Do you find that people outside this forum cannot understand you? If you understand these photos you should know the majority of the world has no idea what these pictures mean. Fruit growers are a unique group of people. @hambone this plasticine is also very hard. Brands seem to matter. I’m using it anyway , i will work it into place. Based on this photo below alone fruit growers not only know i’m grafting they also know what technique i will use.
I tell my wife all the time I found my people.
Every time I tell a friend or acquaintance (neighbors will hide lol) about a new tree or scion its crickets. Look at the watch, and a that’s nice.
How about those mariners? lol
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Boy is that true. A few years ago I sent around a cartoon of a guy standing alone at a party with caption “Nobody wants to talk pawpaws.”
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I finally found a group of gardeners (primarily annuals but some trees and beekeeping) at our church to talk to…they’re mostly grandpas. I joke that I’ve been in my grandma era since I was a teenager so it’s fine, just a little funny. No one is as intense as those in this forum, however.
A few of the younger people are starting to put in gardens and trees. There’s a growing interest in supplementing grocery store food.
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I saw a girl post on the local fb group and i thought “you look like we could be friends” was cool 
… it was not. She was collecting stuff but had 0 clue that variety matters. She was overwhelmed by my collection and we stopped talking because until me, she was the biggest fruit grower she had known. I could never respond back to just “mulberry” or “raspberry” anymore…
A very old lady at a nursery tried to tell me in regards to blueberries when i was asking about if they had more Clockwork coming in : in 2 years, you won’t be able to tell them apart.
I told her I’ve been growing them for over 10 years. I can in fact, tell them apart by growth, how they grow and size. I also told her that not every variety has similar growing habits and she was annoyed because i was a “know it all”. I don’t know it all, i just care about it all is the truth.
I have over 50 plants of everything i love but they’re not 50 of the same varieties…
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Funny today. Was at the main nursery in one of our larger towns. And a Central American Family had bought the nursery. They speak very poor English. But they know grafting. Stood there and whipped out 5-6 vine grafts they were doing…lol…maybe the can hire me as migrant laborer.
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I really wish we could talk schools into teaching grafting and farming in general to every child in the USA.
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No doubt. Traditional trades and local farming has plenty of growth potential.
This IS a rural farming/silvaculture region and there is always demand for more.
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Don’t know what that all is in the bag. I’m not a grafter. I buy the biggest trees I can as I’m old and want the fruit before I kick off. I never liked it as a hobby. Just like the fruit production to eat or juice. If I had tons of acreage, no doubt I’d have 100 - 150 trees. But I’m not a collector, just curious how different trees do.
From what I can tell, this guy was an apple tree collector…
I don’t have his book; I got his DVD. It was pretty pricey, but I found a used copy on eBay a while back for $15. He has tons of apple trees. I only need a dozen of good producing apple trees, not hundreds of different ones.
You can do worse with your time than being a tree grower. But I’m very busy with my other work, so I need trees that are not problem child’s. Even so, always happy when I find a new spot for a tree. Love seeing them setting fruit and developing with anticipation of eating. Barring chipmunks and squirrels don’t get them!
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We are not normal to the normal person. We are unique in our own wierd way. I realizes that long ago. At work everyone constantly ask gardening questions and when I respond they think I’m crazy because my response if far more than they wanted to know or hear but I cant help myself because of my passion for fruit growing. When I mention that I have over 50 fruit and nut trees they dont believe me. Then when I tell them all the other stuff I grow such as grapes, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and kiwiberry they think I’m I’m definelty lying. Their loss since I dont share with them.
At my last job I was called The Watermelon Man.
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Im up to around 250 trees, 50 shrubs, 500 canes and 100 or more plants.
Its technically insanity… but i have 40 sum things that were ordered and coming in the next week or so.
Im the happiest i have been in my life.
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You can’t buy happiness, but fruit trees come pretty close. The 600 persimmons I bought that I don’t ‘need’ this year made me pretty happy.
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I grafted persimmons, pecans, apples, pears, mulberries, planted pecans for about 500 seedlings, and now I’m planting 1/2 acre for my garden. I’m busy. How about you?
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I’ve been very busy. Dad and I planted about a 150 trees this year, and started bunch of tree seeds and bush cuttings. Just started working on the garden, got artichokes, cardoon, onions, potatoes, and strawberries in so far. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, ect. are still in the cold frame awaiting warm weather. Just got done grafting apples, pears, and plums. Working full-time in construction, just finished a duplex. Getting ready to build my brother a garage. Need to start building myself a new house after work hours later this summer, plan to do most of work myself. The house I’m living in now my parents are going to move into. I and my brother built it 9 years ago, so it’s relatively new and well set up for an older couple. My wife and I are expecting another baby next month, and we’ve got three wild little boys already to take care of. I know I’m nuts, and I wouldn’t have it any other way or trade it for the world. The only thing I really want is just that one more plant I don’t have yet.
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We have slowed down due to lack of charsoil base. Have to get another 2 truck loads. Still indulged though. Bought 2 rabbiteye Blueberries, 2 lovely tall loquats today. The wife bought a number of plants today.
Then came home to find a new self-hired security guard working the blueberry pad.
A grey phase Florida Green Water Snake. Nasty, mean as usual.
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Yes, I call it a disease, and people think I lost my mind. I grow fruit that I grew up with but can’t buy in grocery stores in the US, and fruit I have never even seen, let alone tried.
I’m on a tiny residential lot, and after packing my back yard to the max around the perimeter (I need some grass in the middle for my dog to run), I took over the front yard as well. I do not have any more space and yet keep buying that one more tree or bush or vine or rose that I desperately need, or come back with more plants from the store, because I am incapable of walking past a good looking plant or a fruiting plant in bloom or on sale. I started off saying I’d only grow food, and then the roses happened unexpectedly.
I have no space for all the kiwi varieties I bought, no space at all. I finally put four in ground way too close together. Others are waiting in pots. And yet I am looking for more varieties.
I listen to gardening and fruit growing podcasts and always hear about that one more fruit or perennial vegetable I absolutely need to grow. Then I go down rabbit holes trying to source it. I have five asparagus plants coming next week, and I have no idea where I can even put them. Stuff arrives and sits around for weeks until I can squeeze it in somewhere. Anything that rabbits, squirrels, mice or deer may like needs to be in the back yard. It’s stressful until I get a plant in ground, but it makes me so happy walking around my tiny orchard.
OK, it’s also stressful to protect the fruit until it can be harvested. Last year, something with smarts and opposable thumbs (a racoon?) stole my first and only pear from under the net overnight. I looked at that stupid pear for weeks and weeks, waiting for it to ripen.
I wasn’t even going to grow pears, then came home with a full grown root bound and neglected $5 Ayers pear from Walmart that is doing wonderfully, as it accidentally got the best place in the whole yard. Then I planted two Asian pears because of a podcast. Now I have scions in the fridge waiting to be grafted, and it’s already a bit late in the season for them.
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It is disappointing to meet people and find out that they think watermelons grow on trees with woody branches and roots like other fruits.
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Yeah next ask them what olives grow on
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If you come up with a creative trellis for the kiwis on a tiny lot, please post pics! I desperately want just 2, but I have to figure out a driveway trellis to make it work…because, yes, I am totally obsessed. But, it’s an obsession that helps the ecosystem and my family, so it’s acceptable? It is shockingly time consuming though and that’s coming from someone with a lot of time consuming hobbies.
In winter, I stayed up late reading a long pomegranate thread and tried to explain to my kids and friends why I was so exhausted in the morning. I quickly lost them discussing what I had learned and why it was fascinating and finally just said- “just don’t go down any pomegranate rabbit holes late at night.” As if that is something any other sane person would do.
I’ve been meaning to get one of those T shirts that says, “only discussing plants” or something along those lines. Because if it’s not fruit, I’m trying to convince people to expand their gardens, get rid of grass and grow native. I need to come with a warning!
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The last 2 women i dated immediately upon seeing my house and orchard when they drove up blurted out they under no circumstance will pick fruit. My ex before that loved my orchard more than me i think. An orchard tells you a lot about people.
Maybe a simple 2 pole arbor for kiwi. Kind of like this but only 1 pole on each side.
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