Some betulifolia pear rootstock arrived in the mail. We’ve had a crazy winter and the ground is not the least bit frozen under the snow drifts. So, I dug back a spot in the snow, planted the bundle of rootstock in the soil with some critter protection, and buried everything in snow until warmer days to come.
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Wow! That’s dedication. I opted to wait until March to have mine delivered, sincw your weather yard looks just like mine now. Great rootstock choice btw.
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Good luck!
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As far as cold storage is concerned how much difference would it make to stick that half bushel box into my fridge as-is versus bagging them and storing them in the crisper?
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Planted pawpaws yesterday before the weather turned nasty. I dug them from a patch I used to eat off of as a kid and planted them under a large willow in the back yard at the edge of a stream. Two saplings per hole for redundancy, 6 holes total. Each hole received a handful of soft rock phosphate, a little gypsum, small amount of lime and kelp meal, and a pinch of ammonium sulphate.
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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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