Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Fruit Tree Blooming Notes. 4.4.17

Methley Plum.  4.4.17

Hollywood Plum.  4.4.17
 I'm recording the bloom dates for my fruit trees.  For future decisions, I want to know if some bloom too early, and are exposed to frost.  For pollination and multigrafts, it doesn't help if one is finished before the polleniing variety starts.

Here's where they are now.  At my place in Battleground, only the Asian plums and peaches are blooming.

Peak or past peak blooming:
Crimson Pointe ornamental plum.

Peak Blooming:
Hollywood Plum.
Methley Plum.
Sweet Treat Pluerry.
Nadia Plum Cherry Hybrid.

Early Open with a few flowers Blooming:
Shiro Plum - barely started.
LaCrescent hybrid Plum.
Charlotte Peach.  Almost peak blooming.
Mary Jane Peach.

Buds present and swelling but not open:
Hanska hybrid plum.
Ember hybrid plum.
Toka hybrid plum.

I have Hollywood on Toka.  I think I'll remove it.  Hollywood is way ahead of Toka, and is much more vigorous.  I have several other starts or grafts of Hollywood, so removing it is no loss.  Except I hate to remove a successful graft of my own doing.

Most of the cherries have swelling flower buds, as do most of the the pawpaws, Asian pears, and some apples. 

There are tiny insects moving from flower to flower in the plum and peach trees.  I imagine those are pollinating insects.  I cut sections from the unknown plum tree, and Crimson Pointe, and attached them to the other trees, as pollen sources.  I also hand pollinated a little, for Nadia and Sweet Treat.  I doubt that will have much impact, but it's not difficult to do.





Sweet Treat Pluerry.  4.4.17

Nadia Plum Cherry Hybrid.  4.4.17

Mostly, Unknown Asian Plum with multigrafts.   4.4.17

Charlotte Peach.  4.4.17

Maryanne Peach.  4.4.17

Q-1-8 Peach  4.4.17

Crimson Pointe Plum.  4.4.17

6 comments:

  1. Looking good, Daniel! My fruit trees are in bloom now, too. I was worried about a frost last night. Maybe tonight.
    Randy

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  2. Some fruit tree blossoms can take a frost. Depends on the species, the stage of development of the blossoms, and just how cold it got.

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  3. What a great idea. As a newbie, this yr is my first yr that the graft take. My host tree is an "elephant heart" which bloomed for a long time from the bottom of the tree slowly reaching the top and I grafted a "September de Perfume" on it and it set bud way after all the "elephant heart" Needless to say there's not even a single fruit set on the elephant heart and I'm hoping this is because of the graft's initial take and the blossoming time will be closer together in the future. This only proofs that I still have a lot to learn about grafting in general:-)

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    1. Lance, awesome grafting success! I am still amazed that grafting is even possible!

      You need some Asian plum grafts on your tree. September de Perfume is a European plum - Mirabelle. A wonderful plum, and it is self-fertile. Elephant Heart is a delicious Asian plum. It needs an Asian plum to pollenize. Asian plums can't use Euro pollen, and vice versa, although they can be graftable. European plums are hexaploid - 6 sets of chromosomes, while Asian plums are diploid - 2 sets of chromosomes, so they are not cross fertile. In general, Asian plums bloom earlier than European plums.

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  4. Oh, no, got excited too soon. What a disappointing news. The only remedy is to try again next yr with Asian to Asian graft. No wonder the flowering time is so far apart. The silver lining is that I proof to myself that I'm able to graft plums the first time in my life.

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    Replies
    1. Didn't want to disappoint you but do want you to be informed Lance. I think you will still like the September de Perfume and now you can use your success to graft other Asian plums next year.

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