Old Plum, New Apples, Pollinizers

 As I mentioned my property was densly planted in stone fruit before world war 2.  One of the oldest fruit trees in my main orchard is an old Santa Rosa plum.   It has great plums but they come all at once and so I am always asking for friends to come and help me harvest and take some home.   This year I plant to do a better job of tracking (here) when it blooms and when the fruit ripens.  I believe first week in July for fruit.

Now, with dry January days ahead of me is a great time to do winter pruning.   Winter pruning is easier in many ways because the leaves are not there. You can really see the structure and you can also see the damage.  I pruned out several large branches (larger than is ideal) because of the extensive combination damage from sun and insects.   Winter pruning stimulates trees to regrow in the spring with lots of sprouts.   In addition to these big cuts, I also removed several small regrowth branches that were competing with others.  I will also do some summer pruning of vigorous tall shoots that grow above where I am comfortable harvesting.  There is a good UCANR PDF with fruit guru now gone Chuck Engels as an author: Fruit Trees: Pruning Overgrown Deciduous Trees.   I didn't follow one piece of advise in there that I perhaps should have and that was to wait until April to make large cuts to improve healing.   My thoughts were that if I was going to spray with horticultural oil for scale, it would be better to have less tree to spray.   I'll hold off and follow this advice for my other older stone fruit, an unknown Pluot that might be Flavor Queen.

I ordered a Cauley apple from a grower in Mississippi and planted it this week.  I need to protect newly planted trees from both deer but also from my chickens who like that I have removed grass for them to dig.   If you didn't think a chicken could unplant a tree, well, they can.   Cauley is not a variety that I have seen here in California.   It may not do well here but since it thrives in Mississipi, I know it can take the heat, I just don't know about the dry.   This apple is to replace a new apple planted last year that didn't get watered in the early summer while we were travelling because a sprinkler wasn't rotating correctly.   I have also ordered a Reinette Franche from the Felix Gillet Institute via Grow Organic AKA Peaceful Valley.   Here's more from the description "The Reinette Franche Apple tree is a historically significant variety introduced by Felix Gillet, a pioneering horticulturist, in 1884. Originating from Normandy, France, this apple has been cultivated since the 1500s and has become a favorite among apple enthusiasts for its unique flavor, excellent storage capabilities, and resilience." 

The rest of my apple expansion will be done through grafting from scions from the CRFG scion exchange in February.  I have already grafted a few varieties onto my older trees and Cripps Red has given me fruit.   Other varieties grafted include Brushy Mountain Libertwig, Tydeman's Late Orange, Waltana, and Mutsu.

Because I have many varieties, I wasn't super worried about pollination when I chose the scion varieties.   Also in my orchard are young crabapples which are great pollinizers as well as a young Granny Smith, a Fuji, a Gala, Idared and an Ambrosia apple.

Pollination means having apples in the same flowering group.  The website Pomiferous is a massive database of apple varieties and has 8 different pollination groups.

While bloom and harvest time is different in different zones, the order is pretty much the same.  I don't have any apples in groups A so if I add a scion I need to add a pollinizer as well or I can hope that the crabapples provide pollen.  (these are both small groups, the only variety I was really interested in was Gravenstein which because of its triploid genetics, needs two other apples from Group A!)

I have two known in Group B (Idared and Pink Lady aka Cripps Pink).  I bought the Idared (impulse) because it was developed at the University of Idaho where my son is studying.   The Pink Lady has some serious borer damage and is very stunted because of it.  I can't count on it making it so I will definately need to take some scions and graft onto one of the big trees.

The flowering groups after A&B are so massive that scrolling through the 22 pages for Group C just didn't make sense.   Some apples don't have Pollination Group info like Brushy Mountain Libertwig.  Another site I use a lot is Orange Pippin.   They have a feature that let's you check whether two varieties pollinize each other but I can't just look up the pollinizer.   Frustrating.  

A couple of known Group C's include Granny Smith and Gala

A couple of know Group D's include Mutsu, Ambrosia and Fuji.

I had planted a Transendant Crab (impulse buy at Home Depot) a couple of years ago without researching it.  I had assumed it would, like most crabapples, help other trees but apparently not according to Orange Pippin.   It pays to do your research!