My Howard's Miracle plum has already started blooming.

Dorsett Golden apples are also about to pop, but those are low chill so maybe shouldn't be a surprise.

I'm hoping we just have early spring.

I haven't yet spotted a single bee :(

Nice looking trees Eric. How do you thin them?

P.S. Some day some one will breed trees that won't bloom until April.

I was going to post this exact post/pictures a month ago when mine started to swell. This past week of high 60's low 70's made everything explode (including the mosquitoes!)

My early apricots are pretty much done blooming (I see little apricots under the petals!) my late apricots are just starting to bloom now. And same thing happened to me last year, just at the end of bloom our temps dropped to low 30's, and I lost most of them (actually I lost a lot of them trying to cover them up, and doing that ripped all the blossoms off! Silly me) My pluots are about 2/3 done blooming, as are my early peaches. Cot-n-Candy has a really long bloom time, started early and still popping. My Asian Plums should pop tomorrow and my blueberries. My European Plums are swelling, as are the cherries. Apples and pears are still sleeping.

Carla in Sac

Carla Here in the desert everything is blooming now too and my early peaches are done. The only thing not to pop yet are my Asian Pears.
Last threat of frost is Feb 15th here though so this year I'm all good. last year we had a late frost and I got little to nothing from many trees. With all the trees I have planted this year I sure hope next year is like this one.

Best of luck to everyone.

Doesn't it seem early?? Our frost date is around the 15 April. Will see what happens in the next two months.

murky,
While I was photographing the apricot I notice a few Bumbles.

thisisme,
areyousure LOL!
I wait until the natural fruit drop then I hand thin.

sautesmom,

I was going to post this exact post/pictures a month ago

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What are you doing in my orchard taking pictures. :~)
I have a brother that lives in El Dorado Hills.
My apples are mostly dormant, but my asian pears are opening.

At least I won't have dirt under the nails, I've chewed them off.

Eric

Not only are my buds popping but I actually have fruit. Holy cow!!! This caught me by surprise this morning...

Flowering peaches and plums

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Baby peaches (Tropic Snow). WOW!!!!

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Sandra

Sandra I hate to be the bearer of bad news but.....

Your newly planted fruit trees will grow faster and produce more fruit next year if you clip off all of their buds, flowers and fruit.
Not to mention the branches will bend under the weight of even one piece of fruit and destroy the crotch angle of the newly forming scaffold branches.

All buds are tight in my part of the Mid-Atlantic. Since mid-December, temperatures have been consistently below normal, and by a considerable margin. My current snowfall total, measured by an actual yardstick, is 68 inches, which is about ten times our total in a normal winter. Much of it is still on the ground. My plastic shed, assembled in late '07, which seemed pretty strong, collapsed from snow weight on the roof. Should have cleared it off.

I expect a very late bloom this spring, perhaps the latest I have ever seen. Should be good for the apricots, and I don't anticipate any negative consequences for other trees. The soil will be waterlogged for a long time this spring.

Sandra: I can't appreciate the full scope of your trees from the photos, but you should be able to leave a moderate amount of fruit for this season. Some thinning will have to be done, starting with the doubles. Thinning is a hard thing to do sometimes, but it's best to do it.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

jellyman I consider you to be one of our resident experts so I will of course bow to your thoughts on this. Keep in mind though her trees were just planted from bareroot in late December.

It's an unusual year. Some are have below normal with snow. We in Western Washington, above normal and dry. They are calling for rain Wednesday next week.

If they are truely new this year.
It's hard to do, but I would probably rub of the blossom and fruit.

Eric

Sorry, Thisisme, I didn't pick up that part about the trees being planted just this past December. Looked over the thread, and I still can't. I didn't think I could tell just what stage Sandra's trees were at. But I'm a thinner, and a radical one, especially with young trees.

No need for bowing. Be like Harvestman. Unbowed.

Just came in from the garage, where godawful quacking told me something was wrong in the mobile duck lounge (MDL) where the little ducks spend the night when the pond freezes over. Left the garage door open, and a large raccoon had squeezed in and had a duck in his mouth. Got there just in time, and the duck was ok, but the raccoon suffered very serious, in fact fatal pitchfork injuries. Closed the garage door.

That's another thing different about this winter. I have 10 small (2 pound) ducks and 7 drakes, and normally by mid-February they are laying at least 4-5 delicious little eggs per day. Not a single egg yet this year, and not even much mating going on, which is usually their favorite spring pastime. We are all waiting for signs of spring.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Don,

What breed of duck? Why so many drakes? They are just mouths to feed and no production. With my eight Khaki Campbells I've been getting at least 4 eggs a day all winter. My new Muscovies, 2 ducks and 1 drake are just showing signs of courtship. I also have 19 ducklings. 16 White Layers and 3 Cayugas. See links below for pictures.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0218490026220.html?10

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0212315427146.html?28

Cut and paste into your browser.

Eric

Sorry for the barge - just had to say that you have the cutest bunnies and ducklings, eric. And possibly the best pictures on GW :)

I have Desert Delight and Desert Dawn are finishing blooming and have babies peaches/nectarines on it. Mid Pride in the the middle of blooming, Giant Babcock and Fantasia is a just about to bloom. August Pride is next, then Snow Queen, Goldmine, Saturn,Sugar Lady, and Panamint
Pluots should start in another week. Plums look a week or two away. Only Golden Dorsett and Anna are flowering right now in the apples. Lapin Cherries still look a few weeks away. Asian Pears heave not come out of dormancy yet, Fan-Stil Pear is leafing out but no flowers yet.

This is always such a wonderful time of year to trees coming back to life. Luckily my citrus gets me through Winter with Fruit.

Very cute indeed. It makes me want to raise them too. My neighbor has a couple of chickens that were attacked by the resident hawk.

jellyman,

thisisme knew about my bareroot plants from one of his postings. In fact, since I'm still clearing out the slope where they will be planted (soon I hope) the trees are in plastic containers.

So, I should strip out all the flowers and fruits? Just leave the leaves? That's too bad... That is going to hurt but thanks for letting me know. :(

Sandra

Sandra:

I've gotten fruit many times on newly planted, potted trees with an established root system. A newly planted bare root tree is another matter. They seldom set fruit even if they bloom. So my opinion is that if your tree sets and holds some fruit, then it is OK to leave a little if you like. I'd thin heavily so that the limbs will have no trouble supporting any fruit left. It will not stunt your tree to leave a little fruit nor affect next years crop.

I planted some bare root nectarines yesterday. They have a few blooms about to open. I'll leave one fruit on each tree if they set any. Don't expect they will. Had they been planted in December, they'd have a better chance of holding fruit. But they just arrived yesterday.

Every February it's the same thing in the PNW region. A February blast of warmth to wake up all the fruit trees. My asian plums are early in the pinking stage, as is my lone pluot. And as usual, a cold snap follows. 26 degrees as I woke up this morning and likely 4 degrees colder tonight. I don't think this will be much of a problem since most blossoms aren't quite showing color yet and the temperature is going to moderate this week. I worry more about the April and early May frosts.

Wow, puget gold apricots are blooming on the San Juan islands? Heck, I have this variety here in California and they are dormant. But then they are in a part of the garden that is well shaded still until early March. My other apricots are mostly blooming now. Dorsett Golden Apples are in full bloom, as well as Anna. All other apples are completely dormant.

Plums, peaches, and pluots are all blooming or starting to bloom.

I would suspect that the early bloom in the PNW is partly attributable to the high chilling they get early in fall/winter. This fills out the chilling needs on many things probably before January 1. Once chilling is done, the tree can start accumulating the heat it needs to bloom. I don't know what the base temperature is for heat that gets the plant going in spring but it must be pretty low, maybe just above freezing.

A cool fall and early winter followed by mild weather can get things off to an early start. I to am surprised at how early they are. The trees in my greenhouse finished chilling Dec 10. Highs have been 80s at day and 30s at night ever since. Those trees are leafing out and have fruit up to one inch. But most are just approaching shuck split. And that's over two months of warm days since chilling.

Thanks Fruitnut. I'll keep an eye on them and thin heavily but will keep 1 or 2 fruits just for fun. I'm just amazed that the sticks I bought a couple of months ago actually are growing into trees! Sorry for being such a newbie but this is way cool!!!

Sandra

fruitnut said:
It will not stunt your tree to leave a little fruit nor affect next years crop.
I frequently hear people say to never let the 1st years fruit, as the energy is always better spent on root growth. I definitely hear that for citrus, too. Yet at least a few times I've read for in-ground stone trees it is definitely OK, the concern is what was stated: weight of the fruit on the trunk & branches causing breakage and destroying the good form. The most common case being the fruit all drops on it's own, or what little remains is underdeveloped & unflavored without the adequate root system in place.

So what is the real scoop? Maybe for typical containerized trees the former holds? Even in-ground very dwarfing stocks like apple on M9 also applies. But as for semi & standard in-ground trees, is it definitely true it doesn't noticeably affect next years growth NOR crop?

I understand everything is a risk and attempting 1st year fruiting MUST have SOME affect, but it is a bit annoying when you further question someone about the science behind it, they end with "why risk it, just completely remove them to be safe".

If someone knows the answer or can point me to a source I'll gladly do more research.

fruitnut said:
I don't know what the base temperature is for heat that gets the plant going in spring but it must be pretty low, maybe just above freezing.

In another thread I recall reading it is when the soil (ie. roots) temps rise -- the longer it holds or higher it goes the more will activate. This can be anywhere along the 40-60'ish range. Drops in temps after activation the tree then loses cold hardiness.

This wasn't in the fruit forum, though. Maybe someone will answer for fruit trees.

cebury:

I'm a heavy thinner on all trees and especially on young trees. The potted trees I've planted and got fruit the first year have been mostly stone fruit. With heavy thinning, cropping the first year isn't going to affect tree growth or next years crop to any significant extent. These trees are very precocious and fast growers. Length of growing season and growing conditions will affect the next crop much more than a little fruit.

The one fruit that can seriously over fruit at a young age is blueberries. But even here I'm more in the camp of leave some fruit. If you subsequently provide good growing conditions, there will be pretty of new growth and fruit the second year. Blueberries can over bear to the extent that fruit quality is seriously reduced.

If the tree sets some fruit the year of planting it is telling me that it is ready. So I go for a bird in hand. Next year will take care of itself if the tree is well care for.

Cebury:

I've never seen anything in print about activation temps,
but your 40-60 deg is what we normally have for Jan-Feb
on the Tx coast with a day or two of mid 70's every
second or third week. Tropic peaches and Gulf plums
mostly get chill hours and and blossom and this can be
as early as late November here.

So your 40-60 is likely to be correct but it will be
difficult to distinguish that here.

This is the first year I have had Tropic Snow to
go dormant, but they are bloomed out already.
Tropic Sweet is in mid-bloom. Gulf plums too.

Tropic Beauty appears confused giving a weak blossom
set, it is usually so strong. Maybe because I did not
prune any because I was so sick. I had hopped they
would all hold in dormancy till I felt better but no
such luck.

Artic Star nectarines are just blooming and they are
a week or two early. This is one I can observe act-
ivation on and shall try to do so.

Only one citrus has blossom buds. Red Navel is about
ready to open. Last year there were many more and
it froze in early March but they kept blooming.

It snowed 55 miles north of here yesterday evening,
and it was down to 37 deg at 10 pm and still there.
Holding my breath about tonight, if it clears, an
adiabatic freeze could get all the stone fruit.
I am praying for wind.

Spring activation has nothing to do with roots or soil temperature. It is an accumulation of heat units above some base temperature. This accumulation begins when the chilling requirement has been fullfilled. Some fruits, like much of my pluot and Japanese plums require only a small accumulation of heat units to bloom. Others like grapes and persimmon require a large accumulation. The heat units would be based on fruit bud temperature.

Fruitnut:

Since the growth hormones in the buds come from the
roots, I doubt that the soil is not a major factor.

This is one reason the tree stays in root/leaf bal
ance. And we often see the lower buds break first
then higher ones.

You also mentioned you leave leave fruit the first
year. My Master Gardener mentor was Bill Adams and
taught us that fruit thinning is not enough to stand
a windstorm. He cut stone fruit with a chainsaw every
January and we drug stacks of limbs from the orchard.
We could not sell one without trimming it to good form
usless the customer resisted. Then we thinned fruit
until we thought we were Marine recruits. But he let
us do a few our way and they broke. He and Tom LeRoy
wrote the book. Many librarys still have it.

If you live with thunderstorms and or huricanes you
will be sorry for not cutting back and strengthing
the tree from the start.

This is how you get the light into the middle of the
tree. Good form, it gives higher stonefruit yields.

Its getting colder here at night. We are getting down into the high 30's and its supposed to get colder over the next few days.

Almost everything is in partial or full bloom.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

>>> Spring activation has nothing to do with roots or soil temperature. It is an accumulation of heat units above some base temperature.. The heat units would be based on fruit bud temperature

That is contrary to what I learned in a different forum.... oh yeah it was Tapla about a couple months ago. But like I said he wasn't specifically speaking to edible fruit trees, but a general post about how deciduous trees break dormancy.

Do you have a source stating it's 100% bud temperature, not "root" temps (i.e. activation). If so, I have no problem researching further from your source.

Thanks

I took these a few hours ago.

Katy Apricot
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Cot-N-Candy Aprium
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It looks like the Dapple Dandy Pluot and Santa Rosa will be blooming in the next few days. All my blueberries are in full bloom as well.

home-grower, you mind posting some BB pics?
Thanks

Hello Eric!
Yes very early, hope you still have a crop,
this in Vancouver Feb. 20

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Konrad

Wow Konrad! nice pic. How old is that tree?

Cebury I just took this pic today. I moved them to a raised bed a few days ago. I will take a close up tomorrow.

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We had a nice suprise hailstorm and some pretty heavy rain today. It knocked off a lot of the blooms from the bb bushes but there are still a lot on there. I'll likely need to thin them down a little more.

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Even the newly planted ones are sporting some flowers.

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Now my Dapple Dandy looks like it's got some popcorn attached to it.

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Oh and I almost forgot about the Anna. It's in it's fifth year now and it is sporting lots of flowers.

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My trees are carefully selected to match normal winters. This Jan. & Feb. are ten deg below normal so everything
here is more than 3wks earlier than the weather allows.

Stone fruit needing bees is done blooming.

Saw first two bees Monday and a few more finally arrived yesterday, Sat. Usually have hairy vetch blooming
to bring them in droves slightly ahead of the citrus bloom. And vetch has not done a thing.

Usually have organic fertilizer out by now, but afraid to trigger early growth. Very cold year. Just like the seventies.

Accuweather is forecasting "endless winter."

Larry

>>Wow Konrad! nice pic. How old is that tree? I don't know...this tree is in a park, from a resent visit to the games and
my daughter lives there. We're, [Boumont] still in deep winter condition.....see home page photo.

Konrad

Nice Pictures everyone. I feel like I'm back over in the garden Photography Forum.

Eric

Here is a link that might be useful: GW Photography