really makes it easy for my wife to move around what she wants to move around. Far superior to a wheelbarrow!
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