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Gardening Thread (No racist, fascist, or gun comments please)

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20 minutes ago, Bob said:

OK good to know. The honeycrisp did weird, weird things. It leafed out super uneven, taking three full months to leaf out from the bottom up. The top is not growing well, but the lower branches are going gangbusters. Some shoots are 18 inches or more so far and growing fast, which is strange because it's grown like 2 inches in four years having previously not been in a GH. The top had lots of blossoms, but did not set fruit well despite having lots of crabs in bloom to pollinate. I think I let the GH get too hot and that affected the setting of the fruit. Anyway, I have about 50 apples, but I'd say about half need to be thinned. I was hoping for more, but it is gratifying to actually get something from this damn tree. lol. Some are pingpong ball sized.

I’m glad you finally got a decent number of fruit on your tree. It’s not a big tree, so 25 apples seems about right to me if you’re also getting good vegetative growth (means tree vigor is pretty high). Keep them worms out!

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2 hours ago, Bob said:

Here is my greenhouse. I’m having a hell of a time keeping it cool. It got up to like at least 110 one day and fried the shit out of things. Ugh. I am installing a shade cloth that I can draw.

 

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That's a nice greenhouse, did you build it yourself? If you look at the pictures of mine, you'll see some vents. They are ones for a house foundation. Not the most esthetically pleasing but they open up automatically at 70 degrees and have made a huge difference in the temperature. 

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1 hour ago, Bob said:

One more question. Is it important that sunlight reaches the fruit? The apples are buried deep in leaves

That I can actually answer! No, it doesn't matter for taste, only color. They use little reflecty things on the ground here so the bottoms of the apple look the same as the tops or consumers won't buy them as much! 

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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2 minutes ago, Bob said:

Yes. This is my own design and construction. I was thinking about adding vents. How do yours work? There are these hydraulic arms that can be attached to vents where they extend when the oil, fluid, wax or whatever the f is in those cylinders heats up to a set temp it gets more viscous and extends and opens the vent. 

 

What percent lights does you plastic allow to enter? Yours seems more opaque than mine

Ours are just spring operated. As the springs get warmer and expand they open the vents. I believe they were only $18ish at home depot. Also, we installed a fan above the door that has a thermostat and kicks on at 70 degrees. Not sure about the percentage of light but we did install a shade cloth on the roof to help keep some of the heat out 

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16 hours ago, Bob said:

One more question. Is it important that sunlight reaches the fruit? The apples are buried deep in leaves

 

15 hours ago, happycamper said:

That I can actually answer! No, it doesn't matter for taste, only color. They use little reflecty things on the ground here so the bottoms of the apple look the same as the tops or consumers won't buy them as much! 

I think what happy wrote is generally true, but it’s more complicated than that in my own experience. Some apples seem the same regardless of where they grow on a tree, though the appearance of sun exposed vs interior apples can be fairly different. Other varieties show much larger differences between exposed v interior, with the exposed apples having better taste/higher sugar, and greater intensity. Yet other varieties don’t enjoy the high desert sun, dry air and summer heat and the interior apples on those trees are much better than the exposed specimens. I try to increase the leaf and branch density on those varieties.

I don’t grow Honeycrisp. It died on me twice, and I haven’t actually liked those I’ve eaten from the store (I’m sure home grown in the right environment makes a far better apple), so I haven’t bothered to collect it again, but think it should do fine for you as long as you get your GH heat under control. 

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2 hours ago, Posturedoc said:

 

I think what happy wrote is generally true, but it’s more complicated than that in my own experience. Some apples seem the same regardless of where they grow on a tree, though the appearance of sun exposed vs interior apples can be fairly different. Other varieties show much larger differences between exposed v interior, with the exposed apples having better taste/higher sugar, and greater intensity. Yet other varieties don’t enjoy the high desert sun, dry air and summer heat and the interior apples on those trees are much better than the exposed specimens. I try to increase the leaf and branch density on those varieties.

I don’t grow Honeycrisp. It died on me twice, and I haven’t actually liked those I’ve eaten from the store (I’m sure home grown in the right environment makes a far better apple), so I haven’t bothered to collect it again, but think it should do fine for you as long as you get your GH heat under control. 

That's super interesting! Thanks dude. In my experience the bigger the honeycrisp the better, unlike pretty much anything else. We get some monsters almost the size of grapefruit from Chelan here.

We also are starting to get Lucy Rose and Lucy glo apples here. They are pink on the inside too, a hybrid with crab apples, and have an awesome slightly sour berry flavor with apple sweetness. They're fantastic, @Bob if you can plant one of those I recommend it they are better than any apple I've ever had. 

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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4 hours ago, happycamper said:

That's super interesting! Thanks dude. In my experience the bigger the honeycrisp the better, unlike pretty much anything else. We get some monsters almost the size of grapefruit from Chelan here.

We also are starting to get Lucy Rose and Lucy glo apples here. They are pink on the inside too, a hybrid with crab apples, and have an awesome slightly sour berry flavor with apple sweetness. They're fantastic, @Bob if you can plant one of those I recommend it they are better than any apple I've ever had. 

I haven’t seen the Lucys in the store locally and actually hadn’t even heard of them until your post (thanks!), which is surprising, since I’ve been collecting varieties for around 17 years and belong to a couple or five fruit forums (very active—hobby orchardists love to post about their fruit) and have something near 150 varieties grafted to my trees. I don’t do much apple shopping until my storage apples are all eaten, which can be in March or even April if I’ve stored the longest keepers well. I’ll have to look for them this fall.

I did a little research and, on the growing front, the Lucys are “club apples,” meaning they are only grown by a select few large growers who pay for the privilege. They are patented and aren’t available to the public to grow. Breeders make lots more money by keeping their apples under lock and key and charging a premium for them at the store. Opal, far and away my favorite grocery store apple, is also a club apple in the US, though home growers in Europe, where it was bred (Czech Republic) can buy trees. I’m sure it was pirated into the US already and some home growers grow it on the down low. Doubt that happens with the Lucys, since they were bred at WSU and haven’t been available to the public anywhere as trees. Anyway, thanks for the heads up on these apples. 

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8 minutes ago, Bob said:

@Posturedoc@happycamperhave you tried Cosmic Crisp apples? And damn, I would love to try Lucy. My favorite apple is Fuji. Texture is most important to me. Can't stand soft or mealy apples

I haven’t tried CC yet. Texture is important, but not the key to apple happiness for me, though even mushy soft apples that have an excellent taste are tough to eat out of hand. Fuji is my second favorite store apple, and it’s first rate out of my orchard, thrice as good as the best store-bought Fuji (and those are damn good too).

I’d list my top five or ten apples, but you almost certainly would not have heard of them. They rarely show up in stores because most have too many issues and are not as profitable for commercial growers as those you regularly see. That stated, the best apple I’ve ever eaten is Suntan out of my orchard: high acid, high sugar, crisp (not Honeycrisp crisp, thankfully), reasonably juicy, and super complex. Unfortunately, it doesn’t crop well and cracks/corks in my orchard more often than it produces edible fruit. Still, I planted a second tree of it three years ago. Hope springs eternal. 

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28 minutes ago, bsu_alum9 said:

Pink Lady are the best IMO.  @happycamper where did you get the Lucy's? 

Annie's Pumpkin Patch in Wenatchee lol. The only place I can find them!

55 minutes ago, Bob said:

@Posturedoc@happycamperhave you tried Cosmic Crisp apples? And damn, I would love to try Lucy. My favorite apple is Fuji. Texture is most important to me. Can't stand soft or mealy apples

Yes! they're good but not as good as lucys IMO. Lucys are not soft or mealy. 

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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2 hours ago, Bob said:

I tried CC. It was even better than honeycrisp. Loved it.

Damn, I would love a homegrown Fuji. What growing zone are you? It looks like the Norland (have you tried this one?), the other apple I have in my GH, is giving up the ghost. Perhaps I can find a Fuji to replace it.

There are soooooooooo many apple varieties and like .01% are available in stores. Kinda sad

I’m in zone 7a. I won’t promise the world, because terroir applies to fruit other than wine grapes, and my soil and conditions while difficult (late frosts, hot, dry, not much organic matter in he soil, etc), produce superior apples from those varieties that can handle the conditions. Fuji is far more complex here than store apples are. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was really good for you too, but I’d look for an early ripening Fuji sport like September Wonder Fuji or Auvil Early Fuji, which is the variety I grow. They are ripe for me in early October rather than late November for regular Fuji. Even in a greenhouse, I wouldn’t chance such a late ripening apple up there in Wyoming. 

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55 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

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I've already gotten about 8-10 artichokes between the 2 plants. They keep going.

Here's pics of the other stuff too

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I'll try to take some better pics today.

Holy shit those houses are close together, I thought Key West was bad.  

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

Yeah. Like right next to one another. That's what happens when you live on a postage stamp, I suppose. It's a cool neighborhood though. The landscaping in the yards is outrageous.

Not sure if it's still the case, but Key West used to require via building code tin roofs to keep fires from jumping house to house.

Is it mostly Spanish tile there?

 

 

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Can anyone help identify this tree we have? It was really overgrown when we moved in a few years ago. After cutting it back and removing some dying plants around it, this summer it decided to produce some fruit!

My guess is a chokecherry or something? If edible, anything I should do to make them taste best or yield more in the future?

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24 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

It's definitely a chokecherry. To get a higher yield you should prune it back in the fall once it drops its leaves. You could also try giving it a strong organic fertilizer once a week or so in addition to regular waterings.

Never bothered with fertilizer in the past, since until a few weeks ago I didn't even know it could produce anything besides leaves. Will prune it back in the fall like last year, but plan on treating it better in the spring with more diligent watering and nutrients.

It's in a weird spot in our front yard close to 2 walls, but I guess it's meant to do ok in lots of shade if it's survived this long without any TLC.

Time to find a good how-to on jam I guess...

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