The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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I have a tree that defies all logic. Fruit trees don’t bloom in the middle of winter. Fruit or flowers that get frozen die. Not my Florida Prince Peach Tree.
Ten years ago when I bought my house, one of the first things I did was plant an small orchard. Stone fruits grow very well in my area. I can make up to $500 a year with a mature tree, selling the fruit at a local farmers market. Because of our micro climates in the valley, we can get late frosts. Our average last frost has been April 15th. With climate change in the last five years, it can be as early as February.
Hence, I buy what are called mid to late bloomers. If the tree doesn’t like to blossom until April, I’m safe that I won’t lose my crop. I had never heard of a Florida Prince, but there it was in the bare root section at my local Home Depot. $10, the label says mid to late bloomer, sold.
I plant my trees in the fall or early winter so the roots have a chance to establish them selves before going to town in the spring. Much to my surprise, this little guy blossomed the second week of January! WTH? Like a good steward, I protected it that spring by covering it with a blanket on the coldest nights, and hung xmas lights in it when there was snow and frost. It was easy that first year as it was only 5 feet tall. I don’t like to let the fruit grow the first year, I want it to spend all it’s energy establishing a root base and getting used to our native soil, so I plucked the few baby peaches off and forgot about the thing for the year as I concentrated on remodeling the house and digging garden beds.
The next year, I went out on a cold January morning, about the third week in and there are more blossoms on the dang tree! What is going on with this silly plant? OK, time to baby it again for the rest of the winter. It had grown up 8 feet tall and it was a bit harder to manage, so I kept the xmas lights in it for the rest of winter and everything seemed to be fine. That May I had my first tasty peach. In fact, that was the first time I have ever eaten a peach of my own before July.
The next year, here it goes again, in the second week of January! It was time for some tough love. I told the tree, ‘If your so damned impatient to flower, you can just do it without my help.’ So, I left it alone. It was too tall to mess with and I didn’t have a tarp sized blanket to protect it anyways. I started to think this was the worst tree I have ever purchased. Trees are supposed to be easy, not a petulant little brat, like Agent 45.
Lo and behold, it fruited. It got snowed on. It got frosted every week into March and those crazy little peaches never fell off the tree! It had leafed out to a large extent but they weren’t full sized leaves like I see in the middle of summer. It stubbornly did it’s thing until I had a bumper crop of delicious peaches, before I even had the Apricots ripen. When in the history of Agriculture has that ever happened?!?!
So, I now think this tree is the best one I have ever purchased. Every year, no matter how cold it is, this Prince keeps putting out huge amounts of fruit. Sometimes, if I’m not vigilant at thinning the fruit it will break branches up to 4 inches in diameter. I’ve learned that if I prune the tree in January, it will stun it enough so that it blossoms in early February, like this year.
Much to my surprise, the bees seem to find the flowers. I would think, since there is nothing else blossoming in the valley right now, the bees would still be hibernating. But, no, they are all over this feast. 70% of human food comes from pollination, so take care of the little guys!
I’ve had a few members of my garden club take cuttings to root, but so far nothing has taken root. You can graph fruit tree branches to other members of their family, but I have yet to try it. At ten years old, the my Florida Prince is nearing the end of it’s life span. It’s time to get serious about cloning.
I believe that this variety might be an answer to one aspect of how we are to feed ourselves in the coming chaos of climate change. This is one hardy survivor. As a gardener, I take time to study weather patterns and their changes. And I worry about a lot of the food we take for granted. Ma has not had a great crop of tomatoes for the last couple years. When once we had enough to can, to see us through the winter, we now have enough to see us through xmas. A lot of our vegetables are only eking through the season. We haven’t had over flowing baskets of much, which we used to rely on as a summer income when ma is off work at the high school. It’s time to get serious about seed saving so we can have plants that are genetically acclimated to our local environment. That’s why ma started a seed library for our valley. But that’s a story for another day...
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2019 · 10:47:49 PM +00:00
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sandbear75
Thanks for the interest in my wacky tree. I wish I had AA batteries this morning cause I could have added some new pics of the silly thing flowering in 21 degree weather.
For the record I live in Cottonwood, Arizona. Zone 7b or 8a depending on what you want to believe. When I use the original farmers almanac, I read for the Desert Southwest in the summer and the Inter-mountain West for the winter.
If your interested more about this area, for God’s sake, move here so we can turn this place blue. It wouldn’t be that hard.