My Orchard Projects

I have already put these in another thread but I need to keep the updates of them here as well.

The sweet black cherry cuttings are doing well and are growing some and with the advice in the other thread I think I will move them into some indirect sunlight.

Here is a couple close ups of my bigger of the 2 black sweet cherry cuttings. I can’t believe it had a bloom on it! Shortly after the picture I removed the bloom because I know that it needs to be focusing on building a strong root system and being abke to support the leaves so they can in turn support it. Talk about a hard thing to do though :man_facepalming:

So hoping I can keep these things alive and well until I can get them outside to grow big enough to hopefully plant by late fall!

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I now realize that I haven’t put the updated pics for these cuttings in here.

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No pics for any of this but I have planted some stuff lately and need to update.

I bought a Chicago Hardy Fig (well hopefully it is marked correctly) and potted it. It is in my garage at the moment, I will place it outside when the risk of frost has past.

I bought a Honeycrisp apple tree, a Blue Damson Plum and a Red Gold Nectarine on Saturday. Along with 3 types of raspberries, a Killarney, a Heritage and a Fall Gold. I mulched it all and watered them in some but it is suppose to rain tonight, so I didn’t get to fussy about a lot of water. Now I need to find a place to plant the 4 blueberry bushes I bought a couple weeks ago.

I forgot that I also planted 4 peach seeds in pots after soaking them overnight in water. Hopefully they will sprouts in the next while after a bit of cold weather and then some warm :+1:

Oh no! You couldn’t resist the Tractor Supply temptation, could you?

Maybe it was my post about my recent visit to TSC that put the thought in your mind?

Or, I might be a wee bit presumptuous. Maybe you didn’t go there. But, if you did, I can’t blame you. I was very intetested in the trees I saw there, they seem to be a good deal. I might take another visit there, for, you know, some hardware, or some such…

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I have bought stuff from there before so all you did was let me know they were there :blush: I got them all before they broke dormancy and I put them all in water and soaked them for a good hour before putting them into the ground as well. If they end up the correct variety then yay me! If not then maybe it will be something good and worse case scenario it will give me something to graft to! So no lose (as long as the deer leave the nactarine and plum alone) I did also cage the plum and nectarine as the deer seem to like the taste of those and usually nothing else :man_shrugging: I have always bought from places like that and it was actually a close out on fruit trees at Lowes that got me started with fruit trees years ago :laughing:

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I use a similar tag because of durability, but as some would warn, in one year the trees grew so much that the metal ties girdled the trees. Almost all of them have a characteristic scar from the same. I tried plastic tags, others, but I still come back to the metal tags. The change now is that I check them at least once a week to make sure there is adequate space between the tie and the tree.

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I will for sure keep check on them and have already thought about just making in ground tags for the ones that are just 1 variety :+1: The trees that I am planning on making multiple grafts to will be the tricker ones though… I tried to make sure they were loose to begin with but yes sometimes trees grow faster than we think :fearful: :smile:

Poncho65, I really enjoyed looking at your photos! The orchard portion is very neat and tidy, trees well pruned and open. My trees look similar, and I have worried in the past that I am cutting too much. I try to remember apple on 2 year old wood, peach on 1 year old wood, and leave much of those growths intact. It looks like you use a lot of thinning cuts to open up the trees. I have used too many heading cuts, I think, and cut off new tree growth that would produce fruit. I would do better to take off more branches back to the trunk and leave new growth on remaining branches.

The tree you suspect is a pear seems much more open than mine would be if left unpruned. My pears have very narrow angles and almost all require spacers and weights to pull them into a better shape.

Thanks again. Keep posting!!

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I can’t remember if I mentioned them or not but I have also set out either 5 or 6 seedling black walnut trees this past month. These are seedlings that squirrels have planted from my father in laws trees that have came up in his yard and he has let them go for me to get and replant. The tap root is still small when that young and they still have a chance to be replanted. I have them in a completely different section because I have read that they don’t get along with apple trees and put off chemicals in the ground that can harm or at least not be good for apples… Any truth to that?

Thanks for the kind words! I am still learning plenty about pruning myself and only hope to get it right! I do enjoy the process of making the trees do what I want or at least encourage them to do so :laughing: I like to prune and shape trees in general and fruit trees give you a good chance to do this and get something in return :+1:

I also have pruned that tree that I suspect is a pear. It was close to my driveway and I wanted to shape it up some but let it go after I stopped mowing a certain area and let it go back to woods. I am thinking of cleaning it back up and turning the whole area into an orchard though and hopefully will get started on it once the weather warms up and I have more evening daylight hours to mess with it.

I like the tree tags. I would love to find an old military identification dog tag embosser. A guy could then put rootstock, date planted, scion source, and anything else important and still have a fairly small tag.

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Thanks! :+1: That embosser would be something great to make tags with and if you do this post it here and link me in on it :+1: I also have a set of smaller number and letter sets somewhere that are an eighth of an inch tall that would allow more info as well but I am not that organized with all of it yet… :smile:

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I dont think I saw apple trees mentioned in this link, but there is definitely an issue with plants set out too close.

https://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-and-plant-advice/horticulture-care/plants-tolerant-black-walnut-toxicity

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Thanks for the link :+1: So I did apparantly read something about it. Glad I put them away from eveything!

I like the two sided tags. They can contain more information. Might be too large for scion grafts.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LP3KFWS/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01LP3KFWS&pd_rd_w=lrHVQ&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=FNYjl&pf_rd_r=KT6DC9WPAY68PX8P1DAG&pd_rd_r=cf9aed6a-c1d3-4b66-ba29-3ec6b186e95e&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzUE1ZQ0I4NzkyUDRYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTg0NjE3OEJTNjUwS040UkoxJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA1Nzg4MzNQRkdSSTg4ODlSUTgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

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After reading of the reviews for those,they are like some I tried,with a paper/cardboard interior,that doesn’t hold up well to moisture.Mine basically turned into a thicker version of a gum wrapper.bb

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Yeah, buying from big box stores can be a risk, but sometimes online vendors can ship the wrong stuff, too. Good thing about the TS trees is that they’re only $14, so no big loss. Like you said, you could always top work it, or use it as a Frankentree.

Some pics of the callery pears in the front of my land this evening

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And now tomorrow night it is suppose to get cold… :scream:

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No fruit on these trees but will put off being able to graft for a while longer… :thinking: