No, I have not.
I figured you will say that; but how many years will it take a single annual copper spray to cause deleteriously high levels in soil? I see copper recommended to be sprayed multiple times every season for bacterial spot here in the north east, so I wouldn’t think a single spray per season is that bad.
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how large a ring should I prepare (removing grass, sheet mulching) for a single new gooseberry plant?
I’m not sure how big an area you’ll want, but I’d recommend cutting the grass as low as possible and leaving it in place under a setup like this Turn Barren Soil into Black Gold: 9 Simple Steps to Sheet Mulching | Chelsea Green Publishing
It’s going to be ugly. I figure all of my pomegranates and figs are going to be knocked to the ground with negative temps. I have an 8 ft tall Yerba Mate that has lived, unprotected, for 4 years in my backyard. That sucker won’t make it. Fragrant tea olives are probably going to be gone. I’m not sure on the Saijo and Fuyu persimmons. Same with the muscadines.
Best that could happen is we get a ton of snow to cover everything and insulate. You’ve got so many zone pushing plants anyway though. I’m worried about my Kakis but have been told they may do okay down to zero. The muscadines should be fine if they have any age on them but young ones may not make it. I just pray they are predicting with a bit of sensationalism/worst case scenario and maybe it won’t get that bad. My temps on this hill are always 2-5 degrees lower than predicted!! 
These predicted tempts are up to 13 degrees below our zone margins! 
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I have a volunteer mulberry tree that must be a male, no fruit for the past two years. I would like to graft it over to a known variety, possibly move it. When do I do these things? I forgot to find scion or ask any questions for this spring. Should I cut down and get a fresh shoot for next year?
I accidentally partially broke a small thin branch on top of the apple tree I was going to designate as a new scaffold on upper level.Break is located very close to the trunk. I am sure if I tape it it will heal, but will it be a weak the rest of its life to be a scaffold ?
Nope. it will be plenty strong after it has healed. For the same reason as your not seeing W&T grafts brake years later.
The middle part of a branch (the center) contributes verry little to strength. Same reason why bike frames are hollow. Filling in the middle would do little for extra strength. But gives you a lot of extra weight. You also see this with a lot of plants. They have hollow stems. Because a thicker hollow stem, costs the same amount of resourches as a thinner filled in one. But is much stronger.
What however does contribute significantly to streangth is the branch angle. If it is to steep (far over 60+ degree’s) and the bark can’t escape during thickening of the branch. And there you get a natural weak point. (due to the bark getting stuck, there is no connection between the stem and scaffold there)
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I did some plum cleft grafts about a month ago. The scions buds are starting to pop, but the host plant has not yet started. Is this a good sign or cause for worry?
Thanks!
Jct, How do you know the host plant has not yet “started” ?
Is this a small rootstock bench graft? if so, there is no problem. The highest point (in this case your graft) will leaf out first. I would be more worried if buds just below the graft where braking than if they did on the scion.
If it is a mature topworked tree, where only the scions are leafing out, but not the rest. It might be a problem. Is there any reason why the scions would sprout early? IE, did you keep them a week indoors at room temp before grafting or anything? If not, you’ll probably be alright.
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Late to the show here… Nufilm is not really needed for lime-sulphur, it is absorbed into the tissues. It is powdered or liquid sulphur that really benefits from Nufilm. That and copper are the main things I use Nufilm on.
I might be doing more l/s than usual this year, someone mentioned deer don’t like it and I have also noticed that. So I may put a bit in every tank to help convince the deer to go elsewhere. The stuff really does smell, I feel a bit bad for my neighbors when I spray it 
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Thanks! The host is a well established Santa Rosa plum tree. 2 of 4 scions are showing signs of bud break. The tree itself is not and it has plenty of branches above the scions.
I’m trying to remember when the tree woke up last year, but I didn’t take a lot of good notes. However, after looking through some photos from last year of a nectarine graft, the nectarine scion woke up well before the nectarine host tree, so maybe I’m ok.
For the most part, the scions were stored in the refrigerator prior to grafting.
I’m trying to get my hands on some relatively affordable coated urea fertilizer that @alan often mentions, in the 46-0-0 range. I’m in the Dallas Metroplex and I can’t find any for the life of me.
I have found “Humic Coated Urea” made by The Anderson’s, but as far as I can tell, that’s not really slow release, though they try to hint at it in their literature.
Anyone around me know where to find it? Thanks!
It is used by commercial corn farmers and others in the ag business. You need to do a search for agricultural supplies in your area. Shipping is expensive so maybe there’s an outlet somewhere near you, but it is usually sold in bulk and you have to buy a few hundred pounds of it. I’m not sure if the brand I use still uses sulfur, but it’s very reasonably priced.
Lesco seems to sell a bagged version and probably has an outlet near you. LESCO PolyPlus-Opti™ | LESCO
You’re a genius, I hadn’t thought of a lawn care store! They didn’t have the exact thing I was looking for, but they had a 34-3-11 poly coated for $25/bag. None of this land has ever been fertilized, so I don’t think I need to worry about the additional nutrients this time around, but I seem to be perpetually wrong with my assumptions so who knows 
Most of my trees have flower buds pushing out, is this when I should begin fertilizing?
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That’s a low ratio of K to N by fruit growing standards. Apple formulas usually go 50-50 I believe while peach mixes go 2-1 N to K.
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So here is an odd and probably dumb question…but where do rootstock seedlings come from and how do they make them true to seed? I mean, we all know that if I want to grow a yellow delicious apple I cannot take a seed from a yellow delicious apple and plant it and end up with a good quality yellow delicious apple. It has to be grafted using wood from a known tree.
So, let’s say I want an m111 (as example) seedling because it has the characteristics I like (size, roots, tolerance to wet or dry, etc). Well, if I take a seed from a m111 apple (is there even such a thing as an M111 apple?) and I plant it, why would the seedling retain all the characteristics of m111 when any other kind of apple won’t retain all the characteristics of the apple it came out of?
Perhaps the answer is that with known rootstock seedlings they somehow manage to control pollination and use only the male and female combination needed to make an M11 (or whatever rootstock) but that seems improbable. Obviously they don’t graft rootstock seedlings, so how do they get them to be true when no other open pollinated apple will be true?
I suspect when I hear the answer it will be so obvious I’ll feel dumber than I do asking it, but it won’t be the first time. This what happens when I work all day in my orchard without headphones and just think about things! haha
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Not a silly question. Apple root stock like M111 is all clonally propagated in stool beds. If you type in “stool beds apple root stock” you will come up with plenty of reading material. In short a M111 root stock is planted, allowed to grow into a small tree, the tree is cut off at ground level, the stump sends up suckers, “dirt” is piled up against the suckers, the suckers establish roots into the “dirt”, suckers are then harvested by machine with the roots attached (each becomes a new M111 root stock) and then the process is repeated with the original stump. Except we are talking thousands of stumps for most root stock providers.
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Thank you so much- both for the answer, the research tip, and not making me feel too silly. Once I started searching rootstock stool beds, at your suggestion, wouldn’t you know there are a couple good threads right here in this site that I somehow never saw until google led me to them just now. Anyway, this is very interesting.
But as long as I’m asking, this leads me to another one…if they can grow thousands of clones using this method, why not use the same method and just grow known apple varieties this way. Doing so would make grafting unnecessary it would seem. I mean, using my example above, why not cut down a yellow delicious create a bed, and then harvest the trees. Wouldn’t they be true Yellow Delish then? (or whatever variety)?
I suspect the answer might be that most good apple producing trees wouldn’t have very good roots, and certainly wouldn’t be dwarfing or have other positive characteristics that known rootstocks provide. But surely some good apple varieties would have good roots. And some people still buy standard trees. So it seems like there would be at least SOME known apple varieties that could be grown and sold this way, thereby bypassing grafting but still getting a known quality fruit producer. ???
EDIT: about the time I hit enter I realized the problem with my idea…first you would have to have a known variety (like Yellow Delish) on its own roots before you could encourage it to send up shoots to make a bed for and harvest. I guess that is why no good apple trees are propagated this way to remove the need for grafting?
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