My property is about 50 minutes (=50 miles) north of Atlanta. Some 30 minutes into the trip I will often find a pretext to stop at the convenient Lowes DIY store for a “necessary ” purchase as well as for the free coffee, friendly cashier and to ease springs. The last reminds me of my army days when, after serious imbibing in the NCO mess, we would “request permission to ease springs” and then stumble over the tent guy ropes into the darkness of the night.
So this morning was no different and it occurred to me as I scouted the store, that I should visit the nursery area because this time of year they have large markdowns. Generally I do not buy plants at DIY stores but grow from seed or order from specialty internet providers, though some have disappointed! However, the trees and the shrubs were all marked down 50% and the decision was whether to go for the nectarine or the pomegranates. I tried to recall whether either were problematic for my area or required cross pollination, and failed. So I took a chance and bought the pomegranates, one of each of the two varieties, so I had cross pollination covered, their combined cost was less than the nectarine and, since they are smaller they would fit nicely as semi-understory plantings in my orchard. Plus my neighbor has a pomegranate shrub (from which I took a cutting a week ago) which bears sound but sour fruit and I delusion myself that with better sun exposure and my compost, the outcome will be better.
Not a very scientific method to reach a decision and so I was relieved when I later consulted my reference book, “Gardening in the South – Vegetables and Fruits” with Don Hastings, and the handy reference table informed me that nectarine are “very hard” to grow with worst problem being insects and diseases (the only other “very hard” is apricot), while the pomegranate is “easy except for cold” and its worst problem is cold damage. So I was lucky in my choice.
The book offers similar comments for fig and persimmon as for the pomegranate, and last year my two fledgling figs both died to the ground but came back strongly from their established roots. The native persimmon was similarly mauled and is growing more slowly. I may try protecting the figs, persimmon and pomegranates with wrappings or tomato cages filled with leaves. And with global warming, this problem too may pass.
(As for why two posts in the same day? Thank you Sandy, which headed north with her coattails blowing briskly and coldly – enough to keep me in doors after planting out the pomegranates.)
I was wondering why traffic on my blog was so light today, and I think I can thank Sandy for that too. I have a lot of readers on the east coast.
I hope you and everyone else stays safe!
Thank you. At 3pm this afternoon I was talking to a relative who lives 40 miles north of Manhattan and he was expecting power outages in the evening and their landline suddenly went dead. They called back on their cell ‘phone to say the outage had just occurred.