Our Cortland is supposed to be an M7 tree, just like the Macoun you might’ve seen in another thread. I got both of them from a nursery in Wisconsin, and they said they’re M7. @alan saw the burr knots on my Macoun, and said he’s seen that more on M111. So, which knows what RS the Cortland has.
It’s been in the ground two years and seems to be doing alright, although it hasn’t grown as much as the Macoun, which really took off last year. The C doesn’t have as thick branches as the M. But, it does have more branches on the lower part of the trunk unlike the M.
Maybe @alan could comment on the tendencies of Cortland. The variety was developed in NY, and is widely grown there.
Yes, tulip tree and magnolia are both used frequently to describe the blooms in the post from Georgia.
(Which is why the scientific community use Latin names…no confusion that way:
Liriodendron is the tulip poplar and Magnolia x (whatever the specific cultivar) is , well, the magnolia.
There are hundreds of cultivated varieties of magnolias anymore. The familiar evergreen Southern Magnolia (magnolia grandiflora) is but one small segment of the worldwide group of magnolias and their hybrids.
I just wanted to complain for a second. My combo pear tree I bought from Stark Bros. a few years back is a hot mess and I have no idea how to fix it. The central leader broke off last summer due to borers. I went out to do some pruning last night and the tree has turned itself into an open center tree. There are multiple water sprouts, all growing straight up and into the center of the tree. I understand I could bend these, but that would direct them into the new scaffold branches of the open center. I chopped those water sprouts off. I guess I’ll go with what my tree is offering and make it an open center tree. I spent a good hour reading about pear pruning and still it seems hard to understand. I feel like the tree will just try and grow straight up now after losing its central leader and me pruning out about 5 water sprouts. Okay, I feel better, wanted to get that off my chest.
Moving forward, can I pinch out the unwanted water sprouts during the summer to limit their growth?
Yesterday I went to the garden to retrieve all of last years grafts that I buried and covered with leaves and I’m glad I did. There was so much rain it flooded the whole area where I had them buried, enough to totally submerge the pots they were in. I was pulling them out to bring them in the house to put under lights anyway. I am glad I did not procrastinate this time.
I know under the lights they will dry out but I would like to speed up the process and was thinking about rinsing all of the medium off the trees and sticking them in some drier medium bare root or option number 2 is to put them all in a larger tub without the small pots and just put drier Promix all around them to absorb the excess water.
Any suggestions are appreciated. There are 32 trees all in 1 gal pots.
I just got a notice about this question. What do you want to know about Cortlandt. I know how to manage mature trees but I don’t have much experience bringing young trees into bearing with it- it’s not one I grow in my nursery. I did a crappy job of bringing three of them into production at the only site I’ve been called on to do so, but I think the trees may be on seedling rootstocks and planted too close.
I was responding to @applebacon’s question about them, since we both have this variety.
I guess the question is what kind of tree is it in regards to how soon does it come into production, and does it tend to be a slow grower? Plus, what kind of structure does it tend to have? You’ve mentioned how Macoun tends to be a bit unconventional, but is Cortland more of a “normal” type tree? I know both are Mac offspring, but act quite different.
As an aside I hear the terms precocious and vigorous discussed a lot here. What is the difference, does the latter term refer to how quickly it produces fruit whereas vigor means how quickly does it grow? Just because a tree is vigorous, doesn’t necessarily mean it fruits sooner, correct?
Precocious and vigorous tend to be the opposite, the most vigorous trees often are the slowest to come into bearing and trees that spur up young and produce fruit tend to be naturally dwarfing.
Cortlandt falls in the middle of the spectrum. It is fairly grower friendly and tends to produce flowers on 2’year wood of moderately vigorous uprights- just like Macintosh and Macoun, but Cort also produces a lot of weepy weak spur wood that can bear decent fruit if you keep it rotating, eliminating the oldest and weakest spurs. None of this will make sense, however, until your tree is mature enough to demonstrate these traits.
I know where to buy same boots, Tippy! We have new Tractor Supply store opened in Westborough, on Ocean Job’s Lot plaza - they sell them there, very comfy, by the way, I tried)
I used to order chicks in the mail - from out in MO somewhere. It was so much fun to get the catalog and choose the breeds. My neighbor and I went in, together, on it - and when we got the call from the Post Office, that the chicks had arrived . . . we’d get all our kids (all 3 of them!) together and divvy the little guys up. We never could tell exactly ‘who was who’ so we came up with a plan. First one kid would choose one. Then it was the next kid’s turn . . . etc.
We always got straight run - so ended up with some ornery roosters. Our favorite were the Silver Spangled Hamburgs. We had one we called ‘Tennessee Tuxedo’. He was around for a long time.
We had Buff Orpingtons - Wyandottes - Minorcas - Auracanas - Speckled Sussex - Austrolorps and (my personal favorite) Plymouth Rocks. The kids had an egg route! It was a lot of fun!
Tractor Supply is where I got mine. I’ve added an orthotic and the are comfy and I’ve worn the heck out of them. In fact one has a crack in it so I guess I get to get a new pair. One of the best things about the polka dots is I have a matching umbrella for those times I have to wear them to wade (or ski/skate) the parking lot at work!!
Thanks, Galina.
Last year, I went to the one in Millbury. I did not rememer if they carried colorful boots. I bought a boring pair for spraying. I will check the one in Westboough out,
Thanks. Yes, the branches on my Cortland are thinner than they are on most of the other varieties. But there is more of them and they seem to be more spaced more symmetrical around the trunk, and aren’t as upright like Macoun.
The only other variety we have that has a similar trait is Grimes Golden.
LOL - I’m sort of glad that they don’t carry a ‘Chicken Umbrella’! I look goofy enough with them on my feet! I have seen the polka dot ones at Tractor Supply, too. The ones I have are called ‘Sloggers’ - and I’ve only seen them in Garden Supply and hardware stores. Are the polka dots Sloggers, too?
The orthotics DO make them really comfy. And they fit a lot better with them, too.
