Fall in the Orchard. 11.8.14

North Side of Orchard.  11.8.14

Wild Plum Seedling.  2 years old.  11.7.14

Buddleia Windbreak West of Orchard.  11.8.14

Fig Row, South of House.  11.8.14

 Some views of mini orchard spread around the yard.  This is end of the 3rd summer here at Battleground, so many of the trees have had 2 full years to acclimate and grow.

Pawpaws were planted the first summer.  Never having grown them, and read about difficult to get started and slow to grow, I'm pleased they have done this well.  The smallest is Rebecca's Gold, about one foot tall.  NC-1 is the largest, about 4 foot tall.  Sunflower, about 3 foot tall.  I'm also pleased about the persimmons.  Nikita's Gift was so tiny I wondered if it would grow.  Now, sturdy and looking promising for future years, although  only about 4 foot tall.  Saijo is about 8 foot.  I did give  them - and the paw paws, organic nitrogen this Spring.

Peaches - Oregon Curl Free about 9 foot tall.  Charlotte about 8 foot tall.  Indian Free about 3 foot tall.  Q-1-8 in it's first year, grew rapidly, 5 foot tall.  The only one of the 3 older trees to have bad leaf curl was Charlotte.  That was also the only one to have peaches - only 2 - this is only the 2nd year old for these.

 Wild Plums, the largest seedling is about 8 foot tall.  This is 3rd year from seed, the first being in container.   There are 3, only one in a prime location for sun and with protection.  Deer eat up to about 4 feet, but the top looks very good.

Other plums, Stanley didn't bear but is very large now, mature looking tree.  Has spurs with promise for flowers.  Satsuma died.  Replaced with cutting-grown Hollywood, 1 foot tall 1st year from cutting.  Toka was best tasting, 3 plums. 7 foot tall.  Methley, no plums, growth now 5 foot tall.  NOIDs already on property, the smallest / deer mangled fully recovered and above the usual deer browsing height; the largest had only about 4 plums.  Now both with multiple bud grafts of other varieties. 

Cherries, lots of deer browsing.  Very discouraging.  The sweet cherries and tart cherries need better protection.  Sweet cherries did establish well, now about 5 foot tall.  Central leads are good, branches browsed to within the narrow cages I installed on these.   Montmorency did very well when I got the deer fence in, 8 foot tall and lush.   I can buy more fencing if I use the truck to commute this week.  North Star and Almaden Duke unprotected browsed nearly to death, we'll see what happens next year.  Both have some bud grafts that are looking tenuous, we'll see.

Apples, this is first year for most.  Wondering if minidwarfs are a good idea.  The dwarfs - JonaRed - shipped from Starks, excellent growth, and multi-graft disease resistant, Rubinette, Pristine, and Queen Cox, shipped from Raintree, almost as good.  The columnar apples, planted at about 18 inches tall their first year, now about 3 foot tall, Golden Sentinel had one apple - very good, Scarlet Sentinel had none.  They are in cages.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry and NOID Forsythia. 11.8.14

Figs, South of house, recovered from frost kill.  Sal's was not frost killed, now 4 foot.  Tiger, Carini, Smith all grew multi-trunks to 2 or 3 foot.  Petite Aubique, 18 inches, but sturdy.  I'm in process of installing gnaw-screens as leaves fall.  When colder, plan to add inverted trash can protectors for the young ones, and chicken wire or bird net to deter deer and rabbits, for Sal's.  Plan next year- replace the NOID with Lattarula from container, in Spring.  Maybe add one more to row, Dominick.   If any die back again maybe replace with Dominic instead of adding one more.

Buddleia hedge grew to 8 foot tall, for those in 2nd year - Blueberry and Peach Cobbler varieties.  They weren't all that attractive, but the windbreak will be useful.  That side is source of wind.  Honeycomb, in 2st year, grew about the same as the others did last year.  Anticipate pruning all back, so they can grow bushier and not over-tall.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry, not in the 5 X 5 grid but nearby.   Now 8 foot tall.  Had some nice mulberries this year.  No dear browsing.  Most branches probably too tall.  It may be hard to install bird netting next year due to height, but I should try. 

Fall Color - in Home Orchard and fruit garden.

Seijo Persimmon

 Some of the fruit trees and shrubs are showing great fall color.  They may be too young to know how they'll turn out.   The colors of these young trees and shrubs are beautiful.

I read elsewhere that persimmons have beautiful fall leaves.  The summer leaves are also handsome - shiny, green, tropical-looking.  Seijo has nice amber color.

I don't have the variety names for these blueberries.  They have various colors, from crimson to glowing amber.

Blueberries

Apricot seedling

Indian Blood Peach

The apricot seedling is a guess  It came with the place, unlabeled, and has not borne fruit.  It grew significantly this year - next year maybe I'll have a better idea.

Satsuma plum

Nikita's Gift Persimmin

Wild Plum Seedling

Indian Blood Peach - at this point is the only peach tree with colorful leaves.  The others are still green.

Satsuma plum had dark burgundy leaves, from late summer to now.  The mint is too big for this small tree - I should pull it out and opt for a smaller growing herb.

Nikita's Gift persimmon - even if there are no fruits, the fall color makes it worth having.  That is, if it grows into a nice tree.  Which may take a few years.

The wild plum seedling was one of the ones I started last year.  Of the others, one is dropping its leaves without much  of a show, and the other remains green.

Blueberry. Name unknown.

This does not include the Buffalo grape pictured earlier.  So far that variety is the only one in my yard with colorful fall leaves.

Planting a WIld Pulm Tree, grown from seed.

This wild plum tree was started from seed last summer.  It's now about 4 feet tall.  I'm impressed by the rapid growth.  I waited until I had a chance to build a deer cage, before planting it. 

This may need a pollinator.  I have 3 smaller specimens, started at the same time.  The plan is to plant at least one nearby.

I read that the leaves are a deer favorite.  So it is caged.

I don't know if these will serve as pollinators for my domesticated plums.  It's worth a try.

At this size, maybe it will bear in another season or two or three.  I would like that.


I like growing from seeds, for the genetic diversity and wondering what I will get.  I know they may or may not be good.  Since these are selections of wild plums, not hybrids, they may be more predictable compared to domesticated varieties.

 This photo is from last year, July 2012.  These are the plums.  The tree is down the street from me.  They are the size of a sweet cherry, but are sweeter, juicier, and have a plum flavor.

 After cleaning the seeds, I let them dry for a day.  Then cracked the hulls using a vice-grip.

 There isn't a lot of info about growing wild plums.  I based the hull-cracking method on some web info about other stone fruits.   I placed the naked seeds in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel, and refrigerated.  After about a month, they started to sprout and I planted them in potting soil.

Others were planted directly outside in potting soil.  Those grew more slowly, but they did grow.  They grew late summer 2012.  Not all of the seeds grew.  Maybe half.

This is the seedling late last summer.   I left them outside to overwinter.  No problem.

This Spring the trees grew rapidly.  I potted up as needed, in general purpose organic potting soil.  They've been at the Battleground place for about one month.

Tree starts. Figs. Wild Plums. Apples.

Fig, Wild Plum, Apple, starts

Current status of mostly fig starts.  These were cuttings starting in Jan and Feb, some from my trees at home and some from exchanges on gardenweb.  Fig varieties Carini (New Jersey), Ronde de Bordeaus, Black Marseilles, LSU Champagne, LSU Tiger, Panachee, Smith, Hardy Chicago, Lattarula, King.  The apples are two that I grafted at the Home Orchard Society grafting workshop. The apples are Spitzenberg and Sutton's Beauty.    The plums are grown from seeds from a neighborhood wild plum tree.