Welcome Jim. I have an Alaskan brother who just moved to New Hampshire- he might have moved to Tucson instead but he and wife wanted to be near the daughter who just had twins in NH. His wife was happy to leave, but he is in love with Alaska.
He’s coming down here to my place in SE NY to pick up some fruit trees from my nursery in NOV. He and his wife have about a 4 decade pent up desire to grow fruit.
This is quite a change for me. It snowed in Anchorage a couple of days ago. Meanwhile, I’m planting 3 citrus trees in 106F temp.
I flew down two weeks ago, headed back tomorrow. I need to winterize the gardens - empty out the green house, put plants in the root celler to winter them over, pull up the dalhlia tubers etc. Oh yeah, gotta go back to work.
One of my brothers moved to south of Tuson. He likes it there.
Welcome, Jim. Wow! That’s a drastic change between living in Anchorage and Phoenix. We did the working/commuting gig for over 14 years, with the job being in Indianapolis while home was in S.C. The difference was that the job changed locations and home stayed put. There are positives and negatives to that sort of thing.
I really like that you replaced the oak with useful trees that you enjoy. Here’s wishing you many fruitful years of bounteous harvests!
Welcome Jim. Hope you enjoy your new home. Bill
Jim…
Welcome to the party…ALASKA & ARIZONA …
Like having one foot in a bucket of ICE WATER and the the other in BOILING WATER … on the average you are comfortable!
Mike
Thanks for the welcome! Let’s see, the average for freezing and boiling is 122F. Yup, sounds like Phoenix alright.
Good to see you here Jim! Jim was on the DWN forums, where we met.
Drew
Good to hear from you again. I’m back in Anchorage now.
I was was working out of town almost summer, so the yard was pretty much neglected all summer. Still a lot survived on it’s own. The weeds sure got out of control.
Things have pretty much shutdown for the winter. There are some berries still on the currect, gooseberry and service bushes. The raspberry & strawberries are done. The 2 pear trees I planted actually produced fruit this year, need to harvest them and see if they ripen up. No fruit on any of the 6 apple trees I planted 15 months ago, but the trees put on some good growth. The branches are pretty vertical, so I need to pull them down.
Rain is predicted for the week, but the weekend looks good. I should be able to get it all buttoned up for the winter.
Jim
Welcome Jim! :0)
My name is Dax and I still go by gardener365 on GW.
I’ve been around woody plants for appx. 18-years and have shifted my interests from ornamentals to nut trees and fruit trees as of the last couple of years.
I look forward to learning from this group and adding what I’ve learned mainly about nut trees over the course of the past 2+ years.
I am a grafter and am very comfortable either bench or field grafting. I’ve made several grafting videos on youtube under the name: coniferblacklab
Several of my new videos I have been the cameraman for my good friend Gary Fernald of Monmouth, IL. Gary was the past president of the ‘Iowa Nut Growers Association’ for a very long time and is a wealth of knowledge for me and for others either on the www or the grafting demonstrations he puts on, or, tours of his collections.
My youtube videos are here:
Thanks,
Dax
Welcome Dax
Welcome, Dax. You’ll see lots of familiar members from GW here, along with others. I’m looking forward to reading your input on nut growing, grafting, and growing in general.
I’m not an expert on anything except maybe how not to do things. I’ve got years of experience in that area. 
But that’s changing. Thanks to many people here, I’ve gradually been able to once again start enjoying the fruits of my labors.
Thank you kindly… both of you.
This spring I grafted many cultivars of pecan and hicans and came thru with at least one of each. I got 82 successful grafts. My problem is where I’m going t plant them. I already had the ornamentals bug and filled my six-acres, so… I’ll be planting them in a wooded area that is dominated by Silver maple but was once hickory, I’m quite sure. I judge that on the basis that my soil is: hickory silt loam.
I’d cut down the entire chunk of Maples, Poplar, Willow, etc- but my Mother is against doing so. So again, in the meantime I’ll plant these amongst the junk trees and as time passes and the roots get kicking into high gear, I’ll slowly weed out what’s there. It will give me plenty of room to return it to something I’ll like and what was once native.
Dax
Dax,
Welcome. Happy to see another “nut” enthusiast around here.
Welcome, Dax! Very glad to have you join us. I think you’ll really enjoy this forum. We have a great mix of experts, hobbyists, and novice growers. Very nice group of folks, here.
Welcome on board, Dax.
Now you can look up Scott’s Apple report 2005-2015 to your heart’s content.
Hi Matt, I was reading a post of yours yesterday where you foraged for hickory nuts in the woods. Having Lucky_P on this group is a valuable asset. I too thought when I looked at your photos you had a hican. It looked to be shagbark x pecan. Of those did any crack and shell halves or quarters, or were the dorsal grooves within the shell holding the kernel intact?
Hello Hoosier! Indiana basketball and “the legend” Larry Bird were “Gods” in my home along with Jack Nicholson, growing up. My Dad is a Purdue graduate. The many times we stopped in Terre Haute at Larry Bird’s Boston Connection on our way to Purdue basketball games and the Indianapolis 500 is something I will always remember. I was in the gift shop at Larry’s Boston Connection and his brother happened to be in there and he’s a twin of Larry. Looking forward to meeting more of you from the old GW. Many/most of you I didn’t have much of a rapport with since I was a regular on the Conifers and Trees forum.
mamuang - I’ll be looking for that report. Still getting a sense of navigating the site. Kindest thanks for the welcome.
Best regards,
Dax
The grooves held the kernel. Very hard to get the nutmeats out-- even with the wire-clippers. Best I could get was the occassional quarter of nutmeat extracted and intact.
It is a very wild area that hadn’t been logged or distirbed in at least 70 years. I have no reason to believe they are anything except pure hickories. I have shagbark, pignut, and mockernut on my property.
Thanks Matt… always looking for that next one hopefully with a thin shell and cracks well.
I’m 15 miles I’d say from the Mississippi River and across it toward Burlington, IA is an area of shellbark hickory that if I spent my entire life I’d likely never crack a nut from each tree. There’s a lot of work-potential there to find new cultivars. I really need a GPS that pinpoints to feet rather than 10-20 feet from a tree. I’ve been attempting to use my Garmin GPS for my vehicle, but upon returning to trees, it’s too far off. But these other GPS’s are very-very expensive.
Dax
I went to school with Magic Johnson, class of 81 MSU. It was always good to see Bird and Magic together. Best games ever, and still are as far as I’m concerned. Welcome btw!