Plums. Progress Report.

Hollywood Plum. Fruit set is the best I've ever seen for this tree. Promising.Shiro Plum. Ditto.

Moving a Small Mulberry Tree

Now it's fall. It's chilly.  It's raining every day. Good time to move some more trees, I think. Better than summer, when I moved other trees. This time it's an Illinois Everbearing Mulberry. I originally planted it March, 2010. So it's had 2 summers to grow. I decided it will be hard to keep the growth controlled. The exposure was north of a privacy fence. The neighbor to the south has a massive uncontrolled apple tree, also competing. At the Battleground place, it will have full sun to the East, South, and West. So maybe more mulberries. They are very tasty. One of the most delicious fruits I grow.
 

"Mulberry Tree Wrap" in an old vinyl tablecloth for travel. No pics digging it up. It's the usual, dig a trench, then try to dig deeply under the tree. It was difficult to dig under the tree. Despite the rain, the ground under the tree was dry and hard.

This is my one chance to inspect the roots. Impressive root system. The roots look thicker than the trunk. They were not very deep. Maybe 18 inches, at the most.

Here we are, planted and mulched with about 3 inches of leaf compost mulch. I did line the hole with chicken wire, to annoy and frustrate the mole.  The mole had a tunnel at exactly this spot, so I think the tree was a sitting duck.

I read on another website that mulberries are a tree "not" to plant, due to the berry production. The main concern is that birds eat the berries. Then the birds defecate, the purple poop stains cars. The berries also stain sidewalks. There are no sidewalks here, and no place to park a car near the tree.  Cars are few and far between.  My plan was to keep the tree small, and cover with bird net. I may still do that. I could have cut it down, and bought a new bare-root tree to plant in Spring. Then I would lose two years of progress. By moving it, I may lose some progress, but not much.

I pruned about 1 to 2 feet of new branch growth.  That will make up for root loss.  I don't think I lost a lot of roots.  Probably less than 20%.  Maybe less than 10%.  That compares to commercially grown trees, which I read lose 85% of their roots when moved.

There is also concern about spread of mulberry trees via seeds in bird poop.  I don't think that's an issue here.

More fruit trees for the little orchard.

I bought some fruit trees, mail order, from One Green World. OGW is about a 2 hour drive from here. Not too far. I had them shipped ground freight.  It's fall, cool outside.  Figured they would survive the trip, and they did.

The trees were nicely packaged.

I think they did a great job preparing the trees for shipment.  There is also a male kiwi vine, more on that later.

No injuries that I can see. The jujube trees were smaller than I expected. I guess they will catch up. I also expected them to be bare root. They were container grown. Maybe the web site stated that and I missed it.  Despite small size, they look completely healthy.

I made a "mole basket" from chicken wire. I've learned my lesson. I think the wire will rust away in a couple of years. The openings are big enough for roots, for many years to come. A 10 year old root would fit through the chicken wire. By that time, the wire will be long rusted away.

Planted Jujube.  Mulched with compost.  Good time to plant.  Cool, rained yesterday, and started drizzling after I finished.

I bought 2 varieties: Li and Coco. I've never eaten a jujube. Apparently the fruit is plum sized, sweet, crispy like apples, with interesting flavors.

Jujube "Li", from OGW. There was no photo of "Coco", which was the 2nd one I bought.

According to the catalog, Jujubes grow to 8 to 10 feet tall.  Compact, nice size for a fruit tree. From the web site specialtyproduce.com "Thought to be native to Syria and China... primarily grown in China...ornamental small thorny tree...loves a dry and mild climate....grows in Mediterranean countries and has since biblical times. Chinese gardeners developed the small fruit until it became superior and dessert quality...now cultivated in Japan, Iran and Afghanistan...Other names for this fruit are Chinese date and tsao. "

Chinese Haw "Red Sun". Ning remembers Shan Zha (Chinese Haw) from northeast China, where they are native. Apparently the fruit is between cherry and plum in size. They look like crab apples, in the photo. I've never eaten one. From the OregonLive blog: "grows at a moderate rate to 20 feet tall...10-12 feet wide. Lobed, oaklike leaves...3/4-inch-diameter white flowers explode in May in finger-length trusses, followed by clusters of glossy crimson edible fruit that ripens in mid- to late October." They label Red Sun as "Da Mian Qii") From OneGreenWorld, where I bought the tree:

Chinese Haw "Red Sun" OGW states the tree bears the 2nd year from planting.

Planted. Had a brain spasm and forgot a mole basket for this one. Will probably be OK.

Why we thin apples

Honeycrisp mini dwarf. I did think the apples, but not enough. They overloaded the tiny tree and it broke off. Oh well. The apples are quite good. I should be able to recover the tree from the stub, but it will take a couple of years.

Asian Pears

Just when the plums are finishing, the Asian pears are ripening. Cool!

Hollywood Plums

A good crop of tree ripened plums - enough to share with friends and coworkers, who loved them. Grocery store plums are hard and sour. The tree-ripened plums are tender, juicy, sweet, and so flavorful!

Baby Plum Tree

This looks to me like a plum seedling. I planted seeds in this pot in June. No expectations as to germination. These were not pits that I removed seeds from - separate batch - an the seeds were mailed to me from a friend in Georgia. They are a wild, native yellow plum. I'm surprised it did not need stratification, and I don't know how to manage it through the winter, but shouldn't be too difficult. That's assuming it's really a plum and not a weed. Does look plum-like.

Little Orchard revisited

Now I'm thinking about adding another row. There is room. That would be 5 more fruit trees. Which types? Maybe... - Asian Persimmon? I can't get the idea of astringent American varieties out of my mind, even though, apparently, when fully ripe they are very sweet and not astringent. I need to research a bot more. I don't want one that needs a pollinator. Maybe Early Jiro? Pretty fruits, pic from One Green World. Black Sea Jujube. All of these pics are from One Green World. Li Jujube. Chinese Haw That leaves room for one mulberry, probably the same as I have at home, Illinois Everbearing. I love the flavor and the "everbearing" aspect is attractive. So far my home tree has minimal production but is only in its 3rd year.

Mini Orchard Plan

Most of this is just thinking. I have a mulberry that needs to go somewhere, and would like to add a black mulberry. With need for apple pollinator, maybe a multigraft would be best. Similar for Asian plum. I'm fairly firm on the paw paws, although I don't know if they will survive and thrive. Similar for the peaches. If they suffer major leaf curl, I should give up on those. The "unknown" gets one chance to bloom and/or fruit. If nothing, then I want the space for something productive. I would like a good Asian plum. What else? Pear? A lot of the pleasure is in the thinking.

Shiro Plums. Great harvest!

This Spring I wondered if there would be any plums. That was due to frost, and I read that Shiro needs a pollinator other than the Hollywood plum that is nearby. I was wrong. This is plenty for me to eat all I can, and share lots at work. Shiro ripens all plums in about 2 or 3 weeks, so no reason to have more than this.

These are the juiciest, sweetest plums I have ever eaten. Not huge size, but that's OK. They are a clingstone plum, so a little messy to eat. But so good.

Bakyard Orchard Walkabout

Midsummer, the yard and backyard orchard is jungle-like in greenery.

On the left Illinois Everbearing mulberry. This is year #3. Not many mulberries yet, but the ones I get are incredibly good.

Container gardens, tomatoes, beans, onions, peppers.

Left to right, pole beans, King fig, Sal's fig (in white pot), Bonanza miniature peach (2 peaches this year - leaf curl disease again), and some branches of Lattarua fig.  The Sal's will move to the Battleground place soon.

The purple leaf tree is Hollywood plum.  The plums are still firm but getting closer.  On the far left, one of the ginkgos I grew from a seed, now about 10 feet tall.  Half as tall as the one the same age, in the back yard.  The difference is likely the benefit of watering, improved soil, lots of dog "product" over 10 years in the back yard.  The mulch is made from prunings I took from the cherry trees.

The grass is brown for the summer.  It will grow back.  Apple on the right is Jonagold.

Charlie standing by Liberty Apple.

The yellow fruits are Shiro plum. We've eaten a few. This week they should be in full juiciness and sweetness.

Today I noticed the summer figs starting to soften. Maybe a week away? This is variety "Petite negri", red inside, blue-black outside. My favorite.

Plums From Seed, part 2.

There are many conflicting versions regarding how to sprout wild plum, and other stone fruit seeds. I have a pretty good supply, from collecting plums. They have been washed and allowed to dry. Most are in an envelope after being allowed to dry overnight. Based on several you-tube videos, I chose 5 pits for removal of the hull. I used a vice grip so I could adjust the force, and because I don't have a nutcracker.

Vice grip and plum pits, dried overnight. These are wild plums. The pits are the size of a sweet cherry seed.

The first pit flew across the room. I used a little more finesse for the others. They cracked easily, releasing the inner kernel. Cool! They look undamaged.

I moistened a paper towel, squeezed out the excess, wrapped the pits, placed them in a ziplock back, and placed them in the fridge. Now I need to wait one to 2 months. After that, I don't know - if they start growing, it's the wrong season (fall) to plant outside, but maybe they'll grow on the window sill. I did a web search on coat removal and stratification and scarification. Coat removal would be a "complete" version of scarification. It appears that coat removal is beneficial for germinating seeds of fruits with pits, and many other seeds. In addition, stratification for peaches and plums, by refrigerating, shoulf last about 10 weeks. For example, from Iowa State Horticultural News, Cherry, Peach, and Plum (Prunus species) Harvest fruit when full mature. Remove the seed. Seed may be sown in the fall or stratified seed may be planted in the spring. Stratify the seeds at 33 to 41 F. The sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) requires 90 to 150 days, the peach (Prunus persica) 98 to 105 days, and European plum (Prunus domestica) 90 days. Seed of plums and peaches should be planted 2 inches deep. Sow the seed of sour cherry at a depth of 1/2 inch.

Plums. Backyard Orchard Culture

Not ripe yet, but getting closer. This is the best crop so far from Hollywood and Shiro.

Shiro. Hard to see in the picture, since the plums are green.  They will show better when they change color to yellow. I love these plums

Hollywood. Ditto - the most I've had from this tree. I like that the leaves are purple, which makes the purple plums less visible to birds and bypassers.I love these plums, too.

These are a yellow wild plum, the size of a sweet cherry. They have a sweet, sprightly flavor. The tree is down the street, and it doesn't look like anyone is eating them. I picked up the plums from the street, cleaned the seeds, and will plant some now in flower pots, to stay moist and germinate over winter or next spring; plant some in the fall in containers an place outside or in the fridge, and give some away. Even though they are small, they ripen with cherries, much earlier than the other plums. They are as big as sweet cherries, so they can be thought of as a "different cherry" to make the small size more acceptable - but they really are plums. Very juicy and sweet.

Here are the cleaned seeds. The seeds on the plaid washcloth are wild cherry seeds. Two years ago I saved some, planted them, then neglected to water the little trees in the hot summer, and they died. I want to try again, using backyard orchard culture methods of dwarfing by summer pruning.

Backyard Orchard Culture: Stimulate fig crop

This is how you stimulate fig trees to initiate fall crop. It's very easy. If I don't do this, I barely get any fall figs. If I do, the trees are stimulated to make lots of figs - then it's a matter of weather permitting. I think the growing tip produces hormones that prevent figs from growing at the leaf nodes. By snapping off the growing tip, the hormonal inhibition is stopped, and soon a fig will start to form at each leaf node. I do this when the new branches are at 4 or 5 leaves. I try to do it early, so I get figs before the weather is too cool and days too short in the fall to sweeten the figs. I used to use a scissors for this, but they snap so easily, scissors are not necessary. Some references refer to this as pinching", but I don't pinch, I bend the tip and it easily snaps off.

This tree is Hardy Chicago. Almost all of the breba figs fell off. That doesn't bother me too much, because several other fig trees promise a big breba crop this year. Since it's not making figs now, the branches are growing fast, and it's time to plan for the fall crop.

Find the branch growing tips.

The place to snap off the growth is just below the little leaf forming at the end. Just bend over the tip, and it snaps off. No cutting or pinching is needed - just snap.

The tip will ooze white latex sap for a few hours. I don't think that hurts anything. Some people have allergic reactions to the latex, so I wouldn't get carried away until after snapping one or two and waiting a day to see if there is a reaction. I don't worry about it, and have never had a problem, so I snap all of the tips that I see, that have 3 or 4 or 5 leaves. This technique limits tree size, and stimulates compact branching, as well as stimulating a crop. It works for the fall crop (main crop) if snapping is done in early summer. I don't do it for the spring (breba) crop because I don't want figs to form before winter rains and frost.

Backyard Orchard Culture: Thinning baby fruits for better harvest.

Once fruit has set on the tree, it's time to thin the baby fruits for best yield. By thinning, each of the remaining fruits will get much more leaf-produced sunshine-generated energy. That means much larger fruits, more flavor, and earlier yield.

In years when I did not thin, my fruits were small and not as tasty.

 In my yard, thinning time is now - for apples, pears, asian pears, peaches, plums. If there are already about 1 fruit every 4 to 6 inches of branch, they don't need to be thinned. They say the fruit should be about one human fist apart. I have fat fists, so I left them slightly closer together. Do not thin tart cherries, sweet cherries, mulberries. It would just reduce the yield. Do thin apples, peaches, pears, asian pears, plums, unless setting was sparce. I'm not sure figs need thinning - mine drop a lot so I let the tree decide. I might remove a few that are too closer together. In my climate, the time to thin is now, to a few weeks from now. It may be a little early but I get excited. This week I thinned pears, asian pears, and apples. The peach fruits are sparse, but on branches where there are many clustered together, I thinned them to 1 per spur.

These are Liberty Apple, a disease-resistant apple that tastes great and bears well every year. This tree is on an ultra-dwarfing stock, so at 8 years old it is only 5 feet tall. It's more of a bush, than a tree. The blossom clusters set very well. Almost every blossom set. There are 4 to 8 baby apples per cluster. Left in place, the apples will be late, small, and not as flavorful. All but one or 2 should be removed, per cluster. Even with thinning this little tree may have a hundred apples this year.


Some people use their fingers to pull off the small fruits. I find that I pull of the entire spur, or twist and damage the remaining apple. I have fat clumsy fingers. So, I use a kitchen shears. To avoid spreading disease, I run them through the dishwasher between uses, once per tree. That also washes off the sticky sap.  This scissor is in a slightly wrong place - that's the one little apple I left in place. It's not easy taking a pic while holding an apple branch and a pair of scissors.  I avoiding thinning my fingers, and still have 10 on each hand.

After thinning, I have one apple per cluster. I left one per spur, which are about 4 inches apart. In each case, I tried to leave the biggest apple in place. When they grow a little bigger, I may remove a few of the closest-together ones, but basically the job is done. I'm pretty sure I left healthy baby apples - the blossoms that did not set just fall off now, whereas these have a nice start of little apples.


Of the other apple trees, the North Pole was also due for thinning, so I did that.  Also the Jonagold.   Both of these also set very well this year.  Of the new ones, Karmin de Sonneville and Honeycrisp, this is just their 2nd year of growth, but they are covered with flowers.  I thinned them as well.  I would like to get a few apples from each of those, even if it stunts future years.  I want them to be stunted.

My other preparation today was to spray each tree with some neem oil. Neem is organic. It is an extract from neem trees. Neem oil reduces fungal disease and aphids. I find it helpful, although not as helpful as selecting the right variety. My Golden Delicious got a leaf blight every year despite spraying, and Liberty so far has not got any blight, even when I don't spray. I finally cut down the Golden Delicious, and have new small starts of Karmin de Sonneville and Honeycrisp, both of which I expect to give a few apples this year. Jonagold is in between on the blight issue, so I neemed it well this year. Jonagolds are very good. I wish I could find a Jonathan or some scion wood from a Jonathan, which were my favorite apples when I was a boy.  Karmin seemed to get a little blight late in the year last year, but I still want to try with that one.  Karmin has interesting, downy furry leaves.  The apples are said to be among the most flavorfull.

In a few weeks, I will also cut the tips from the apple branches. I do that when they have about 6 inches of growth. Doing so stimulates spur formation for next year, and makes the tree/bush very compact.   But for now, they just need some sunshine and an occasional rain.

Backyard Orchard Culture: Progress Notes

Most of the fruit trees are near the end of blossoms. Some of the apples are midway through blooming, and a few blossoms straggle on, on the pears and cherries. Now some of the baby fruits are starting to show, giving me a hint of what to expect this year.

This is Almaden Duke cherry, planted last Spring, so just over a year after planting. Many of the buds took. The tree is about 3 1/2 feet tall. Since I want it to remain dwarfed, I'm going to let the fruits continue. Plus I want to see what they are like. Impressive, really impressive, to get fruit the 2nd year after planting, even if only a hand full or bowl full.

Hollywood plum. A few scattered fruit have taken. I thought it might not have any, due to frost while blooming. These are so good, I'll settle for having just a few.

The peaches that I planted in tubs late this winter. Starting to leaf out. I underplanted one with lettuce and one with cilantro, so as not to waste the soil and space.

Shiro plum. Judging from the number of tiny embryonic plums, I think there will be a bowl full or two. Like the Hollywood, I wondered if I would get any due to frost while blooming. Home-grown Shiro are so good, it's worth the wait and worth the trouble to get even a few.

Surefire Cherry - I'm guessing, about 4 years old now. I planted tart cherries largely because of late blooming, to miss those early frosts. This one is the latest of my many varieties, as far as blooming goes. They should set well, and we should get a pie or two. These have a wonderful flavor, different from the sweet cherries, and when very ripe can be eaten out of hand, sweet and tart at the same time, with red juice.