Although we know fruit trees don't thrive in Kansas, we're not deterred from trying to start a produce isle in our backyard.
Dwarf Elberta Peach
Planted Spring 2011
Problems: Some fungal leaf problems
Squirrels love peaches
Rabbits think the bark is tasty in winter
Production: 50 peaches harvested and 10 were eaten by squirrels.
Pruning: Several branches pruned during the dormant season. More pruning is needed!
Update: Summer 2012
We harvested 77 beautiful, perfectly sweet, juicy, large spotless peaches.
Update: Summer 2013
Late frost killed most blossoms despite the fact that we didn't sleep on frost nights spraying the tree with wax. On 8/29/13 we harvest 41 greenish peaches. The squirrels ate six. After cutting out the spots they tasted fine. (No, we didn't eat the one on the bottom right with the squirrel nibbles.) This weekend I'm looking forward to making
fresh homemade peach ice cream and peach lemonade. If some of the green one's don't ripen, they might turn out well on the grill!
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| 2013 |
Aw, isn't s/he cute? A little bat slept for two days in our peach tree.
Update Summer 2014
Despite a late frost and our attempts to spray each blossom with parafin and then wrap the entire tree (which is now 15' tall) in plastic, this tree put out over 300 large peaches! We hadn't sprayed, so there was some sort of Asian fly that borrowed in or out of the pit, causing shiny sugar patches on the skin and gummy tunnels. The best peaches went to our local breadbasket (10% and more), and the other good peaches went to family. We canned and froze the rest . . . having to cut out the buggy parts. I usually like to can peach halves scalloped on top of each other, but because of the bug bites, the peaches are in segments. Nonetheless, they are very good and we had more peaches than we knew what to do with. Our family was happy to have BOXES of peaches.
Update Spring 2015
This year we've had record high rainfall. In May, it rained 21 days! Kansas is experiencing a great deal of flooding. The spillway at Tuttle Creek is amazing to see, and there is talk that some water will need to be let out of the dam. My deck is covered with a green film and we have several standing pools of water in the yard. The peach tree looks ok so far. We have leaf curl, but the fruit that did not abort seems alright. We did loose literally hundreds of little peaches, then later dozens of larger pieces of green fruit. The tree is over-laden with the remaining fruit.
Apricot Tree
Planted May 2012
We scoured every nursery in KC to find this little sapling. I think someone broke off a twig and stuck it in rooting hormone.
Update Summer 2014
A strange clear gel-like substance appeared at the base of the trunk. It looked like someone squirted out about a 1/4 cup of hair gel right on the tree. Evidently, this is some sort of canker that occurs in certain soil conditions. As my husband gently tried staking the tree, the trunk was snapped off completely. The core of the trunk had been taken over by a dark brown rot. We were devastated as it would have produced a good crop of apricots next year. This year, we had about 10 apricots, and they were delicious.
Sweetheart Cherry Tree
Planted Spring 2011
The horticulturists at the nursery argued that we would be better off planting a Montmorency Sour Cherry Tree. Yuck. I wanted cherries that could be eaten fresh. This dark cherry is supposed to be delicious. Each spring it looks as though it was plucked from the Tidal Basin in D.C. Sadly though it aborts nearly all of its young fruit. We suspect it will take a few more years to be mature enough to hold a harvest.This year we ate seven mature cherries.
I'm not sure how to prune it. The "poof" on the leader looks awkward, but I'm leery to hack it.
Update Summer 2014
Still growing strong! The trunk has gained some girth and the branches and leaves look healthy. We haven't pruned it much. This year both cherry trees produced about two dozen cherries. (Not very much). Additionally, most of the cherries were infected with
tiny white worms. Before eating any of them, we would carefully inspect the skin- looking for very tiny specs, and then open it carefully looking for worms about the size of a 0.05 pencil led. Evidently these worms do not live in the body once ingested and many farmers go ahead and can and eat the cherries anyway. There are many websites with instructions for canning the cherries (crushing them first) and then skimming off the worms which float to the surface. I'm really sorry, but that is disgusting and we're not going to do that. If spraying won't help, then the cherries will be for the birds. Sadly, our mulberry bushes also have little tiny white worms as well, which is sad because we would like to harvest the buckets of mulberries in our yard and make pies, jams, and just have fresh berries.
Update Spring 2015
We ate about a dozen half-ripe cherries. Most of the fruit rotted on the tree in May and early June. Other fruit split. There were no white worms in the cherries this year, I hope because I sprayed it with copper sulfate.
Whitegold Cherry
2012
The U of NC developed this hybrid to be hardy in the midwest and delicious. The fruit is primarily whitish-yellow with a red blush. White cherries are $8-$9 per lb in the store. This year we picked 12 perfect white cherries, after the blue jays had their share.
2014 Update
About 2 dozen cherries . . . beautiful and flavorful, but infested with little white worms.
Update Spring 2015
We picked about five small ziplock bags full of white-blush cherries. There were no white worms this year! Much of the fruit was aborted prematurely, and much of it developed brown spot and rotted in the tree (brown spots emerged).
Dwarf 5 in 1 Apple
Planted Spring 2011
Nickname: "Frankenstein"
Production: None in 2011, about 40 in 2012. The Granny Smith limb did not fruit this year.
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| 2013 |
Frankenstein in 2013
The late frost killed most of the young fruit. This year, only the granny smiths survived.
2014 Update
I need to post a picture, it is easily 4X larger. This
year we picked about 70 or so apples from all the branches. I filled the
canning pot with all the granny smiths and it is in the basement
hopefully staying cool. They are enormous and perfect, but taste so
incredibly sour. You can't really eat one raw without getting a stomach
ache. I made a pie with them, adding cups of extra sugar. The
Gravenstein apples however were our absolute favorite. They taste like
apple cider and are perfectly crispy. (Hooray for the Danes!)It's so sad
that you can't find these in the stores. We're glad we have one!
Update Spring 2015
The unusually wet year has caused some brown-spot on the leaves and since we haven't had consecutive dry days, I haven't sprayed and the apples are getting brown spots with brown tunnels into the flesh. There are only three Gravenstein apples this year on the entire branch, which is disappointing. I hope they make it to harvest. Again, the Granny Smith is the highest-producing branch on this tree, but the fruit is so sour, it is essentially in-edible.
Yellow Delicious Apple
Planted Fall 2011
We should nip the fruit off for a few more years until the branches grow stronger. They say that apple trees grow so slowly that planting one will mean nothing in your lifetime and should only be thought of as a gift to the next generation.
Not pictured are four two-story tall juniper trees about ten feet to the north of the apple trees. We thought it would be a good winter windbreak, but evidently, apple trees should never be planted near junipers or cedars as the natural fungi blow onto apple trees causing rust and other problems. We use organic sprays.
2014 Update
We harvested a lovely bucket of yummy yellow apples. Their mellow flavor can't be beat. The leader of the tree was accidently snapped off. We were told to dig up the tree as it will never completely grow and always have a stunted harvest. We can't do it. It may be possible to move the tree by the patio where it will serve as a shrub.
Update Spring 2015
This small wonder has produced several small yellow apples.
2012 Yellow Delicious Harvest
Concord Grapes
Planted 2012
These were
supposed to be seedless. Ha. I've never purchased grapes in the grocery store that taste like homegrown concords. The only word I can use to describe the flavor is "grape-ity". They taste just like a grape otter pop or bright purple jam. I find it strange that the grapes don't ripen in a cluster, but almost one at a time. Kansas used to be the 5th largest grape producer in the U.S. prior to the dust bowl. After the dust bowl, its as though Kansans forgot that our land could produce grapes. In the past 20 or so years several vineyards and wineries have settled down in the flatlands and rolling hills. On an interesting side note, if you want a fun reading detour, read about the
Wheat State during prohibition.
2014 Update
This year, there were so many grapes we didn't know what to do. I'm constantly frustrated by the fact that the grapes don't ripen in clusters. Like the cluster above, there are always a few under-ripe green grapes in every bunch. If I wait for the entire cluster to ripen, half of them will rot. So, I picked them all in September and spent an hour sorting the ripe from the unripe grapes. I then made Concord grape jelly with only three ingredients- grapes, sugar and lemon juice. I was able to can 12 half-pint jars. Although all the grape jelly in the stores have the exact same ingredients, my jelly was not as bright purple . . . it was more of a brownish-purple or plumb color. It also tasted like it had a hint of plumb or crabapple in it as a filler. I'll use another recipe next year.
Update Spring 2015 We pruned the concord grape very heavily this winter, probably reducing it by at least half. We are trying to train it along the fence. The flowers in the grape cluster do not blossom or mature at the same rate, and so the fruit matures individually rather than in clusters.
Thorn-less Blackberries
(Navajo and Arapaho)
Planted spring 2011
Browsing any Kansas farmers' market on a spring Saturday and you'll likely pints of blackberries for about $1.50. They are a perfect treat, but who wants thorny brambles? As a child growing up with purple pyracantha and purple dwarf berberis shrubs, my siblings and I constantly agonized while mom tweezed out thorns. 1970's landscaping often included thorn bushes under windows to deter burglars. I use ADT and in in my backyard there are NO thorns!
2013
Our thorn-less blackberry brambles are now about 6' tall and bloom prolifically. Each winter we prune the old canes. Our wet summer caused tan cane spots and the fruit ended up being deformed and inedible.
Blackberry blossom.
2014 Update
This year the canes were over 6' tall. There was a strange brown spot on the leaves and again the blackberries were deformed, bitter, and low yield. I don't know why. We cut them back to 3.5-4' this fall and will spray them for rust in the spring.
Update Spring 2015
Three blackberry plants are about 5' high. The fourth was nibbled on by the rabbits and is only just above the ground. We have approximately a dozen blossoms and just a few berries. Some of the fruit is deformed. We should be harvesting it now, but the berries are still green (June 16).
Mulberries
Our neighbor cut down most of the mulberry trees. The mulberries were plentiful and delicious, but most were un-harvested and caused a stained mess. This year, I sprayed them and we didn't see any thrips or little bugs in between the seeds.
