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labruscagrape - Re: [OFEX] From Thornhill

labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Ontario Fruit Explorers

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  • From: "joe calico" <jcalico@sympatico.ca>
  • To: "'Ontario Fruit Explorers'" <labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: Allen Cosnow <buonafrutta@aol.com>, 'Shirley' <shirley.u@sympatico.ca>
  • Subject: Re: [OFEX] From Thornhill
  • Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 10:13:18 -0400

Something strange went on in Mississauga with this year’s winter:

  1. I have hydrangeas (big blue or pink blooms) which typically die to within 3” to the ground consequently the following year I typically get no bloom as the blooms grow on the previous year’s wood.  This year, the canes are alive right up the stems to about 24”high.  Conclusion: mild winter.  I looking forward to lost of lovely blooms come summer.
  2. Last Fall (Sept 6) I performed a bunch of budding on apples, peaches, apricots and pears.  I received the budwood  from PICO in BC and they were in excellent condition with plenty of very plumb buds.  We’ll, it turns out that my budding success rate through the winter probably averaged no more than 30%.  The bud bark is largely green, but the buds succumbed.  Conclusion: what mild winter….?
  3. I have a large magnolia soligiana which never fails to bloom extremely profusely every Spring.  This Spring it had 5 buds, yes five!  Go figure…
  4. Much of my peach buds succumbed to Winter (higher failure than usual).

 

Conclusion/suspicion: 

    • probably the mild winter till mid January may have fooled the trees into thinking that global warming is occurring at much quicker rates than even the experts believed,
    • the sudden hard cold at end of January could have been too much of a transition.
    • The extremely cold 3 day period we experienced at end of February (?) could have done it
    • On a related note, I keep Koi fish in two ponds, use a small commercial heater per pond to keep a hole open in the water – this year both ponds froze over the hole as the heaters couldn’t keep up and, as a direct consequence, all my prize koi died (up to $1000 per koi – these beauties were about 20” long and each in it’s own lively colour.  I figure I lost at least $7000 in koi.  Broke my hear.  So, I’ve started already to buy young ones to restarted the hobby.

 

So, any ideas out there as to what went on?

 

Joe C.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: labruscagrape-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:labruscagrape-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John Barbowski
Sent: May 9, 2007 5:07 PM
To: labruscagrape@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [OFEX] From Thornhill

 

Hi All,

 

1st apple blossoms opened today, pears opening, Italian (Damson) plum in full glory

 

Peaches finished today, cherries starting to wane.

 

Apricot (Harcot) finished last week. Saw bug activity around the blossoms, but when the critters landed, it was on the blossom petal with minimal foraging in the calyx. With its sporadic production, (tree rats and cold) the tree is destined to be firewood - hopefully replaced by either a Fameuse or a Pixie Crunch (Siloam was supposed to get budwood last fall)

 

Must have been a mild winter, the unburied canes from the blackberries and Boysenberries survived in reasonable condition. I have a couple of spares that I just dug out and potted if anyone is interested.

 

Bumber crops of Josta's and currents.

 

Tom, I was led to believe that 'Breba' was a term for the initial crop of figs. Last year, my Figs and Brebas started development in March, long before I could put them outside into the full sun. When the figs finally got out in May, the figs lost most of their indoor leaves and half of the Brebas fell off. I found that those that remained were not as sweet as the 2nd crop. This year, I did not let my figs develop too soon. I slowed them down by puting the in my new greenhouse in early March - had to bring them back in twice when the temp went down to -5. They have been outside now for 3 weeks and are slowly coming around. Lost a couple of leaves last week when the temp dipped to zero. Other figs one to two foot from the nipped plant were unscathed.

 

Last year I had about 20 Ida Red apples and about 6 Fiestas from two of my trees. I expected increases production this year. Much to my surprise, I can count on one hand the number of blossom whirls on the Ida Red and no blossoms on the Fiesta! I was worried about thinning the Ida since it is supposed to be a heavy bearer. Should I get out the whip? Six feet away is a loaded Burgundy.

 

Very dry here now. The rain tonight will be very welcome.

 

ttfn

 

jmb



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