What's happening today - 2018 edition

When I planted two nectarine Spice Zee and Arctic Glo, both Zaiger west coast products. I had to have them mailed the first week in March. They had buds at pink showing, but temps were 20F. MSU said to plant them, so i did. One on Lovell, one on Citation. All buds died of course. When spring came in late April they leafed out fine. I still have them 6 years later. Or maybe it’s 7? I can’t remember?

Yeah, I only had 2 so, not much of a sample size. The last one bloomed and leafed out nicely but after one night in the upper 20’s it died or went into shock and dropped all of it’s leaves. Maybe it did get a bit colder, can’t say for sure, but I’ve given up on Nectarines for Minnesota.

Now after 6-7 years, how is the one on citation doing? I heard several complaints about anemic growth for peach/nectarine trees on citation. How does it compare to the other that’s on Lovell?

Pom,

It may be a little late for this round of planting, but it’s generally recommended when using an auger to plant trees to take a tile spade and break some of the dirt off the side of the holes. Power augers tend to glaze/pack the soil on the sides of the hole (especially if the operator is wiggling the auger around) and it makes it harder for the roots to penetrate through the sidewall.

That said, I use an auger sometimes when planting peaches and don’t knock the glaze off the sidewall with peaches because they tend to grow fairly good no matter what. However, trees which are a little slow to get established (like apples and pears) would probably benefit considerably from de-glazing the hole.

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My green gage actually has blooms. Maybe…

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Gave my potted trees some sun today. They are really leafing out.

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It certainly sounds like PTSL, and I suspect large parts of Idaho have light soil (assume that from all the potatoes grown there) which is a suitable habitat for pathogenic nematodes (one of the key actors in PTSL).

Did you happen to check the cambium below the soil line? If that’s still green, while the part above is brown, that would might offer more confirmation of PTSL.

The thing that’s puzzling is that Citation is supposed to be fairly resistant to nematodes.

You mention, it’s reported that Citation doesn’t handle some peach viruses very well. I wonder if this could be the culprit. I don’t know the the symptoms when Citation is introduced to various peach viruses, but it may be something to look into, if interested.

In the past, many folks on the DWN forum have mentioned lots of failures with peaches on Citation. I think I’ve only tried it once with peaches, and it lacked vigor.

Nectarines are hard to grow. I wish we would could figure this out. I like to know why something passed. If it happens to others in the future, see if your local extension service can diagnose.

It has canker, but it’s not bad. My peach tree on citation is near dead, and as old. I think 3 more seasons, maybe one more! it’s almost girdled with canker, sucks, Indian Free. i took scion. Sometimes I guess they can get better, but this looks fatal to me.

Totally!

They actually sent me a Winecrisp on accident also. I offered to send it back but they were okay with the mistake.

Gotta find another place now!

Hi, first post here! I’m from Abbotsford, BC and things are definitely feeling like Spring today, aka mud season. There was a heavy downpour last night that revealed how many Puget Gold Apriots set this year which was a pleasant surprise. The tree is in its second year since being planted as bare root stock and bearing a single stunted fruit last spring. There’s roughly 30 fruits that set on the tree which might need thinning out to protect it from wind storms.

Orb weavers decided it was the right time to come out and the blasted things are putting webs in my paths through the garden. There were zero webs the day before and now there must be dozens.

I built and installed chickadee nesting boxes around my house this past winter in the hopes of attracting a pair which would in turn keep my trees and scrubs clean. This spring a female Black Capped Chickadee found the nestbox near my grape arbor, found a male a week or so after, and is in the final stages of building her nest. I’ve seen her collecting moss and small sticks to build up the nest but now she’s coming back with clumps of fur for the final lining. There should be eggs laid soon and a half dozen hungry chicks a week or so afterwards. The species is in decline so I’m happy to give them a home in my yard.

My Nadia Plum Cherry tree that I just bought a few weeks ago and transplanted is opening its first leaves. Doesn’t look like there’s going to be any flowers this year and it’s set for an aggressive growth spurt. I’ll probably be asking for some advice on pruning this young tree as I have no idea what the growth characteristics are.

The unknown Cherry tree that is in my yard seems to have survived the white mold/fungus that spread over some of the limbs. I thought I had lost the tree by the way it was looking but it has come back strong this year with triple the blooms it had last year. Perhaps we should have gotten an irrigation system and fertilized more often in past years. I’m expecting blooms this coming week.

IDK what I’m going to about this triple crown blackberry, my mom bought it last year and it seems like it’s happy? There’s vines? leaves? shooting from all the nodes on the floricanes and 3 fresh primocanes coming up. Again I have no idea what do and that’s why I signed up for these forums. I hope to learn a lot.

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Roots were healthy as was the tissue below ground. Bac canker can’t seem to survive below the soil line. I actually considered making a mound of dirt over the entire rootstock and affected area to see if that would stop the spread of the problem, but I just figure it is better to get on with it and replace the tree.

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I have never seen a black capped chickadee nesting box! Are there special ways of building one? They are one of my favourite little birds.

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Oh no. I just am about to plant a Mericrest. :tired_face:

I planted a Mericrest on Citation a year ago, it looks fine this spring

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Whew! I think that was Phillip from Boise, Idaho that had the problem with the Mericrests. ? Gets mighty cold out there. I’m in VA . . . so maybe my Mericrest won’t die on me.

Oh! Me too. I just love them . . . they are adorable. And fairly friendly, too. I’ve heard if you sit near the feeders day after day . . . and hold your hand out with seed . . . they will eventually perch on your palm and ‘use you as a feeder’!
Another fave of mine, are the Tufted Tit’mice’. (Titmouses?) Oh well. We get lots of those, and Goldfinches. Olive Finches and Red Finches. I replaced my old feeders this winter, with the ones that squirrels can’t get into. They are great! (Not the squirrels . . . the feeders!)

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Thanks, Olpea! It’s not too late. I tried to plant a couple of things today . . . and ground is still just too too wet. After they augered, I asked them not to put the soil back in the holes, because that is one of the things that I wanted to do - break into the sides of the holes. The other thing - (I mentioned this in another post, I think) - that I wanted to do, was pull all the grassy clods out of the dirt, and throw them in the bottom of the holes. It took me the entire day! I had 22-23 holes, to pamper. I was wiped out when I got done.

Then . . . as luck would have it . . . we got torrential rains the next day. And it is a good thing that I didn’t leave the holes ‘as empty pots’ - because, like @droshi warned . . . I would have had pots full of water and mud.

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Yeah baby! Got Blackberries!

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I looked up the dimensions of box and hole size needed for them then built them. Mine are 4.5" x 4.5" x 8" tall inside with a 1 1/8" hole spaced 5 inches from the bottom. This will attract and suit most Chickadees and Titmouses.

@dutch-s Nice! So what’s shooting from my floricanes right now will be flowers.

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Thank you, I will try and build one.