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sean2280

Just received my 2nd shipment...

sean2280
9 years ago

In addition to my Cot-n-Candy and Flavor Queen I got a few weeks ago I received my Flavor Supreme, Flavor King, and the biggest surprise of them all a Leah Cot aprium.

Now as you all have probably know when you get Dave Wilson trees they end up being nothing like the YouTube videos they produce. Well I can't say nothing like because they are almost exactly like the peach tree that Tom Spellman says you probably don't want if you want to do what they preach about which is BYOC.

Well let me tell you the first four I listed didn't disappoint. They all came in at 3/4-1" caliper with branching starting well above knee high. I did what I could to keep them low and still have structure to work with. But the Leah Cot was the biggest surprise of them all. This tree was exactly what you think of when you hear BYOC. It arrived about 3-4 feet tall, unheaded, and about 1/2-5/8" caliper. To me this was the PERFECT tree fir a BYOC planting. I promptly potted the thing in my 15 gallon soft side and wacked it off at a little under knee high to the top of the pot.

I'm not sure if all the Leah Cots this year will be like this one, but if you're interested in one and want a BYOC style tree I would say order one this year. I don't know how the fruit will turn out, but the tree so far hasn't disappointed.

Comments (21)

  • jbclem
    9 years ago

    I just bought some Dave Wilson trees from a local nursery, and like yours they were all 3/4". I'd probably say more but your glossary didn't include the definition of BYOC (Back Yard Orange County, Bring Your Own Container, ???) and I'm not sure what your point was.

    The nurseryman pointed out that their digging machine cuts off a lot of the roots and I saw that most of the branches were trimmed at about 12-14". Since this nursery had ordered a large number of Dave Wilson trees, they must have crammed them into some narrow shipping boxes. The nurseryman was quite sure the roots would grow out quickly, but suggested cutting back about 1/3rd of the trunk height so as not to overwhelm the underwhelming roots that were there.

  • fireballsocal
    9 years ago

    BYOC is back yard orchard culture, a way of maintaining a short tree for ease of pruning and harvesting. Dave Wilson bundles bare trees after digging and the trees go directly into a tractor trailer horizontally. The truck will make many deliveries on its route, depending on how many trees each nursery can accept at once. There are no boxes the trees go into. I believe they also do potted trees but I'm not sure if or how those are shipped.

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    If you don't know what BYOC acronym is where you been the last decade?

  • sean2280
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Jbclem,

    Take a listen to Dave Wilson Nursery second YouTube video entitled "Backyard Orchard Demo-part 2". If you are uninterested in the video, or don't care much about the reasoning behind the whole movement just fast-forward to about 4:40. Look at the size of the peach then listen to what Tom had to say. As much as I love Dave Wilson trees and the unique varieties they offer the tree caliper being shipped to the customer usually end up being exactly what they tell you you don't want.

    It's a little bit strange that a company that has started a movement in backyard orchards usually ships out trees that don't fit in with what they are telling you. So far with all the trees I have gotten the best luck I have had getting that "small shruby bush" Tom talks about had been from trees that were not Dave Wilson, but ordered and shipped from a different company. With 4 if my peach trees that were DW 3 had to end up growing a new central lead. Only 1 or 2 buds even broke last year and they were well above knee high, more like waist high. Those three trees had to be restructured .

    Again I'm not saying DW trees are junk, or someone else's trees are better, I'm just trying to point out something I find a tad strange to say the least. If any of you are in the"know" or can talk to someone who will give you an honest answer I would love to hear if the trees they get are the trees they get, or do they find it easier selling a tree for $30+ if it's 3/4-1" caliper vs 1/2-5/8? If that's the case do they specifically order the trees that way? Does DW offer them the choice of a smaller caliper tree?

  • Kevin Reilly
    9 years ago

    They don't sell trees for 30$. They are a wholesale nursery. The retailers buy them in bundles for much less and then mark them up to 30$ (or stick them in a pulp pot and charge 50-60$ here in San Jose!).

    I guess the retailers ask for this size? Looks more impressive to casual customer?

    I had problems with 3/4" caliper heading low, some would only send single shoot from right above graft. I've learned to leave a few branches on the 3/4-1" from DWN and that works much better IMO.

  • sean2280
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Pants,

    I'm not talking directly about DW, but the nurserys that buy from them. It seems that you're right though.. no one wants to spend $30 on a 1/2" but would rather spend $30 on this big 1" thinking it's got to be a better tree. I have so far had much better growth off the smaller trees than those larger sized ones.. But ymmv.

  • fireballsocal
    9 years ago

    I went to one of Tom Spellmans lectures where he showed off a 1" caliper 6' tree with great branching. Then he lopped the sucker off at about 30". He turned to the owner of the nursery he was speaking at and asked him why he didn't sell trees already lopped off and the nursery owner said his customers wouldn't pay retail for a 3 foot stick. BYOC isn't well known outside of enthusiast sites like this.

    He also states in one of the planting videos that for the really dramatic knee high prunes, a "june bud" or small caliper liner/whip makes a lot more sense than a larger 2 year old tree since the older tree may suffer a lot of blind eyes lower down on the trunk where as the smaller tree will have many viable buds that low.

    I will say I have given the knee high treatment to 9 DW trees so far and all have branched out properly, though the nectaplum came out from just above the graft line instead of right below my cut.

  • bob_z6
    9 years ago

    At least with Plums, I've seen the strongest first year growth from the thickest trees. This past year, I got three 3/4"-1" caliper trees (1 from DW and 2 from Cummins) and all of them put on quite a bit more growth than the 1/2"-5/8" trees that I got from ACN and Cummins (they sent a mix of sizes). The smaller trees aren't bad, but the bigger ones were monsters, passing trees which were a year older than them. Now, I don't know if this will translate into earlier crops, or just excessive vegetation.

    Also, I don't think that this holds true for all types of fruit tree. For example, I've seen very strong growth from very small peach trees. I don't think size matters too much there.

  • northwoodswis4
    9 years ago

    I have been reading this forum daily for about seven or eight years and also had no idea what BYOC meant. Northwoodswis

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    You must not read none of Mrclint's posts...
    He is the unofficial spokesmen for DWN.
    Another aronym that should be as well known.
    I have been only reading this forum for 3 years and heard it hundreds if not thousands of times.
    I heard when they bud them, and when they can offer them as bare root takes about 2 years, so they are big. I just use existing structure when that happens. Even if tree has scaffolds at 4 feet, the tree still can be kept small.

  • sean2280
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Drew,

    The only bad thing is when up pot them up.. Take that 4 ft let's say and add on another foot and a half for the pot. That's when starts to stink. For me those trees, the lower I can get them the better.

  • Chris-7b-GA
    9 years ago

    I started a tread on this same issue about 3 weeks ago after receiving DW trees that were all at least 3/4 caliper and got mixed responses. The 4 plums I bought are in the ground now but I am still on the fence about giving them the knee high cut. I am wondering if scoring just above potential buds would insure branching below the cut. I am leaning towards heading the tree above existing branches in the 4' area even though I highly dislike having to do so. Just dont want to risk the tree not properly responding to the knee high cut and having to wait another year and start over.

  • dirtguy50 SW MO z6a
    9 years ago

    First time I ever saw BYOC and I have been around a long time. It is common forums courtesy, Drew, to spell out a acronym the first time it is used. Just sayin.

  • sean2280
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Used in each post, or just used for the first time on a forum? But I'm not going to get into an argument over an acronym. If we want to talk about forum courtesy we could go on all day. We can run the gamut from people taking over someone's topics with their own problems, to people spending time trying to find out what something means by posting garbage rather than using Google. But we aren't here to discuss that.

    But back to the discussion at hand. Yeah, I have noticed that plums tend to have more viable dormant buds that aren't seen then peaches do. My 8-10 plums and pluots I purchased last year didn't do all that bad when they were cut knee high or I little higher. The peaches though didn't fair all that well.

    Here is a link that might be useful: try this next time

  • dirtguy50 SW MO z6a
    9 years ago

    Agree Sean, there is no reason to be condescending to someone, especially when they have been on this forum longer. Just a little respect would benefit us all.
    I don't know much about Dave Wilson's Nursery or Mrclint'sposts (whoever that is) because it is too far away from me in the Midwest. We have a lot of excellent nurseries closer to our climate that I trust. Plumbs certainly sound like a fruit it is possible in our zone so I look forward to watching the comments here. Thanks Sean.

    This post was edited by dirtguy50 on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 22:44

  • bob_z6
    9 years ago

    Chris, I took the below pic with my phone, meaning to post it to your thread. I then promptly forgot about it. So, better late than never :)

    It is a DW Laroda from Sanhedrin last spring. It was 1.2" caliper and reasonably short out of the box (I didn't head it any further). And yes, it does need some pruning. I'll be on it in March.

    But, even without heading, it still threw off a branch from a few inches about the rootstock. This is not something the peaches or nectarines did.

  • Chris-7b-GA
    9 years ago

    Thanks Bob for the picture, sounds like from your experience and others, it is safer whacking back thick bare root plums unlike peaches.

    I ordered a Laroda as well based on Scott's reviews. The J. plums I saw on DW videos looks like they were grown as a bush with lots of scaffold branches like your tree Bob which is different from the general recommendation of 4 or so scaffold branches. Anyone growing J. plums with this bush type form? Does not seem like there would be enough light penetration but it seems to work for the DW folks.

  • sean2280
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Bob,

    Now that looks like a excellent tree!!! That is the type of tree you want for a backyard orchard!! Nice, small, low branching. You are a lucky guy. I hope my laroda from Bay Laurel looks half as good as yours.

  • appleseed70
    9 years ago

    I too didn't know what BYOC...I've been studying fruit growing for years. No doubt I've came across it and just dismissed it because that's what I'm doing now...dismissing it as something I'm not interested in.

  • Socal2warm
    9 years ago

    While I love apricots, and find the flavor of plums seductive, I really do not care for any of these hybrids (at least none that I have tried). I suppose I consider apricots and plums to be two very different fruits, and it just feels uncomfortably strange to try to combine qualities of both into the same bite. The flavor of apricot just doesn't seem to go with the texture of plum. At least that's my opinion.

    I like bold plain flavors, and I don't like when everything gets mixed together. Very much a personal taste. Sometimes two things you love don't work very well combined together.

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    My best jams I make are mixed fruit. Blackberry and blueberry, Mulberry and currants, blackberry and kiwi, and flavors like Strawberry banana combine to make a very unique flavor.
    Pluots rock, already mixed!

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