Tropic Snow and Desert Delight about to bloom. 6GM25 cherry just about to leaf out.
I planted 10 bare root cherries today from groworganic. 6 on zdwarf and 4 on colt. They where all big nice trees with great roots. 2 each of Rainer, Stella, Craig’s crimson, Utah giant and lapins
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That picture is deceiving. Are you on your knees or in a hole? If that’s a hole you dig the deepest planting holes I’ve ever seen for a barefoot tree!
He gotta be on his knees. Can’t imagine a guy digging a hole that deep. When ever I ask my husband to dig a hole for a tree, he digs a couple of inches deep hole. I have to tell him to keep digging. Next season I’m just going to dig my own holes!
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I am on my knees. Since it is my obsession and not the wife’s it’s the other way around for me, always having to prod her to get her to dig deeper
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When we put our 8 pecan whips in the pasture last year, we had to dig thru some rocky soil. My wife helped with some if not most of the digging, and we had to do that with a pick axe! I said we’d plant 3 or 4, but thought we ought to just put them all in the ground that day.
Since the pecans have a long tap root we had to dig almost two feet deep. Wow, that was a lot of digging. Mrs Dood prob would’ve buried me if I asked her dig any more of those holes!
A week later we got our fruit trees and planted 15 bare root whips. That wasn’t as bad as the soil was a bit easier to dig, and the root ball was shallower, but we were out there planting those things after dark under a spotlight. Lots of work, but satisfying to see them bud out a month later.
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Costco had Nagami Kumquats trees for $9.99 today.
Was not really looking for a Nagami but couldn’t turn it down for the price. Maybe use it as a rootstock for another citrus I want?
Any citrus grafting incompatibilities I should know about before I start? I’m going to try and graft Dekopon on the kumquat I just bought and Pixie on a Meyer lemon I don’t really care for.
I’ve had great success with stone fruit grafts but zero success with citrus. Ready to try again.
Thanks.
Donny, there are incompatibilities with scion and rootstock, just not sure about scion to scion. That might act as an interstem, and reduce/eliminate incompatibilities. Here are some references for you:
http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/citrus_rootstock/Rootstock_Literature/Rootstocks%20for%20Florida%20Citrus.pdf
http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/links/documents/Bitters.pdf (this is the definitive document on citrus/rootstocks)
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While at the big box store I picked a few crab apples off their tree in the parking lot. I cleaned up the seeds and put them in a ziplock bag with a damp paper towel. I have been watching this tree for several years. I always park near it. I like the size and shape of it so I am going to grow out the seeds for rootstocks. I have them in the garage so they can finish stratification. I have done this before with the same tree about four years ago. They grew to about a foot tall in pots. I had left them out though and they died from freeze during the winter. I’ll bring them in this time. I realize they probably are on rootstocks but it should still be a good chance they will be similar. I have about twenty pots in the garage now. Mostly figs and new trees. I keep trying to plant rootstocks that I buy but I always want to make one more tree, lol! I have fifteen rootstocks coming from Raintree. The five that are K1 I;m going to try and use the part that gets cut off when grafting to make cuttings for rooting. I will see if they root and if they do what a way to cycle rootstock.
Was just told that Dekopon is not available right now to individuals that are not associated with citrus nurseries. They might have more over the summer though it sounds like.
Okay I started the seven peach seeds I had in the fridge. I found a good way to crack the shells is to use a channel lock set of pliers. I opened them up to a large enough setting so the seed wouldn’t get crushed with them all the way closed. That way I could just squeeze hard and fast with my other hand cupped around the shell to catch them. I must have saved three apricot seeds too. There was three 1/4 the size. I brought my apple seeds back in the house. They have had plenty of chill hours. Silly me counted days instead of hours, lol!
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Might want to wait until the bark is slipping for better odds. That would be June where I live.
If there is active growth, is the bark slipping? Right now the Meyer Lemon is sending out a lot of new growth.
Yes it probably is slipping. You can find out by cutting down to the wood and checking to see if the bark peels off. Do it somewhere other than where you want to graft. Then bind up the cut with a rubber band or tape so it can heal over.
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Agree with Dan, here. It is important to be at bark slipping temps, or you simply will not have success. For me in my area (10b/Sunset 23), that’s usually April through about September (later than that, things can get chilly enough at night to make grafts fail). Citrus grafting is probably one of the more challenging fruit grafting I think. So, don’t feel too badly, you’re in good company. Fruitnut gives you a great explanation, and yes, it is will coincide with new flush starting to push out.
Patty S.
Thanks, I’ll order some budwood from CCPP, try in a few weeks and then save some scions just in case and try again if needed later in the spring.
My first flower of the year. This is on dapple supreme, so hopefully I will get some fruit. It will be 3rd season in ground
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Well it’s pouring rain today. So much for that flower lol.