Many of my seeds are starting!
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Today I repotted most of my seedlings that got started in the spring of 2024. They were my first successful attempt at controlling damping off, which got almost 50% of my seedlings the previous two years. I accomplished it by cold stratifying with perlite, then planting into soil Id pasteurized. However, by the end of the season growth stalled. Id planted them in red solo cups with drainage holes cut, which i partially buried to overwinter. They came through it well and leafed out, but growth was again minimal despite light fertilization both years. Id used the same containers the previous two years and achieved better growth, so the major differences were the soil and soil treatment. Last year I again pasteurized my soil, but it was a different type (Promix), and got better growth. So I suspect it was the soil I used. It had a lot of wood chips in it, so I thought maybe that was locking up some of the nutrients, but the ferts should have helped with that. My other suspicion is that the soil was contaminated with some kind of growth inhibiting herbicide , maybe composted yard waste contminated with pendimethlin or something like that. I washed all the soil off and replanted in 1 gallon pots with promix. Hoping to get enough growth this year that they get to a graftable size.
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I am excited for finishing a busy easter weekend of work as there are several germinated seedlings in their stratification tupperware that have been out of the refrigerator for a week or so. Looking forward to potting them on Monday or Tuesday.
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The original 23 or so that made it through the last month. 2 Muscat de Venus x cherub damped off. 5 cells resown with germinations from round 2.
2x 28 trays of 0.2L cells.
There’s another 5 or so still in the tubs that have popped a tail but they’re going to have to get muddled up with the tomatoes.
Several trailman crab x hella kitty had a scarlet stem right below the cotyledons and the first true leaves look likely to have some colour too.
A couple of tubs exhibiting slower/low germination but I think they were a bit too moist. 10/10 of Hella kitty x pink parfait and 16/19 on pink parfait x cherub is pretty gratifying.
We’re graced with a couple of 20°c/65°f days before it goes back to early spring 10c/50f business… so here are a couple of blossoms.
Hamids red pippin with schisandra chinesis seedlings climbing on the right. One year bareroot maiden from keepers nursery UK.
Cornish gold pear leaping ahead.
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Are your chartreuse leaved seedlings hella crosses? I’m surprised that none of mine picked up that characteristic. Pom crab picked up a lot of the deep reds, should be interesting to watch over the next few years. Especially if they get bright in the fall. I’m all for multipurpose(fruit & ornament) crosses.
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I’m following the YouTube and my partner he is really interested in the smaller red fleshed apples. should i get on the patron to get scion for those? is it easier to get seed? I’m willing to do either, any interest he shows in the orchard and garden is fun for me. plus i also like the idea of smaller/crab for fresh eating
You’re correct that his Patreon supporters get earlier access, but I believe that Skillcult is out of scion for the season. He may still have a few seed crosses left.
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oh I’m in no hurry I’ll go seasonally
I’ll sign up there or get him to sign up there to get what he wants on time.
the little red sweet are the ones that he got excited about.
He has some pre grafted trees available through Cummins nursery too. No clue which or their availability though.
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The ones with most red pigmentation have it as the pollen parent, it may well be present in trailman’s crab genes though.
There’s a dash of colour in the more developed Hella Kitty x pink parfait and, sugarwood x jellybean cider and the singular tomboy crab x jellybean cider.
I had quite a low rate (1/14) on Williams pride x Jellybean which is a shame but I think that particular tray was a little dry. Spritzed it today hoping that tips the balance.
The most boring tomatoes are getting sacked off at this point for the last few taproots to show. (Latah remains on the front row).
We’re at 95 of Steven’s seedlings total now + 4x op claygate pearmain and 10x keepers nursery wickson x primrose pippin (the last of which all seem to have stopped at 4 true leaves high).
Rooting for everyone on this thread, such genuinely exciting possibilities afoot.
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I threw my wp x trailman back into the fridge after a week out with everything else. There’s only 6 but none showed any indication of sprouting. Last year my WP cosses all failed to come up too so maybe WP needs longer dormancy.
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Ive noticed crosses with Williams Pride seem prone to germinate early. I looked a my stratifying seeds and many had already pushed out a little root after only 4 weeks of chilling. All of them had WP as a parent. That variety just seems like it wants to get going in general. I have some WP x Black Strawberry and WP x Appleoosa seedlings that are a few years old now and they all seem to be quite vigorous. Hopefully they will be precocious as well.
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Interesting; I’ve had good germination with my william’s pride x jellybean cider (perhaps 70%?) this spring. I do wonder how much germination rate is impacted by environmental conditions (perhaps mine were in more or less humidity/in different medium).
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@MDL17576 & @GrumpyPantsPlants so much for my theory that the WP crosses take a bit longer to stratify.
I’ll be making my second attempt with the WP cross seeds next week. Here’s to hoping. I’ve never tried either parent but their purported quality and disease resistance have me expecting a bit more out of them.
It may depend on the cross. I do have two each of WPx pink parfait and x musketeer, and none of those 4 seeds has done anything.
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Three of six Chestnut x v.pink are going stong. Sadly the last three don’t seem inclined to grow. No real interesting notes yet but the cross should throw something interesting.
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I bought a couple of these as well, and a few have sprouted. From a taste perspective, I certainly think they have potential. I plan to upload some pictures soon, but recently I’ve been working on cutting off leaves of my larger crosses that somehow seem to have leaf spot/rust despite growing indoors. (My best guess is some gnats/other small bugs have brought this present.)
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Usually i fight mildew on my seedlings. But they were previously relegated to a basement which probably is the perfect environment for that. The garage totes that I can roll out into the sunny driveway seems to be a good method at the scale that I working on now. I’m sure that I look even stranger than normal to my neighbors though.
Has rust started to spawn out by you already? I’m hopefully a few weeks off since I didn’t get my preventative spray on prior to full bloom. Now I’m waiting for a window and hoping that it isn’t too late. Rusts are a major, if not fatal, issue for me.
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I’m not quite sure what it is, as most trees here are barely budding. This is what impacted leaves of the apples in my grow tent look like.
Being a grow tent there is probably some sort of fungus that’s giving you issues. Looks rusty but its probably not. Thankfully a spray used to target fungus and mold would likely knock it out anyhow. Is there airflow to promote good airflow? Thankfully with my current method I’ve seen very little in the way of disease. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen our last frost of the season so I will likely be moving them out of the totes and into the yard with some bunny protection.
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