We grabbed the last two fruit trees from our local Lidl (just because).

One was an Ontario plum and the other was a Jonagold apple.

The plum, although a bit knocked about, seems to be growing fine. No
blossom but I suspect we have had it for this year.

The Jonagold doesn't have any blossom or leaves at the moment.
I picked it up because there seem to be a good number of "woolly" buds
which normally signify buds ready to burst.
Looking at it each day I can convince myself that the buds are growing/
swelling a bit.
However the apple trees around here have already put out loads of blossom
and leaves, which makes this patio fruit tree look very late.

Do some apple trees bloom and put out leaves after mid-May?

Are bulk grown container plants often later than established trees?

Lastly, how long should I wait before I decide it isn't going to do
anything, and take it back to Lidl?


Cheers



Dave R

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On 19/05/20 14:05, David wrote:
We grabbed the last two fruit trees from our local Lidl (just because).

One was an Ontario plum and the other was a Jonagold apple.

The plum, although a bit knocked about, seems to be growing fine. No
blossom but I suspect we have had it for this year.

The Jonagold doesn't have any blossom or leaves at the moment.
I picked it up because there seem to be a good number of "woolly" buds
which normally signify buds ready to burst.
Looking at it each day I can convince myself that the buds are growing/
swelling a bit.
However the apple trees around here have already put out loads of blossom
and leaves, which makes this patio fruit tree look very late.

Do some apple trees bloom and put out leaves after mid-May?

Are bulk grown container plants often later than established trees?

Lastly, how long should I wait before I decide it isn't going to do
anything, and take it back to Lidl?

Get a sharp knife and scrape a small piece of bark off about 15 cm above
the soil (or above the graft point if you can see it), If you can see
green underneath the bark, the tree is alive. If, however, it is cream
or brownish, it is almost certainly dead.

You can do this with almost all woody shrubs and trees for a quick check
(but not in a garden centre before you've bought it!).

--

Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:

Get a sharp knife and scrape a small piece of bark off about 15 cm above
the soil (or above the graft point if you can see it), If you can see
green underneath the bark, the tree is alive. If, however, it is cream
or brownish, it is almost certainly dead.

You can do this with almost all woody shrubs and trees for a quick check
(but not in a garden centre before you've bought it!).

Most, not almost all. Clematis is an exception, for example. It works
for all the Rosaceae (including apples and plums), as far as I know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Tue, 19 May 2020 15:52:03 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 19/05/20 14:05, David wrote:
We grabbed the last two fruit trees from our local Lidl (just because).

One was an Ontario plum and the other was a Jonagold apple.

The plum, although a bit knocked about, seems to be growing fine. No
blossom but I suspect we have had it for this year.

The Jonagold doesn't have any blossom or leaves at the moment.
I picked it up because there seem to be a good number of "woolly" buds
which normally signify buds ready to burst.
Looking at it each day I can convince myself that the buds are growing/
swelling a bit.
However the apple trees around here have already put out loads of
blossom and leaves, which makes this patio fruit tree look very late.

Do some apple trees bloom and put out leaves after mid-May?

Are bulk grown container plants often later than established trees?

Lastly, how long should I wait before I decide it isn't going to do
anything, and take it back to Lidl?

Get a sharp knife and scrape a small piece of bark off about 15 cm above
the soil (or above the graft point if you can see it), If you can see
green underneath the bark, the tree is alive. If, however, it is cream
or brownish, it is almost certainly dead.

You can do this with almost all woody shrubs and trees for a quick check
(but not in a garden centre before you've bought it!).

The tree is definitely not good, as I bought another example from Lidl and
that one is in leaf and the bark is grey, not brown as on the other
example.

I then tried the scrape test, and the result was inconclusive.
The tissue just under the bark looked moist and was a sort of gold/brown/
pale green colour which (if I didn't have another obviously living tree
along side) would have left me still wondering.

I assume the tree didn't survive potting up.

I am also assuming that these trees are at least 2 years old as they have
been pruned back from a single stem and several branchesare growing out
sideways.
Which I think is what a 2 year+ tree should look like.


Anyway, will be returning the original.

Cheers


Dave R


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AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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