Sounds like a really nice pond to fish in, lol.
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The black crappie are a bonus but they don’t do great against the bass. Most years they lose because when the bluegill get away and get to big to eat the bass still eat frogs, crawdads etc but the crappie only eat bugs and minnows so they don’t always get enough to eat in the summer. The bass can eat a fish 3/4 their size and a crappie is limited to minnows. A 5 pound bass can easily eat a 2 pound bass or full grown bullfrog, bird whatever. I keep the crappie as a predator because if the bluegill population ever got to growing to much it would be hard to stop them. I have blue cat in there to but I’m dreading catching them because they are huge by now. They are hard on fishing poles when they get like that. I also want them to breed before I catch them all so there are submerged cream cans in the pond for that. Whatever part of the fish I don’t eat goes towards raising the next crop of tomatoes and corn.
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Some of the best pond fishing I have ever done was up your way. The ponds here are just to small.
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How long since you grafted? I’m about ten days on mine and they have swollen buds. I think mine would still have swelled even if they were not connected to the rootstock. Hard to tell whats from scion energy or from the graft. Hopefully mine start leafing out soon. Good luck, and what sweet cherry are showing?
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Johnny,
I grafted them 11 days ago. I don’t recall what the several varieties are since it’s more just for practice for me. I’ve never successfully done a sweet cherry only sour cherries. Sweet cherries are very hard to grow here. I grew a black tartarian 15 years ago for the first time. I tried for years before that, My temporary success was short lived and the top died back before it fruited. Sweet cherries will grow here if you grow them on a mound, if they have enough water and the list goes on. People do grow them but most lose them to canker within 3 years.
Like Mamuang, I saw AntMary’s post and grafted early (a few days before I started apples and pears), on 4/16. It’s been almost a month now and most look pretty good. This is the first time I’ve grafted cherries- I’ve done the other stonefruit before, so I figured cherries could be a bit tricky, but so far, so good.
Some sweet cherry grafts on a Newroot1 rootstock (left over after the Black Tartarian died):
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Bob, they definitely started to grow, good luck! My early grafted scions grew really big by now. I’ll make pictures tomorrow. I have 100% survival with sweet cherries. Even the cherry grafted on Nadia took, although it seems to grow somewhat slower.
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Nice grafts, Mamuang. I am glad they are growing for you.
Here are my grafts. The next two pictures will be for the ones grafted at the third week of March. They are big and are awkward to capture on camera. White gold and Stella, I think.
Here are the ones grafted on the first week of April. Kristin and Utah giant.
Here is the White gold grafted on Nadia on the 3rd or 4th week of March. It does not grow that vigorously comparing with the ones grafted on cherry tree.
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I may have to try the early grafting method again though I have tried a few times before. The grafts using Antmary’s method look wonderful! You guys are doing a great job! I think the sweet cherries will grow here now that I know all the tricks about growing them on mounds, spraying dormant copper, summer pruning, etc. There is a lot to know about growing sweet cherries the right way in my area. I will let you guys know how it turns out once the grafts are further a long. Does the graft weep for awhile or will that heal up the first year? Mine are not weeping yet but my plums and other stone fruits always weep around the graft union until they heal in the summer. I’m going to paint these with pruning seal this year I think.
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Maria and Annie,
Your grafts grow like gangbusters. Great job.
thanks。beginner‘ luck perhaps😀
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I guess I once had a wild sweet cherry I ordered from Sandusky nursery that did pretty good that was destroyed by fire with a dozen or so other good trees. They didn’t burn the fire just passed by in the grass and killed them. It didn’t count as a sweet cherry like the ones such as stella, lapins and others offerred today with the great big cherries. Many are now more resistant to canker and other problems according to what I have read. So I suppose I should not say I haven’t had great luck with sweet cherries but I never did raise the kind of cherries I buy from The store. The neighbor that caught the field on fire is no longer allowed to burn papers in her barrel as the wind was 40 mph that day. We will see how well these grow before I start thinking about anything more. Last time I tried dormant scions and early grafting was 2014 and I ordered stella or Lapins from Bob Purvis but I don’t remember which. The scions were nice but the weather was uncooperative that year. I know a couple of people here that raise the penny sized sweet cherries but like I said those are not the meaty big sweet cherries I’m talking about wanting to grow.
In case anyone wants to know how my sweet cherry grafts are doing here are a couple of pictures. I have a lot to learn about grafting sweet cherries! My take rate as you can see was not very good which I attribute to the rootstocks, roller coaster weather, and some flaws in my sweet cherry grafting method. These grafts were for practice so I will continue to practice at it until I get it down. I will need to find a sweet cherry I can grow well here before I consider trying to grow a row of them. Sweet cherries are not something you can buy and expect to live without you have a lot of experience in Kansas. They are difficult to grow long term in the locations that grow them all the time due to canker, leaf diseases, pests etc… I will be a hobbyist when it comes to sweet cherries for a while yet. The Kansas soil will drown them unless you build mounds like this one is growing on I built many years ago. I don’t know anyone that grows the big stella / Lapins type cherries in Kansas like what I want to but I know many who have tried. I have friends and see others in the area that grow the tiny ones or grow them and they don’t fruit etc.
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Clark, congratulations on sweet cherries, it looks like they started to grow. Our agricultural extension recommends to grow only sour cherries, but not sweet ones. My single Vandalay sweet cherry tree grows like crazy. Tons of new growth. Last year I had OFM all season long and the multiple strikes did not let the tree to grow much. This year we have no OFM… Where did it go? It is a mystery. All my grafts have huge growth by now. I removed the holding tape and secured them with skewers. They went through severe thunderstorms and are holding well. One graft will probably fail because of the damaged graft union. I have only a handful of cherries from both sweet and sour cherry trees, so they are not really productive so far. The whole idea of grafting cherries was to improve pollination and production. Next year we’ll see if it works.
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Antmary,
Vandalay seems like a really good one http://www.raintreenursery.com/Vandalay-Cherry-Gisela-5-SPRING.html. I’m reading up on descriptions since we have canker and other problems here and to account for pollination http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg/stone/variety-selection/cherry-varieties/self-fertile. Been getting some description information here as well http://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/cherry-trees.
Clark, I have a Vandalay for 6 years now in the Northeast, next to Black Gold. Both from Raintree an Gisela 5 . Not sure what it tastes like. Crack like crazy and rot before I got to them.
After 3 consecutive years of subzero temp, Vandalay did not flower as much or set as many fruit as Black Gold, like not even close. If I were to do it again, I would plant BG and WG and maybe other pearl series.
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Mamuang,
I really appreciate that. Your advice is always very valuable to me. Growing conditions from area to area can really make a difference on how things grow. Thank you
