Tony's 2013 fruits harvest and newly graft persimmon tree
Tony
10 years ago
Ashmead's Kernel
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Fruit trees in low chill areas
Comments (1)Despite the freak frost that wiped out our avocado, banana, and guava trees, because of the hot weather before and after January our area still only tallied up 350 chilling hours, not nearly enough to justify the apples that are fruiting for me. Meanwhile, Im still waiting for my 5-year-old August Pride apricot to blossom or fruit (which is supposed to be low-chill). So I cannot totally credit a yearÂs crop to the meager cold we get, as there can be several factors, one of which is bi-annual tendencies of some cultivars. Anna and Dorsett Golden have been their usual maniac selves and will harvest early this year, in about a month, and we just made a cobbler from our Florida King peach. On the other hand, many apples are fruiting in their second year that shouldnÂt fruit here at all. We have pea to golf-ball sized apples on Wickson Crab, Kerr Crab, Whitney Crab, Thornberry Crab, Terry Winter, Rome Beauty, Gala, AshmeadÂs Kernel, Queen Cox, WilliamÂs Pride, Ribston Pippin, Snow, Braeburn, Tarbutton, Hawaii, Pink Lady, Coop 37, Coop 40, Coop 41, Gordon, Gold Rush, Royal Limbertwig, Freyberg, Kandil Sinap, Scarlet Sentinel, Washington Strawberry, Yates, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Lord Lambourne. Just starting to blossom are Yellow Newtown Pippin, Stellar, Yellow Transparent, Virginia Winesap, White Winter Pearmain, Court Pendu Plat, Cinnamon Spice, Maiden Blush, Rubinette, Sundowner, and Carolina Red June. I will say that most are not happy here and show classic signs of inadequate chill. The blossoms and leaves come in onesies-twosies instead of a full flush, dragging out for a month (makes for great pollination however). Many trees have golf-ball sized apples and are still blossoming. Some have bare wood towards the trunk unless the branches are pulled almost horizontal. We have some local 6000Â mountain orchards that allow me to compare their performance with a cold climate. YouÂd think that because of our warm winter they would be earlier to blossom, but itÂs just the opposite. They are at least a full month later than the same variety up in the mountains because of the lack of chill. Yellow Transparent should be fruiting at the end of this month, but itÂs just now blossoming. We have no disease or pests, but I can see how this long blossom period would drive folks nuts trying to time sprays. The low-chill apples will crop and then continue to blossom all the way through Thanksgiving, often setting a smaller second crop. But rest assured we eventually do get a full crop and it really doesnÂt matter how late they blossom, the later the better. Our season is never-ending and they can hang on the tree until February if they want. Two Fujis are our oldest trees and they have adapted well to our climate, blossoming a month earlier each year and doing so in a full flush. Because they ripen in our winter with 80-degree days and 39-degree nights, the quality and color is outstanding, as it is with other late varieties like Gold Rush and Pink Lady. I feel bewildered and a bit cheated that weÂve been told all these years that apples wonÂt grow in a warm climate, and think of all the people that have missed out on some wonderful apples because of this myth. The myth is universal also, with even our own University of California system saying that apples need so much cold to break dormancy and zone 8 is marginal for growing them. If this is true, then why do Granny Smith and Pink Lady never lose their leaves here in zone 10 over winter, and yet still blossom and set a full crop of fruit with the new leaves pushing out the old? Yes, the habits are different and the color may not be quite up to snuff, but the result is a full crop of high-quality apples that blow the doors off anything in the supermarket, including all the popular varieties like Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, Delicious, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious (Pink Lady even does well out in the low desert of Palm Springs and Las Vegas, graveyards to other apple varieties). So when it comes to apples, ignore the chilling hours and plant what you want. DonÂt be so quick to attribute lack of fruit to inadequate chilling hours, as there may be other reasons like lack of pollination, multi-grafts (a bad idea here), late-bearing varieties (Fuji takes 5 years to really fruit), bi-annualism, or too much fertilizer. I wish I could say the same for other stone fruit like peaches, apricots and cherries- traditional chilling theory seems to be all too true for them. Applenut...See MoreSome samples of my grafted citrus trees
Comments (24)Toni. Thanks. But I don't understand your question. What stock did I use to graft all citrus on? As you can see all the host plants are different. All I did was to graft a different tree to a branch of the host plants so what do you mean by what stock did I use? Marc, heh, I do just what you do Marc. Every morning I can't wait till daybreak till I go to my yard and look specially for the new grafts that I did whether there is any changes as of yesterday. Then I'd inspect each and every one of them for bugs and such. Yesterday, I saw a BIG bird munching on my riped cherries. My first thought was to get my newly bought air rifle 1000 fps velocity but then I debated it only was looking for its food and must be hungry. And I just shoo'd it away. I end up plucking the cherries and munched them myself. So sweet. Those Prince Ranier cherries. And when my kid came from school we got as much as we can and ate them last night while watching TV. My kid kept on putting them in his mouth while harvesting them. So those are the fruit of your labor. Are you bored really? Those are the happppiest moment waiting for your fruits to ripen. At least for me. It makes your every day a pleasant one....See MoreTop work American Persimmon tree
Comments (10)Tony, I'm not surprised that you're up to the task of managing all those grafts, but I would think that this should be recommended for only the very diligent among us. Unless it's forced to do so, that tree does not want to maintain that habit - it wants to find one leader to take over. So as the tree grows the peripheral grafts will be especially vulnerable to self-pruning, and I can see how maintaining the balance can be particularly challenging. You'll really have to know your tree. Good luck! The alternative of closely planted trees with each variety on its own rootstock at least aligns the trees' tendencies with your own intentions and removes the problem with self-pruning the grafts....See MoreSaijo persimmon is indeed "the best one"
Comments (73)In 6b, I would expect even the cold-hardiest non-astringent Asian persimmon varieties to suffer significant die-back more years than not and probably get completely killed off sooner rather than later, even if you could protect them for the first couple winters to let them mature further before facing winter unprotected. I think a chance at fruit would depend on a string of mild winters. At the Wye research station, there were some non-astringent persimmon varieties that survived a lot of 6b winters, but the reports I read said they only fruited following 7a or warmer winters. I would expect about the same of the cold-hardiest astringent Asian persimmon varieties in 6a. Even in 6b, unless you live near a large body of water that would heavily moderate temperature swings and make sure that your winters were always very average, the cold hardiest astringent Asian persimmon varieties would seem like a gamble in terms of cold hardiness, especially if you wanted to get past any colder than average winters. American persimmons should have no cold hardiness issues even in 6b. I don't really know anything about the Asian-American hybrids JT--2 or Cassandra, neither in terms of cold hardiness or taste, but Rosseyanka I think would be safely cold hardy in zone 6. I think it's a great eating tasting fruit, but I think it's also very different from pure Asian persimmons (and very different from pure American persimmons.)...See Morelkz5ia
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