Arizona Chickens

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:

I dunno, I managed to kill that Golden Dorsett apple tree you gave me!

That's because I started it. lol
I think mine is dead too. I think it got too much water during the floods. I have a Fuji to stick in it's place, though.

 

[moms3cuties]

 
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/31227/arizona-chickens/51260#post_14238213 layout=inline]Yeah, I'm interested.  It might have a better chance of surviving if you started it.  [/CONTENTEMBED]

I dunno, I managed to kill that Golden Dorsett apple tree you gave me!  

....If I get any seeds from my Dorsett apple tree in the front yard, I'll save you both some! I could not believe it, the very first year I had it about 5/6 months old it started blooming flowers for apples, it was amazing. My kids loved it! But Fuji's seem to be hard to get fruit from. :/ My Dorsett Apple tree bears fruit usually twice a year in the summer months! =D

 
There seems to be a lot of interest in Tucson in growing rare fruits. I belong to a very small group of Rare Fruit Growers. We have been meeting monthly at EcoGrow on St. Mary's. Just this morning I got this email from our "President", Chris Marshall:

"Unaware that we existed (not a surprise), a young woman named Alana Stern has been organizing a new chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers for Tucson. She apparently has a lot of enthusiasm and energy as demonstrated by how far she has gone already. She has reserved meeting space at Randolph Center with a first meeting on Nov 8, she has found a heated greenhouse and adjacent fields in Marana for establishing a group garden including tropicals and she has been actively putting out materials to recruit members.
For all of you who know something of our history and my involvement, It will come as no surprise that I personally would be happy to have our group form a founding core of the new club and let Alana be in charge. She will be sending out another email with some additional details. I hope to continue my involvement with the new group and I hope you will as well. Let's all try to make this initial meeting."
 
This meeting place is far more central than where we currently meet, but I will try to make the meeting and thought some of you might be interested, especially Gallo, you are really close. I have always thought our Rare Fruit Growers group should be much larger than it is but perhaps a new "go-getter" is what is needed.

Oh, I'm definitely interested!  That's about a five minute walk for me to the Randolph Center.   Keep me updated when you find out when the next meeting will be.

yes x2, please keep me informed, too! =D

What's up with this weather?  Not that I'm complaining at all, but the forecasts on Weather Underground predicted 0% chance for rain all this week.  This rain is perfect for applying the beneficial nematodes I bought this week.  They apparently do best when applied on moist soil after a rain.   I never get lucky like that.  Grubs, your days are numbered!

lol, it's sure nice to have a little watering when you're trying to garden!

 

[desertmarcy]

....If I get any seeds from my Dorsett apple tree in the front yard, I'll save you both some! I could not believe it, the very first year I had it about 5/6 months old it started blooming flowers for apples, it was amazing. My kids loved it! But Fuji's seem to be hard to get fruit from.

My Dorsett Apple tree bears fruit usually twice a year in the summer months! =D
yes x2, please keep me informed, too! =D
lol, it's sure nice to have a little watering when you're trying to garden!

I believe there is a branch of the CA Rare Fruit Growers in Phoenix, at least there used to be. Apples don't come true from seed. It is pot luck. You might get a good one, or you might not. Also remember a lot of our fruit trees are grafted onto root stock that helps the tree, usually with disease. Like stone fruit on nematode-resistant root stock. Fuji apples require more chill hours than what you get in Mesa. Chill hours are the number of hours below 45 degrees but above 32 degrees. For Tucson, 100-200 chill hours works well. Anything over that and it is hit or miss. Not sure what your chill hour requirements are for Phoenix area, but would be at least as low as Tucson. Chill hours are important for all stone fruits, pears, cherries. Citrus doesn't matter. I've given up trying to grow apples, they just don't do well for me and the fruit is substandard. Better quality from Willcox

and we just limit ourselves to apples for a short season in the fall for however long we can store them.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Last spring we took down our old dilapidated sun roof that covered the back patio and built a new one, leaving us with a pile of vintage wrought iron. What originally started out as an idea of using the metal for a trellis to block off the view to our scrap piles of wood and wire turned into a trellis/potting shed (6' X 10') made completely from salvaged materials (which in turn reduced the size of the scrap piles we were trying to hide). We covered the structure with old concrete re-mesh that used to be part of the fence surrounding the garden. We planted tangerine crossvines on one side which have done ok and on two other corners we planted passion fruit vines, which have done spectacularly well. I grew these passionfruit vines from small cuttings I took in late spring and they are getting huge. The first fruits are now nearing completion and are the size of large kiwis! There are hundreds of flower buds ready to open over the next couple of days; the aroma is going to be intoxicating.

You amaze me Gallo! Stunning!

 

[moms3cuties]

....If I get any seeds from my Dorsett apple tree in the front yard, I'll save you both some! I could not believe it, the very first year I had it about 5/6 months old it started blooming flowers for apples, it was amazing. My kids loved it! But Fuji's seem to be hard to get fruit from. :/ My Dorsett Apple tree bears fruit usually twice a year in the summer months! =D

yes x2, please keep me informed, too! =D

lol, it's sure nice to have a little watering when you're trying to garden!

I believe there is a branch of the CA Rare Fruit Growers in Phoenix, at least there used to be. Apples don't come true from seed. It is pot luck. You might get a good one, or you might not. Also remember a lot of our fruit trees are grafted onto root stock that helps the tree, usually with disease. Like stone fruit on nematode-resistant root stock. Fuji apples require more chill hours than what you get in Mesa. Chill hours are the number of hours below 45 degrees but above 32 degrees. For Tucson, 100-200 chill hours works well. Anything over that and it is hit or miss. Not sure what your chill hour requirements are for Phoenix area, but would be at least as low as Tucson. Chill hours are important for all stone fruits, pears, cherries. Citrus doesn't matter. I've given up trying to grow apples, they just don't do well for me and the fruit is substandard. Better quality from Willcox  and we just limit ourselves to apples for a short season in the fall for however long we can store them.

in Mesa and most of the East Valley I was told that we have to have stone fruit trees that work well in under a hundred or 90 hours of chill time.
So the Dorsett Apple seems to do well here for most of us in the Mesa and in the San Tan Valley, based on the people I have surveyed. I didn't realize Tucson was so much colder than us up North, but you're more of a desert down there I believe. Or so it seems. Thank you for the info of possibly a Phoenix CA Rate fruit growers group!

 

[kpgoldstar]

We call this the 5:00 slider stalk!

 

[moms3cuties]

We call this the 5:00 slider stalk!

.........that is too funny!! Lol My white leghorn jumps my fence,,,,, then jumps my neighbors fence,,,,, and comes and sits on my front bench,, on my front porch,, and then she proceeds to Peck at my dining room window if I'm not out there fast enough for breakfast or for snack/dinner time! Geez!! :cdsome Hen lacks some patience around here!!!!!

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
I'm not sure this is a Fuji, now that I think about it. We grafted it in a class with the rare fruit growers up here and they said it did well here... maybe a Pink Lady? Shoot, I wish I could remember. Maybe I should plant it in Tucson at my daughter's house instead and get myself another Golden Dorsett to try again here.

 

[MagicChicken]

What's up with this weather? Not that I'm complaining at all, but the forecasts on Weather Underground predicted 0% chance for rain all this week. This rain is perfect for applying the beneficial nematodes I bought this week. They apparently do best when applied on moist soil after a rain. I never get lucky like that. Grubs, your days are numbered!

You can thank me for the rain, Gallo. I was working on my fence project this morning and had to leave for a meeting. It was sunny when I left. No hint of rain. I did something I never do - I left the tools out so I could work on the fencing some more when I got back. Oops...

We got a quarter inch of rain while I was out. It is all my fault.

 

[Timskins]

in Mesa and most of the East Valley I was told that we have to have stone fruit trees that work well in under a hundred or 90 hours of chill time.
So the Dorsett Apple seems to do well here for most of us in the Mesa and in the San Tan Valley, based on the people I have surveyed. I didn't realize Tucson was so much colder than us up North, but you're more of a desert down there I believe. Or so it seems. Thank you for the info of possibly a Phoenix CA Rate fruit growers group!

I think you're probably closer to 200 hours. Here are some chill hour links.

This one is to the raw data. They have deactivated some stations lessening accuracy.
http://ag.arizona.edu/azmet/az-data.htm

This one tells you how to input the data to better read it.
http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/forum/topics/winter-chill-data-for-phoenix