Gardens vegetable, flower or other?

[Viola]

Apricots grow in NY? I thought they needed it warmer?

I'm future-gardening, i.e. planning for what I'm doing once I move next year. Still chugging away with some vegetables in containers, but not buying too much new stuff I can't take with me.

Moving to a much hotter climate. From zone 6b edging on 7 (Philadelphia, PA) to, hmm, 9-ish I believe. (Sydney, NSW Australia) I'm going to have some citrus trees! I don't know what kinds yet, though. Or much of anything at all about that kind of climate. I'm going to pick your brains, James. What kind of citrus are easy? Are olives or avocados easy? Am I an idiot? Don't answer that last one, I know the answer.

 

[John in Covina]

I remember seeing back yard fruit trees in NY that would get wrapped up in blankets and tarps to try to be protected from the really deep freeze times in winter. In a way it was creepy because at night sometimes they looked like people.

 

[rumblefish]

I remember seeing back yard fruit trees in NY that would get wrapped up in blankets and tarps to try to be protected from the really deep freeze times in winter. In a way it was creepy because at night sometimes they looked like people.

Fig trees no doubt. Go to a neighborhood like Franklin Square and every other house has one,,, or two.

Your Moorpark is only four years old then? I see your fruiting problem then---it is just too young. Apricots are tip and spur bearing trees so pruning the ends (tipping the over long branches) back will stiffen the branch and induce a bit of fruiting. The spurs only bear fruit for about three years so spur renewal is essential. How is your tree trained? Central leader, Open center? Your tree should begin fruiting in the fifth year and beyond if it has not been pruned excessively. Any pictures of this baby? I have apricot envy as I only have peaches and nectarines now.

Open center.
I took a few shots of the apricot, two pears and an odd peach that was grown from a pit and has a weeping habit without any encouragement. I'll post 'em and see what you think.
There's a nice crape myrtle where that bradford pear was supposed to go.:eusa_clap I argued the same point of it shedding limbs as it get's older.

Viola,
Apricot trees will easily grow and flower in NY. It is just that they bloom so early that the fruit may need protection from frost until May. If there's a frost warning any night, you would throw a blanket over it and the heat from the ground should protect it. Since frost warnings (at least on Long Island) only come that time of year when the wind is absent, rising heat will collect nicely under the blanket. Or so the theory goes...

Garden update; swiss chard, turnips, escarole, and collards a-comin' like crazy. Still plenty of romaine to keep me in caesar salad every night.

 

[jamespowers]

Apricots grow in NY? I thought they needed it warmer?

I'm future-gardening, i.e. planning for what I'm doing once I move next year. Still chugging away with some vegetables in containers, but not buying too much new stuff I can't take with me.

Moving to a much hotter climate. From zone 6b edging on 7 (Philadelphia, PA) to, hmm, 9-ish I believe. (Sydney, NSW Australia) I'm going to have some citrus trees! I don't know what kinds yet, though. Or much of anything at all about that kind of climate. I'm going to pick your brains, James. What kind of citrus are easy? Are olives or avocados easy? Am I an idiot? Don't answer that last one, I know the answer.

Oh boy! Olives are easy but man they are a mess! :eusa_doh: My great grandmother had on in front of her house and it was just horrible. They fall all over the place and make a huge splattered mess. You have to process them as well---no eating off the tree. [bad] They'll get you sick.
Avocados are relatively easy as well. My neighbor had them in a lousy spot and they gave avocados for years. They can get pretty big so get a dwarf if you don't want them to take over the yard. Funniest thing I ever saw was a squirrel picking an avocado. He had it and was hanging from his rear feet. It came off the tree fine but I guess he didn't realize they were quite so heavy. He sat there for a good five minutes deciding what to do before I made the decision for him---drop the avocado stupid! It fell and he got away fine. lol lol lol
For citrus try something different. If I had to do it over again, I would have chosen the new hybrids---like blood oranges, the pink flesh lemons, the mottled skin oranges etc. There are plenty of good choices out there depending on what you want. Navel oranges are for eating. Valencia oranges are for juice. You find this out quickly as fresh squeezed Navel orange juice left in the fridge or out for a few hours turns sour. :eusa_doh: Valencia juice keeps for a while.

 

[jamespowers]

Open center.
I took a few shots of the apricot, two pears and an odd peach that was grown from a pit and has a weeping habit without any encouragement. I'll post 'em and see what you think.
There's a nice crape myrtle where that bradford pear was supposed to go.:eusa_clap I argued the same point of it shedding limbs as it get's older.

Viola,
Apricot trees will easily grow and flower in NY. It is just that they bloom so early that the fruit may need protection from frost until May. If there's a frost warning any night, you would throw a blanket over it and the heat from the ground should protect it. Since frost warnings (at least on Long Island) only come that time of year when the wind is absent, rising heat will collect nicely under the blanket. Or so the theory goes...

Garden update; swiss chard, turnips, escarole, and collards a-comin' like crazy. Still plenty of romaine to keep me in caesar salad every night.

Open center is generally what is proscribed for Apricots. I had an ancient one at my other house. It was far beyond its useful life but I got a few good seasons out of it before it died. Half the trunk was eaten away by borers. I grabbed a snag that was attached and pulled. I got half the trunk with it! :eusa_doh: Some judicious cleaning out and a few cans of car undercoat sealed it up enough for it to give me those extra years. They are pretty resilient---more than they are given credit for.
Peach trees from pits are odd. You never know what you are going to get as they do not grow true to the variety you got them from. A weeping peach just might be a new variety you want to patent.
Good man about the Bradford--they are nuisance trees. :eusa_doh:
I would love to see the pictures. I might even post a few of mine if encouraged.
I bet you don't grow much citrus on Long Island.

 

[rumblefish]

I might even post a few of mine if encouraged.
I bet you don't grow much citrus on Long Island.

Here's some encouragement.

The two pears and the apricot are grafted to dwarf rootstock, the peach is pit grown.

The Bartlett Pear with the Moorepark Apricot in the background. On the other side of that fence was where the Bradford Pear was supposed to go.

The Atlantic Queen Pear.

The Moorepark Apricot.
What puts the ape in apricot?

The "Weeping" Peach. The only punning it gets is the low branches.

And the rose to the right of the apricot.

No citrus- That's why you should appreciate your grapefruit tree. As mom would say "Don't you know there are people on Long Island who would love your grapefruit tree"[bad]

 

[Miss 1929]

HUGE garden this year...

Hubby has the camera on the other side of the world, or I would put pics (later). I put in 20 veggie beds. But I seem to have iron or manganese deficiency in the soil, everything was getting yellow. I got food for that today, we'll see if it perks up. Everything is growing like mad, it's just yellowish.

Artichokes, bush beans, pole beans, peas, snow peas, strawberries, corn, 2 kinds of cucumbers, 5 kinds of peppers, tomatillos, 4 kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, chard, radishes, carrots, arugula, herbs galore, 2nd try on various lettuces, 5 kinds of squash, 2 kinds of melon.... flowers too.

And I have been going crazy laying patio and putting in a small water feature, too.

It's a lot of fun!

Rumblefish, that is one gorgeous rose. So healthy! We get every kind of rose disease here, too damp and salty for them. And your lawn is swell!

 

[jamespowers]

Here's some encouragement.

The two pears and the apricot are grafted to dwarf rootstock, the peach is pit grown.

The Bartlett Pear with the Moorepark Apricot in the background. On the other side of that fence was where the Bradford Pear was supposed to go.

The Atlantic Queen Pear.

The Moorepark Apricot.
What puts the ape in apricot?

The "Weeping" Peach. The only punning it gets is the low branches.

And the rose to the right of the apricot.

No citrus- That's why you should appreciate your grapefruit tree. As mom would say "Don't you know there are people on Long Island who would love your grapefruit tree"

Geez, that fence's days would be numbered if that Bradford were planted right near it. :eusa_doh:

Nice tree starts there. :eusa_clap You are going to have to remove the limbs lower than 18 inches off the ground if you want to be able to mow that lawn when those trees get larger---on the pear I mean.
I'll take that white azalea on the right of that first picture if you don't want it anymore. You can have my two grapefruit trees for it.
What kind of rose is that? Looks sort of like a Chrysler Imperial but a little too light in color.
I'll see what I can capture from my garden later.

 

[jamespowers]

Hubby has the camera on the other side of the world, or I would put pics (later). I put in 20 veggie beds. But I seem to have iron or manganese deficiency in the soil, everything was getting yellow. I got food for that today, we'll see if it perks up. Everything is growing like mad, it's just yellowish.

Artichokes, bush beans, pole beans, peas, snow peas, strawberries, corn, 2 kinds of cucumbers, 5 kinds of peppers, tomatillos, 4 kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, chard, radishes, carrots, arugula, herbs galore, 2nd try on various lettuces, 5 kinds of squash, 2 kinds of melon.... flowers too.

And I have been going crazy laying patio and putting in a small water feature, too.

It's a lot of fun!

Rumblefish, that is one gorgeous rose. So healthy! We get every kind of rose disease here, too damp and salty for them. And your lawn is swell!

I have had that yellowing problem with my citrus. I used Chelated Iron with trace minerals to cure it. It takes a while but it will work. Just keep watering it in everyime you water regularly. Citrus trees over 10 years old genrally deplete the soil of zinc so I add zinc sulfate to help with that. The signs of zinc deficiency are similar to what you describe so I might add a bit of zinc with the trace minerals.
Do you plant the garden in the same area every year? That could likely deplete the trace minerals---especially if you plant corn. Corn sucks up nutrients like a sponge. :eusa_doh: My friend plants it every year in his garden but he adds tons of manure to replenish the soil.

 

[rumblefish]

What kind of rose is that?

I had a feeling you'd ask. I don't know it was a Home Depot special. After I first put in the ground it grew like mad, like a climber. I'd cut it, then still the same thing- reaching for the sky but no flowers. So this year I moved it and now it's looking more like a florabunda.:eusa_clap
The white flowers are actually Chionoides Rhododendrons, and just inside of them to the right is another florabunda. This one is a Hot Cocoa.

 

[rumblefish]

Rumblefish, that is one gorgeous rose. So healthy! We get every kind of rose disease here, too damp and salty for them. And your lawn is swell!

Thank you. Looking forward to your photos.

 

[Paisley]

Rumblefish, that is one gorgeous rose. So healthy! We get every kind of rose disease here, too damp and salty for them. And your lawn is swell!

Try Katy Road Pink. The Antique Rose Emporium sells it. Rugosa roses might work well for you also.

 

[jamespowers]

I had a feeling you'd ask. I don't know it was a Home Depot special. After I first put in the ground it grew like mad, like a climber. I'd cut it, then still the same thing- reaching for the sky but no flowers. So this year I moved it and now it's looking more like a florabunda.:eusa_clap
The white flowers are actually Chionoides Rhododendrons, and just inside of them to the right is another florabunda. This one is a Hot Cocoa.

Hot Cocoa!? I have the same exact on in my flower bed in front of my camelias. No trade on the Rhododendron then. I already have a white one.
I think you just threatened the rose and it bloomed. See? It works. lol

 

[jamespowers]

Try Katy Road Pink. The Antique Rose Emporium sells it. Rugosa roses might work well for you also.

The Rugosas do do well here. The problem is the thorns. I had a Rosa Rugusa Roxburghii. Man that thing was thorny but I wanted it for that purpose.
The hybrid rugosas are pretty good though. They are singles and semi doubles though. No real classic rose form---but they do not mildew up.

Blanc Double de Coubert

Hot Cocoa Floribunda

 

[Paisley]

The rugosas have a beatiful fragrance, though. And tough--they grow on highway medians here, with irrigation. In my yard, though, the stems tend to turn brown and die. Maybe they don't like growing in clay.

Years ago, I sent my Aunt Helen a Katy Road Pink rose. She gave it to a neighbor, who grew it in a pot, I think, on the foggy central coast of California about 400 yards from the ocean. Then it was immediatedly beaten up by a bad hailstorm. But that rose grew and bloomed!

 

[jamespowers]

The rugosas have a beatiful fragrance, though. And tough--they grow on highway medians here, with irrigation. In my yard, though, the stems tend to turn brown and die. Maybe they don't like growing in clay.

Years ago, I sent my Aunt Helen a Katy Road Pink rose. She gave it to a neighbor, who grew it in a pot, I think, on the foggy central coast of California about 400 yards from the ocean. Then it was immediatedly beaten up by a bad hailstorm. But that rose grew and bloomed!

They do have an interesting fragrance. Roxburghii had a sort of murh scent to it. I never had a problem growing them in my clay soil here. I have had them die back and go over to the neighbor's yard and come back again later. The non-hybrids sucker like crazy. The funny thing is that the purpose I bought the briar rose for was thwarted. My rabbit loved the rose and chewed several branches off it. He thought it was tasty. :eusa_doh:
The Katy Road Pink is actually Carefree Beauty. It is indeed quite a carefree rose. Griffith Buck roses are decent roses in general. He was quite a breeder.

 

[Miss 1929]

I have had that yellowing problem with my citrus. I used Chelated Iron with trace minerals to cure it. It takes a while but it will work. Just keep watering it in everyime you water regularly. Citrus trees over 10 years old genrally deplete the soil of zinc so I add zinc sulfate to help with that. The signs of zinc deficiency are similar to what you describe so I might add a bit of zinc with the trace minerals.
Do you plant the garden in the same area every year? That could likely deplete the trace minerals---especially if you plant corn. Corn sucks up nutrients like a sponge. :eusa_doh: My friend plants it every year in his garden but he adds tons of manure to replenish the soil.

I got some Ironite fertilizer, and after one application I am seeing a difference! Already greening up.
Nothing has grown there for years but weeds, however a lot of the weeds were oxalis which does also deplete the soil. I put in a bunch of manure and compost when we tilled but I guess it needed even more!
I will remember about the corn, I have a mot of corn so I will double up on that patch for next year (and of course, rotate the crops!).

 

[jamespowers]

I got some Ironite fertilizer, and after one application I am seeing a difference! Already greening up.
Nothing has grown there for years but weeds, however a lot of the weeds were oxalis which does also deplete the soil. I put in a bunch of manure and compost when we tilled but I guess it needed even more!
I will remember about the corn, I have a mot of corn so I will double up on that patch for next year (and of course, rotate the crops!).

Ironite is a good one that I forgot about. I might just have to run out and get some more of that stuff. I ran out a few weeks ago. :eusa_doh:
I used to love to use Rock Powder as a soil replenisher for tomatoes but The manufacturer stopped making it. :eusa_doh:
My friend uses Chicken Manure for the corn patch.

 

[rumblefish]

The mantis egg sacks hatched... Watch out all aphids, leaf hoppers, and other unwanteds.

 

[jamespowers]

The mantis egg sacks hatched... Watch out all aphids, leaf hoppers, and other unwanteds.

I tried that a few times but found malathion much more cooperative.
I looked back at your peach from a pit tree and realized that I forgot to mention that peaches and nectarines are the easiest trees to prune for fruit because they bear fruit on last year's growth. Pruning that tree back all around will likely get you one heck of a crop next year.