Any edibles that were particularly poorly performing this year? How long have you had it and has it been better in previous years? Any ideas why?

i'll start. I have a Sweet Sixteen apple that I've had for 3 years. This year it finally set some fruit, two of them to be exact. They were huge, 4+ inch diameter, and blemish free (until they fell). The kids (and wife and I) agree that it was the best tasting apple any of us have ever had.

Pawpaws... produced way more than I and the kids could eat. Rainstorms knocked fruit from the branches and we didn't even bother checking them for condition. Best year ever!

Blueberries were disappointing. two of my 4 bushes seemed to overbear and then never seem to ripen the fruit (which were tiny, dry and hard). The other 2 bushes had very few fruit between them.

Illinios Everbearing Mulberry...didn't seem to fruit much or heavily. I can't recall getting a single berry and don't think the kids really did either.

Gooseberries (3 diff varieties). My fruit just never seems to get much bigger than currant size and I've never had a good year for production except for on Pixwell (I think). I did get a new one this year, but I'm really thinking this particular fruit is one to give up on.

Figs... best year ever for me. I got dozens (and am still picking) from Celeste, LSU Purple, Kadota, Florea, and many others (all in pots). My own in ground fig is covered with fruit, but hasn't started ripening yet.

~Chills

Apricot:
Tasty Rich 19 brix
Tomcot 21 brix
Robada 24 brix
Golden Sweet 26 brix

White flesh nectarine:
Arctic Star: 24 brix
Arctic Jay 24 brix
Arctic Queen 26 brix
Arctic Snow 23 brix

Yellow Flesh nectarine:
Honey May 19 brix
Honey Fire 23 brix
Honey Blaze 26 brix
Honey Royale 24 brix
Honey Diva 24 brix

Pluot:
Flavor Supreme 24 brix
Geo Pride 25 brix
Flavor King 20 brix
Honey Punch 26 brix
Flavor Finale 26 brix
Flavor Treat 25 brix

Grapes:
Summer Muscat 28 brix
Summer Royale 26 brix
Muscat of Alexandria 28 brix
Crimson 28 brix

Figs: Strawberry Verte

Blueberry: Sweetcrisp

After a few years of growing blackberries I have given up on the Ouachita and Natchez.....they are just not good in my yard. They grow great and produce but the fruit is sour and tasteless. Not sure if it is my soil or lack of sun. They get quite a lot of sun but not all day. Either way they were ripped out this week and not an easy task as there were 4 30 foot rows. They will be replaced this winter with Kiowa which I already have 25 feet of growing. While thorny they produce big wonderful tasting berries here.

Kiwi......gone......just does not do well in this humidity and too attractive to bugs. Tore it out. The kiwi occupied close to 100 feet and will become a new fig orchard I think.

Lost a 4 year old, well had been here 4 years anyway 12 foot tall Murcott tangerine. The tree became ill suddenly and I was quite worried it was citrus greening. I grow a lot of citrus trees and did not want to wait and see so hooked on to it with the tractor and tore it out. To my relief it was not greening but some sort of a root rot. The tree was going to die so pulling it was not a waste. I will have to get a new Murcott this spring and find a new spot for it..

On the positive side of the citrus front I searched high and low trying to and finally did find a Dekopon citrus. Also added two Kishus and a gold nugget.

Since tomatoes are technically a fruit will include them:) We harvested well over 400 pounds from our plants this year and processed them.

My Celeste figs were awesome...still waiting on the Green Ischia to ripen.

White Gold cherry - over 2 gallons of fruit

Stella cherry - nothing

Flavor Delight Aprium - 3 dozen fruits

Harglow Apricot - nothing

Gala apple - a couple bushels of smaller than usual fruits, many frost ringed

Enterprise apple - less than 2 dozen fruits, good size and good condition

Seckel pear - finally produces 7 fruits

All plums - nothing

Strawberries - about 1/2 normal crop after frost loss

Blueberries - the usual few dozen berries

Real winners were frost, curculio and squirrels

Apricots (the ones that didn't get hit by PC). They were very good, but the heat made them ripen very very quickly. They are a fruit that has way too short of a window in my opinion, and I can only eat so many before I get sick of them.

Grapes...although with no rain this summer (so it would seem) they didn't seem to get that big.

Seckel pears...never had a bad year for pears even with the squirrels getting many of them.

now the bad:
plums, peaches, apples, blueberries... Horrible time with these. With the early flowering, the heat, the humidity and the drought....it seemed like the birds were attacking everything, along with the squirrles...PC got probably 89% of the plum crop and the birds got the rest... Blueberries look like they are all dead...They are in a spot that is raised, gets sun from morning/nite and i didn't water them as much as i should have... The apples i think got cooked...there were a few good ones, huge ones...the squirrels got some... birds i think were attacking them too.

I would say the birds were a big problem this year. I gather it was the drought...Of course Japanese beetles were thicker then they ever have been around here. Luckily they seemed to stick to the sweet cherries.

White Gold - great cherry, no splits, birds didn't get too many

Siskiyou - excellent tasting trailing blackberry, its part raspberry. Seems very vigorous and looks like it may be hardy enough for me.

Tomcot - always a winner. I have been re-building the tree after it got too big so not many cots this year but they were excellent.

Santa Rosa and Satsuma - another great year for these plums, my two favorites.
Red Heart - They keep dropping and I think I had two by the end. Already removed this loser, I gave it five years to hold some fruit and it failed.
Ruby Queen - no flavor this year but I needed to have thinned it more.

Middleburg - reliable and tasty Euro plum, it had major attack from deer and aphids but still produced good fruit.

All nectarines - splitting, rot and small size means they get the axe this winter -- I don't have the time for hard to grow things like this. I am going to keep a spindle of Mericrest since it is the most reliable and is very tasty.
Winblo - another one of the excellent NC peaches along with Clayton etc. My tree is ill but it still produced excellent peaches.
Sanguine Pilat - a new red-fleshed peach better than all the other red-fleshed ones: tastes as good as Indian Free but larger and easier to grow.
Early Crawford - best tasting peach this year, like an orange-peach cross and doubling up on the sweet.
Rio Oso Gem - tree has been ill but it produced a few truly excellent fruits.
Zin Dai Jiu Bao - excellent Chinese cling peach that is very similar to the common white peaches in markets in China today.

Cherryville Black - a promising summer apple with a decent picking window and good flavor. It is a bit small and dull and spotted but still a good looking apple.
Berner Rosen - a completely average early apple. I think it is meant for colder climates, no good for me.
Kidds Orange Red - excellent as usual, one of my favorite earlier apples. Does not keep super long.
Rubinette - my biggest positive surprise in the apple front this year, they were excellent! It is a strongly sweet/sour apple with mild aromatics. Looks to be a decent keeper. Don't let it hang too long, pick when starts to get dark yellow blush on top. This guy did not do well in previous years but I hope it has settled into a good pattern now.
Hawaii - I am rebuilding my Hawaii after previous graft died. I had forgotten what a good apple it is, a notch better than golden delicious. It also has few blemish etc problems.
Pomme Gris - another big winner, has interesting breaking flesh with vaguely coconut-like eating texture and unique flavor.
Old Nonpareil - this is about the most intense apple I have, very sweet/sour. Needs aging, its too starchy/sour at harvest.
European cider apples - I am done with these, they are highly prone to rot, watercore, fireblight, you name it. This was a particularly bad year with all the summer heat and rain and these guys collectively wilted.
Overall it was a rough year for apples, the heat brought on fireblight and summer diseases and then bug attttttack. I am getting more picky on finding apples that can take such a rough year and come through looking good. Many apples just don't have the skin to take this kind of abuse, for example Akane is an amazing tasting apple but its too sensitive to skin rots and bug entry. Some are also stinkbug heaven and the fruit gets ruined. The few "old southern apples" I am growing are consistently more reliable, it is clear they passed this test years ago.

Josephine des Malines - a great pear as usual, super juicy aromatic and best of all, reliable!

Figs - all were good but had splitting problems since harvest came early in rainy season.

Scott

Triple Crown was the best blackberry.

Redhaven, Blazingstar and O'Henry were the best peaches.

Once again Liberty apple was poor quality. I'll probably remove this tree, but the problem may be I don't like Mac type apples. I prefer very sweet apples like Fuji.

Kirke's Blue plum ripened in the heat of the season (100 + temps) and the fruit had a lot of internal browning as a result.

White County peach also had a lot of internal browning. The high temps literally cooked the inside of these peaches.

Bavey's Green Gage was a very good plum. There were a couple of customers asking for more.

Rosy Gage was severely attacked by PC, but the fruits I tasted were as good as Green Gage.

Li Jujube
Sugarcane Jujube
Anna Apple (M111)
Golden Dorsett Apple (M111)
Fuji Apple (M111) (Small, as usual)
Trovita Sweet Orange
Cara Cara Navel Orange
Midknight Valencia
Chinese Yellow Honey Fig
Meiwa Kumquat
Big Jim Loquat
Yellow Saturn (Round Type) Peach
Babcock Peach
Any pomegranate (Parfianka and Angel Red are doing spectacularly here)
Royal Lee / Minnie Royal Cherries on the CR178 Rootstock
Oroblanco Grapefruit Hybrid
Tropic Snow Peach

Losers:

Sherwood Jujube (3rd year in the ground, yet to bear)
Kadota Fig (Too dry, lousy every year)
Lee Tangerine (Withered in the heat)
All pluots -- Barely grew on Myro this year
Fuyu Persimmon -- Needs 80% shade out here.

Anything on Citation Rootstock -- Too hot, induced early dormancy.

Any plum on Guardian Rootstock -- Can't take the alkalinity of our water or the clay soils of Phoenix

Pink Lady Apple on M111 -- Barely leafed out.

Arkansas Black/King David Apple on M111 -- Barely leafed out.

Longans, Lychees -- Why do I bother?

John

Winners------------------------
Scarlet Pearl peach

Gala apple

Chojuro asian

Dapple Dandy pluot

Flavor King (produced few but very high brix of 21)

Redhaven peach

Shiseiki asian pear

Olympic asian pear

Duarte plum

Oullins plum

Santa Rosa plum

NY Muscat (good but should get better)

Spring Satin plumcots without the PC

Crisp & sweet pear

Alden grape

Ubileen pear reliable early pear but heat caused watercore in some

Flat wonderful (most easy to grow peach)

J H Hale peach

Hamese asian pear (an early ripening and excellent eating)

Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion bush cherries more reliable here than the sweets

Hale Haven peach (late peach eats and cans well)

Losers-----------------------

Emerald Beaut plum

Johnathan apple (no set)

Anna kiwi (tastes only fair)

Italian plum

Beauty plum (birds)

Indian Free peach

Lapins cherry

Superior plum

Methley plum just got chopped down

Alderman plum just got chopped down

Jonkheer van Tets currant died back and getting chopped

Burbank plum overset

Shiro plum overset

The Apricots 20 varieties were poor some occasionally good.
Early Golden and Tomcot were decent. Sparks Mammoth shows potential. Next (normal)season should be better.

Muscat Hamburg grape (died back) rotting some w/good flavor

I shaded the loquat for the first two years, although it really took off once I built my shadehouse next to it. The Dorsett, as you can see, is sitting out in full sun (western exposure) with my oroblancos behind it. A lot of time it isn't the sun, but a pH issue or a salinity issue that's killing your trees. If you need more help, feel free to PM me.

Blues--Very poor fruitset out of 22 varieties. Very nondescript flavor on the couple gallons we picked. Lost 43 plants.

Gooseberries--small crop of Poorman and Pixwell. Lost all the rest probably 30 in total.

Currants--No harvest. Lost them all--at least 20 plants.

Raspberries. Absolutely no difference in summer and everbearer this year. They started bearing in late May and are loaded with large, beautiful but tasteless fruit now. Caroline, Nova, Encore, and Preludes were the winners. Lauren and Polana weren't impressive, and Octavia and Himbo Top never made the show. Himbos were excellent 2 years ago, and I've been disappointed ever since.

Black rasps. Plants suffered but produced a small crop--maybe a couple gallons. Had a lot of bird issues mid summer during the drought.

Dewberries were decent but not enough orders to warrant picking many of them.

Blackberries--amazing fruit set that burned up--maybe 25 gallons. TC great as usual. Natchez large but uninspiring. Chester good as usual. Black Satin bore a good crop of its usual tart berries. Prime Jim ok but Prime Jan was ripped out.

Grapes--Concords were outstanding. Bird issues wouldn't allow them to ripen fully early on, but fruitset was amazing and quality was very good. Harvest was the longest I've ever known. Seedless are new and were hit w/a bad freeze and subsequent drought, but Reliance grew well as did Jupiter. Himrods died out, and so did a Niagara.

Peaches--Redhaven good as usual. Elberta small but flavorful and good disease control. Belle of Ga lost fruit to freeze. Indian Blood decent. Trugold didn't set. Lots of new plantings after the nects were removed. All I can say is they survived.

Plums--no fruitset. I'm losing patience w/these. They seldom produce.

Apricots--same as plums.

Cherries--no fruitset. A few Monties. None on Stella, Meteor, Balaton. Gave up on sweet cherries tho' there's a Black Tartarian still around.

Pears were great this year. Small crop of Bosc, Ambrosia was the best this year. Moonglow was good. Seckels were terrible, Crisp N Sweet was good. Good assorted Asian pears.

Paw paws had good fruitset but dropped. Wild persimmons are outstanding this year. Loaded, large, early, and sweet.
Apples--bright yellow Red Delicious. Good fruit set, large. Decent flavor off tree that improved in storage. Best apple Jonathon. Not at all impressed w/Gurney's Sundance or Pixie Crunch. Slow to bear and has the shape of a bad hair day. Grannies didn't set any fruit either, nor Goldrush.

Rhubarb was very good early, picked over 100 lbs but lost at least 80 newer plants to the drought.

There will simply be a lot of replanting next year.

Grapes- Swensons Red had a tough spring but produced some excellent table grapes, Kay Gray ripening a large crop now, King of North, Concord.

Gooseberries- Black Velvet had a large crop of big sweet berries.

Currents- Red and white produced well.

Plums- Green Gage set huge crop of nice plums.

Rhubarb- This seems to be the land of the rhubarb. Thick as your arm with leaves like elephant ears.

Wild Blackberries- Huge crop.

Wild Blueberries- Commercial fruit and good average crop of nice berries. Check your local supermarket frozen section. They will be there all winter. Pies to remember.

Pears- Bartlets, Seckle, Chojura, and Olympic very nice.

LOSERS:

Apples- All apples were hit by late frost on blossoms and had small crop which apple maggot concentrated on. Worst ever.

Trovita Sweet Orange
Cara Cara Navel Orange
Midknight Valencia

Can you describe the differences in flavor and harvest times? Is it worth having all 3?

Carla in Sac

Trovita tastes somewhat similiar to a Washington Navel, but it's smaller in sizer. I usually harvest it in January-February in Phoenix.

Cara Cara is a red fleshed navel and is a little sweeter than a Washington Navel. I also harvest it in January - February.

Midknight valencia is a valencia variety from South Africa that takes our temps a little better than the "standard" valencia and appears to be more resistant to sunburn. It's more of a juice orange. I usually harvest those later, generally in March-April.

Ace,

I noticed you listed Emerald Beauty plum as a loser. Can you elaborate? I've been considering adding this plum for several years now and am interested in why it's not working for you.

Hope your trees didn't suffer too much from Sandy and that your house repairs are well underway.

Winners:

Elberta Peaches (fabulous!)
Italian Plums good, wish more set fruit.
Caroline Raspberries, excellent.
Black, red and white currants all good.
Pristine apple (unbelieveably productive for its 2nd yr)

Losers:

Snapped at the graft union 'Harglo apricot' during hurricane Sandy.
Enterprise apple, only one apple.
Jonagold right above Enterprise with seven apples.
Montmorency cherries were my largest disappointment. Only fruited enough to keep the birds happy.
Kiwi Gold, yellow raspberries, had so-so taste.

Better luck next year! Fighting peach leaf curl on peach and bacterial canker wasn't much fun either. However, this was my best fruit year in four years! Mrs. G

Losers:
Peaches---squirrels got them all
pears---all of them... almost no fruit set...very low chill in Dallas last winter...maybe I need a low chill variety
Pomgranates--all were sour, with exception of Sweet & Dersertnyi which hold promise

Losers:
Rainier - had to remove d/t borers and neighborhood brat breaking branches
Chehalis - started off well a few years ago but no apples this year and only 2 last year. will probably regraft - may have runted it out with huge first crop (didn't know better then).

Sosos:
Lord Lambourne- had one very strange tasting apple. not sweet or sour but tasted like sodium/mineral water?! hopefully a fluke and will be better.
Dwarf Stella - not productive yet
Goji - like it but scant production per space required. Keeping.
Surefire - got hit with sudden high temps last Summer and bark had spontaneous multi weepy slits. keeping my fingers crossed as I need some tarts.

Hard to wait for this year's newbie grafts esp. the earlies and the keepers. I'm getting itchy grafting fingers for March. Where's that 12-step group for fruit fiends?

Losers: Blueberry (6var.), Blackberries, plum, pears(4 var.), and of course the cherries have never produced.

The figs were good but small and had few fruit..

Losers: Blueberries-no fruit set, pie cherries (too rainy in Spring?, Pineapple guava-still not recovered from transplant, Damson plum-same, Shipova and Korean cherries-disease? Fruit set?,
John S
PDX OR

Stella cherries - larger crop than usual, but the cardinals got many of them

Fu Yu Persimmon - my best year yet (tree 5 years old), crows got a few

Fruit Salad Tree - such a large crop that the branches broke. Tree is 3 years old. All of the fruit looks like nectarines or peaches. I should have sprayed for insects since many damaged the fruit.

Loser - Artic hardy kiwi - no blooms, 7-9 years old.

Just planted asian pears, jujube, apricot, peach, cherry and paw paw.

"Mark, The EB tree branches similar to Santa Rosa but more even spaced
branches. Nice upright growing tall tree.
I've had good fruit set these past three years and not had one single
good eating bite. They rot with good fungus spray coverage.
The fruit is late season and that means open season with the wasps and
birds. I got lots of scion wood.

Try Dapple Dandy it is not easy but open pruning and diligent sprays and
thinning works for me. Nice big fruit.
A real multi flavor rich red pluot that does not crack. I really like
this DD tree. It grows flat topped and needs pruning.
Gets black knot. Early bloomer but that is not a problem here."

I'm glad you posted publicly. I've only seen Emerald Beaut receive positive reviews on this forum. I think your the first to post experience with it in a humid climate.

I'm still toying with trying to see if I can get any fruit out of it, but your experience definitely helps me go into it with my eyes open (should I try it) and keeps my expectations low regarding any success.

I will also have to try Dapple Dandy at some point. I had heard bad stories on that one so I never tried it myself.

Scott

Scott

Dapple Dandy 2011(my 2012 photos have been lost to Sandy)

Winners:
Red Haven Peach - Still my favorite peach so far
Muscadine grapes (All of them)
Blueberries (All of them)
Violette de Bordeaux fig (Always delicious).. but it dies back to the ground each year....
Black mission fig (Always delicious)
American plum (Magically delicious jelly)
Yates apple
Horse apple

Loosers:
Brambles - Bitter.... All of them (Black, Rasps, Boysens, etc..) 2013 is going to be their make or break year....
Sugar queen peach - Worthless rotten ball of bugs.... Dug it up.
Esophaus Spitzenberg apple - Fireblight destroyed it.

Still on the bubble:
Rebecca's gold Pawpaw - 3 years old and 12" tall... It's going to go away next year if it doesn't kick into grow...
Pakistan mulberry - This is going to be it's last year if they don't taste better....
Concord grapes - I think it's too hot. Don't get reliable ripening.
Fuzzy kiwis - 3 years old and no flowers...
Roadside dug up peach - Small, green, and very bitter/inedible fresh till it's fully 100% ripe... but bugs and rot don't bother it... Ripe flavor is getting better every year....
"Elberta" peach - I don't think it's actually an Elberta... No fruit this year.
Methley Plum - Reliable, but I'm not real enamored on it's flavor... I classify this plum in the "A bird in the hand" category so to speak...
Italian prune - Too hot in full sun. Transplanted to the shade and it seems to be recovering. 2013 is it's make it or break it year...
LSU purple fig - tastes "Grassy" until LATE in the season, then it's barely on par with all the other marginal figs... I don't like it - except that the kids like eating fresh figs off the tree early - and this gives them some fruit....

Thanks