Food gardening

Well, it appears the cherry tree made it through its first winter. I planted a cherry tree late summer early fall-ish 2022. Spring 2033 rolled around and nothing. Dead. I had purchased the insurance from Fast Trees dot com, so they sent me another. I should have kept track, but I took a chance and planted the new one same spot maybe end of June, 2023. It currently has green buds on it. Awesome. Stella Cherry, self pollinating, sweet. I did no winter dormancy pruning. I may prune this summer, but will likely wait until next February. Prune to maintain height and get a spread.

The "Fruit Cocktail" tree is apparently loving where it is. They don't label it and don't do requests for those trees, you get what you get. Mine only has two varieties, stone fruit. The smaller graft didn't do jack last year as far as flowering, just a little, and was small. Worried me, I don't know if whatever I have of the two depends on the other for pollination. The main part of the tree is loaded with pink blossoms and buds, I'm thinking peach, maybe nectarine? The smaller graft has little white flowers, I'm hoping plums. Could be apricot for all I know, which I guess is alright. Both flowered but no fruit last year. We'll see.

The two 3-in-1 apple trees survived quite well the heavy pruning I did last summer. In a way I didn't much care either way. Damn Cedar Apple rust, im going to have to spray them several times each spring. Well, 3 times, following a suggested schedule. Spring only when cedar trees produce those orange galls(sp?) and release spores.....infecting apple trees up to ten miles away. I've considered planting apples that are immune or resistant, yet less desirable I suppose. Currently, one tree has Gala, Granny Smith, and Fuji. The other Gala, Granny Smith, and Red Delicious.

Trees I'm considering, hazelnut, fig, perhaps peach or pear. A pecan(or two because if I am not mistaken they need a pollinator) would be cool, but I think they take 7-10 years before they produce, and given I don't think they are available in semi dwarf it would probably be nuts for me to be climbing a tree for nuts at 71 yrs old.

Anyway, I'm thrilled the cherry tree survived, frankly I had my doubts. Cherry blossoms in the spring, cherries in the summer, right in my own front yard, how awesome is that.

Oh, the wife was reading something about keeping the birds off fruit, I think it was more about apples. Hang plastic Christmas balls in the tree, red, green, whatever. The birds get bored, disappointed, discouraged pecking at them and move on. I don't know, sounds like something that would work better in theory than in practice.

You guys gearing up for spring planting?
 
You have to sing to them(hint: you expell oxygen when you sing). Root rot, maybe over watering, pour soil drainage, or both?

edit, not oxygen, that other stuff what they want and need.
 
Mick Doobie said:
You have to sing to them(hint: you expell oxygen when you sing). Root rot, maybe over watering, pour soil drainage, or both?

edit, not oxygen, that other stuff what they want and need.
Click to expand...
I suspect it already had it by the time I bought it. The pot had poor drainage. Then the pot I bought to repot it also had poor drainage. And I can’t really find a good soil for bonsai in brick and mortar here. I’ll have to buy online.
 
I'm trying to get some pits from my cherry tree to sprout, but so far, nothing is showing. My dwarf Montmorency is getting weak, several larger branches have died out. I have a dogwood in the back yard that has been dying for years. I'm considering putting a Montmorency in the back yard in place of the dogwood, and maybe a NorthStar cherry dwarf in the front.

I've planted some ghost pepper seeds as well... waiting for those to sprout. Another week or so and I'll plant the tomato seeds.

You can tell it's spring, I've already cut the grass once, sprayed for the chickweed that's popping up, and laid down the fertilizer.
 
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