2022 Garden Thread

This is a great thread, but when I think of the pacific northwest, I think of all the great local fruit I ate in my youth.
Just wondering about your fruit & nut trees. What do you grow and what are your local commercial harvests?

Here our local commercial crops are several varieties of citrus, mostly oranges and for nuts, number one here is Almonds followed closely by pistachios. We also have apples which are grown for apple cider vinegar. During orange blossom and picking season the sound of Bear Cannons ( Scare Cannons / propane cannons ) can be heard most nights.

Growing commercial row crops here is not that difficult more so along the rivers flood plain, but much of the land is hardpan and requires deep ripping to six feet for successful orchards.

Here at the house - up slope, our hardpan bottoms out at around the three foot level. So to plant a tree, you need to get around two feet below that, increase the broken ground diameter 4x the root ball and amend heavily or they will fail or stunt within a year or two. Basically, imagine planting a tree in a large terracotta pot with no bottom.

A bare root trees young root system tends to grow out until it hits the rock hard clay walls, then grow downwards towards the softer damper soil. This along with strong very dry warm afternoon winds dries out, then knocks over many young trees - staked or not. However, once they are well established, nothing short of a D9 is going to budge them.

Common household fruit trees here are figs, pomelos, oranges & lemons & stone fruits.

We currently have Halford peaches, Red Barron peaches, Snow Queen Nectarines & Blenheim Apricots.

What about you?
 
Trout Trekker said:
This is a great thread, but when I think of the pacific northwest, I think of all the great local fruit I ate in my youth.
Just wondering about your fruit & nut trees. What do you grow and what are your local commercial harvests?

Here our local commercial crops are several varieties of citrus, mostly oranges and for nuts, number one here is Almonds followed closely by pistachios. We also have apples which are grown for apple cider vinegar. During orange blossom and picking season the sound of Bear Cannons ( Scare Cannons / propane cannons ) can be heard most nights.

Growing commercial row crops here is not that difficult more so along the rivers flood plain, but much of the land is hardpan and requires deep ripping to six feet for successful orchards.

Here at the house - up slope, our hardpan bottoms out at around the three foot level. So to plant a tree, you need to get around two feet below that, increase the broken ground diameter 4x the root ball and amend heavily or they will fail or stunt within a year or two. Basically, imagine planting a tree in a large terracotta pot with no bottom.

A bare root trees young root system tends to grow out until it hits the rock hard clay walls, then grow downwards towards the softer damper soil. This along with strong very dry warm afternoon winds dries out, then knocks over many young trees - staked or not. However, once they are well established, nothing short of a D9 is going to budge them.

Common household fruit trees here are figs, pomelos, oranges & lemons & stone fruits.

We currently have Halford peaches, Red Barron peaches, Snow Queen Nectarines & Blenheim Apricots.

What about you?
Click to expand...
I used to grow summerred(dwarf) and had a gravenstein I cut down to remove but changed my mind because i would have been chasing gigantic roots through my whole garden so i cleft grafted mutsu to the stump turned out both were mule treesgrew fast suckered like crazy and as a full organic gardener for now37 years well the spray schedule and all that goes with apple tree management was a huge drag… quit apples grew hardy kiwis for 20 some odd years- easy no spraying or pests raspberries 40’ of them also pretty easy… gooseberries were a pest haven. Cane Borers aargh! Grew garden huckleberries and they just were not a substitute for the ones i pick in the mountains in the late summer and early fall. Now in downtown Vancouver i have a couple blueberrie shrubs which is enough for me though I am a long time tomato afficianado and they are a fruit
 
We have an Asian Pear and a Gravenstein.
Lots of berries, Rasp, Blue, Boysen and June.
Huckleberry and native blackberries grow wild here.
Tomatoes too....
We cut down a Montmorency this winter, the birds like them so we never saw a lot.
 
Fuzzytugger
Good find on the morels!

My daughter gave me a Morel Habitat for my birthday. I sat aside a 4 X 4 foot piece of my herb garden for a potential morel patch. Put it in a couple weeks ago and hopeful will a few next year.

curt
 
Trout Trekker said:
This is a great thread, but when I think of the pacific northwest, I think of all the great local fruit I ate in my youth.
Just wondering about your fruit & nut trees. What do you grow and what are your local commercial harvests?

Here our local commercial crops are several varieties of citrus, mostly oranges and for nuts, number one here is Almonds followed closely by pistachios. We also have apples which are grown for apple cider vinegar. During orange blossom and picking season the sound of Bear Cannons ( Scare Cannons / propane cannons ) can be heard most nights.

Growing commercial row crops here is not that difficult more so along the rivers flood plain, but much of the land is hardpan and requires deep ripping to six feet for successful orchards.

Here at the house - up slope, our hardpan bottoms out at around the three foot level. So to plant a tree, you need to get around two feet below that, increase the broken ground diameter 4x the root ball and amend heavily or they will fail or stunt within a year or two. Basically, imagine planting a tree in a large terracotta pot with no bottom.

A bare root trees young root system tends to grow out until it hits the rock hard clay walls, then grow downwards towards the softer damper soil. This along with strong very dry warm afternoon winds dries out, then knocks over many young trees - staked or not. However, once they are well established, nothing short of a D9 is going to budge them.

Common household fruit trees here are figs, pomelos, oranges & lemons & stone fruits.

We currently have Halford peaches, Red Barron peaches, Snow Queen Nectarines & Blenheim Apricots.

What about you?
Click to expand...
We have a plum tree that produces a ton. It’s in our front yard. My wife and I went out fishing one day late last summer and when we came home we found somebody had made off with almost all of the plums. They must have picked bucket loads and only left maybe six that were too high up to reach without a ladder. We have had that tree for 20+ years and that was a first.

We used to have a frost peach but the fruit was so mealy we never ate them. My neighbor has a hazelnut tree. I think the squirrels get them all.
 
We have pear and apple - not sure what varieties, we inherited them. Planted a plum 2 years ago, yet to see fruit. I miss the farm in Kansas, we had a mini-orchard of about 2 dozen apple trees (Honeycrisp, Fuji, and a few Winesaps for pollinators) and half dozen peach - peaches (Redhaven) would come in surprisingly early (June/early July) but were they ever good!! Also had the best cantaloupe I ever tasted, and everbearing strawberries that would fruit from May through the end of July - fresh strawberries every night, can't beat that (gotta say though, the Mt Hood strawberries here are the best I've ever tasted) - did I mention I miss the farm?

cheers
 
I put this Rainier cherry in 8 years ago for our 25th anniversary, they are her favorite. We had a golden delicious apple but too many worms. The blueberries are about 10 and need replacements.
20220408_104144.jpg
 
Dr. Magill said:
We have blueberry plants that are 40 years old at least. Must be the difference in climate from west side to east side
Click to expand...
Might be, the ones at my mom's in Seattle seemed to last a long time. These were cheap $1 plants from the grocery outlet, jerseys I believe, and the ends suffer badly during winter and not much new growth now, and low production last year. The one tophat from the same purchase is really strong however.
 
Old Man said:
When I lived in Marysville we had a Peach tree. I planted that tree. It was self pollinating, so only need one tree.. The first year the peaches were shitty. But the next year they were excellent. And each year after that they were damn good Peaches.
Click to expand...
We lived for a while right across the river from you, in Yuba City in the new tracts built along the old garden highway just about where shanghai bend ( falls ) is - interesting chute to run a drift boat through ( take out at Boyds pump ) when the stripers & shad make their way up. The shad fishing at the confluence of the Yuba & Feather was epic for many years. The smell of the peach orchards in the morning air in June and July over there was straight from heaven. One of the largest commercial stone fruit tree farms is along that stretch of the garden highway. Good stuff, thanks for jarring the old home week memories.
 
Thank you all for fruit tree additions. Our stone fruit bare root stock were chosen for their low chilling hours, self fruitfulness, ease to maintain them at 8' to 12' in height and with the exception of the Halford ( a late season canning cling ), their early ripening. We see about 90 days a year over 100 degrees, so if the fruit doesn't finish by late June - early July it'll flash and rot ( poach ) before the fruit reaches a mature size.
 
Very cool on the Mason Bees...
 
Mason bees are pretty interesting - have been providing nesting blocks for a dozen years ago. The first year relying on whatever local bees there were 9 tubes were filled. By year 3 exceed 100 tubes and have been varying from a couple hundred to as many as 450 tubes of eggs annual. Live in town and all the fruit trees within a couple hundred yards seem to benefit from those pollinators!

Curt
 
Dr. Magill said:
We have blueberry plants that are 40 years old at least. Must be the difference in climate from west side to east side
I think you’re on the east side 😀
Click to expand...
Ahh, blueberries. Just a comment in general, but check the acidity level. They need a ph of 4.0 - 5.0 to thrive and uptake nutrients properly. That is tough to maintain (in ground) on the west side, let alone the east side. Containers are easier, I use 1/3 azalea mix, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 bark mulch; and I still need to add elemental sulfur to increase the acidity(lower the ph).

My in ground plants require annual attention to maintain the lower ph by top-dressing with peat moss and elemental sulfur. This, along with using fertilizer for acid loving plants.

Btw, already brewed coffee grounds will not help lower the ph below 5.5, although they do provide other benefits.
 
Greggor said:
Ahh, blueberries. Just a comment in general, but check the acidity level. They need a ph of 4.0 - 5.0 to thrive and uptake nutrients properly. That is tough to maintain (in ground) on the west side, let alone the east side. Containers are easier, I use 1/3 azalea mix, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 bark mulch; and I still need to add elemental sulfur to increase the acidity(lower the ph).

My in ground plants require annual attention to maintain the lower ph by top-dressing with peat moss and elemental sulfur. This, along with using fertilizer for acid loving plants.

Btw, already brewed coffee grounds will not help lower the ph below 5.5, although they do provide other benefits.
Click to expand...
There you go
Good info and thank you
 
Ditto to Greggor comments on blueberries need for an acidic environment. We have 14 bushes a couple of which are 40 years old that continue to be productive.

curt
 
Smalma said:
Ditto to Greggor comments on blueberries need for an acidic environment. We have 14 bushes a couple of which are 40 years old that continue to be productive.

curt
Click to expand...
Been putting our used coffee grounds around them all winter off and on as well as miracid applications every couple weeks…. If you want to bring down the 7 ph to 4.5-5.5 in 3 or 4 months the blueberry bushes were transplanted and it is a work in progress / fun experiment
 
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