Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] Failures

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Failures
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 09:44:17 -0600

mIEKAL suggested a failures thread.

I'll start off with those of mine I can think of. Most have been MY fault, but a few have been shortcomings based on 'pushing the envelope' too far.

Sea buckthorn - no go; guess they didn't like my clay soil and hot summer
"Pakistan" mulberry - planted with graft union below ground, in anticipation of some winter kill. Killed back to ground 3 consecutive years - even though they were relatively mild KY winters - re-grew 8-10 ft each year, but no fruit. Well, actually, one year, we had a freak frost in late September, it re-leafed and put out immature fruits, which got nuked by the onset of actual winter a month or so later. After the last killback, I dug it up, potted it up in anticipation of giving it to my dad, in AL - but I have no idea what happened to it after that - it just disappeared.
Grapes. - They just don't work for me. I don't know if the area(s) where I've planted them are just too wet too much of the year or what, but they're coming out this spring, and I won't be planting any more - unless it's just to give some of the more cold-hardy muscadines or muscadine hybrids a try.
Stonefruits - I've never been much on 'em to begin with, but my wife wanted 'em. Borers worked on 'em religiously the first few years - most didn't make it through a second growing season. Borer pressure has evidently dropped off on its own - most that still survive are 4-5 years old now. Peaches, Jap hybrid plums, and pluots almost always break dormancy too early and get nuked, though I have had a couple of years in which Reliance or Veteran made a few peaches - most of which either brown-rotted or dropped to the ground - I can't even get my wife & kids to make the effort to pick a few peaches?! Green Gage is huge - trunk bigger than my sizeable thigh; has had one branch that bloomed one time. I keep thinking It'll do something, but not yet.
Figs - not really a failure, but I don't know if I'll ever get a fig off of any of them. Winter-kill to the ground every year, then when they do set a crop on new growth, they don't have a long enough season to mature before frost.
First set of grafted pecan/hickory/hican that I purchased and planted died at my hands - I fell prey to that old gardening misinformation about amending soil in planting holes - guess I created a huge 'bathtub' for each of them - only have two surviving members of that first group of ten.
Apples have been kind of hit or miss - planted way too many of them before I came to the realization that I don't have time(or inclination, for that matter) to do all the spraying that they require. So...as they slowly succumb to fireblight, etc., I'm replacing them with pears and persimmons.


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page