Fruit trees

[Lucky_P]

Gotta have seeds, either way. Named-variety pawpaws are grafted onto seedling understock. Named-parentage pawpaw seedlings have a high likelihood of producing fruit that's very similar to that of the 'mother'.

Grafted trees, regardless of species, typically come into production in half the time, or less, that it takes to grow a seedling to fruiting age - and you have the benefit of knowing fruit/nut size quality, harvest period, disease & pest resistance, etc. Growing out seedlings of most stuff is a genetic crapshoot... as Sturgill says, 'Some days you blast off, some days you just smoke.'

 

[kenny thomas]

Gotta have seeds, either way. Named-variety pawpaws are grafted onto seedling understock. Named-parentage pawpaw seedlings have a high likelihood of producing fruit that's very similar to that of the 'mother'.

Grafted trees, regardless of species, typically come into production in half the time, or less, that it takes to grow a seedling to fruiting age - and you have the benefit of knowing fruit/nut size quality, harvest period, disease & pest resistance, etc. Growing out seedlings of most stuff is a genetic crapshoot... as Sturgill says, 'Some days you blast off, some days you just smoke.'

Do you grow your rootstock?

 

[Lucky_P]

Yes. I've not bought a grafted fruit or nut tree or rootstock for nearly 25 years. Grow my own rootstocks, and mostly trade scionwood with other growers to get varieties I want, though I would buy scionwood if I needed to.
Apples... when we first started out, I was buying grafted varieties from several different nurseries; some apple rootstocks perform better on some sites than others, some sucker more than others. M26, a semi-dwarf has worked out to be the best apple rootstock for my site... 20 yr old trees are only 8-10 ft tall, bear well, and I've not had to stake or trellis them... and it suckers pretty vigorously... it's easy just to pull out a few suckers and pot them up or plant them in a desired location, then graft them over to desired cultivar.

Pears go on any of the bazillion volunteer callery pear seedlings that pop up all over the place, courtesy of birds pooping them out. At one time, I was sticking an 8-10" insterstem of OHxF 513 between callery and fruiting variety, but after 15-20 years, I can't tell that it did anything to limit size or shorten time to fruiting, so I just graft straight to callery anymore.
Plums... I've abandoned all but the native Chickasaw plums, and a few named Chickasaw selections - which graft well onto suckers from the Chickasaw thickets. Peaches & other stonefruits... I don't bother with them anymore...they weren't worth the space they took up, and if someone in the family wants a peach or nectarine, they can just go buy some when the Peach Truck comes around.

Persimmons go on native persimmon seedlings. Pawpaws on pawpaw seedlings
Mulberry selections grafted onto whatever seedling mulberries I find popping up around the yard/orchard... dig 'em up and pot them up.
Pecans & hickories go on seedlings of 'Major' pecan, though a very few shagbark hickory selections appear not to 'like' pecan understock, so they perform best grafted onto shellbark or shagbark seedlings.
Walnuts(Black, butternut, heartnut, and in the past, Carpathian) go on black walnut seedlings
Oaks... white oak group selections go best on bur oak seedlings, but you can graft onto pretty much any other member of the white oaks . Red/black oaks are trickier... there are some peroxidase enzyme incompatibilities that lead to delayed graft failure. Q.falcata(Southern red oak) and Q.rubra(Northern red oak) have worked best for me as understocks for red/black oak selections.

Berries... I buy blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry plants from nurseries specializing in them, like Simmons Berry Farm, Pense Nursery, Nourse Nursery. Good, virus-free stock, and the latest selections. Blueberries... Simmons and Dan Finch have been my go-to, but got a few nice ones from Pense & Nourse this spring; they're not all that hard to root from cuttings, but for the price, I can't hardly beat a 2-3 yr old plant from those nurseries that are really geared up to grow them.

 

[Lucky_P]

It's been a great year for fruit here.
Mulberries have been amazing. Lawson Dawson came in first, with Illinois Everbearing and Corral starting a week later, then Silk Hope coming on. DL & IE are about done, but Corral and Silk Hope still going strong.
Chickasaw plums came and went... I missed most of them 'cause I was tired of ticks and chiggers eating me alive.

Been picking anywhere from 2-5 gallons of blueberries almost every day for the last 3 weeks... and the mid-late varieties are just hitting their stride... late varieties are loaded with green berries.

Early June Sugar Pears (2 varieties) have already come and gone. Niitaka Asian pear is already breaking out limbs... shoulda thinned 'em. Chojuro & Shinko have nice crops coming on. Frost must have hit the trees on the other side of the pond hard, 'cause I'm not seeing many, if any, fruits on those.
All my early apples are ripening now... Lodi is about done. MonArk is dropping some early. Bastian Orange crab (our favorite!) is ripe now, Centennial crab ripening right behind it, then Kerr crab will be a few weeks behind. MacIntosh will be ready in a couple weeks, then Winesap.
Any apple/pear ripening later than about mid-August here has no chance... European hornets, crows, deer get 'em all.

Looks like a good crop on the pecans here at the house. Some of the young grafted hickories are carrying moderate crops. Haven't really looked at the walnuts yet.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Would any of you know the name of these little plums. Growing up where I did the trees seemed common in some of the old orchards. I got mine started from some sprouts growing up around an old tree back in the hills. They bloomed every year, very tiny delicate blossoms, but never any plums. Last year they would have been planted at my place for about 10 years and they had the first crop of plums, lots of them. This year very few. They are good eating, I think. I remember as a kid watching the deer pick every plum off the trees that they could reach. The branches have spiny thorns 1-3 inches long. I think last years plums may have been just a wee bit bigger than this years

 

[Lucky_P]

Those are probably P.subcordata, aka Klamath plum, Oregon plum... or whatever native plum species is common in your area. Suppose they could be an introduced P.americana. Fruits look not unlike red-fruited types of our native Chickasaw plum(P.angustifolia) here in the Southeast.

 

[Redgully]

Would any of you know the name of these little plums. Growing up where I did the trees seemed common in some of the old orchards. I got mine started from some sprouts growing up around an old tree back in the hills. They bloomed every year, very tiny delicate blossoms, but never any plums. Last year they would have been planted at my place for about 10 years and they had the first crop of plums, lots of them. This year very few. They are good eating, I think. I remember as a kid watching the deer pick every plum off the trees that they could reach. The branches have spiny thorns 1-3 inches long. I think last years plums may have been just a wee bit bigger than this years

Here they are referred to as cherry plums. Usually just a form of fruiting rootstock.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Here they are referred to as cherry plums. Usually just a form of fruiting rootstock.

Cherry Plums is a good name for them, I like it

 

[timwil94]

Would any of you know the name of these little plums. Growing up where I did the trees seemed common in some of the old orchards. I got mine started from some sprouts growing up around an old tree back in the hills. They bloomed every year, very tiny delicate blossoms, but never any plums. Last year they would have been planted at my place for about 10 years and they had the first crop of plums, lots of them. This year very few. They are good eating, I think. I remember as a kid watching the deer pick every plum off the trees that they could reach. The branches have spiny thorns 1-3 inches long. I think last years plums may have been just a wee bit bigger than this years

It looks like cherry plum. It is similar in appearance to a plum, but smaller and tastes completely different.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

It looks like cherry plum. It is similar in appearance to a plum, but smaller and tastes completely different.

Tastes like a real plum to me, much better flavor than the store bought plums

 

[greybeard]

Most of the fruit bearing trees here were killed of by the Big Freeze at the end of last winter. Many leafed out, blossomed, but began dying shortly afterwards. Blueberry, all kinds of citrus, plum, and even some of the native pear trees.
My Scuppernong muscadine vine put on lots of new foliage and runners and is about 2/3 ready for picking but not anywhere as many clusters as last year.
Wild Blackberry was non existent this year. Plants look ok but no fruit.

Roses...
2 died, and 5 more look about 1/2 dead. They all had blooms very early spring, but leaves started dropping right afterwards and I don't hold out much hope for them. I'm hoping to at least save the one white climbing rose that has been in my family for many decades and mine came from a cutting that came from a cutting that came from my great grandmother's original white rose she brought to Texas from Alabama in the 1800s. That freeze killed a lot of plant life here. There are thousands of dead palm trees all over Texas. Coldest spell in 125 years.
(didn't phase the invasive Chinese Tallows here tho.)

(A white rose has been part of my surname's family crest for over 5 centuries.)

Wars of the Roses - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[1982vett]

Interesting greybeard. BlackBerry's did fine here but were a few weeks later than normal. Peaches and plums bloomed like crazy. Plum even set some fruit for a change. Freeze took out a couple elm trees in the yard, killed China Berry back to the main trunk as it did with the Chinese Tallow. Also killed a 7 year old Pine tree and my Fig tree. Some of the Live Oaks along Highway 21 look pretty sick also.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Most of the fruit bearing trees here were killed of by the Big Freeze at the end of last winter. Many leafed out, blossomed, but began dying shortly afterwards. Blueberry, all kinds of citrus, plum, and even some of the native pear trees.
My Scuppernong muscadine vine put on lots of new foliage and runners and is about 2/3 ready for picking but not anywhere as many clusters as last year.
Wild Blackberry was non existent this year. Plants look ok but no fruit.

Roses...
2 died, and 5 more look about 1/2 dead. They all had blooms very early spring, but leaves started dropping right afterwards and I don't hold out much hope for them. I'm hoping to at least save the one white climbing rose that has been in my family for many decades and mine came from a cutting that came from a cutting that came from my great grandmother's original white rose she brought to Texas from Alabama in the 1800s. That freeze killed a lot of plant life here. There are thousands of dead palm trees all over Texas. Coldest spell in 125 years.
(didn't phase the invasive Chinese Tallows here tho.)

(A white rose has been part of my surname's family crest for over 5 centuries.)

Wars of the Roses - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Hope the White Rose makes it

 

[Dave]

Last night I was thinking about the house I grew up at. In the side yard there are two or three apple trees that I grafted when a sophomore in high school. Probably late winter of 1967. I have long forgot the varieties. Be interesting to stop and look at the trees.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The land grant universities breed varieties and always produce a lot of PR on their latest. Flavor and heartiness can be a trade off in the north.
Semi dwarf trees come into production sooner than full size trees, but do not live as long.
Crab apples tend to require less care. They are my fav for deer treats.
A common issue for rural planting is trunks being girdled during the winter. Provide some protection.

 

[MrChevy]

Hello. How is everyone? Any advice on fruit trees?

 

[Lucky_P]

Your location, your preferences - and the level of care you're willing to invest - will determine what sort of advice we might give...