Orchard ready for WInter

Home Orchard

The little orchard is ready for winter.  This week I added a layer of leaf compost on top of the mulch surrounding each tree.  Most of the trees are as pruned as the need to be.  For the most part, that's just removing a few terminal buds and small wayward branches to guide future growth.

I removed a fair amount of growth from the plum tree that came with the place.  Purpose, keep it compact, and keep the center open.  Last week I did the same for what I think is an apricot tree.

Most of the young fruit trees appear to have flower buds for next year.

Between now and Spring, I plan to remove the one jujube sapling, over to the bee garden.  Replace that with a 4-year-old plum currently growing in Vancouver.  There is a peach on order from Raintree, to plant in late winter. 

Orchard. Progress Report.

Blackberries

Feijoa / Pineapple guava

 I may need to stretch how I define "orchard".   Since the feral Himalayan blackberries are adjacent, they are included.  At some point they need to be tamed but not yet. They will be a major source of fruit this year.  They are also part of the apiary as a major source of nectar and pollen.   Not many bees on this bramble hedge.  Behind the beehive, there is another bramble hedge where the honeeybees are more active.

Grape Himrod

Grape Buffalo

 Feijoa, also called Pineapple Guava.  Apparently neither name is accurate.  This was from Tsugawa nursery last week.  Nice sized shrub.  No variety name.  That might be a mistake.  Some varieties need a pollenizer, others don't.

Cherry Montmorency

Himrod and Buffalo Grapes survived the late frost and are now growing nicely.  Probably won't be up to the top of the posts this year, but roots should be established.    These were bare root from Fred Meyer or Home Depot. There is also one from Raintree Nursery, same size.

The challenge with grapes will be how to keep rabbits and deer from eating the plants.  Currently they are in cages.

Montmorency and Surefire Cherries.  Both ripening.  Small amounts but it is nice to get some  fruit from our own place, so soon.  The Montmorency was cheating a bit - I bought it this year in bloom at Lowes.  The Montmorency was moved last summer from the Vancouver place, so survived fine and overwintered fine.

Seijo and Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  According to the Raintree catalog, these may not come out of dormancy until late summer or fall, so I feel fortunate to have some growth now.  They look fairly delicate but might be tougher than they look.  Lemon balm is planted in many of the tree circles, including by the persimmons, to reduce risk of animals chewing roots and bark, and attract pollinators.  I may not keep it there if it looks too competitive for the little trees.

Cherry Surefire

Persimmon Seijo

Persimmon Nikita's Gift

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.

The Little Orchard

Here's how the little orchard is progressing. I've planted all 3 of the planned Paw Paws, the unplanned Toka and Satsuma Plums (from big box store on sale, nice looking trees), the 2 peaches from containers at home, a pie cherry (Montmorency) and the Petite negri fig that I grew from a cutting.

The Orchard

Montmorency Cherry.  I moved this last week, from my border at home.  It didn't seem to have a lot of roots.  The soil was dry.  I hadn't watered it all summer.  I dug as wide as I could, pruned lightly, rapped it, and moved to the little orchard.  The leaves did not wilt (good sign) but are now becoming yellow.  That suggests to me it is heading into dormancy, maybe a little early due to the trauma.  Or it may be heading into dead.  We'll know in the Spring.  It shouldn't be too big to move, under 6 ft tall. I've had it one or two years.

One of the Paw Paw trees. They appear to have held up well, despite my breaking a lot of rules. Not the least of which was planting them in mid summer.

Satsuma plum. Does it have red leaves? Or is that impending dormancy? Impending death? Mislabeled? I guess I'll know next Spring - it will grow, or not. And it will have red leaves, or not.

Peach. One of the supposedly leaf-curl resistant ones.  I plan to add one more Peach, probably the Indian Blood peach I have had for 2 seasons now.  It's still really small. I'm anxious to move the other trees that I planned to move, and plant some bare root trees in October. This is a bit of a forced lull now - I don't want to risk killing trees that I've nurtured for 2 or three years. So I'll await dormancy or near-dormancy.

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.