One of the nicest things about mulch that no one talks about is...no raking required! I just stripped off my apricot up here in Vegas but I'm in such need for compost material that I bagged it up and the nice thing about this approach is that stripping them green makes them a source of nitrogen rather than carbon, which I always need more of. I look forward to that summer pruning video.
I wonder if since you're in Arizona that you could use solar to run an A/C system through plastic tenting over your tree rows so that you could maximize chill hours during lean chill hour years? You could even use those lightweight plastic domes to drop over each tree in Dec and then hit it with 45 degrees (I've heard that 55 degrees count as chill hrs too) worth A/C for 2 to 3 days straight and see if that not only adds 50 to 75 chill hrs to each fruit tree but also drops the leaves for you so that you don't have to manually remove leaves from each branch and twig. You could also connect the domes in a series using insulated plastic coiled vent tubing.
Hmm, I suppose that might be possible. If you had a separate system from the home and used solar to run it during the day. So long as it stayed cool enough each evening, in theory it should work!
Hey Pepe's Fruit Trees, glad you're here! No we haven't tried that variety, but we're looking at adding additional peaches to our orchard. I'll have to check that one out. Thanks for the recommendation!
Great video we are at 3100 ft. Summers can get up to 115 degrees Winters as low as 16 degrees. We have wind about 200 days out of the year . My issue is where is the best area to plant fruit trees with no shade or wind protection?
Hey Blissful Acres! Ok, a few thoughts. As for shade, all fruit trees need sun and most of them need a LOT of it. We don't keep any of our fruit trees shaded here in our AZ sunshine (berries do get some shade, but not the fruit trees). We don't plant trees that can't survive our summers in full sun (which is why we generally avoid tropicals). As for wind, we have wind most days also and we stake many of our trees on the windy side when they're newly planted (for us that's the West side) to compensate for this. It also helps to plant bare root so they're not root bound and dependent on working out of a root ball before sending out roots. Also, be sure to water away from the tree at the drip line to encourage outward growth of roots. Fruit trees don't generally send roots down, they send them out. So you want to encourage that to get them able to withstand your winds. Hope this helps!
Looked you guys up and you're in zone 3 which is pretty much the opposite of what we are! However, I would be looking at just about any variety of apple, pear and cherry (we're trying one here, but probably not going to give us fruit). Check out Raintree and Stark Bro's online nurseries. They do a good job designating what will work for your zone. We're especially fond of Stark Bro's and have had good success with their trees so far. Good luck!
Wow! Im always learning so much from you two 👍 Thanks for the great, detailed information. I'm curious how you know so much. Do you have a degree in land management or did you grow up on a homestead? I can't tell you how grateful I am to have found your channel. Do you have a video that shows an inventory of each type of fruit tree you are growing? Lastly, I believe your climate is similar to my homestead in the county outside of Tucson 👍 Again, you both are such a blessing! Many Thanks!
Glad you're enjoying the content. No formal training just a lot of research and experience (Lori and I are both from the big city. Lori from Phoenix and I'm from S. Central LA). We don't have a video on an inventory of trees, but I'm sure we'll get to most of them over the next few months as they start to fruit! Oh and the climate is very similar to what you have down in Tucson. We may be a little on the hotter side during the summer, but otherwise it should be the same.
Edge of Nowhere Farm Very Cool 👍 Thanks, I will keep watching. Like your intro says.... "If we can do it, so can you" You two give me hope that it's possible at my place too 👍 Thank you and God Bless 🙏
Hi Branda. Yes! This past winter was a cold one for us, but normally you'll need to do this with milder winters where the leaves don't drop on their own. Our Santa Rosa usually starts dropping it's leaves a little earlier than our peach trees do, but it does need some help if we're not seeing 20 degree temps at night to drop them completely.
One more thing. Have you ever tried spraying Zinc sulfate in December to cause the tree to defoliate? I will be trying that on my tree this year here in Florida.
Thanks for the link. Just read through it. Looks very promising. Are you thinking November in your area or are you going to push it to December? We get bud break here by early February on our earliest varieties (Flordaprince in particular) and we start hitting sub 40 degree nights in November.
Agreed. Subbed your channel, really interested in your air layering techniques. Going to give it a try on a few trees we need to propagate around here! Thanks for the info!
Hey Akira. As long as you're stripping the leaves during the dormant season it will have no effect on the tree's ability to come out of dormancy and start producing new shoot and leaf growth the following season. Eventually these trees lose all of their leaves prior to Spring anyhow. We're just helping it along so we can hopefully increase the chill on the trees and also give us a clean view of what we need to do from a pruning standpoint.
Hey Sharrice! First off, just a little jealous of those blueberry bushes! Our soil is too alkaline for blueberries, so they're very difficult for us to grow. I'm assuming since they're indoors these are in pots, so I would say it might be a good option to just leave them be. They do need chill hours to set fruit and that signals the bush to drop it's leaves, so giving them some time outside would help them to "set their clocks" so to speak. The only issue there may be them getting a bit too cold this time of year. Are you going to eventually move them outside?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm yes they will eventually go in the ground..I thought for trees that need chill hours, they tend to be pretty frost tolerant and there for it wouldn't be possible for it to ve too cold for them..how come u don't just amend ur soil with acidic things like pine needles? Have u tried that?
@@sharriceowens913 Ah ok. They should catch up with the normal seasons once you get them in the ground, so you should be find to just leave them be for now. Most folks who grow blueberries here in AZ do so in containers to control both the soil and also the water they use for irrigation. Our water is also very alkaline, so just watering the plants can actually kill them. Crazy, huh?
Please talk about how to get rid of rabbits and squirrels.... i think squirrels... i was told we have squirrels... but I never seen the darn squirrel...it’s some sort of animal or rodent digs under the tree and get to root...... I live in surprise, AZ...
Hey Zack. That's a great question. We actually shot a video on the new property this past weekend that will be up soon showing how we keep rabbits from our trees. Squirrels are a different issue and we haven't had a problem with them for our fruit trees. They would be much harder to keep from your trees, because our prairie dogs (squirrels) are very small and can easily scale a tree no matter what you put around it. As for digging under your tree, that's a burrow so you may need to figure out the best way to trap or otherwise remove them if they're burrowing under your tree. If you are irrigating with a flood type irrigation method (I.E. tree ring with flood/bubbler irrigation) this should deter them from building their homes under your trees.
Great question. We paint the trunks on our younger trees so they don't get sunburn. We learned the hard way with one of our first apple trees that sunburn is the real deal and it was dead within a year from the damage to the trunk. Once the canopy is wide enough to protect the trunk we no longer paint them.
Hey Juan. We paint our tree trunks for the first few years to keep them from getting sunburned. I know it sounds weird, but the sun is so strong here in AZ that it literally burns the trunks on some trees causing them to become girdled and eventually die. Once the canopy of the tree is large enough to shade the trunk you no longer need to cover the bark. Thanks for the question!
One of the nicest things about mulch that no one talks about is...no raking required! I just stripped off my apricot up here in Vegas but I'm in such need for compost material that I bagged it up and the nice thing about this approach is that stripping them green makes them a source of nitrogen rather than carbon, which I always need more of. I look forward to that summer pruning video.
You're right on Tim. It's amazing how something so simple can do so much for your trees!
Mega interesting, never seen this process before! So you have an aditional mulch out of these stripped leaves❤.
Exactly!!
I wonder if since you're in Arizona that you could use solar to run an A/C system through plastic tenting over your tree rows so that you could maximize chill hours during lean chill hour years?
You could even use those lightweight plastic domes to drop over each tree in Dec and then hit it with 45 degrees (I've heard that 55 degrees count as chill hrs too) worth A/C for 2 to 3 days straight and see if that not only adds 50 to 75 chill hrs to each fruit tree but also drops the leaves for you so that you don't have to manually remove leaves from each branch and twig. You could also connect the domes in a series using insulated plastic coiled vent tubing.
Hmm, I suppose that might be possible. If you had a separate system from the home and used solar to run it during the day. So long as it stayed cool enough each evening, in theory it should work!
This is such interesting stuff guys, great job
We're having fun getting the content out there and hearing what everyone out there is growing!
Have you tried growing Florida Grande. Very low chill requirements. Nice size fruit and tasty too. Subscribed and thumbs up!
Hey Pepe's Fruit Trees, glad you're here! No we haven't tried that variety, but we're looking at adding additional peaches to our orchard. I'll have to check that one out. Thanks for the recommendation!
Great video we are at 3100 ft. Summers can get up to 115 degrees Winters as low as 16 degrees. We have wind about 200 days out of the year . My issue is where is the best area to plant fruit trees with no shade or wind protection?
Hey Blissful Acres! Ok, a few thoughts. As for shade, all fruit trees need sun and most of them need a LOT of it. We don't keep any of our fruit trees shaded here in our AZ sunshine (berries do get some shade, but not the fruit trees). We don't plant trees that can't survive our summers in full sun (which is why we generally avoid tropicals). As for wind, we have wind most days also and we stake many of our trees on the windy side when they're newly planted (for us that's the West side) to compensate for this. It also helps to plant bare root so they're not root bound and dependent on working out of a root ball before sending out roots. Also, be sure to water away from the tree at the drip line to encourage outward growth of roots. Fruit trees don't generally send roots down, they send them out. So you want to encourage that to get them able to withstand your winds. Hope this helps!
great video! thanks!
Sure thing Megan. Good luck with those new trees!
Excellent video but I live in Roswell NM and we do get much more cold (freezing) weather. What kind of trees do you recommend to plant in this area?
Looked you guys up and you're in zone 3 which is pretty much the opposite of what we are! However, I would be looking at just about any variety of apple, pear and cherry (we're trying one here, but probably not going to give us fruit). Check out Raintree and Stark Bro's online nurseries. They do a good job designating what will work for your zone. We're especially fond of Stark Bro's and have had good success with their trees so far. Good luck!
Thank you, I will contact them. Love what your doing and once again thank you.
Wow! Im always learning so much from you two 👍
Thanks for the great, detailed information. I'm curious how you know so much. Do you have a degree in land management or did you grow up on a homestead?
I can't tell you how grateful I am to have found your channel.
Do you have a video that shows an inventory of each type of fruit tree you are growing?
Lastly, I believe your climate is similar to my homestead in the county outside of Tucson 👍
Again, you both are such a blessing! Many Thanks!
Glad you're enjoying the content. No formal training just a lot of research and experience (Lori and I are both from the big city. Lori from Phoenix and I'm from S. Central LA). We don't have a video on an inventory of trees, but I'm sure we'll get to most of them over the next few months as they start to fruit! Oh and the climate is very similar to what you have down in Tucson. We may be a little on the hotter side during the summer, but otherwise it should be the same.
Edge of Nowhere Farm
Very Cool 👍
Thanks, I will keep watching.
Like your intro says....
"If we can do it, so can you"
You two give me hope that it's possible at my place too 👍
Thank you and God Bless 🙏
Will this be recommended for my Santa Rosa plum tree also. I’m in chandler, Az. Thank you
Hi Branda. Yes! This past winter was a cold one for us, but normally you'll need to do this with milder winters where the leaves don't drop on their own. Our Santa Rosa usually starts dropping it's leaves a little earlier than our peach trees do, but it does need some help if we're not seeing 20 degree temps at night to drop them completely.
Thank much for the advise, this will become useful
One more thing. Have you ever tried spraying Zinc sulfate in December to cause the tree to defoliate? I will be trying that on my tree this year here in Florida.
Hmm, no haven't heard of doing that. Ok, now the research begins. Please let us know how that works!
www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/trade_journals/2015/2015_September_peaches.pdf
Thanks for the link. Just read through it. Looks very promising. Are you thinking November in your area or are you going to push it to December? We get bud break here by early February on our earliest varieties (Flordaprince in particular) and we start hitting sub 40 degree nights in November.
Thinking December. A good way to learn is to try it. We shall see. All the best. Let's keep in touch. ;-)
Agreed. Subbed your channel, really interested in your air layering techniques. Going to give it a try on a few trees we need to propagate around here! Thanks for the info!
How about painting the tree all white? That will reflect sunlight and might help reduce temperature by a few degrees...
Hmm, that's an interesting suggestion. I've never considered that before, but it might be worth trying!!
Isn't stripping green leaves reducing the energy generation for the next year?
Hey Akira. As long as you're stripping the leaves during the dormant season it will have no effect on the tree's ability to come out of dormancy and start producing new shoot and leaf growth the following season. Eventually these trees lose all of their leaves prior to Spring anyhow. We're just helping it along so we can hopefully increase the chill on the trees and also give us a clean view of what we need to do from a pruning standpoint.
Is it to late to strip the leaves on my blueberrie bushes..I'm in NC 7b
I had them indoors this winter didn't know it needed chill hours
Hey Sharrice! First off, just a little jealous of those blueberry bushes! Our soil is too alkaline for blueberries, so they're very difficult for us to grow. I'm assuming since they're indoors these are in pots, so I would say it might be a good option to just leave them be. They do need chill hours to set fruit and that signals the bush to drop it's leaves, so giving them some time outside would help them to "set their clocks" so to speak. The only issue there may be them getting a bit too cold this time of year. Are you going to eventually move them outside?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm yes they will eventually go in the ground..I thought for trees that need chill hours, they tend to be pretty frost tolerant and there for it wouldn't be possible for it to ve too cold for them..how come u don't just amend ur soil with acidic things like pine needles? Have u tried that?
@@sharriceowens913 Ah ok. They should catch up with the normal seasons once you get them in the ground, so you should be find to just leave them be for now. Most folks who grow blueberries here in AZ do so in containers to control both the soil and also the water they use for irrigation. Our water is also very alkaline, so just watering the plants can actually kill them. Crazy, huh?
Please talk about how to get rid of rabbits and squirrels.... i think squirrels... i was told we have squirrels... but I never seen the darn squirrel...it’s some sort of animal or rodent digs under the tree and get to root...... I live in surprise, AZ...
Hey Zack. That's a great question. We actually shot a video on the new property this past weekend that will be up soon showing how we keep rabbits from our trees. Squirrels are a different issue and we haven't had a problem with them for our fruit trees. They would be much harder to keep from your trees, because our prairie dogs (squirrels) are very small and can easily scale a tree no matter what you put around it. As for digging under your tree, that's a burrow so you may need to figure out the best way to trap or otherwise remove them if they're burrowing under your tree. If you are irrigating with a flood type irrigation method (I.E. tree ring with flood/bubbler irrigation) this should deter them from building their homes under your trees.
I have grasshoppers help me strip the leaves
Hmm, grasshoppers, that's interesting!
Did I miss something why are the trees white?? I know why, but just confirming lpl
Great question. We paint the trunks on our younger trees so they don't get sunburn. We learned the hard way with one of our first apple trees that sunburn is the real deal and it was dead within a year from the damage to the trunk. Once the canopy is wide enough to protect the trunk we no longer paint them.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm one thing I found on line it helps to extend chill hours also. By not allowing the trees to heat up so fast.
@@beingsneaky hmm, that's an interesting concept. It definitely wouldn't hurt I suppose.
Just water the leaves on the tree on a cold night
That's a great suggestion. When we have those occasional hard freezes that should help!
and throwing ice around the base of the tree? will that help? I really want to grow pears.
Why are the trunks of ur fruit trees painted white??
Hey Juan. We paint our tree trunks for the first few years to keep them from getting sunburned. I know it sounds weird, but the sun is so strong here in AZ that it literally burns the trunks on some trees causing them to become girdled and eventually die. Once the canopy of the tree is large enough to shade the trunk you no longer need to cover the bark. Thanks for the question!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm any specific paint? (ie latex etc)
@@rhodesianwojak2095 Latex paint is usually what I've seen used and is the type you'll find in the premixed products.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thanks mate