You know you are growing far too many varieties when

… there is a variety you thought you did not have, and in the next minute you bump into a 5-year old graft of it about to produce, and you notice it is in fact crowding out the variety you thought you had there but had not (yet) noticed the main variety had been reduced to a stick and the forgotten graft was now almost the whole tree…

37 Likes

My Stanley is that way.

1 Like
  • You obtain a “new” variety, only to realize you already have it…

  • Even with a map, it takes you half an hour to find the variety you are looking for…

  • Forum members remember varieties you have, which you didn’t remember you had…

  • You have more varieties than friends you know…

  • You read variety descriptions in nursery catalogs like it’s front page news…

39 Likes

Haha, I think I have done all of those at some point myself, Mark!

Another problem I have is crossed wires, two varieties that somehow got mixed up in my head and I keep repeating the same mix-up…

Josephine des Malines and Fondante de Moulins-Lille (The obscure French with “de” factor I guess)
Wabash and Marias Joy (two excellent-tasting pawpaws I got in the same year)
the different AU plums (the names are so bland they don’t stick in my head)
etc etc

3 Likes

All the “Buerre” pears

1 Like

Lol. No such thing as too many varieties I think.

3 Likes

Haaaaaaa this made my day. It is so hard to translate the look I get from DH when, while perusing my fruit catalogues, I feel the need to share the finer points of an apple out loud while he is watching hockey.

6 Likes

I called my daughter my wife’s name the other day…half the time i forget their names and just say you or whatever your name is///stop that. A+ parent here :wink:

5 Likes

For those of us into riding bicycles, we have a similar formula as fruit tree enthusiasts. The formula is simply N+1, where N is the number of bicycles currently owned, and N+1 is the optimal number of bikes to own.

In your case however, in the formula, replace bicycles with fruit tree varieties and this is how you arrived at your present predicament. However, keep in mind that your current number of varieties has not satisfied the N+1 formula so you will need to acquire another variety at the minimum.

5 Likes

I’m also a trumpet player and the same “N+1” rule is commonly talked about there… I have been trying to be a good boy and sell one when I buy one. Trumpets (and bikes!) are a little more expensive and spouses get a little more unhappy about the goodies piling up.

3 Likes

…someone tells you that you have grafted more than what your tree can take, stop talking to them. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life!

16 Likes

I’ve made this same mistake with those two varieties, at least a couple times in the last few months.

The nursery itself mixed two of those up for me…Two labels on one AU and none on the other.

Joe,

What is the understock tree?

Tony

the very base understock is green leaf Prunus cerasifera, and to it, was grafted a purple-leaf ornamental P. cerasifera, and then unto it I grafted Hollywood plum (P. salicina) and the one on the top are various kinds of European plums, P. domestica. Sometimes on one limb, I have about 7 different kinds of cultivars connected one after another to form the limb… grafted along the way as the tree grew. The tree is now 9 years old. I now realized I wasslacking oiff… only 7 in one limb after 9 years. :blush:

We are in an area that sometimes receive marginal chilling hours, so I have to be creative to make the multi-grafted tree bear much fruit, even with high-chilling hours cultivars. I grafted the high chilling hours, particularly the European plums on the top because frost formation always starts at the top of the trees. meaning that they will receive more chilling hours than the ones below. Moreover, the European plums are among the last ones to wake up from slumber… So by grafting on the top, they’re assured of receiving sunlight and not shaded out. They are also grafted on the south side of the tree for the same reason that they’re the last ones to leaf out, so they won’t be shaded by the others.

3 Likes

“we need another apple tree”

tree arrives and there is no place to put it

7 Likes

Buying a tree to get a scion, then giving the parent tree away after grafting.

9 Likes

buying a tree to put scions on, then when you’re done there’s no original branches left so you’ve got to graft a cut branch back to its mama

4 Likes

No such thing, just like you can never have too many books.
The only varieties that you shouldn’t have are the ones you don’t like AND can’t share with someone who does.

2 Likes

When you check the map to see what you planted in what row before you grafted it over the 3rd time.

2 Likes

When you tell people how many varieties you are growing and they say, “I didn’t know that many varieties existed.”

1 Like