Q: I have several Elberta peach trees that are growing like crazy but they want to bloom in January. I read that mulching them would keep the soil cold to slow blooming. John Mason, email
A: The air temperature around trees is what triggers them to bloom. Peaches require a varying number of hours below 45 degrees to be ready to bloom. Are you sure you have Elberta peaches? This variety requires 850 chill hours before blooming, and early blooming is not usually that much of a problem. "Low-chill" peach varieties have a terrible time producing in North Georgia because of their tendency to bloom early.
The Elberta peach has a storied history in Georgia. It was grown here by Samuel H. Rumph in the early 1800s. In the next decades the peach became famous for its ability to be shipped to New York and still taste great.
Q: I walk at night in North Georgia in the winter and there's a sweet smell that I initially thought was someone's laundry but I realize it must be a plant. Could it be elaeagnus? Sylvia Brophy, email
A: A couple of candidates come to mind: winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, blooms off and on through January. Fortune's tea olive, Osmanthus x fortunei, smells great but you probably won't notice the small flowers from which the fragrance comes. Your theory of eleagnus, Eleagnus pungens, is also a possibility for nighttime perfume.
Q: I'm in the planning phase of starting a large Dunstan chestnut orchard. Is there anyone to help me in the process? One issue I need to address is irrigation. Bobby Stephens, Athens
A: Few people alive remember the billions of American chestnut trees that were wiped out by chestnut blight in a few decades after 1909. The nuts were delicious to humans and wildlife, the wood was valuable for construction and furniture, and the tree supported a huge ecological niche. The American Chestnut Foundation (acf.org) is working to cross American chestnut with other chestnut species with the goal of producing genetically diverse, nearly pure American chestnut stock. The blight resistant 'Dunstan' chestnut is one result of their efforts. The American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation (accf-online.org) is cross-breeding surviving American chestnut trees to each other to bring about disease resistance. Researchers at the State University of New York have developed a disease-resistant American chestnut by genetic modification, inserting a wheat gene that defeats the chestnut blight fungus. Like any GM organism, these trees are tightly regulated and will not be on the commercial market anytime soon.
Neither the Georgia Department of Agriculture nor the University of Georgia have developed much information to assist people who want to grow chestnuts. But there is considerable research on growing pecans in Georgia. Here is a link to great information on using drip irrigation on pecan trees: bit.ly/pecandrip.
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