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Posted: 9/16/2022 2:06:42 AM EST
Thinking about planting some fruit trees this winter.
Was thinking a couple of pecan trees (desireable, elliot, and maybe a choctaw). And a couple of peach trees and a couple of apple trees. Apparently, there are a handful of apple varieties that will set fruit down here with our mild winters. I really like both apples and peaches. And pecans. So that's what I want to plant. How big of trees should I get from the nursery? Biggest I can afford? Was thinking about trenching a shallow pvc water line to each tree to run a drip irrigation. |
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Was thinking Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Shemer for the apple varieties. One of each in a row. Next row, three peach trees. EarliGrande and Florida Prince. Little mini-orchard, for ease of irrigation
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My wife and I are working on something similar in NE Texas.
Have peaches and plums already in the ground. We're planning on adding more of both. We would love to add in some apple trees but between the cotton fungus and lack of chilling hours are not sure the risk is worth it. This fall I'll be trenching in a drip irrigation system set on a timer for easier watering. Planning on planting several pecans and oaks out in the pasture but not sure how we're going to get water to them. Semper Fi |
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Quoted: My wife and I are working on something similar in NE Texas. Have peaches and plums already in the ground. We're planning on adding more of both. We would love to add in some apple trees but between the cotton fungus and lack of chilling hours are not sure the risk is worth it. This fall I'll be trenching in a drip irrigation system set on a timer for easier watering. Planning on planting several pecans and oaks out in the pasture but not sure how we're going to get water to them. Semper Fi View Quote NE Texas, I think you have more options than me for alot of things, including Apples. Ya'll actually get a little bit of winter. You might want to pick varieties that have a little higher chilling hour requirements than the ones I picked. I'm planning to trench PVC irrigation over to the couple of pecan trees I'll be planting, too. They require plenty of water. |
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The problem for us with apple trees up here is a cotton fungus that is resident in the ground.
We've even tried container gardening mini dwarf apple trees when we lived in the DFW area, they lasted about three years. Semper Fi |
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What is the pH of your soil? Peach trees like 6.5. I am 7.5-8.5 so I have to add chelated iron.
I highly recommend buying from Womack nursery online in December. 24" bare root. You chop them off at 18-24" and then pick 3-4 limbs to start shaping them. Cover everything lower with foil to keep suckers from growing and to protect the bark from roundup. If the temperatures get down to the mid 20s, cover them up for the first year. I bought a peach tree book. Where are you at in Texas? I use ammonium sulfate as fertilizer. |
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Quoted: What is the pH of your soil? Peach trees like 6.5. I am 7.5-8.5 so I have to add chelated iron. I highly recommend buying from Womack nursery online in December. 24" bare root. You chop them off at 18-24" and then pick 3-4 limbs to start shaping them. Cover everything lower with foil to keep suckers from growing and to protect the bark from roundup. If the temperatures get down to the mid 20s, cover them up for the first year. I bought a peach tree book. Where are you at in Texas? I use ammonium sulfate as fertilizer. View Quote South Texas, about an hour and a half south of San Antonio. Firmly in zone 9 I'll be sending a few soil samples off to get tested for various things. I don't know the PH off hand. I assume its fairly neutral. I can tell you that huisache, mesquite, and live oak grow just fine in this soil. And hackberry. I planted a few ornamental crepe myrtles around the yard a few years ago and they're doing great. But they don't seem to need much other than water. Thanks for the suggestions. As far as temp goes, its rare to get down to the mid 20s here. Happens every once in a while tho. |
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Tagged for info.
OP: I've been intrigued lately by Dave Wilson's Backyard Orchard Culture ideas. Just FYI. |
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Stopped by the nursery yesterday and picked up two more peach trees, two more plums, and two apples. If the apples survive will add another pair next year.
Semper Fi |
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Sent off soil sample to A&M. Will see what they say about ph and nutrients.
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Once again, I HIGHLY recommend buying bare root from an online nursery like Womack if you are doing peach trees. They need to be shaped like a martini glass and peach trees in the local nursery are not. Bare roots will do better anyway.
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Quoted: Once again, I HIGHLY recommend buying bare root from an online nursery like Womack if you are doing peach trees. They need to be shaped like a martini glass and peach trees in the local nursery are not. Bare roots will do better anyway. View Quote Thanks, I had forgotten about Womack. I might just drive up there with the trailer and pick the trees up when I'm ready to plant. Only about a 3 hr drive up there. Their pecan trees are about half the price of Willis and Willis is all the way over in Georgia. Right now, leaning towards a Desirable, a Nacono, and a Choctaw. Looking at the chart here, I could lose any one of those and still have plenty of overlap in the shed/receptive dates. https://www.texaspecannursery.com/product/choctaw-pecan/ All three produce similar sized nuts, supposed to be disease resistant, and are "eastern" adapted pecans. Will probably go ahead and get the fruit trees at the same time. |
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What about citrus trees? Seems like those would be easy to get going.
I use a lot of sumac for cooking, and that stuff will grow damn near anywhere. Love the lemony smokiness. |
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Quoted: What about citrus trees? Seems like those would be easy to get going. I use a lot of sumac for cooking, and that stuff will grow damn near anywhere. Love the lemony smokiness. View Quote I don't really like citrus all that much but yeah, they do grow fine here. I'm told this area was quite well known for citrus until an unusually bad freeze killed them off in the 1920s or something. Might plant a lime or something for cooking/cocktails, like you said. |
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I've got a dwarf Meyer Lemon tree that is growing in a feed tub. It won't survive a freeze here in NE Texas so I move it in and out of my shop depending on temperatures.
Last year it survived the winter just fine. We got a decent crop of lemons off of it this fall. Will be looking for a similar lime tree this spring so we can grow our own limes for gin and tonics. Semper Fi |
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Got soil report back from A&M
7.7ph, moderately alkaline conductivity 162 (anything under 2000 is good) low on nitrates, 18 ppm. No critical limit given, since nitrates are a given for fertilizer throughout the year 108ppm phosphorous 413ppm potassium 5,575 calcium 167 magnesium 20 sulfur 12 sodium Recommendation of 110lbs N per acre |
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Quoted: Got soil report back from A&M 7.7ph, moderately alkaline conductivity 162 (anything under 2000 is good) low on nitrates, 18 ppm. No critical limit given, since nitrates are a given for fertilizer throughout the year 108ppm phosphorous 413ppm potassium 5,575 calcium 167 magnesium 20 sulfur 12 sodium Recommendation of 110lbs N per acre View Quote I'm assuming you did put "fruit trees" (or whatever the relevant choice was for A&M)? |
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Quoted: I'm assuming you did put "fruit trees" (or whatever the relevant choice was for A&M)? View Quote Yep, I specified it was for Pecan trees. They put "Pecans, Upland Groves" on the report and their lower and upper limits of the macronutrients as well as fertilizer recommendation was based on that. |
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Quoted: Thanks, I had forgotten about Womack. I might just drive up there with the trailer and pick the trees up when I'm ready to plant. Only about a 3 hr drive up there. Their pecan trees are about half the price of Willis and Willis is all the way over in Georgia. Right now, leaning towards a Desirable, a Nacono, and a Choctaw. Looking at the chart here, I could lose any one of those and still have plenty of overlap in the shed/receptive dates. https://www.texaspecannursery.com/product/choctaw-pecan/ All three produce similar sized nuts, supposed to be disease resistant, and are "eastern" adapted pecans. Will probably go ahead and get the fruit trees at the same time. View Quote Our Desirables are very scab prone if you have high humidity. Lakota is very prolific and about as scab free as they come. |
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Quoted: Our Desirables are very scab prone if you have high humidity. Lakota is very prolific and about as scab free as they come. View Quote Yeah, it can be pretty humid here. Not much average rainfall, tho. 30" a year, I think. Thanks, can't really use Lakota unless maybe I swap it out for one of my other two varieties. Nacano and Choctaw are both type II trees as is Lakota. Desireable is a type I I think. What are some good scab resistant type I's I should consider? |
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Neat little calculator makes the fertilizer recommendation easy to figure out
http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/recscalc/recscalc.htm Using "pecans, individual trees" and plugging my tested soil level of nitrates of 18 ppm, it spits out 2.2 lbs of nitrates per 1,000 square feet fertilizer recommendation. I've got some old ammonium nitrate that's useless for reactive targets at this point (absorbed a bunch of moisture) so I will probably apply that. I don't need any more phosphorous or potassium |
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Quoted: Neat little calculator makes the fertilizer recommendation easy to figure out http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/recscalc/recscalc.htm Using "pecans, individual trees" and plugging my tested soil level of nitrates of 18 ppm, it spits out 2.2 lbs of nitrates per 1,000 square feet fertilizer recommendation. I've got some old ammonium nitrate that's useless for reactive targets at this point (absorbed a bunch of moisture) so I will probably apply that. I don't need any more phosphorous or potassium View Quote Be careful with that. Don't let it touch any living tissues, and spread it out. Don't dump it all in a pile or a ridge. Spread it around the root zone and water it in gradually. ETA: Do this because you don't want excessive N uptake in your trees, and because you CAN burn roots if you put it in a pile. Also...N leaches like crazy. what doesn't get used immediately gets wasted. Applying a little at a time means you aren't wasting it. |
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Much appreciated. I'll take that figure and make a dilute solution and break it up over time.
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anti archive bump. Haven't had much time to mess with it. Dug holes. About to pick up trees.
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We had a orange tree in our back yard for little over 10 years. That was untill that last major freeze last year. It took like 5-6 years to grow and mature but after that grew oranges and was awesome to juice for orange juice. Probably make close to 4 gallons and ended up freezing in bottles.
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Ordered 3 pecans 6-7' (Nacono, Desireable, and Choctaw) and 4 apples. Anna, Dorsett golden, Mollies Delicious, and Fuji
My prediction on the apple trees is that I get inconsistent yields based on how many chill hours I get in a given year. Winters can vary wildly here. But I'm fine with that. They're as much for decoration as they are for fruit. The apples are going to parallel the driveway about 12' or so apart. Maybe 4' from the edge of the driveway. Someday, if I ever get around to forming and pouring the damn thing, I might put 4 more trees on the other side. Gonna be a long day tomorrow. 5 hours there, 5 hours back. I had planned to do a Wickson crab apple tree too, but only place I could find with them sold out really fast. They're supposed to be great for cider. |
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Got the trees, talked to Larry Womack and got some good tips. He recommended I add back about 20% sand or peat moss to my soil.
One thing that got me thinking was Dave's talking about the cotton root fungus. I'm going to go ahead and try to modify my soil pH just a wee bit at a time. So my 3'x3' holes I dug out, I'm going to add maybe an ounce of sulfur mixed into the fill dirt. And then make a solution of 1 oz of sulfur in a gallon of water and spread it out evenly on the ground in a 3' radius around the hole. In my reading, the bacteria that causes cotton root rot likes soil ph at 7 to 8.5. And my soil is at 7.7. It will help the trees absorb nutrients better anyways. Both apples and pecans like slightly acidic soil. Give that a good month or two to soak in, weather in, spread, etc... and take another ph reading. I'm going to try to sneak up on it and try to get it down to about 6.5 or so over the course of 6 months or a year. Recommendations I've read say 8 oz of sulfur will take a cubic yard of heavily clay soil down from 7.5 to 6.5. So an ounce or two at a time should be enough to make a measureable difference without risking overshooting the mark. |
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I think I might try to borrow an auger and drill a couple of 6" or whatever size auger bit I can get holes as deep as I can at the bottom of my hand dug holes. Then fill those with rocks. Just to give the soil around the roots some "Drain holes" like a potted plant.
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Borrowed auger. Gonna need an extension to really get deep to put in a gravel "drain" at the bottom like I was planning.
Attached File Pecan holes mostly dug. Attached File |
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Holes pretty much done
No clue if this pea gravel drain chimney at the bottom of the hole idea is going to work. We'll see. Basic layout: Attached File 15' spacing on apples 25'+ on pecans Trees going in ground tomorrow come hell or high water. Supposed to get a good rain tomorrow night/early tuesday morning. Also, TSC had Meyer Lemons! Got one. Will probably just put it in a bigger pot and keep it as a potted tree so I can wheel it into the garage if there's ever a bad freeze. Will probably get a small lime tree for a pollinator and do the same. |
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Hmm, will have to check TSC for the Meyer Limes tomorrow.
My lemon tree is just about to bloom. During the winter it lives on a cart so I can roll it into the shop when it gets cold. Semper Fi |
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got the pecans and one of the apples in.
Pro-tip: don't pre-dig your apple tree holes. I did WAY more work than I needed to. Dug them 2-3 times deeper than necessary. Had to backfill quite a bit before I could plant. Ran out of daylight. Went ahead and staked the trees with guyed wires, since we're supposed to get some decent wind tomorrow. Did not use any sulfur on the soil. The peat moss I modified the soil with is very low ph so I'm just going to let that work and see what it reads in 6 weeks and use sulfur from there if necessary. Good grief, modding heavy clay soil SUCKS. I put the bucket on my tractor and drove it up to the hole so I'd have a mixing bucket. Then shoveled in native clay soil and added about 20% peat moss. That caliche clay mixed soil is so sticky that it is a real chore breaking it up and mixing it with the peat moss. if I had to do it over again, I might have gotten a cement mixer or something and used that to mix it up Pics maybe tomorrow |
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Got all the bare root trees in. One Pink Lady (potted) and one Anna (potted) coming up tomorrow.
Coming together. The first anna and golden delicious already had buds on them. Those are going to be early early bloomers. Attached File Attached File |
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Peaches are good, so are nectarines and pears.
Have had horrible luck with apples in the past, Some sort of mold/fungus kills them off pretty quickly and no amount of fungicide helps. We grow key limes in 15 gallon pots, they survive well except for about three months out of the year when they go into the greenhouse. If they bud early, there is a good chance a light frost will kill off the buds and you'll get no fruit that year. They need to be covered to prevent that. Plant some cucumbers and get into pickle making. That's my plan for this year. |
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Quoted: Peaches are good, so are nectarines and pears. Have had horrible luck with apples in the past, Some sort of mold/fungus kills them off pretty quickly and no amount of fungicide helps. We grow key limes in 15 gallon pots, they survive well except for about three months out of the year when they go into the greenhouse. If they bud early, there is a good chance a light frost will kill off the buds and you'll get no fruit that year. They need to be covered to prevent that. Plant some cucumbers and get into pickle making. That's my plan for this year. View Quote Cotton root rot aka Texas root rot. I'm crossing my fingers on it not being a problem. We'll see. I'm trying to modify my soil so the it is slightly acidic. cotton root rot likes alkaline soil. I do want to plant a couple of peaches. I'm running out of room in the yard for full sun, tho. Further toward the gate by the 5 ton maybe. There's a water line running somewhere in there tho. |
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find some sanbokan and keraji lemons, they are sweet, like lemonade.
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Attached File
Attached File Attached File Anna and dorsett golden apples are very early bloomers Probably going to cut down that sick mesquite on the end and put a raised bed there. Or maybe the potted citrus plants. I put an earli grande peach instead of another anna on the second row. Might order a tropic snow peach, too. Gotta be careful for room now. I think its starting to look pretty good. Next up, trenching in irrigation line. |
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Picked up a Red Baron peach from the nursery. In a pot, going to plant it in a few days when this cold yuck weather abates.
250 chill hours but a little later ripening than the Earligrande. The apples vary in harvest between late june for the annas and d. golden, to sept and october for the fuji, to octover/november for the Pink lady. Earligrande is supposed to start harvest in early May, Red Baron harvest is mid July to August. Assuming everything produces at least something, that's fresh fruit for a full 6 months out of the year. Not accounting for the citrus which I am told can produce fruit year round, kinda/sorta depending on the weather. Was going to pick up a tropic snow peach too, (very low chill hours, supposed to be a GREAT tasting peach) but they didn't have any. |
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Anna and Dorsett Golden are really blooming well now. Fujis just barely have a couple of tiny green sprouts as of today. Peaches aren't doing anything yet. Pink Lady apple lost all its leaves, like it thinks its fall. Dunno what that one is going to do.
I added some 4" sewer and drain pvc (flexible enough to spread by hand after ripped down length on tablesaw) to protect trunks from rabbits Spread 2 oz of sulfur on top of soil and watered in. Next up, irrigation. Attached File |
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Bump to keep it alive.
OP, I'm a year behind you, so I'm curious to see how this turns out. |
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There was a time when the Rio grande valley was citrus trees (orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit) as far as the eye could see.
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Quoted: Bump to keep it alive. OP, I'm a year behind you, so I'm curious to see how this turns out. View Quote Only real update is everything has started to bloom. The low chill hour stuff first, the higher chill hour stuff a little later. The Anna and Dorsett Golden were starting to bloom at the end of January/early February. They're both going strong. If I add more apple trees, it will be some more of those. The Fujis started growing out maybe 2 weeks ago. Earligrande peach started blooming out maybe 3 weeks ago. Red Baron maybe a week ago. Pink Lady apple has only just barely started budding out. The pecans are only just now starting to bud out. The Desireable maybe a week or so ago. The Nacono and Choctaw only in the past day or so. The citrus trees are transferred into some big 25 gallon molasses tubs. I will probably keep them there indefinitely. I want to be able to roll them onto a pallet and tote them into shelter during a freeze. Citrus trees (meyer lemon, key lime, and satsuma orange) were all blossoming when I got them from the nursery. They're doing good, native bees are already visiting them. I started to dig trench for irrigation lines but... I'm pushing 40 and not in good shape. I'm just going to rent a trencher and get a bunch of other stuff done at the same time bury the water line to the chicken coop among other things). |
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Quoted: There was a time when the Rio grande valley was citrus trees (orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit) as far as the eye could see. View Quote That's what they tell me. I think citrus does fine for years... right up until one of these hard freezes we get every 5 or 10 years. Hence... I'm keeping the citrus in big buckets so I can move them inside during cold weather. I've got some old metal pallets from 40mm ammo can auction win years ago. I might just put them on those so I can literally just pick them up with the forks when I need to move them. |
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Quoted: That's what they tell me. I think citrus does fine for years... right up until one of these hard freezes we get every 5 or 10 years. Hence... I'm keeping the citrus in big buckets so I can move them inside during cold weather. I've got some old metal pallets from 40mm ammo can auction win years ago. I might just put them on those so I can literally just pick them up with the forks when I need to move them. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: There was a time when the Rio grande valley was citrus trees (orange, lime, lemon, grapefruit) as far as the eye could see. That's what they tell me. I think citrus does fine for years... right up until one of these hard freezes we get every 5 or 10 years. Hence... I'm keeping the citrus in big buckets so I can move them inside during cold weather. I've got some old metal pallets from 40mm ammo can auction win years ago. I might just put them on those so I can literally just pick them up with the forks when I need to move them. I believe they lasted for decades. As for their demise, I think it was the big hurricane in the 80s (can’t remember the name) followed by a couple of hard freezes soon thereafter. All I remember was that it went from. Solid citrus to nada, within a few years. |
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I've been walking our fruit trees every couple of days.
So far it looks like we lost one peach and both of our apple trees. Just no signs of life on any of the three. Was really hoping that the apples would do well. We're on sandy soil with a hard clay layer underneath. The trees were all planted in large holes with native soil mixed with bagged potting soil and fruit tree fertilizer. I put in a drip irrigation system shortly after getting the trees in the ground. Might make a trip to a local nursery and see what they have to replace the dead ones. Am also currently marking volunteer cedars, oaks, pecans and a lone pine for later relocation. Semper Fi |
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Quoted: I've been walking our fruit trees every couple of days. So far it looks like we lost one peach and both of our apple trees. Just no signs of life on any of the three. Was really hoping that the apples would do well. We're on sandy soil with a hard clay layer underneath. The trees were all planted in large holes with native soil mixed with bagged potting soil and fruit tree fertilizer. I put in a drip irrigation system shortly after getting the trees in the ground. Might make a trip to a local nursery and see what they have to replace the dead ones. Am also currently marking volunteer cedars, oaks, pecans and a lone pine for later relocation. Semper Fi View Quote How long were they planted? Bare root or potted? |
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So... looks like some apples already? On the Anna and Dorsett Golden
Attached File Attached File Also... any clue what these gangbangin degenerate insects are? I'm guessing they're not good for the tree. Attached File |
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