How do you spend your winter? Scion shopping?

What do your apple seedlings look like after a year of growth in root builders? Just curious.

I planted 3 seedlings last Feb, I think, and they ended up about 4’ tall by the end of Nov. They basically quit growing at 8" until about Memorial Day when I re-potted them to an unused ~10 gallon decorative pot.

Do the RB pots seem to induce early bearing? I recall reading that they might for oaks.

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Mainly trying to protect sensitive baby trees from the cold, desperately trying to figure old where to squeeze a few more in, reading old growing fruit posts and this fascinating book (a sweet Christmas gift from my better half who recognizes what a fruit nerd I am):

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I just started with a few apples in Jan 2015 and planted them in early October 2015. Here is a picture right after planting. The fence is 5’ tall for reference:

I found to maximize growth with Rootmakers, I keep them in 18s for 12 to 16 weeks and then transplant them to 1 gal RB2s, and then transplant again to 3 gal RB2s in late spring or early summer, I’ve had chestnuts about 6’ tall with 3/4" caliper by fall with this technique.

As for early fruiting, I’m not sure with apples. Of about 7 crabapples last year, one produced crabapples in the second growing season (this year):

I’m not sure if the containers had anything to do with this. However, I did have an interesting experience with Jujube. I planted a number of bare root tigertooh grown on their own roots that I got from JF&E. After a year or so, I started taking root cuttings and propagating them using rootmakers. While my trees in the field still have not produced fruit after over 5 years, the tiny trees started from the root cutting typically produce fruit in their first growing season in the RB2s on my deck. A professor who specializes in Jujube said he attributed this to the containers constricting the root system. He predicted that when those trees were planted in the field that they would revert to a vegetative state. He was correct about that.

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Wow! Your chinkapins look great.

Is there someplace to get a variety list, I didn’t see one on his Facebook page?

Pod- just email Steve Kelly at address I gave above and ask him to send scion list. Amazing collection he has.

Thanks hambone.

@Steve333

Hi Steve,

I know someone who did what I’m going to do last year with great success. In an ideal situation, I’d keep the roots cool but the graft unions warm and moist. That would be a replication of the heat callous bench method. Those heat benches work great (Hot Callous Pipe.)

Here’s a different friend’s of mines callousing pipe:

Dax

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Thanks Dax, that makes sense. For some reason I thought you were applying heat to the roots as well which had me concerned.

Not a bad idea if you only have a few grafts to cure, but for me and the little grafting I do a month in the root cellar seems to work just fine.

Thanks. Growing them on my deck in the Rootmakers in promix and pine bark is probably an ideal situation for them to grow. I’m sure they will slow way down next year in my native soil. Most of the trees I find are more bush than tree. I think they get hit by blight, die back, and then regrow from the root system. Unlike American chestnuts, the blight doesn’t seem to keep them from producing nuts. I let the ACs in the picture grow naturally with multiple stems. I’m considering pruning the ACs I’m starting this year to see if I can get more of a tree form.

i do a photo-review of our trees’ and other perennials’ growth(over the years) by arranging them by date, then downloading to a 500 gig hard-drive and plugged to the widescreen, and play a looping slideshow, over and over and over, :grin:

cabin fever hits me hard all the time i have to see green, and there’s not much of it around here, in this wintry desert

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Would love to see that slideshow.

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I’ve been brewing beer too. Plus I made six gallons of peach wine this fall from my first crop of peaches from a volunteer tree. I kegged it so it’s under co2. It’s nice to pour just a half a glass and not worry about an open bottle.

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I’ve got 2 AC’s in a 20 gal pot, 2017 will be their 3rd year. Growth has been excellent (soilless mix, pine bark based) and on bloomed last year.

Hoping to see nuts from them eventually… Perhaps we’ll see

What is the golden like (compared to species)?

Scott

According to this Forest Service memo, the “Golden” cultivar supposedly shows some precocity and soil adaptability.

https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/caspum/all.html

Some of mine did flower the year after transplant, but did not set fruit. They haven’t flowered since. Most of mine probably don’t get as much sun as they’d like. A few of my chinkapins are 3 or 4 feet tall now, and steadily continue to grow.

I’m hoping they’ll cross-pollinate with my chestnuts.

I’m also starting to work with some Chinese Chinquapins. I originally thought, because of that common name, they were a blight resistant Chinese version of the Allegheny Chinquapin. Since I’ve found other common names include Seguins (from the scientific name), Dwarf Chinese Chestnut, Dwarf Asian chestnuts. The are more closely related to chestnuts. They have 3 small nuts per husk like chestnuts. They are supposed to produce nuts early.

My first attempt was to buy nuts from FW Schumacher. It was a disaster. They came from China and were continually delayed until it was really too late to do anything but put them in cold storage. Some had visible mold when I received them. I tried several methods and got zero germination out of a pound of nuts. Mold infected all of them if they were even viable. It was a total waste.

So, I just bought 4 seedlings that were apparently started in some kind of root pruning container system based on the dense fibrous root system with no tap root. They were perfect for me. I potted them up in 3 gal RB2s and put them in my cold room. My plan is to wait until mid-Feb when I’m sure they have had sufficient chill hours and then bring them in, warm them up, and put them under lights. I plan to grow them on my deck for a season or two hoping to collect nuts for propagation.

Seems like these would fill a similar niche with out blight issues.

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I’ve been running a lot…mentally it’s what gets me through winter. I left the house last night and it was 2F…i ran tonite and it was -1F. It isn’t bad. Just wear layers. The winds have been light. If its windy and cold…it can be nasty. Lots of ice around here so i have to watch that. One street was an ice skating rink. Was like running across a frozen lake.

I have a tray of Flavor King seedlings growing. They love the Jan sun that shines on these cold days. I use a bottom heat mat to keep them toasty.

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Peach wine? Very intriguing. I’ve never actually tried it. I keg as well so if future crops actually materialize, I’ll have to experiment with that. Is your wine more of the sparking type kind of like sparkling cider? Or is it flat like typical bottles wine?

Warm, you are my hero! Having lived in the deep south all my life, guess I am a wimp when it come to cold weather. About 35° is my cutoff for running outside or even wanting to be outside. Below that, I crank up my treadmill. 55° is my cut off for golfing and those numbers seem to go up as I get older, I guess like most things, it’s all mental.

It sparkles because It’s hooked to the same regulator as my beer. I do keep on unplugging it. I read restaurants are starting to serve wine by the glas from kegs. They can serve expensive wines still flat like from the bottle by only keeping one pound of psi on the keg. They probably store it warm too. Liquid needs to be cold to absorb the co2. I think they use argon. Mine has tiny bubbles like champagne, It’s 12% abv. I have a couple cider jugs that are still flat. I like it sparkling better. I’m not a wine drinker though. I enjoy my home brewed beer. This winter I have been brewing lagers simular to to Heineken, Becks, and St Pauli except with abv. from 7% to 9%. I usually am brewing ales. I like IPA’s and pale ales. The last three batches of lagers were just with my homegrown hops. I can’t wait to taste them. They are my first batches. I harvested plenty of CTZ, and some new hop that I cant figure out what they called it. I forgot to label it. I have CTZ, that new hop, Golding, Centennial, Cascade, Northern Brewer, Hersbrucker, and I think it was Sazz planted. I should get some good crops next year.