Nicolas Derome

Timothy Norton wrote:Isn't it funny how we sometimes come to decisions? Your poor lab not being able to self-regulate eating mulberries made me smile! What a loveable sounding pup.

I live in New York Zone 5B and I have become a little obsessed with growing peaches. I'm currently in a 'war' with our local squirrels because they engorge themselves on the fruit before it can reach a havestable state. I'm planning on planting some late flowering varieties to supplement my more standard flowering types. I'm hoping to use them as a shorter-lived fruit tree that can have something else eventually succession grow into the space.

Have you considered growing some kind of bush cherry? I have two young nanking cherries that have yet to produce fruit but have grown steadily in the climate. Fingers crossed I may see something this upcoming spring.

I've been considering the USask/shrub cherries. I don't think I've ever tasted the Nanking cherries.

My neighbour has sweet cherries, but squirrels, and maybe other critters also (grackles?) tend to pick them clean pretty quickly once they start to turn ripe. I'm hoping the more sour ones won't get targeted as much. I was considering planting them in the front of the house along the driveway, but wasn't sure how they'd handle the load of the snowbanks.

Update on how things are going.

Currants started to produce this year, mainly the black and pink one. The red currant was 1 year old when we got it (the black & pink were 2 year old) and just had one fruit cluster this year.

Haskaps, one started to produce a little, despite no other haskap blooming to pollinate it. It was 3 years old, the others are 2 years old and 1 year old, so hopefully the 2 year old one starts to produce a next year. I did net it the one fruiting haskap to protect it from birds.

Grapes. Planted in 2024 as 2 year old vines. They grew a little in 2024, and grew a lot in 2025, now they've covering most of the wall of my shed (technically on a frame with a gap between the shed so they don't latch onto the shed itself). They had a few fruit clusters this year, which ripened later than advertised, but maybe that's just because it's their first year of fruiting. They ripened in mid September to early October, and were supposed to ripen late August to early September. However, birds ate most of them while still under-ripe. I bagged the remaining ones and they tasted good. Next year, I'm hoping to get a lot more fruit given how much bigger the plants are.

Kiwis. They're growing alright, I have tree guards around them to protect them from rabbits which are quite voracious in that corner of the yard. For now, the rabbits are mostly pruning my raspberry canes... However, my initial kolomikta female died when I got it, and I had to wait until 2025 to replace it with two more females. One of them flowered a bit, along with the male that flowered a lot, but I pruned off the branch with the fruit without noticing there was one when I was thinning down the vine to one leader. I also got an Issai and another female arguta (unknown variety) from a plant swap - they were cuttings I rooted in 2024, and planted in 2025. Since they managed to survive, I'll probably buy a male to pollinate them since I don't think the male arguta will work.

Peaches. It took some pretty severe rabbit damage in winter 2024-2025, the snow was very deep and it seems like they were able to get over the tree guard. This winter, I have two tree guards stacked on top of each other. The peach did survive though, it wasn't quite girdled all the way around (but almost). I got a few fruit, but squirrels managed to eat half of them. Even with the netting... there was a fruit that fell into the netting and it seems the squirrel ate it through the netting? So I got 4/7 fruits. The leaves got some leaf curl in the spring, the last two weeks of May were exceptionally cool, cloudy and wet here (lots of 50-55F highs, 35-40F lows), but I removed the affected leaves and the rest of the leaves after that looked fine. The fruits were very fragrant, but maybe a little less sweet than ideal, not sure if it's the variety, age of tree, weather, or maybe the spot it's in is a bit too close to part-shade? It gets sun from about 9am to 2:30-3pm.

Pawpaws. The one I started from seed that I transplanted this spring grew a lot this year. I think it might catch up to the named varieties I got from the nursery as larger (3-4ft tall) trees within a couple years if it keeps growing this fast. They probably still have a few years before producing.

Prok Persimmon. Planted in spring 2025, it had flowers, but the flowers/fruits dropped while still at a very immature stage. I'm guessing the tree is not established enough to produce.

Container figs had their best year yet. Passiflora incarnata (Maypop) and passiflora inspiration did alright. I even got some fruit off my edulis passionfruit seedling, but only 1 from each plant. I'm thinking of getting a named variety to see if it produces more reliably. Tamarillo started to flower in October for the first time, that's too late to set fruit/produce fruit, but hopefully that means it reached maturity and will set fruit in late spring/early summer next year.

Next projects:
I'm considering trying to grow espallier quince on the SW wall of the house. Giant of Zagreb maybe? I'm also considering USask sour cherries (maybe with a Saskatoon berry to distract birds?). We're cutting down a maple since it's getting bigger and bigger and making more shade on the vegetable garden. That'll free up some space for some smaller trees, or an expanded vegetable garden.
At this point, I've got a lot of fruit that should come in in September-October, my figs, raspberries, grapes, maypops, cherry tomatoes, and eventually persimmon, pawpaws and kiwis. Not so much for June-August though, just peaches (late August), haskap, currants. That's why I'm considering the sour cherries. Maybe something else that's early-ish like Early Golden plums? The quince has a good shelf life, so it could be for the later part of fresh fruit eating season (November?). Maybe medlars could work for November-December consumption as well? I've heard they taste good but never had a chance to try them, not sure where you can find any for sale, but I saw a reddit post from someone by the Georgian Bay growing them successfully.
I'm a bit hesitant about mulberries, because we've allowed our lab to eat some at parks before and she has no self control and will eat several pounds until she throws up all of it. Since they're kind of messy and tend to drop loads of fruit on the ground, I guess I'd have to keep the tree small enough that between my picking and the wild animals (birds, squirrels, etc), there won't be an excessive surplus of them on the ground for the dog.

I'm considering planting zone University of Saskatchewan sour cherries in the driveway strip between my driveway and my neighbours, since I think they'd be small enough to fit in the space. We're already getting a good snowpack here in Zone 5.


Last winter this strip got snow piled very high - a wall about 6-7ft tall due to how snowy it was. Although last winter saw the deepest snowpack in about 25 years, we can still get a good amount of snow, so a 4-5ft snowbank would be pretty typical. Last winter I had a Rose of Sharon on the other side of the driveway with a Y junction in its trunk that got split vertically from the snow load weighing down the branches. Since the USask cherries are dwarf trees, they'd basically get completely buried in snow, at least in the first years. I'm wondering how they'd handle that and if they'd need protection from the weight of the snow, especially in the first years?

Also, anyone have experience with how aggressively birds and squirrels go after them? If they just eat a few, as has been the case with my raspberries in the backyard, I don't mind that. But if they go after them big time, as they have with my grapes, or my neighbour's sweet cherries, I'd want to net them, which is less desirable aesthetically for the front of the house, so I might rather plant the USask cherries somewhere in the back. But maybe since they're sour cherries, the critters won't go after them as much?

The last concern would be rabbits and voles. I could try to protect the base of the trunk, but they'd still have access to the branches. I'm hoping there would be fewer rabbits and voles in between the driveways since there's less space to hide compared to the backyard. I see much more evidence of both (ex vole tracks, rabbit droppings) in the back than in the front.

If not USask cherries, are there other fruit trees/shrubs that would do well in this type of location? It gets lots of sun (south side of the house, no large street trees) - from about 7-8am to 5-6pm. We don't use road salt on our driveway, and I haven't noticed the neighbours using any either. I'm in Ontario Zone 5a, with clay loam glacial soil. I already have currants, haskaps, American persimmon, peach, pawpaws, raspberries, grapes and hardy kiwis planted in the backyard. As I said, I'm looking for something that can handle getting several feet of snow dumped on it and recover without too much damage to the limbs, and that will be relatively aesthetic for curb appeal - ie can retain a decent crop without being heavily netted.

I started growing then in Zone 6 (suburban Toronto) in 2022, then moved to Zone 5a (rural southern Ontario). Our average temperatures are similar, if not slightly cooler than Wisconsin's, but cold extremes are slightly milder (hence 5a rather than 4b).

They seem to require a second (genetically distinct) plant for cross pollination. Bluecrown passionflower (passiflora caerulea) seems to be quite effective for that, and it's what I've used in 2023-2025, although a second maypop should work too. If your flowers drop off instead of setting fruit, or the fruits are empty shells, you might have a lack of cross pollination problem. The first year (2022) I had a good amount of flowers already, but no fruit due to lack of other passionflowers blooming at the same time.

I had mine overwinter during 2022-2023 winter in Zone 6, but it was a very mild winter with only a couple days , and under heavy mulch. Even in un-mulched areas of the garden, I suspect frost didn't penetrate more than a couple inches into the soil that winter, since most days were above freezing. However, it took a long time for it to sprout new shoots - only late June, and didn't have time to bloom in 2023.

On the other hand, the plants I grew from cuttings I took in fall 2022, were able to bloom by mid-late July 2023, and those produced fruit thanks to pollination by passiflora caerulea. The first ones ripened before the frost, but many had to ripen indoors. I've been growing the plants in pots, that way I could extend the growing season indoors. If the plants are near a sunny window, that has been adequate. In 2024 I had about 40 fruit from a single plant. The fruits are fairly good if you ask me, though not uniform, some are a bit more tart, but they're generally mildly sweet and have a nice fragrance.

For overwintering, I've moved some into my cellar, where it's dark and about 40-45F, and some in my garage where it ranges from about 25-35F, and both have worked. I think it's best not to overwater them too much when dormant. Honestly, I don't think you need to water them at all if it's <45F. I take them somewhere warmer to wake them from dormancy in late March to early April. It'll take 2-4 weeks of room temperature conditions for them to put out new shoots, but after 1 month of growth, they should be pretty big. They'll grow faster in warm weather (and fruits ripen faster too), but they can handle light frosts, down to 25F or so.

2025 was the first year I had multiple maypops. I got some from another hobbyist downscaling her collection, and a "snowpop" from a local nursery. Most of them set fruit on their first year (3 did, 1 did not). However, my mother plant produced less this year (about 20 fruit), maybe because late May was very cool and that set it back? Or maybe the spot I had it in was shadier than where I had it last year? Most of the fruits were still pollinated by my caerulea, but I think a few were pollinated by other snowpops.

With a late March/early April head start, I can get flowers in late July onwards, and fruits beginning to ripen in late September, continuing into November indoors.

I've also tried growing passiflora inspiration for the first time this year. It's a maypop x passiflora cincinnata hybrid, that is fertile. The fruits are good too, but a bit slower to ripen. They're a bit different tasting, I find they're closer to the edulis passionfruits taste wise. The flowers are very pretty, and they seem to be similarly hardy - capable of surviving in a cellar or garage and growing back from the roots.

Timothy Norton wrote:Some people have all the luck!

I hope your patch is long lived and fruitful.

Another one popped up about 8ft away. It grew out of the mulch that I was using to weigh down the fabric that I was using to smother the reeds, and also stash to the side because I wound up getting more mulch than I needed for the rest of my garden. My best theory is that they're colonizing the dying root system of the reed bed, which was pretty big, about 8x30ft, and very dense (more root than soil in the top 4-6"), so I could potentially get lots of morels? Pretty impressive that it managed to grow through the fabric tarp and 12" of mulch.

They do seem to be morels (hollow on the inside).

Not sure where they came from or what they've been feeding off. The previous owners of my property built some raised beds along a slope with a boardwalk in between. At the edge of the boardwalk, a couple mushrooms that I'm pretty sure are morels (unless there are other mushrooms that look similar?) just popped up.

I know they like growing on dying root systems. There's tarp under the boardwalk, and tarp on the section of slope beside it, and the morels just came through in the little gap between the two sheets of tarp. I haven't cut any trees nearby, and the plants in my raised beds that died in the winter like tomatillos and eggplants shouldn't have such big root systems that they'd reach as far as where the morels popped up (the trunks of those plants were probably 4-6 ft away).

Maybe it was from a bed of reeds I was trying to smother? I put tarp over them last spring to try to get rid of them since their root system is so dense I can't dig them out. Their root system was about 3ft from where the fruiting bodies popped up. I don't see any others near the edge of the tarped over reeds though (that reed bed was about 8x30ft).

J Rowe wrote:Hi John,
With a few years of growing under your belt do you have any personal insight on your questions below, I have similar curiosity. Thanks!


I was wondering if someone would have certain experience with some of my questions:

1) can you endlessly regrow wine caps just by adding new wood chips every year? Or will the flushes diminish gradually to a point you need to buy fresh spawn? Has anyone kept their original spawn going for more than a few years?

2) Does anyone know the effect of wood ash on wine caps mycelium? I'm thinking of putting a thin layer of ash on the top of the beds gradually. Slugs love to dig in my wine cap/mulch beds and lay thousands of eggs. I found out some mushrooms flourish on ashes, but was wondering if someone had any experience with adding ashes to wine cap beds as a top layer.


Thanks in advance!

Slugs have been a problem for me too, I have to pick my mushrooms rather quickly. I started my winecap bed in April 2022, had it flush in summer/fall 2022, again in spring 2023, then moved to a different property and shoveled the mulch into a few bins and used that to start a new bed at my new property and added more substrate. I got some small flushes in 2024, we'll see if I get more this spring. They usually flush in late May/June in my climate, and then against in September.

Currently I have

2023 Incarnata from cutting x1
-fruited in 5 gal pot in 2023 (most likely pollinated by caerulea)

2023 Caerulea from cutting x2
-flowered in 5 gal pot in 2023

2023 Edulis (purple) from seed x2
-did not flower/fruit in 2023, hoping for better this year

2023 Ligularis from seed x2
-did not flower/fruit in 2023, hoping for better this year

2023 Tripartita from seed x1
-did not flower/fruit in 2023, hoping for better this year

2023 Manicata from seed x1
-did not flower/fruit in 2023, hoping for better this year

2024 Colvillii (??) seedlings (saved from seed from my incarnata plant's fruit - which most likely crossed with caerulea)
-biggest is about 1ft tall

2024 Edulis var flavicarpa (yellow passionfruit)
-just beginning to germinate now

I'm considering up-potting the 2023 plants from 5 gal to 9 gal.

I can understand wanting to preserve some varieties that have unique properties, and developing landraces might be a rather slow process if you only have room for a couple plants of each species.

I personally grow two moschata species, one is Butternut Squash, and another is Guatemalan Green Ayote. The Guatemalan has unique flavor and texture, very sweet and rich texture, and also superior resistance to powdery mildew and keeps going right up to the first frost, so I want to preserve those properties, which Butternut Squash lacks - butternut has the advantage of producing earlier, and it has a bit of a different taste, which is still my second favorite tasting squash.

If you pay attention to your squash plants, you can probably figure out the night before when a female flower is going to bloom. So you can cover it with a mesh bag (small enough mesh that bumblebees/carpenter bees can't get through) and hand pollinate with a male flower of the same variety the next morning, and then put the bag back over it when you're done hand pollinating. The next day the flower should have wilted so you can take the bag off.

Also, the 1 mile separation is to guarantee 99.99% chances of no cross pollination. If you're 0.1 miles from the nearest plant of the same species, you'll probably still have 99% chance of no cross pollination. Even at 100ft, I'd give it 90-95% chances of no cross pollination.

For other things, I don't care very much about cross pollination, ex lettuce. Lettuce is lettuce to me... doesn't matter too much what exact colour or shape the leaves.

James Bridger wrote:I planted 2 pawpaw's from bare roots that I ordered online last spring. They were like 12" tall. We had -15 degree temps for a couple nights this past winter, and they're still alive. We also get some 100+ degree days in the summer, and lots of days well over 90 degrees.

I read somewhere that they need shade for the first couple years. I put a square tomato cage around them. Last year I had it wrapped in landscaping fabric, so the shade was pretty dark. This year I have them wrapped in window screen material so it's brighter for them. Next year they'll be in full sun.

(I promise there's a 2' tall tree in there, it's just hard to see with the grass).

Last winter was very mild here, it only got down to 0F, which makes it the mildest winter on record. Normally we'd get quite a lot of <0F nights, and a couple <-10F. A few times per decade it'll even drop below -20F. The worst case scenario would be a repeat of 2015, when we had 29 days with lows below 0F, 9 days below -10F and a coldest of -24F.

The planting guide the nursery gave me recommended shade cloth for the first 2-3 years, followed by full sun. They also recommended putting mulch around the trees to block out competition from grass.