I have never hit “like” so many times on one thread. These are all just exactly the kinds of stories I needed to hear. And when you have experts like many of you are admitting to so many “mistakes” it really does give novices like me a little hope that we aren’t the only one do screw things up occasionally (ok…frequently). This is a nice humorous diversion from the frustrations that often go with fruit growing!
In the interest of full disclosure, as I stated in the OP, this thread was not an original idea. As Muddy pointed out and I alluded to, @marknmt did one a while back. Apparently we all screw up enough to fill SEVERAL threads with these great stories! ha
Yesterday I went out and removed a rootstock sucker from my potted Gerardi mulberry. I was very excited because this was its second year and it was already 4’ tall and had some fruit set. I briefly considered letting the rootstock sucker grow out a bit because it also had surprisingly decent amount of fruit set but I figured the fruit quality would be terrible and just pruned it off.
I really didn’t want the root stock sucker to come back (I could tell it had also grown last year) so I cut it as flush to the branch collar as I could. That’s when I noticed the missing graft union between the rootstock and the scion. Turns out that I have been growing out the root stock for 2 years and pruning out the Gerardi scion that had been desperately trying to grow back.
Took me two readings before I caught on! How frustrating for you. I’ve done that kind of thing so often and it just drives me nuts. I hope you can get your Gerardi grafted back to the root stock -any chance of that?
I have had many:
Grafting peach on a pear (not working)
Grafting apples on pears (no interstem. Working and fruiting)
Grafting plum up side down ( it took)
Recently, rooting fig up side down ( it rooted)
I wish I could claim that I was experimenting. In fact, I just did not pay good enough attention!
Oh man! Message me in the fall if you need a stick. A generous member passed on a Gerardi tree to me.
I tried branch bending to spread out a pear tree and ended up splitting it down the middle of the trunk. I tied it back together and wrapped the injured area with a ton of parafilm. The tree somehow healed itself before the end of the summer.
Yeah that’s exactly what I tried as soon as I realized my mistake. The tree was fully leafed out and I probably should have left a nurse branch but oh well, well see how things turn out in a week or so.
I can’t remember. It was a Japanese plum grafted to Shiro. It took a couple of weeks longer to grow than other correctly grafted scionwood. I did not keep it long because it grew so slowly.
The apples on pears I kept for 3 years. It fruited and grew vigorously,
Grafted on regular mulberry stock, Gerardi will be dwarf, as that is what I had (I eventually saw a sucker from the rootstock and it had a different type of leaf). But, it won’t dwarf other varieties that are grafted onto it, as they would grow by 6-10 feet per year…At this point, I am in favor of making every mulberry (with special exceptions) into a Gerardi, just due to the maintenance.
Right now, I have 2 non-Gerardi, a Kokuso and an Oscar. Both are in my front yard along the street and and act as a privacy screen. Last year I went up and pruned them all quite harshly. I haven’t done it this spring and probably should. Last year I was able to get away with hand tools, but this year I will probably end up using a chain saw.
I suspect you must have talked about this on here somewhere before, but if so I missed it. So you are saying you grafted apple wood to a pear without winter banana or other interstem and it not only lived but has stayed viable long enough to fruit??? WOW! That is so neat. What varieties?
I don’t know… When I moved into my current house I saw a squirrel through my window. I went out and I swear I have never seen a critter that size move so fast. Later I learned that my neighbor was in the habit of sniping them with a pellet gun.
Those squirrels have learn that going after fruit is not worth dying.
I have 9 apple trees, 4 cherry, 2 plum, 3 bush cherries, 4 haskaps, about to put down the second saskatoon, 2 grape vines, hooseberies, currants, jostas, seaberries, starting kiwis, raspberry patch, plus some other stuff I’m sure I’m forgetting, and putting more down as we speak.
Basically it is a race on how much I can put on the ground before I realize I have no clue what to do with all that produce… I figure I have two years before I start getting buried under all of it.
I hope this is “dumbest fruit things we have done” because I’ve done many, many dumb things in my life that did not involve fruit. A couple of them involved a motorcycle and a couple more involved teenage indiscretions that became bad habits, and some were when I was in the army…
but back to fruits. A few years ago, I dug up and transplanted a 15 year old fig tree. My back hurt for a week after that. Most recently I gave in and sprayed Round Up on thistles, and oops I sprayed some garden herbs.
There have been a number of dumb impulse purchases at the Orange Box Store, such as Ebony King Blackberry. That one was a turkey.
You should know that when I bought my house and started planting fruit trees, I had this neat little area that already had 1 peach, 1 apple, and 2 pears. So I had this great plan to turn that area into an orchard by planting 4 more fruit trees. That would complete the existing area into a nice little square, and I even thought that if I really got into it I MIGHT plant 4 more trees on the end of the square near the end of my property. 12 years later I have about 140 fruit trees (counting figs, bush cherries and the like). 140!!! And I sell only a few apples each year at a little honor system stand.
Anyway, I tell you all this to say that even though I went completely crazy with tree planting and have unbelievable amounts of fruit each year, I still haven’t had a problem getting rid of it. So don’t worry too much. I take it to work, give it to family and friends, and donate a lot to the local senior citizen center. Point is, there are always people happy to get fruit- so fear not what you;ll do with it. Now pruning, thinning, spraying, etc…that isn’t so easy as your tree numbers climb!!! ha
