Delightful Notes from the Backyard Orchard | Pawpaw, Elderberry, Persimmon & Goumi

So I wanted to take you guys around the yard and show you a few things that really have caught my eye this year. Some really standout interesting little things that I've noticed among my trees, my fruiting plants, different things around the yard. We just have so many cherries on this particular tree here. It's called white gold. I've been eating quite a bit of them even though they're not perfectly ripe. You got to get the fruit while you can in my opinion. And a lot of that I think this great fruit set that I'm seeing really has a lot to do with the pruning that we've done over the years. Really building this canopy, having a lot of two-year-old wood is kind of the key to all that fruit that fruit set success. And you have to just build that structure and get really good at building that structure and maintaining that and renewing that to see continued success with that fruit set. One of the plants that I just planted a couple years ago, this is the third season although I don't really count the first season because these plants got chopped to bits a couple times. But these are elderberry for those of you have never seen this don't even know what I'm looking at here. So they're basically brand new. They're planted in a very shady location right here and they're growing exceptionally well. What I thought was very interesting about them is actually they're flowering now and it is June 7th here in the Philadelphia area at the time of filming. And this is amazing because to me I had never really, I don't, never grown elderberry before. I didn't really know much about it but in observing these plants and doing a little bit of research you can actually cut them back to almost nothing kind of like a fig tree. They'll re-sprout and then at some point in the summer or close to the summer or late in the spring I should say they start to flower. And they flower here at the tops of these branches. I wonder if they're going to flower anywhere else on the the shoots that have come up but that's really amazing to me because the way that they can fruit and also when they fruit that's just spectacular and especially because they're so young. It'll be great to taste this fruit. It's so reliable. I hear a lot of good things. Shout out to my friend Chris who I'm sure is watching and has raved about this particular fruit. But anyway, so those are the flower clusters that I'm very excited for. Another, by the way, really nice thing that's happened this year is we have pawpaw fruit. And I just want to take you back in here. It's kind of a, it's kind of a jungle. I mean some may say a food forest, you know, but I like to use the word jungle. I'm kind of just being sarcastic there guys. But we have my pawpaw trees. Two of them planted in the same hole and finally after seven years of planting them we have fruits. And by the way, they're really taking off. I'm just shocked to see how well they're doing in terms of their growth this year. I said that last year but I really mean it this year. It's been spectacular. By the way, there's not just one fruit. There is quite a bit of fruits on these two trees. Both of them have fruits. I think one's a mango and the other one is Susquehanna, Pennsylvania golden. I think it's PA golden. But yeah, there is should be quite a bit of fruits for me to eat at the end of the season that I'm definitely very excited for. I think very recently they did end up dropping a number of them. But there was, they were covered in flowers. And the other interesting point I want to make is that I did not have to pollinate them. Some people claim that you have to pollinate the pawpaw to get the good fruit set. And they fruited very well. I think it's just a matter of not pollination exactly, but the fact that the trees are still young and they're not going to hold on to all their fruits. And I wouldn't expect them to hold on to all their fruits. It's pretty extreme to do something like that. So, if you guys recall as well, by the way, we're right here at my pluma spiase that we chopped back and we grafted onto. And actually, I want to say five of the seven grafts we did, they took. And you can see down here, we grafted new plum varieties onto these plum trees. And we will eventually train them again as a spiase. And then I, of course, came in here again and re-grafted the grafts that did not take with other additional scion. And I'm sure very soon these will take as well. But they're on their way again back to being a spiase. I imagine by the end of the season, these long branches will be long enough to tie them down to the wires. And then the following season, they'll send up their shoots. So, it was pretty extreme, that video. I'm sure a lot of people were mortified, but it is what it is. The other interesting thing I want to mention, and I don't know, maybe it's not that interesting, but the gumi is ripening. And this thing is just loaded. Like every single season, it is loaded, of course. I've talked about the production before, but it's just ridiculous how many fruits are here and how tasty they are. I think this year, whatever I don't eat, as I'm going to eat probably like three or four handfuls when I put this camera down. I'm not kidding. I didn't really, I'm kind of hungry right now. But I'll probably dry the remainder of whatever is left. The other really impressive plant over here in this section of the jungle is this honey berry bush. And these honey berries, although this one here has struggled, it's not that productive. I'm not really a huge fan of this variety. Whatever this is, I don't think this one will make the cut in the future. I will try to choose the best one I have and propagate from that. This one may not even be ready just yet. You have to very lightly tug on the berries or even shake the plant and they should come off with a very, very light touch. So these are not coming off just yet. And you would think, well, the honey berries are blue. They look like blueberries. They must be ripe. Wrong. In fact, they should be soft and they should be blue for a few weeks, probably two or three weeks before they, after they turn fully blue. This one here is rather small and they get to a larger size actually as they ripen as well. And you can taste it and it's quite tart, very flavorful, very complex, kind of like a kiwi plus a grape plus maybe a little bit of a currant, red currant or something like that. But as they start to ripen more, I promise you they do become a little bit sweet and much more palatable. And in my mind, one of my favorite fruits. The last thing I guess I want to talk to you guys about is actually the persimmon. You know what? I can kind of set you down over here. Let's do that. What a weird view this is. We haven't filmed from this view, I think before. You guys are now against the fence. Right here is a pear tree I have. It's called Perdue. I don't know if it's going to do well at all. This first year I had it, it actually had some fire blight and I cut it way back and then it, it's been fine. There's two pears here, actually three pears here on this large tree in a very shady spot, but it's getting really well established. I summer pruned it. Next year I should have a lot of fruit. At least I would expect. The soil here has really gotten better over the years. Anyway, this persimmon tree here is definitely my favorite. It's called Proc and Proc is an American persimmon that has got quite a bit of flowers on it this year. I'm really impressed. I really hope this is the year that a lot of my persimmons hold on because they are loaded with flowers across the board. There's, without exception for the most part, of the trees that are established. The Rosianca has a ridiculous amount of flowers that could very easily put out 300 to 500 fruits. I mean, I say that every year and then they drop, but I'm really seeing, it's almost feels like, I could feel it. You know, this year has been so fruitful for everything that I just feel like this has got to be the year for a number of the trees. In the front, not only is this Proc and this Celebrity doing well right here, but in the front it gets a bit more sunlight. We have a Miss Kim, we have an Itchy Jiro, and also a Tam Kim. Those are also very loaded with flowers. Pretty well established trees at this point. The Miss Kim has always been very precocious and has fruited well since I've gotten it. I've talked about that in its own individual video that I did. Miss Kim, this year, has so many flowers on it that it's pretty insane. I don't know if that variety throws, and here's the interesting thing to me, is I'm not sure if that variety throws some male flowers or not. Because there's so many flowers, I just can't help but think that there must be some male flowers on there. Typically the male flowers on a persimmon tree are in clusters, whereas the female flowers are individual. I'm not really exactly seeing what looks like male flowers on that tree, but some of these trees, the whole coffee cake and what's the other persimmon that pollinates coffee cake, or maybe it is coffee cake that is the pollinator, but some of these varieties throw different genders of flowers. That would be nice because if that were true with this Miss Kim, then maybe we could get some cross-pollination here from the male flowers to some of these trees and help them keep their fruits from dropping. That's one of the ways you can help persimmon drop, is actually to get a male tree or to have a tree that helps pollinate the others. Certainly that would be a nice plus. I don't mind a little bit of seeds and I'd rather have them not drop as often. We'll see. I don't know, that's something to look out for, but in terms of a lot of the other fruit trees and things that are going on in the yard, these are some interesting things that are happening. I do want to say the yosta berries I was quite excited for, which is one right here. This is a great fruit. It is a nice combo between the currant and the gooseberry, and I just was really hoping it to be a lot more productive than it is. It seems to be a quick grower and a bad fruiter, so I don't know if that's the case forever, but the gooseberries and the currants put them to shame in terms of production so far. So anyway, thank you guys here for watching this one. We'll see you soon. Hit that subscribe button. We'll catch you guys for the next one. Take care.