And we’ve changed the duck pond setup. Too much splashing water!
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Cute ducks. Do they fly?
Only to move fast and low to the ground. That is the Duke of Lemon, The Duckess of Oldenburg, Daisy and Olive Oyl.
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Here is a photo of the ‘sapling’ or sucker growing up from the root of the Shaa Kar Pareh. It is over to the left of the tree on the other side of the white Agribon which is laying on the ground. This is the one that was listed as being on Mar2624. They are both on Mariana - I was wrong about one being on Citation - but this is the only one producing these shoots. Both were purchased & planted in 2018 - from 2 different nurseries.
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That is quite a renegade 
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What do you make of it? Do you think I can use it as rootstock? There are 3 - 4 of them. All with nice thorns.
This is my Mirabelle on Marianna 2624.
Here where the suckers came up. Right next to the tree so I headed them off.
Yes, those are suckers. So what is mine? It’s growing underground from the roots, I think. Very nice Mirabelle, btw. Thicker trunk and wider growth than mine. :-))
If it were I, I would dig it up now before bud break and find a permanent spot for it. After planting, I would head it to the height I want to get it to branch out. Then, I will graft a variety on it next year.
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Thank you for that advice!
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Now here they are in 2021. I still have to take their winter coats off but it’s going to snow again. Sigh. So I’m leaving them on a little longer.
If they are going to pruned,I’d be happy to get any scion wood from them.
Send me your address. I can’t promise. I have a lot of pruning to do. I’m not as good at that as I should be.
I’d be interested in swapping for Pearl and/or Coe. Do you have those?
I might have some of those two.Plus some other European Plums,like General Hand(which is a yellow,gage type,that is suppose to have very good flavor,but hasn’t fruited for me yet),Purple Gage and Italian.
Do you have the true old Green Gage? Greenmantle was selling it. Italian Prune would be good - mine died. Purple Gage sounds good. Well, send me your address.
Did you want some of both Hesse & Paviot?
There is a small branch of Old Green Gage,that I may be able to take a little off of.
Sure,both of those sound interesting.
Interesting and encouraging thread. @krichberg how are the apricots doing if theyre still around?
This thread was helpful and I hope to replicate it a bit. I have 3 dormant rootstocks and apricot/almond to graft. I have a small scale set up with T5 lights indoors where it will be warm in my house regardless of time of year. Do you remember what type of graft you did for these? I am thinking whip and tounge for mine.
Do apricot grafts need to be growing to take? I have native soil enough to put each rootstock in about 1L pot. Im assuming you cant stick them in a bucket with moist medium to callus for a few weeks after bench grafting like apples.
Most of those apricot grafts never made it, however over these last years I’ve kept up (never gave up) with filling the library orchard with apricots for trialing here in Central New York, and that has gone very well. I still put my bench grafted trees in soil pots as starters so I can place them in a temperature of my choosing in our climate controlled areas. That always seems to be the best policy. Anything I graft outdoors, apricots included, I wait until much more ideal conditions and the accepting rootstock/plant is already growing by the time the grafting temperatures are in a good range.
At that time I was doing cleft grafts for the rootstocks and scions with bad mismatches in size (most of them) and whip and tounge for those with matching sizes. In my experience the type of graft is not as important as three things that matter most: healthy rootstock with a lot of stored energy, healthy scion stick with a lot of stored energy in the stick, and the temperature.
Lining up the cambium and preventing desiccation are givens, but after that it’s those three things that make or break it. When I’ve gotten bundles of rootstocks and some are just whispy little things with 3 tiny roots dangling from the bottom I can almost know for a fact no graft will take because there just isn’t enough energy to complete the process properly. I avoid a lot of failures now by not bench grafting rootstocks that have nearly no roots or no girth, and avoid scions that look “spent” (not sure how best to define it, I guess when they look like they wouldn’t be recognized as a healthy stick from a healthy tree.
To answer your last question, yes, I do put them in pots and place the pots in a controlled temp area with nice humidity, and that definitely works.
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Thanks so much for the info Kevin. I can only hope for the best in scionwood/rootstock quality when it comes but I should have extra to do bark grafts or something later when its warm out as well. Do you suggest potting up the rootstock to wake up before grafting or just standard bench grafting and keeping warm/moist.
I’m guessing the grafts were successful but the trees died out for those apricots? Wow I am in luck that I can have your regional perspective, I am growing about 30 miles east of albany so similar climate/soil. That is great that you’ve done well growing apricots where you are. Do you get fruit on a somewhat regular basis? I have a bunch I want to trial but im sure it will be difficult regardless.