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Thanks for the question Caroline. Brisbane is a tricky climate for growing any temperate fruit because of the lack of chilling hours. Deciduous fruit trees need a certain amount of cold in winter to know when the should enter dormancy and form fruit buds. As a rough guide, Brisbane would generally have about 150 chilling hours, perhaps a bit more in the western suburbs and Ipswich. To be honest, I think you’ll struggle with both apricots and apples, but if you are keen to give one a try, I’d actually recommend apples. Pink Lady is lower chill than most, being bred in Manjimup WA, but you might have better success with something like Anna, which is genuinely low chill and was bred in Israel. You’d need to team it with Dorsett Golden (bred in the Bahamas of all places) for pollination.

Other fruit that would be worth trying in Brisbane are low chill peaches/nectarines, persimmons, low chill pears, figs, mulberries and Japanese plums.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Cheers,

Justin

P,
There’s no simple solution to what you’re proposing, unfortunately. For starters, you will never create a frost pocket if your climate isn’t cold enough as temperatures won’t dip far enough below zero, and secondly, if you do have a cold enough climate you’ll probably already experience some frost whether you’ve tried to create a frost pocket or not. The other issue is that genuine cold climate trees such as cherries and European plums require at least 800 chilling hours over winter to induce dormancy, set fruit buds and then break dormancy in spring. If you need to create a frost pocket then I suspect your climate probably isn’t chilly enough for these trees.

My advice in terms of climate is to mostly accept what you’ve got and work with it. If you get 40 frosts per year and experience temps as low as -10 like we do here at Thistlebrook, great, you can grow nearly all the cold climate trees that need a genuine winter. If you get no frost or just a few nights under zero per year, you should be able to successfully grow citrus, bananas and pawpaws which are very difficult or tend to struggle in a colder climate. You may want to manipulate things a little bit through the placement of walls and hedges for example, but generally, you’ll have the most fun and best results with plants that suit your conditions.

Hope that helps,

Justin

Hi Andrew,

Our 2011 catalogue will be released on the 1st of March, and will be available for download from this website. Orders are welcome from then on, with delivery/collection from late June or early July, until the season closes at the end of September.

Cheers,

Justin

Hi Michele,

Thanks for the question, and the answer is yep, we do have edible cherry trees in our catalogue. The varieties we have this year are Lapins, Stella, Sunburst, Napoleon, and Blackboy. All are suitable for Stanthorpe, but none are weeping cherries. Weepers such as Prunus “Cheals Weeping”or Prunus x subhirtella “Pendula”are solely ornamental and don’t produce edible fruit.

Let me know if you need more info.

Cheers,

Justin

Hi Robert,

We don’t sell any citrus trees sorry, only bare roooted deciduous trees. Your best bet would be to try one of your local nurseries, as they should have citrus available on a cold tolerant rootstock.

Cheers,

Justin

Thanks for getting in touch Denise. It does indeed sound like your rhubarb is a bit dry. The best aspect for rhubarb in a Mediteranean climate like yours would be morning sun to around 11am, then afternoon shade. If you’re planning to move the plant, do it during winter/early spring, and ensure you mix lots of well rotted manure and compost into the planting hole. This will help to retain moisture but allow for good drainage. Even here, where our summers rarely top 35C (95F), I find that I need to throw some shadecloth over the plants on hot days and provide irrigation every day or two. Those big, parasol leaves need lots of water!

In terms of Highfields Ever Red, it is a good strain of the variety Ever Red that’s been selected and grown by a local market gardener. We sell the plants as dormant crown divisions in winter, but unfortunately quarantine regulations prevent us from shipping live plants overseas. I’m not sure where you might be able to find good red varieties in your area, but one option might be to look for rhubarb at local farmer’s markets, then ask the farmer if he/she might be willing to sprare a crown or two from their farm. Some will be glad to share.

Best wishes in your search.

Justin

Hi Richard,

Our nursery sells a wide range of high chill stonefruit. Orders start in early March and deliveries begin in early July. I’d doubt you’ll have much success with the high chill varieties though, as many need upwards of 800 chilling hours in winter but Brisbane has 100-300 hours of chill (Burpengary would be on the lower end of the scale). Odds are, high chill trees will fail to enter dormancy properly during autumn, and flowering will be sproadic or non-existent during spring. Low chill varieties tend to flower and ripen very early, which means that never get a decent chance to develop lots of flavour. But they really are your best bet in a subtropical cllimate.

Hope that helps,

Justin