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View Full Version : Pomes (apples, pears, quince, medlar, loquat, ...)


Richard
04-03-2014, 03:55 PM
In botany, a pome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pome) is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants in the subtribe Malinae of the family Rosaceae (http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/gnlist.pl?2378). Many are deciduous, but some like the Loquat are evergreen.

Here's a photo of my (front to back) Shinseiki Asian Pear (http://davewilson.com/product-information/product/shinseiki-asian-pear), White Winter Pearmain Apple (http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/white-winter-pearmain-apple), and Gordon Apple (http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/gordon-apple). They tend to bud out in April -- being more driven by the ascension of the sun than local temperatures. Not shown in the picture is my Loquat that hangs out with the evergreen citrus in another part of the orchard.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=55474&size=1

Kat2
04-03-2014, 04:05 PM
I tasted loquats for the 1st time about 2 weeks ago. They're wonderful! I was ordered to give the seed back because it was a single instead of 3 and the giver thinks those are ones to grow. Who knew?

Since I had to leave my little one back in Jacksonville, I wanted to grow one for me. Did a drive by on an abandoned house and there was a loquat in the backyard so I grabbed 2. Only 2; I wasn't greedy! Offered 1 to my driver; he turned it down. Haha! More for me! Now I have 4 seeds in a pot. I'm really too old to wait for them to produce. (Okay, I'm too impatient.) When I finally get settled, I have permission to dig up 2 older but spindly (shaded) specimens I'll baby and, fingers crossed, be chowing down next year.

pmurphy
04-03-2014, 05:19 PM
I have all of the above in my gardens.......bosc pear, red delicious apple and 2 quince (added a dwarf quince last year as well) in the back yard. They were joined by a loquat last summer - it got a little beat up over the winter but is bouncing back with new growth.
My medlar is potted and living on the upper deck.......what a strange fruit with the most unusual flavor (apple sauce) and texture, just make sure to harvest after cold/frost exposure

Darkman
04-04-2014, 07:43 AM
I am growing Aromatnaya Quince and it has bloomed with about a dozen fruit hanging. I also had BarnettMill (Carl) graft Orient Pear that I received from him onto a lower limb.

In other Pome (not pomegranate) news the team of Carl and Jose263 (TJ) with very minor support (OK I provided the tree) from me grafted 12 varieties of Pear to my Cleveland Pear (ornamental sport of Bradford - Calleryana). It will probably be more of a repository of varities that do well in my climate than a great producing tree but will see. It should fruit well just not many of any one kind.

Loquats - I have my first CROP (all six of them) of Yehuda that SBL (Skeet) and I grafted two years ago. I also had a control plant of standard Loquat side by side with a similar fruit count BUT the Yehuda are twice the size. TJ, Carl and I grafted Christmas and Champagne onto some seedling loquats last weekend. Kat try to make this years BBQ and Fruit Lovers Gathering in the fall and I'll try to have some seedlings for you.

I have some pear dwarfing rootstock (OHxF 87) that we will graft next with Southern Barlett, Leona, Orient and Olton Broussard.

Richard your place is inspirational. What is the spacing as seen in your photo. I have to think more about dwarfing rootstock and closer apacings. The wall and fence is so clean and sweet looking. After you get through you should open a garden landscaping consultation service specializing in maximizing the space available. I'll volunteer to be the guinea pig test bed for your services.

I hope you soon will do a walk around HD video tour complete of course with your expert narration. I look forward to it.

Richard
04-04-2014, 10:00 AM
Kat - your loquat seedlings will make good rootstock for the excellent cultivars Darkman has at his place.

Darkman - wow, you're more fruit crazed than I am. :08:

Quince can be a vigorous rootstock for pears and offers fireblight resistance.

For the spacing of my trees, I was shooting for 10' on center. After the installation of the perimeter walls I had to compromise to 9.5'. I train my trees with winter and summer pruning in accordance to "How To Prune Fruit Trees" by R. Sanford Martin. I also control the height to 8' by periodically thinning out taller branches.

Snookie
04-04-2014, 11:30 AM
BBQ and Fruit Lovers Gathering in the fall and I'll try to have some seedlings for you.
.

Hummmm.....BBQ & Fruit Lovers Gathering.....Uh are Avocado's a fruit?

I sure hope so:} Dat way maybe I'll get an invitation:}

Oh, I'm planting 2 Anna, and a Pollinator Apple as well as a Blood Orange this weekend if the rain stops:}

Maybe dat will qualify me is the Caddo's are vegetables lol. :0519:

Peace B with U

S.

Abnshrek
04-04-2014, 12:13 PM
BBQ and Fruit Lovers Gathering

If there is one and an Invite, I might actually go the grafting class if there is one.. Sure didn't know Skeet (SBL) was giving it last year.. I should've put that together since he's from right there.. :^)

Hammocked Banana
04-04-2014, 03:12 PM
I just did the winter pruning on half of my apples yesterday, the other half are still burried in show along with the two plums.

barnetmill
04-08-2014, 10:10 PM
One downside to the pome fruits is that most of them are susceptible to fireblight and I am always afraid I will get hit on my loquats and some other pome fruits. I select my pears for those that are resistant. I strongly recommend Southern Bartlett and Olton Broussard as good pears for standing up to fireblight. If I do not select for resistance, fireblight will do that for me. I have one hosui and a Chinese pear that do not withstand it very well. There is now a cross between Tenns and Hosui, Tennosui, that is said to be very resistant and I did manage to do 4 grafts that worked for it. Both it and Olton Broussard will store for a couple of months when refrigerated. My other pears either do not catch FB or if they do they manage to recover. I have a keiffer that has recovered twice. I find that some apple varieties just get sick of something else and die with tropic sweet being the worst of them. I was informed by Travis Callahan of NAFEX and SFF that our local swamp cedar trees are a host for rust and I now am cutting down those trees when ever I find them on my place. I am now trying out Mayhaws at the urging of Travis. Loquats and pears seem to be the easiest to grow. The loquat leaves stayed green this year in the face of ice storms and 18 F temperature which is cold for us in NWFL. There are even some with fruit that made through the winter. With one exception all of my loquat trees are seedlings and I need to obtain some cultivars to allow grafting. A friend this year give me more seedlings than I know what to do with. I will put them in a raised bed to mature a little and then plant them. I just need to clear some forest land to make space. I do like loquat fruit. Many people locally grow them as ornamental trees and not so much for their fruit.
I also did five grafts of quince to BA 29 Quince rootstock and they seem to be working. Quince fruit fetch a higher price when sold than do pears. I gave a Belgium colleague a few quince off of my single tree and he wants a dwarf quince tree. I will give one of the grafted trees this Saturday for his small yard to go with the dwarfed Orient and Olton Broussard grafted pear tree I did for him a year or so ago.

Richard
04-08-2014, 11:17 PM
... If I do not select for resistance, fireblight will do that for me. ...

That's the sad truth here as well.

Richard
12-03-2014, 04:41 PM
Here's blossoms opening up in one of many bud clusters on my Loquat "Big Jim".

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=57272&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=57272)