Something i often have to remind myself when in the grips of an enthusiastic mania about plants is that many people, perhaps most, don’t give a dang about growing fruit trees or strange and exotic plants. They likely think it’s strange how obsessed I am. That’s fine. I’m completely content on my land with my cats and a hillside view. What else does a person need once all their other basic necessities are met?
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It’s not easy to keep fruit around here. My neighbor has a large persimmon tree, in 10 years she barely had a fruit, maybe zero, all eaten by some large black animal which I have no idea what, I gave her one persimmon from my fruit tree before I left for my vacation. Last year when I came back from my vacation, all my persimmons were gone too.
Start with apple trees to build your confidence. I started my grafting attempts with citrus and plum and had a devil of a time. So I decided to try my luck at apples which several people told me are super easy for a noob. I grew a couple rootstocks from seeds and bought some Geneva rootstocks for $3 a piece. I had 80% success rate with the apples. Like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. Don’t cheap out on the grafting tape! That’s was one of my initial problems. The tape I had was like plastic wrap that didn’t stick at all. So many grafts dried out. Grafting really isn’t that difficult a skill to acquire. I don’t know why it is so intimidating to many of us initially.
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Thanks I’m really looking forward to grafting. I’ll take your word and start with apples. I have a 4 year old Granny Smith. Is that enough maturity? I’ve only been a home owner 4 years also so I’m still learning a lot.
That Granny Smith sounds perfect. It’s a great feeling to pull off your first graft. I recommend going for it. Watch a bunch of videos first. Apples are really forgiving and take super easily.
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I can vouch for Minnie Royal and Royal Lee on SoCal Coast. Im in Southern Orange County about a mile from the ocean and I had tons of cherries this year from these two.
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September 29th and we got a second set of flowers on our rainier cherry tree. Is it normal to bloom twice?
