who would have thought?

[BUFFS]

with all the cold spring weather I don't get out much in the garden/ greenhouses, except to hand pollinate the stone fruits twice, so I was very surprised to find when we came back from visiting the inlaws/outlaws that they are having their best ever year, so far, about 120+ apricots, about 30+ peaches, and the biggest surprise is the 50+ nectarines that are growing. providing they all keep growing we will be swamped with lovely sweet, fresh, fruit, and the pear trees are full of fruit, just as we decided to dig them up as a waste of time and space. I did take some snaps but it seems I wiped them when I was clearing out the old ones, so I will try again, all these new fangled gizmoes are too much for me, its an age thing...

[BUFFS]

I forgot to say, they are in a north facing greenhouse with plenty of light, outside they would have drowned ages ago..

[It never rains..it pours]

Some pics be good to see, may inspire me to try. My south facing peach tree, well presume its that as had peach leaf curl before I got on top of it, has flowered well this year but cant see anything other than that yet of note

[nickdub]

If you look where the flowers were you may be able to see pea sized fruits forming - if a peach they will be fuzzy, nectarine smooth.

[goosander]

You [Buffs] must be living in a tropical paradise. Here in Elderslie it has been behind the season.
Had a fig that I was going to throw out in a very large pot last backend but never got round to it. Despite all the frosts and rain it is better now than when it was well looked after,
Bob.

[It never rains..it pours]

If you look where the flowers were you may be able to see pea sized fruits forming - if a peach they will be fuzzy, nectarine smooth.

Thanks Nickdub, have found a few on it today, do birds go after them ? ie do I need to net it

[nickdub]

Thanks Nickdub, have found a few on it today, do birds go after them ? ie do I need to net it

You're welcome - I've not had any problem with birds myself - I believe squirrels can be a problem but again I haven't had this issue myself. Finally when the fruit is getting ripe obviously wasps can start on them as they do plums, so some people make little fine-net bags to put on individual fruit.

[BUFFS]

You [Buffs] must be living in a tropical paradise. Here in Elderslie it has been behind the season.
Had a fig that I was going to throw out in a very large pot last backend but never got round to it. Despite all the frosts and rain it is better now than when it was well looked after,
Bob.

my potted fig has done the same,our winter started in august last year and was still there chilling us in the middle of april,so the fig got neglected, but it is carrying about 30-35 fast growing fruits on it now, it may not make sense but I cant complain at all, the peaches and nectarines are about half size now, with the apricots about 3-4 weeks away from fully ripe state, so it has the makings of a very good year for fruit..as for a tropical paradise, we went from 7-10deg one week to the low 20s for the last 2-3 weeks, which is the best weather we have had since 2006, so don't envy us, as our next proper summer spell may be in 2030 at the present rates of good/bad summers, we have been watching reports of heatwaves for over a decade, without actually having one, so the change is most welcome..

[It never rains..it pours]

Buffs can I ask the age and space the fig takes up , thanks

[BUFFS]

The fig is in a large half plastic dustbin, with holes in the bottom for drainage, against a south facing wall and the wall has four horizontal wires, 15ins apart and about three to three and a half out each side, giving a spread of about seven feet, I got the plant as a freebie cutting from a magazine over ten years ago and apart from a reporting about four years ago it hasn't had a lot of work done on it, just fan trained onto the wires, if it grows here it will grow virtually anywhere, and it is a brown turkey type..

[It never rains..it pours]

The fig is in a large half plastic dustbin, with holes in the bottom for drainage, against a south facing wall and the wall has four horizontal wires, 15ins apart and about three to three and a half out each side, giving a spread of about seven feet, I got the plant as a freebie cutting from a magazine over ten years ago and apart from a reporting about four years ago it hasn't had a lot of work done on it, just fan trained onto the wires, if it grows here it will grow virtually anywhere, and it is a brown turkey type..

Thank you Buffs, asked as thinking of buying my elderly father one as a present but not sure he can wait 10 years let alone to 2030

[BUFFS]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]80683[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]80684[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]80685[/ATTACH][attach=config]80686[/attach




I managed to get some snaps of the apricot/ peach/ nectarine , and one of the fig for INR.IP so he can see how my fig is set up..and you get figs quite fast, in year2 or 3..

[It never rains..it pours]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]80683[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]80684[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]80685[/ATTACH][attach=config]80686[/attach




I managed to get some snaps of the apricot/ peach/ nectarine , and one of the fig for INR.IP so he can see how my fig is set up..and you get figs quite fast, in year2 or 3..

Thank you Buffs Im officially impressed with costa del kilwinning

2 or 3 years thanks for that info

[BUFFS]

I thought I would put the latest snaps of the fruit that I took last week, the apricots were great, we got nearly three kilos, and, after keeping a bowlful, we blanched the rest down and packed them into the freezer. the peaches are about a week off but the nectarines are at least a month off being ready but are coming along nicely. we had our first proper rain in 9 weeks last night so the garden doesn't look so dry as it has done..

[Earthgirl Jen]

I forgot to say, they are in a north facing greenhouse with plenty of light, outside they would have drowned ages ago..

I have a north facing conservatory (cough!!! that's what it was advertised as when we bought the place, in reality it is a 14ft x8ft lean to greenhouse attached to the back of the house over the back door) and as such gets sunlight for 6mths of the year (March -Sept) and no direct sunlight for the other 6mths of the year. I was amazed at the amount of ambient heat you can get on a sunny day during the winter despite no direct sunlight, so it comes as no surprise to me that you can grow these beautiful fruits...

How lovely and they they look good... enjoy x