Is anyone familiar with propagating Che? Is it easy or difficult? What’s the process?
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I thought about getting one a while back, but the threads on here give them bad reviews.
In case your not talking about grafting. One of the things they said is if they are not grafted they basically turn into a giant clump of thorns that keeps spreading from roots.
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I got 2, darrow and norris, they are grafted in osange orange, i heard if you propagate by cuttings/airlayer on their own roots they turn into a beast and grow everywhere. I might try one day ahah
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I have grafted several on Osage orange .
I collect Osage orange fruit , hedge apples , in the fall .
Making sure they have seeds in them , it seems some have no seeds , others do.
Put the whole fruit in a ~ 3 gal. Pot ,no soil , let sit above ground all winter , freezing , thaw .etc.
By spring the fruit have rotted ,float off pulp in a bucket with water hose. Seeds will be in the bottom.
Plant those in individual pots , grow for a year.
Graft the next spring with Che scions , I cut a ring around the stem to let the latex bleed out a few days before grafting.
Chip budding , whip and tongue , works well .
Wood is Very hard , .make your cuts very carefully !
I don’t like Osage orange in the nursery, Very nasty thorns !
Good luck .
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Do you need Osage Orange seeds for Grating Che onto?
I have a ton growing (and few left over seeds already stratified )
(edit)
(I hit reply under your post to be seen but it never works for me on first posts)
@FarmGirl-Z6A
I should have more seeds to share with others as well
(will only mail small amounts in envelope )
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If this was desirable (e.g., for a fenceline hedge planting), does anyone know if they readily root from cuttings, or do you need to start seeds? After @TNHunter recently joined the che-is-good camp in the other thread, I’ve decided this is one I’m going to try. The main spot I’d plant them is along my alley fenceline where I’m wanting to replace a rotten old wooden fence with some kind of hedge. I was thinking trifoliate, but maybe I could alternate che and trifoliate instead.
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@swincher … my CHE looks like this late season year 3.
I prune it for height and shape early spring… and summer prune it in July normally… again mostly to control height and make sure my guy that mows… can do that without fighting the CHE limbs.
It does grow enough each year to really need pruning twice to keep it at the size I want (all fruit in easy reach)… so far so good on that.
My CHE is grafted to osage orange … per Cliff at Englands Orchard. It is his seedless CHE California Dreaming.
Note… here in southern TN it has budded and set small leaves and got frosted (2 of 3 springs so far)… but a few weeks later it budded and leafed out and did fine.
PS… mine has no thorns at all.
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Well let me know if you ever might be willing to throw some of those cuttings in the mail when you prune!
I gather the thorns only appear on shoots from the roots, which is only when it’s on che roots rather than osage orange roots. For a thick hedgerow, I think I’d want those thorny branches coming up to fill the gaps.
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@swincher … i will collect some CHE scionwood this winter… i normally do that mid to late January. I will be glad to send you some… perhaps we can work out a trade.
My CHE from Cliff… was grafted to a quite small osage orange rootstock… 1/4 inch or so. It was a tiny thing… but it has grown well.
I have a note of this on my trade list… but it would not hurt to remind me about that time.
Thanks
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Anybody have experience rooting cuttings of che, softwood or hardwood?
no, I dont but its often been said by those who’ve gone the route of having che on its own roots that it is an awful thorny monster. Apparently its more vigorous and suckers everywhere, forming an impenetrable barrier in pretty short order. Grafting onto osage apparently checks its vigor and suckering habit, making it both more manageable and productive. All second hand info, mind. I have mine grafted to osage. Its an easy graft and the oaage rootstock is very tough
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A friend in LA who’d seen Che on its own roots said you’d need a bulldozer to get through that aggressive, thorny thicket.
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Wow sounds intense. Yes, I have grafted it successfully to osage orange also. What is your preferred graft method?
Most certainly not worth the risk I’d say, with a simple option available to keep it reasonable.
I have one batch of dormant cuttings that I’m attempting to root, and planning to plant along my alleyway right of way if that works out. I also have four osage orange seedlings I bought from Fruitwood Nursery and will be grafting those for planting in places I don’t want a impenetrable hedge. I planted those in the ground last week and plan to graft them as soon as they bud out. I would also like to know the preferred type of graft!
And to give you an idea of the location, I was originally planning a flying dragon trifoliate hedge, and decided che sounded better.
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I did a simple whip and tongue. Both the che and especially the osage are incredibly tough. make sure your knife is extra sharp and be prepared to make a couple of swipes at it before you get a nice cut!
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I bought my California Dreaming seedless CHE from Englands Orchard 4 years ago…
It was rather small and whimpy looking and was grafted to osage orange (whip/tounge).
Planted it early spring 2020… and we got a 26F on April 15.
It had budded out and had small leaves already… which all got toasted.
There were 3 buds above the graft and the top 2 died with that frost.
The one remaining bud just above the graft sent out more growth about a month later… and produced my nice CHE.
That was a close one.
TNHunter
Grafted these last spring around the same time as pawpaws in late May. They put out some decent growth before the cows ate them!
I didn’t think the cows would be that interested in eating them😂
Also osage is so hard that it rolled the edge of my grafting knife
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Osage orange is the third hardest tree native to the US, behind only live oak and desert ironwood. The Janka hardness is 2,620 lb/f. For comparison, loblolly pine is 690 and white oak is 1,350.
Use a very sharp knife and be careful.
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Kind of a novice’s question, but how do you deal with the latex?
Haven’t done enough research on this, but it’s bedeviled me with che and mulberry.
Something about notching below the graft?
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