Wondering how all the zone pushers did this past winter. I don’t have all my results yet, but my Marcona almond survived the winter. It was a mild one with a low of only -1.2, but I’m still pretty excited since when I ordered Marcona, I couldn’t find any info on how hardy it is. Lane muscadine continues to do well here. This week I should find out about a few others.
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I have learned the hard way that zone pushing generally ends up in failure. I now try to err a zone farther on the safe side if at all possible, or have enough varieties that the zone pushers are just planted on a chance there might be an occasional harvest, which there seldom is. Also, all the new must-have’s aren’t all they are hyped up to be. Some are great, but some aren’t. I might actually get a sweet cherry harvest (Lapins) for the first time this year if they pollinate properly and a late frost doesn’t get them. Time will tell. The County Extension says sweet cherries won’t grow here.
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Cashew.
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That’s awesome, Richard. Have you ever tried a cashew Apple? I can’t imagine you are processing, or planning on processing nuts.
Scott
I’ve never heard of a Cashew Apple!
True cashews are said to be cold hardy to only 50F … and yup that appears to be the case.
Yes, beginning this year I’m going to start processing nuts: Almonds for sure and perhaps Hollyleaf Cherry. In a year or two i hope my walnut tree starts producing too.
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I have a love/hate relationship with zone pushing. Often it takes years to get it right.
I have had a Sweetcrisp blueberry now going on 4th leaf and I have yet to have berries. I did better this year, but the plant lost it’s biggest cane, which was the 2nd biggest as it lost that one the year before. I seem to be going backwards with this one. I think I can do it, I thought of yet another way to protect it.
Blackberries almost hardy to here I have figured out but still need some fine tuning.
Figs are perfect, they make it easy, a very easy plant to grow.
Still working on Black pepper corn plant, sherbet berries.
I added Australian Beach cherry, and 2 pomegranates. Like I don’t have enough projects or something?? Oh some not so hardy here mulberries, not sure what to do with them yet? I rooted a bunch of cuttings.
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It looks like my pomegranates did not die back, yippie! I lost them the last two winters. I was worried the late cold had nipped the buds this year.
I am surprised that my figs did not do better, while some did well others are not looking good. Alma in particular is mostly dead looking. I am thinking of getting rid of that one.
My fuzzy kiwis I was also worried about the buds and I think I lost some of the most early ones but nearly all appear to be budding out fine now. Last year they got frozen out.
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My Brown Turkey fig also looks dead to the ground despite a mild MD winter. It’s only about four years old, maybe needs more age to develop winter hardiness.
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Marseilles Black VS fig pl. spring ‘16 at a friends grew from 1-gallon to 6’ tall. He tossed a bag of topsoil over it and put a plastic rectangle over that and another bag of topsoil. 4-6" were outside the box and was zapped. Otherwise, the rest is alive. Zone 5b. Mild winter low of -9 and -7 during the same 10 day period while the rest of winter above typical for 5b.
Dax
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Figs survived a mild z5 winter here in Maine with above ground burial similar to what Dax said.
I bent over the trunks and weighted down with bags of woodchips, then more loose chips on top. 3’ or so was what I left after pruning them back, and there seems to be no die back.
I have around 14 in the ground. I did a little fig jig when I saw how healthy they looked!
Planning to cloche them with low conduit hoops and plastic to get them going a bit earlier.
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Peaches are still super iffy here. My in ground trees that have peach grafts look to have some flowers again, so they are making it through a winter up here, but this winter was pretty tame.
I’ve had a handful of potted trees die off this year. Not sure what is up. I think i over fruited some of them. I think i lost a TangOS and my Mericrest looks like garbage. Some trees were hit hard by borers in the past (this spring hasn’t shown any borer activity…so i think i got it somewhat under control). That can’t help.
Lapins sweet cherry is loaded, pears are loaded, plums are loaded…Satsuma, Lavina, Spring Satin, Hesse all look great.
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Jesse,
I will try to grow a couple of fig trees horizontally at a 60 degree angle and bend all the branches down to the ground with leaves and wood chips pilling on top for Winter protection as an experiment.
Tony
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Figs in the ground, the thin small branches which laid directly on the ground under the mulched leaves survived, the thicker upright brunches covered with leaf mulch all frozen. My Tulameen raspberries mostly frozen and have dry canes, whereas Caroline, Polka Josephine are fine. I will get rid of Tulameen and plant Fall Gold instead.
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Maria,
Here is the photo that I will use to train the figs growing horizontally so I can Winter protect them easy.
Tony
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Some persimmons died back others not… Early golden died back to cover, Same with Rosseyanka. Prok seems fine.
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Pushing a Sweet Treat Pluerry here in NY zone 5b, with lots of frost bags and incandescent Xmas lights. Still seems to be going, but we’re far from safe from a killing frost for the next 3 weeks-
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I’m surprised you had that type of dieback on Rosseyanka. What was your low for the season?
In general I feel that there’s a lot of misinformation out there about hybrid and kaki persimmons. Many get marketed as zone six that have no chance here. I’ve lost Smith’s Best, Sheng, Ichi, Nikita’s Gift, and Saijo, all of which are advertised as doable in zone six. Chibacha, Korea Kaki, Miss Kim, Pen, and Rosseyanka all did well for me this year.
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Cashews are supposed to have an incredibly caustic chemical between the shell and the nut (which is why you don’t ever see them in the shell for sale).
If you do get fruit, please let us know how the cashew apples are. I’ve never seen a description of the fruit (granted I don’t recall having looked before, knowing that the chances of me ever getting the opportunity to try it is so slim)
Scott
Interesting, Tony. I wonder how it will fruit this way.
The fruit will come from each node of those green branches.
Tony
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