066 Tasty Peaches, New Plants for 2021, Tree Sunburn

 If you’re thinking of adding a fruit tree to your garden in 2021, here’s one criteria to think about: of all the fruit trees available, which are the tastiest?  Dave Wilson Nursery's Phil Pursel  talks about the tastiest peach tree varieties. Plus, he has advice for pruning and training those new backyard fruit trees so you can have multiple varieties of trees, even in a small garden. It’s all about size control. Or, choose a tasty miniature peach tree variety, such as the Garden Gold peach tree (pictured).

What’s new in the way of annuals, perennials and vegetables for 2021? Diane Blazek of All America Selections tells us about the highest rated new plants,  tested across the United States.

Plus, tree sunburn protection tips.

It’s Episode 66 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes.

Links:
Smart Pots
Dave Wilson Nursery Taste Test Winners
All-America Selections Winners for 2021
American Society of Consulting Arborists
UC information on tree sunburn
my favorite bypass loppers
my favorite hand pruners

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Transcript

Farmer Fred  0:00  
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Farmer Fred 2  0:20  
Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred  0:33  
Winter is the time for nurseries to stock up on the latest bare root fruit trees. And if you're thinking of adding a fruit tree to your 2021 Garden, well, here's one criteria to think about: Of all the fruit trees available, which are the tastiest? Well, there is one wholesale nursery company that has conducted decades of annual taste tests using people like you and me, as well as nursery professionals, to make those decisions. That nursery company is wholesale grower Dave Wilson nursery, and Phil Purcel of Dave Wilson joins us today to talk about the tastiest peach tree varieties. Plus he has advice for pruning and training those new backyard fruit trees so you can have multiple varieties of trees in your yard. Even if it's a small yard. It's all about size control. What's new in the way of annuals perennials and vegetables for 2021? Diane Blazek of All America Selections tells us about the highest rated new plants which have been tested across the entire United States. And, we have tips to help your trees stave off sunburn. It's Episode 66 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast brought to you by SmartPots. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go. 

Farmer Fred  1:48  
We're talking with Phil Purcell from Dave Wilson nursery. I bet you're starting to see fruit trees arrive at your area nurseries in the warmer climates. In the colder climates, those fruit trees will be arriving as the weather warms up in the weeks ahead. There are some very tasty varieties out there of fruit trees and Phil, you know for years and years, Dave Wilson nursery used to conduct taste tests with an impartial panel of nursery people who would sit around tables and basically sample oh, say 24 varieties of apples and judge them on seven or eight different criteria. And you did that with the plums and peaches and pluots and so much more. I miss those taste tests, Phil, but that has given you a great way to help promote your product because everybody wants to taste this apple or the tastiest peach are all these other varieties. So why don't we talk about the fruit trees sort of based on their taste test results? For instance, let's talk peaches. and I noticed that the top rated tastiest peaches are some old time varieties:Harkin and  O' Henry.

Phil Pursel  3:08  
 We develop peaches all the time. But sometimes the classics are you know, are really tough to beat.  it's like say the Harkin, O'Henry these things have been around for you know, for years and years and years. And there's just something about a peach coming off of your own backyard tree that it can't be beat. You don't get that from peaches you get from the grocery store and they're just developing peaches now for different reasons. But like you said, the Harkin, the O'Henry, the Kawea, the Suncrest, these are, you know, prior tried and true. And they give you that old time flavor that you know, people expect from from peaches.

Farmer Fred  3:59  
Now the one of the drawbacks of the Harkin and the O'Henry is they have a pretty good chill our requirements, 750 to 800 chill hours. Again, those are hours between 32 and 45 degrees accumulated between the months of November and February, but there's some very tasty, low chill varieties of peaches that require a lot less in terms of chill hours making them very suitable for warmer climates. What are some of those taste test winners that are low chill varieties?

Phil Pursel  4:32  
Probably coming in number one, Eva's Pride, June Pride. These are, you know, varieties that we've tested, and they have done really well in Southern California where, you know, chill hours will only be 200 or 300 hours. And they're just, you know, very adaptable where they'll also do well in areas that require higher chill It gives the lower chill areas of the country, the ability to have, you know, great peaches without requiring, you know, what an O'Henry would  require. 

Farmer Fred  5:12  
What is also great about some of these newer low chill varieties is they are developments of Floyd Zaiger. And Floyd is this or was he's passed on, but developed many many different varieties, hybrid varieties of peaches and plums and apricot and pluot and nectarines that are so gosh darn tasty. Eva's pride is one of those and you mentioned June pride and these are all developments of Floyd Zaiger. I'm sure we're gonna  be talking about the pluot. One of my favorites, which is a plum apricot cross, which is also a Floyd Zaiger development. talk a little bit about Floyd Zaiger.

Phil Pursel  5:52  
So Floyd Zaiger is or was a hybridizer and his family, the Zaiger family continue the legacy of producing what we would call new fruit. The fruit that they're kind of known for are called interspecific. And early on, Floyd kind of learned from, a disciple of Luther Burbank (Fred Anderson) that you can cross different stone fruits together because they're all in the same family and get a quote unquote, new fruit type. There's nothing genetically modified with this. It's just celebrating what Mother Nature would do with bees, the Zaiger family has really been in the forefront of the stone fruit revolution.  Floyd is known for his white peaches and accelerating the world popularity of white peaches. And then also that the pluot like you mentioned and the aprium. these are crosses that he is just taken from Luther Burbank, and just really perfected to give the world a whole different palette of fruit.

Farmer Fred  6:55  
We should point out that when we talk about these fruits being crosses, these are not just genetically engineered, these are people with little paint brushes, in a big room, basically dusting pollen from one variety and putting it on another variety of flower.

Phil Pursel  7:10  
Literally, that is what they do. You know, I'll go out there in really late winter, early spring. And they have what's known as other trees, specific trees that have specific traits, when the the flowers just are at what we call popcorn stage. They go out there, they actually cut the little bud off, open it up and collect the pollen in little vials. And then what they'll do is they'll take that pollen from that one tree, they had little mascara brushes, and they'll hand pollinate another tree and get fruit from that the seed from that will be a new fruit type that then it takes some maybe 20 years from that kit to find a new variety, but that's how it's done. It's all hand pollinated hybridization that the Zaiger's continue to right now. They're always trying to develop new fruit types.

Farmer Fred  8:07  
And for people that don't have much space and they don't want a large fruit tree. Well first of all, probably at some point this morning we'll talk about backyard orchard culture and how you don't have to have a 20 foot tall fruit tree. you can maintain it at six or seven feet. But there are some miniature peach trees that get maybe what, four or five feet tall naturally and maintain that height. And one of those is really one of my favorites, the Garden Gold miniature peach, which is a yellow Freestone peach that is very vigorous with plenty of fruit for the family even though it's so only five feet tall.

Phil Pursel  8:42  
It is easy, these miniature nectarines, and peaches have just really exploded. And part of it is they just naturally grow small. Right our mother trees that we get are grafting wood from. They're five feet, 20 years old, five, six feet tall, so they're easy to manage. And almost all of these miniature nectarines and peaches, they have spectacular blossom. So when they bloom, it's just an incredible, it's like an edible ornamental. And in fact, this year, our new introductions and every year we try to come up with some new introduction, have been three new miniature trees can kind of be in  not a lot of availability, because we're still trying to build our numbers up on it. But we have a new yellow nectarine called Silvarado, a white nectarine called Arctic Sprite. And something really that you don't see out there is a white, miniature peach. And I've had the fruit and all of these. And there I'll put them up against anything that you'd find in a farmers market not a grocery store. we're talking a farmers market. It's these are all three varieties that the Zaiger family have developed and they really focus on For the home gardener putting the best flavor into a unique small growing tree.

Farmer Fred  10:06  
and how tall do these trees get?

Phil Pursel  10:08  
They average from four or five feet to the tallest, maybe seven feet. That's full grown. No pruning.

Farmer Fred  10:15  
Exactly, yeah. But while we've got a couple of minutes here, let's talk about backyard orchard culture and how you can take a standard fruit tree, And as long as you train it from the time you plant it, you can keep it at no taller than you can reach. six feet, seven feet, and still have plenty of fruit for the family.

Phil Pursel  10:34  
Correct. I mean, we're a huge advocate of size control for fruit tree. most homeowners will plant a fruit tree and just let it grow. three or four years later, all the fruits are well 15 feet up, and they can't harvest the fruit. And it really doesn't make sense to not be able to harvest the fruit because of not understanding, a few simple things to do to keep that tree lower and compact. We say that if you're on a three foot ladder, and you have to in order to reach the fruit, you really want to have your feet on the ground and be able to harvest the fruit off the tree.

Farmer Fred  11:15  
Exactly. And it all begins at planting time. I'm always amazed at the amount of shock and awe whenever you're demonstrating to a nursery audience about planting a bare root fruit tree and you take that six foot tall bare stick, and you basically cut it back to half, to maybe two and a half three feet tall, right?

Phil Pursel  11:34  
 By doing that, that's where you want the branches to start, you know, it's you can go into, you know, any type of retailer and they might have a 15 gallon fruit tree there. And it's it looks nice, it has a nice tall trunk and the head start up at you know, five feet and you got a big tree there. What people don't understand is that you're not going to be able to harvest food off that tree. It looks nice, it almost looks like a shade tree. That's not what you want in a fruit tree. If you ever go in the Central Valley, if you look at fruit trees, all the branches start at around two and a half or 3 feet tall, the main scaffolding, because that's where you want the fruit, you want to be able to pick the fruit from the ground. So that's why even though we send our tree in there, six feet tall, we always recommend you gotta cut it in half. You just got to start from the basics of keeping the tree branch low, so that you'll have fruit no taller than six, seven feet going, you know, 10 years from now. That's the way I have in my own backyard. My trees are 10 years old, the tallest tree I have, basically seven feet. I get so much food off. It's unbelievable.

Farmer Fred  11:56  
If you want more information about what we're talking about as far as backyard orchard culture and keeping fruit trees small, there's a wonderful video series: The Fruit Tube series that you can find at Dave Wilson.com and you can get step by step instructions on how to maintain those fruit trees at a height that keeps you off ladders. And that's our goal here. Phil Purcel is who we're talking with, from Dave Wilson nursery. Dave Wilson nursery is a wholesale grower of fruit and nut trees, supplying your favorite local independent nursery wherever you may be in the United States. Again, check out their website Dave wilson.com Phil Purcel, thanks for a few minutes of your time.

Phil Pursel  13:26  
Thanks for having me on.

Farmer Fred  13:32  
We're glad to have Smart Pots on board supporting the Garden Basics podcast. Smart Pots are the original award winning fabric planter. They're sold worldwide. Smart Pots are proudly made 100% in the USA. I'm pretty picky about who I allow to advertise on this program. My criteria, though, is pretty simple. It has to be a product I like; a product I use; a product I would buy again. And Smart Pots clicks all those boxes. They're durable. They're reusable. Smart Pots are available at independent garden centers and select Ace and True Value stores nationwide. To find a store near you visit SmartPots.com slash Fred. It's Smart Pots, the original award winning fabric planter. go to SmartPots dot com slash Fred for more info and that special Farmer Fred discount on your next Smart Pot purchase, go to SmartPots.com slash Fred.

Farmer Fred  14:31  
Every year there's new All America Selections winners for your garden. We're talking with Diane Blazek. She's the executive director of All America Selections of the National Garden Bureau. And Diane, you've already started rolling out the winners for the 2021 Garden. Explain how these are chosen. How are these winners chosen?

Diane Blazek  14:52  
Sure. That's a fun story. We work with breeders from all over the world and they send us new ever before sold varieties that they've been working on either selecting or breeding, and they entered into our trials. And then we send either the seeds of the plant out to our judges who are volunteers, and their horticulture professional. And we have about 90 different judges all over US and Canada. So they trial these new varieties anonymously, and then they send in the score sheet. And if these new varieties perform better than the comparison varieties, which I can explain it a bit, then they become an AAS winner. And then we announced them, and we marketed them as as winners, and they be come available for the home gardener.

Farmer Fred  15:44  
And not only do you have winners nationally, but you have regional winners as well, various plants that do particularly well in certain climates.

Diane Blazek  15:53  
Exactly. So of those 90 judges that we have, we make sure that a certain number of judges for each trial, and in each region, we have six regions. So it has to perform well regionally for it to get the regional award. Once it goes up to like four or five regions, then it becomes a national winner. So you know, we first look and see where it is regionally and then Okay, well, look, this is doing well everywhere. So it becomes a national winner. That's the difference between the two.

Farmer Fred  16:22  
One of those national winners is a plant that I've never seen before on a list of as winners. And winners go back to the 1930s.

Diane Blazek  16:31  
Our organization was founded in 1932. And our first winners were 1933. So we've been doing this for a little while.

Farmer Fred  16:39  
But one plant I've never seen on the list over the years, is it a shallot?  Is it a scallion? What is the Echalion Creme Brulet?

Diane Blazek  16:50  
Yeah, that's a really good question. But if it's just a different category, I would really describe it most like a shallot and we do but really is its own special thing. Anybody who looks at is just going to call it a shallot and it can be used as a shallot. But I think the taste is better. Not as much heat or bitterness as what you might get in a shallot and it's beautiful. It almost looks like a long, skinny red onion or pink onion, because it's really more pink than red. But anywhere where you use shallots you can use this Echalion and the name is Creme Brulet. I love it

Farmer Fred  17:29  
Creme Bruelet. Yes. And for people who aren't familiar with either shallots or scallions, it's a great addition to most recipes where maybe the onion is a little bit too strong. And the shallot is a great replacement because it has sort of a slight citrusy flavor, right?

Diane Blazek  17:49  
 Right. and some natural sugar. So it'd be great carmelized, also.

Farmer Fred  17:53  
So the Echalion Creme Brulet. look for that. It will be appearing as seed or as plants at nurseries in 2021.

Diane Blazek  18:01  
At nurseries it might be available as both. you might be able to find it on the seed rack as well as plants. Online, it will be available as seed probably not as plants.I don't think those would ship very well.

Farmer Fred  18:14  
Another vegetable that made its way onto the 2021 All America selection winners list is a pepper, a jalapeno pepper, but this is a pepper plant that looks great for containers.

Diane Blazek  18:28  
It is. It's called Pot a Pino, and it is perfect grown in containers or hanging baskets, because now people are growing in containers. So this is really good. it it just forms these great jalapeno peppers that kind of fill over the edges. So it's really easy to harvest and perfect, perfect for those containers.

Farmer Fred  18:50  
One thing that people have complained about when it comes to hot peppers over the years is it takes them so long to mature. But this pot a Pino pepper is an early maturing variety, isn't it?

Diane Blazek  19:02  
Exactly. Yeah, that was one of the things that they said when they entered it, though is to get green fruit, probably 45 to 50 days. If you want to go ahead and let it go a little bit longer. You'll get red fruit, maybe about 20 to 25 days later.

Farmer Fred  19:17  
Now there's I see a little pumpkin on there, or is it an acorn squash? It's called Goldilocks?

Diane Blazek  19:22  
Yeah, that's an acorn squash and it's a golden beautiful golden orange flush. So a lot of typical acorns squashes are the dark green, but this is a golden orange and same color inside the judges raved about the taste of it. So you know that's always important. We always put that as the number one as far as what our judges should be looking for is taste and then it's everything else after that productivity yield, uniqueness, things like that.

Farmer Fred  19:52  
Well it does look like a small pumpkin.

Diane Blazek  19:54  
He does. So you could use it for decorative purposes too before you because you know i mean a winter squash like this. Gonna hold really well, you can use it for fall decorations, and then cut it up and eat it later in the fall. Save it for Thanksgiving,

Farmer Fred  20:08  
I see that one of your 2021 winners is one of my favorite plants for the summer. And that's zinnias. And you have a new zinnias variety that's a new AAS winner.

Diane Blazek  20:19  
Oh my goodness, this one is phenomenal. It's the first gold medal winner we've had in over 15 years, I'm saying and gold medal is top top top notch. That means basically, every single judge loved it, thought it should be a gold medal, but it's an AAS winner. And so this is part of the Profusion series of zinnias, which first became gold medal winners in 1999. And of course, the breeding company continues to work on it and improve things you know, it always has a little bit better disease resistant, but this one is the coloration. And I just think it is going to pack such a punch for the home gardener, you're not going to get bored of the color because it starts out with it's a funny color. So it's got yellow on the outer petals and the red eye and the red on the inner petals. But as these flowers age, they just start morphing into very soft, dusty tones, like a salmon and a dusty rose. And you can just kind of see them turn these different shades as time goes on. And then the plant does keep growing up and around them. And so we call it burying the dead, you know, so as flowers aged beyond that beautiful stage, the plant will continue to grow and put out more bloom on top of that. And again,

Farmer Fred  21:44  
this is the Zinnia profusion, Red Yellow by color, what size does it get to?

Diane Blazek  21:50  
It's fairly short. So this is not a cutting Zinnia it'll get to like  15 inches tall. So it's more for like a front of the border plant. But of course, it'd be great in combinations and containers also. 

Farmer Fred  22:04  
And again, that's the Zinnia profusion red, yellow bicolor and you've got a celosia on the 2021 winners list as well.

Diane Blazek  22:11  
Yeah, that one's that one's a unique Celosia is the real spicy one is Celosia spicata,. Spicata meaning a spike kind of thing. I love the name to Candela because it does look like candles or candle flames and it's a real vibrant and from what the judges said it just started blooming and just kept going and going and going one judge called it the Energizer Bunny, so I just really had to laugh at that. That tells you a little bit about it. vigor and length of bloom time,

Farmer Fred  22:45  
I would imagine to it's very attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.

Diane Blazek  22:49  
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And it will work as a dried flower.

Farmer Fred  22:52  
Mm hmm. Okay, the Celosia Kelos Candela Pink Is that right?

Diane Blazek  22:58  
That's exactly right.

Farmer Fred  23:00  
All right, Celosia Kelos Candela Pink. Watch for that, at nurseries, this coming spring and summer. And most of these are, are they also available as seeds.

Diane Blazek  23:11  
That particular one is not. it is a vegetative variety. And just a little bit of history on that when I started in 1932, it was all seed varieties. We did not start trialing anything that was vegetatively propagated until about six or seven years ago. vegetatively propagated items were new to the industry maybe about 25 years ago. So it took us a little while. Those trials are a lot more difficult to manage, but we took it on and we're doing it so when anybody looks at our website, they will see some varieties that they are available in plant form only. So that means go to your local garden center. You won't be able to buy seed for those.

Farmer Fred  23:52  
A very popular plant here in California and across the country are Shasta daisies, one of the Shasta Daisy varieties that you're introducing as a 2021 winner is the sweet Daisy birdie. And we should point out that a Shasta Daisy is also known as Leucanthemum. And that's what that's how you'll find it at area nurseries. Right?

Diane Blazek  24:15  
 Right. It is Leucanthemum. And so this is another new thing that AAS is doing. is trialing for three winters. And that's our perennial trial. So this one we did trial for a long time. And this one came through loud and clear as a really strong performer. really large blooms. So it's a typical white with a yellow center look at them,

Farmer Fred  24:37  
and it's hardy down to USDA zone three.

Diane Blazek  24:41  
Absolutely. That's pretty darn cold in my book.

Farmer Fred  24:43  
Describe the flowers for us.

Diane Blazek  24:45  
It's really cool because it's almost like they've got an extra little pedal around the center eyes. So you got the yellow center eye and then you got these really little mini flowers around that center eyes that are white, and then you've got the standards Longer white flowers that are like five inches. Why? But those then are the wider white petals. So it just kind of looks like it's got the center thing. Look at me. Look at me. I'm off. Really? I'm all pretty. Yeah.

Farmer Fred  25:14  
And I imagine you could use it as cut flowers as well.

Diane Blazek  25:17  
Absolutely. Yeah.

Farmer Fred  25:19  
And again, being a daisy like flower, a member of the Asteraceae or Compositae family, it's going to be attractive to all sorts of beneficial insects and pollinators.

Diane Blazek  25:30  
Yeah, I can just see the butterflies landing on that one. That would be awesome.

Farmer Fred  25:34  
Leucanthemum, sweet Daisy birdie, another 2021 Winner from all America selections, look for them at nurseries and seed racks near you for some of these, for many of these, and  most of these will be available nationwide, won't they?

Diane Blazek  25:51  
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, just I mean, I know everybody wants new, new, new, new new and like some of these we literally just announced about three weeks ago. Sometimes it takes a while to get through the chain. But we do have availability on our website like each winner, you can click on where to buy. So if its seed it will take you to like to a seed retailer. But a lot of the garden centers are eager to get the AAS winners because they know that people are asking for them. So the best thing to do is if you're going to do local garden center, just ask for them by name, or ask about the AAS winners. And you should be able to find it. It might take a little bit more searching than your standard, you know, red Petunia,

Farmer Fred  26:30  
But you will be able to find them. And you can always do an internet search for AAS winners and it'll take you to the all America selections page. Or you can go directly to their website, Diane, which is

Diane Blazek  26:42  
All-America selection.org. Or we've got a .com also, which is just AASwinners.com so either one I'll take you to our website, and every single winner will have its own page with tons of information. AASwinners.com

Farmer Fred  26:58  
There you go. Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America selections of the National Garden Bureau. Thanks for telling us about what's new for 2021.

Diane Blazek  27:06  
it's always a fun topic anytime.

Farmer Fred  27:12  
It seems to be a more common malady among trees, especially young trees, and that's sunburn. We recently spoke with consulting arborist Michael Santos, he offered these tips to determine if your trees are suffering from sunburn. 

Farmer Fred  27:29  
Does sunburn manifest itself usually as vertical cracks along the trunk?

Michael Santos  27:34  
Not so much on the trunk. Where we tend to see the sunburn issues mostly are on the upper side of the of the branch, you know facing the sun, especially on the south or Southwestern to Western exposure where the tree previously had a full dense crown. And now it's been over thinned or Lion's tailed and then all of a sudden the whole environment for that tree has changed in terms of the Sun relationship. And that's where we see the sunburn, I would say the most that said you certainly can get sunburn on the lower trunk especially on younger trees before the bark has thickened and become rough, and just a thicker layer of bark. And also you can see it on certain smooth bark, palm specimens. If the crown is excessively pruned, or maybe there's a reflection from mirrored glass.

Farmer Fred  28:37  
And again, would it show up as vertical cracks?

Michael Santos  28:42  
it can eventually show up as a vertical crack. the first the one of the first symptoms you'll begin to see is basically a checking of the bark where it will start to check in at a regular way and the cracks will become horizontal and vertical cracks will begin to become much more noticeable and then the tissue will begin to to shrink almost like a canker will will be a little sunken. And then at that point, you may begin to see vertical cracks you know in the lower trunk as the wood behind the cambium begins to dry out and become exposed.

Farmer Fred  29:20  
For more information about sunburn and trees, Check the link in today's show notes. 

Farmer Fred  29:26  
The Garden Basics podcast is going to a winter schedule, maybe just like your favorite local nursery. November through January, Garden Basics will come out once a week on Fridays. Then, as the weather warms back up in February, we'll return to our twice a week schedule. Thank you for listening, subscribing, and leaving comments. We appreciate that you've included us in your garden life.