Cherry Trees Blooming. 4.17.19

Sweet Cherries Vandalay and Sweetheart.  4.17.19

Pie Cherry Montmorency.  4.17.19

This is peak bloom time for sweet cherry varieties Vandalay, Sweetheart, and Ranier, as well as for Montmorency.  I don't think Montmorency pollinates the sweet cherries, and is self pollinating.  The sweet cherries look like they will have a good crop this year.

I planted Vandalay and Sweetheart from shipped bare root trees from Raintree in 2012.  Ranier was a bare root tree from BiMart in about 2014.   Montmorency was from Home Depot, I think in 2010, and I replanted it to the Battleground orchard in 2012.  It was a ball and burlap tree.

Sweet Cherry Ranier.  First Bloom.  4.1719

Fruit Tree Blooming Notes. 4.16.17

Gage Plum.  4.16.17

Stanley Plum.  4.16.17

LaCrescent Plum.  4.16.17

Hanska Plum.  4.16.17

Ember Plum.  4.16.17

Sweetheart Cherry.  4.16.17

Vandalay Cherry.  4.16.17

Ranier Cherry.  4.16.17

Hamese Asian Pear.  4.16.17

Hosui Asian Pear.  4.16.17

Maxie Asian Pear.  Front white flower is graft of unknown Asian Pear.  4.16.17

Multigraft Asian Pear, Branches Tied Down for Better Bearing.  4.16.17

Shinseiki Asian Pear.  4.16.17

More documentation of fruit tree blooming, for pollination matching.

By now, the earliest have dropped almost all of their petals, and can be considered done blooming.  Those are:
Ornamental Plum Crimson Pointe.
Hollywood Plum.
Sweet Treat Pluerry.
Nadia Plum Cherry Hybrid.

Methley Plum looks done or nearly so.

At peak or slightly past peak:
All of the hybrid Asian/American species plums.  These include Toka, Hanska, Ember, Lacrescent.
The unknown Asian plum is also past peak.
Shiro is past peak.

At peak bloom:
Stanley European plum
Green Gage (European) plum.
Vandalay Sweet Cherry.
Sweetheart Sweet Cherry.
Ranier Sweet Cherry.
Asian Pears including Hamese, Shinseiki, Hosui, Mishirasu, and unknown that might be Shinseiki but appears slightly different.
Maxie Hybrid pear is not quite to peak.
I have a graft of Rescue pear on the Maxie tree, which is at peak, but the original Rescue pear has barely begun blooming.

Apples are not blooming yet, but Gravenstein will be the first, with the first pink flowers now almost open.  It looks like Liberty and Pristine will be close behind, and maybe Jonared.  I don't know which of those I'm anticipating more.

Pawpaws have swelling buds, but I think it will still be a month or so.

Among the peaches, Charlotte is almost done blooming.  Same for Mary Jane.  Q-1-8 is at peak bloom.

The bottom 3 photos are my main orchard, although I have about as many other trees spread around the 2 acres in various groups.  It's nice seeing so many trees blooming, and thinking about watching the potential fruits develop.

a month.

Fruit Bloom Diary. 4.9.17

White Toka with Pink Hollywood Graft.  4.9.17

 Here is my fruit tree bloom diary as of today. 

Completed Blooming and Petals Fallen.
Crimson Pointe Plum.

Past Peak but Many Blossoms Present.
Sweet Treat hybrid plum (pluerry).
Nadia hybrid plum (Asian plum x cherry).
Hollywood (Asian plum).

Late Peak.
Methley (Asian Plum).
Unknown Asian Plum.

Peak.
Hanska (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
Toka (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
Ember (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
LaCrescent (Hybrid American x Asian Plum) .
Shiro (Asian Plum)

Rare blossoms open, most not open yet.
Possibly, Green Gage Plum - small green euro plum.

Toka Plum.  4.9.17

Vandalay Cherry.

Hanska Plum.  4.9.17

Hamese Asian Pear.
Hosui Asian Pear.

Most of the pears are not open yet.
None of the apples are open so far.
Most of the sweet cherries are not open yet.
None of the pie cherries are close to opening.
Pawpaws have swelling buds but not close to open flowers yet.

I've read mixed reports on pollination among the American X Asian plum hybrids.  Most state that Hanska and Ember are poor pollinators for the others, while Toka is a good pollinator.  I'm not sure about LaCrescent.  I have not read about the effectiveness of Asian plums with these, such as Shiro which had the same bloom time for me, or Hollywood and Methley, which seem to overlap but not perfectly.

When I originally obtained the American X Asian hybrid plum grafts, one of my goals was to see if they bloomed later than Asian plums, and therefore less risk for damage by late frost.  That hypothesis was correct.  Since this is the first year for massive bloom, I don't know yet if they will actually provide fruit here, or what those fruits will be like.

Sweet Treat and Nadia are new interspecific hybrids, and their pollination requirements are not well known, especially in this area.  With early overlap by Crimson Pointe, mid overlap by Hollywood, Methley, and the unknown Asian Plum, and late overlap by Shiro, the bloom times are covered.  Whether any of those will be genetically compatible pollinators, I hope we learn soon.  I won't know specifically which ones, but I might learn if we have those needs covered.

LaCrescent Plum.  4.9.17

 So far my wild plum hasn't even made buds.  I don't know if it is skipping a year, or if it is just going to be a lot later.  If so, and no fruit, it might be a candidate for removal. 

Sweet Treat Pluerry.  4.9.17

Possibly Green Gage Plum.  4.9.17

Fruit Tree Blooming. Pear Graft Progress. Orchard Phenology. 3.31.16

NOID Asian Pear.  3.31.16

Vandalay and Sweetheart Cherries.  3.31.16

 The fruit tree bloom stage now, is sweet cherries and pears.

Full bloom:
NOID Asian Pear - I wonder if this is Nijesseiki?

Maxie Hybrid Pear
Hosui Asian Pear
Mishirasu Asian Pear
Hamese Asian Pear - this one never blooms much.
Shinseiki Asian Pear
Rescue European Pear - just started.

Early full bloom-
Vandalay Sweet Cherry
Sweetheart Sweet Cherry
Ranier Sweet Cherry
Stanley Plum

Vandalay and Sweetheart are described as self pollinizing, which was part of why I planted them.  Even so, it can't hurt for them to bloom together.  Vandalay is slightly ahead of Sweetheart.  There is promise of several bowls of cherries from each tree, for the first time, this year.  This is 4th leaf.

Late Full Bloom
American species plum
Ember hybrid plum
Hanska hybrid plum

Finishing  bloom
NOID Euro Pear, I think Green Gage

 I can't find the grafting date, I think mid February, but here is the progress for the two pollinizers I added to Maxie.  Both are ghrowing.  Both source trees are blooming now, as well as Maxie, so this looks like a good choice.

Graft of Rescue Pear onto Maxie.  ~6 weeks,  3.31.16

Graft of NOID Asian Peare onto Maxie.  ~6 weeks.  3.31.16

A good pomologist would not let the stock bloom below the grafts, but I'm not looking for maximal growth, just some pollinizing blooms.  Also, I really want to try the Maxie pears, and want to give it all the chance I have to bear.  The priority is on the Maxie, not the grafts.

Fruit Tree Buds. 2.21.16

Flower Buds.  NOID Asian Plum.  2.21.16

Flower Buds.  Methley Plum.  2.21.16

 Many of the fruit trees have enlarging buds, but many are still looking closed tight.  I was anxious about how early they are developing - concern for frost kill on delicate new flowers and growth, but that is becoming less of a concern as Spring approaches and the flowers are not yet open.  We have low into high 30s tonight, not worrisome for fruit tree flower buds.

The furthest ahead so far -
 Charlotte Peach - pink is showing.
Sweet Treat Pluerry
NOID Asian Plum - might be pluot.
Toka Hybrid Plum.
Methley Asian Plum
Maxie Pear - not a fair comparison, because this was a container tree planted in December, which might have influenced this year's  bud development.

Next in line -
Hollywood Plum - almost as far along, can see some pink coloration, this tree has burgundy leaves which influences the color of the buds.
Nadia Cherry - Plum Hybrid - not a fair comparison, I planted this as a bare root tree last month. If the blooms taste, it would be interesting to get a fruit or two to taste on this first-year tree.
Prunus americana seed grown plum - flower color is starting to show.  This tree is 4 years from seeds.
Unnamed Asian Pear
Hosoi Asian Pear

Buds showing signs of life -
Illinois Everbearing Mulberry - leaf buds - flowers form from growing shoots.
Saijo Persimmon - barely.  This is leaf bud, flowers form on shoots that grow from buds, not the dormant buds themselves.
Nikita's Gift Persimmon - barely and as for Saigo
Unnamed Korean or Japanese Cherry, planted this winter.
Juliet hybrid bush cherry - planted from container this winter.

Most of the European cherries bad barely visible swelling on some buds, both sweet and sour cherries.  Most of the European pears and apples have no discernible bud swelling.

Flower Buds.  Toka Plum.  2.21.16

Flower Buds.  Charlotte Peach.   2.21.16

Flower Buds.  Maxie Hybrid Pear.   2.21.16

Seedlings and Progress Report. 4.12.14

Culinary Ginger Plant 4.12.14

 The ginger is growing rapidly.  Not enough room in the light stand.  Moved to south window.

Fig plants from south window are transitioning to outside.

Seedlings went into ground -
Phacelia, oregano, snowpeas, bunching onions.  The Phacelia was at cotyledon stage so delicate.  I was careful.

Will leave kitchen garden open starting tomorrow but with screening for rabbits and deer.

Two more buddlea starts went into the ground.

Harvested a row of radishes and planted 2 new rows of radish seeds.

Played the bee with Asian pears, Tart and Sweet Cherries.

Montmorency and North Star cherries about in full bloom.  Almaden Duke and the two sweet cherries are almost done.

Seedlings 4.12.14

Home Orchard. Bloom report. 4.6.14

Home Orchard

Bloom report.

Plums.

Methley = done.
Satsuma = petals almost all dropped.
Toka = all open , 1st petals dropping.
Unknown = about 3/4 done

Stanley = doesn't look like it will bloom.

Gage = almost fully open.
 

Peaches = all varieties are done.

Cherries.

I may have Vandalay and Sweetheart mixed in this photo.   Both are about 1/4 open.
Almaden Duke = fully open.  Really beautiful tree.
Tart Cherries = neither has started.  This is good.  I wanted them to be late in case of late frost.

None of the apples are blooming.

Dwarf apple 3-way I planted bare root this winter,  Pristine, Queen Cox, Rubinette is leafing out.
Minidwarf Karmijn de Sonneville is almost blooming.
Minidwarf Honeycrisp is almost blooming.  This is new growth last year after broke off completely 2012.  I kept this with branching very low, 2 branches.  I grafted a pollinating branch of Liberty onto the smaller branch.  The Liberty branch looks like it might bloom.
William's Pride 1-year old looks like it might bloom.  One year from grafting.
Esopus Spitzenberg 1 year old is growing, I don't expect bloom.
Golden Sentinel has some unopened flowers.
Red Sentinel has some unopened flowers.
Prairie Fire has nice burgundy leaves, and clusters of flower buds. 

The unknown, original Asian pear is in full bloom.  The others have buds, starting to open.

Fruit Tree Blossom Times. 3.30.14

Asian Plums 3.30.14

Apricot  Blossom 3.30.14

Log for plum blooming times.

Unknown plum, not quite full bloom.
Toka, full bloom.
Satsuma, just past full bloom.
Methley finished blooming.

Among others,
Greengage just beginning to bloom
Stanley, doesn't look like it will bloom.

I pollinated several times using paintbrush.  Today it did not rain.  There were many pollinating insects, especially on the unknown variety of plum.  I didn't see much traffic to Toka or Satsuma.

Among other stone fruits,
The apricot seedlings have just a few blossoms.  I have been trying to pollinate them.  Looking,on a few the base of the pistol has minimal swelling.  That is  also the case with Methley.

Among the cherries, the first flower opened today on Vandalay.  Sweetheart has not started to open.  Those are only one year old.  Almaden Duke is covered with buds, none open yet.  The tart cherries, not near opening yet.  Montmorency and Northstar.

Peaches are done blooming.  Except the one and only blossom on Indian Free.

Toka Plum Full Bloom.  3.30.14

Almaden Duke Cherry 3.30.14

Sweetheart Cherry 3.30.14

Vandalay Cherry 3.30.14