Home Fruit Garden Tour – Shipova

Shipova sm res

Shipova bloom sm

In bloom in early April.

Kristan Backhoe Shipova small

Kristan Johnson transplanting the mature shipova into the Fruit Garden.

Shipova trees often take 7- 10 years to flower, but cultural practices such as grafting onto aronia (which also dwarfs the tree) or bark inversion grafting can shorten the wait by several years. It is somewhat self fertile, but may set larger crops when planted near a mountain ash or pear tree that blooms at the same time.

Although it is generally easy to grow, it may have problems with fire blight in some areas. It can take partial shade in some locations, but full sun is probably best in the Pacific Northwest.

Shipova low res

This espaliered shipova is at the south end of the west espalier.

An attractive tree, it needs little pruning and has yellow fall leaf color.