This spring's nursery orders

General Fruit Growing
#21

Chills,
I started grafting so each tree would have its own internal pollinizer. I wonder if my insects are lazy, and instead of going from tree to tree, they stay in the same tree going from branch to branch. There is always the issue of some grafts have more vigor than others, but I putter around anyway so pruning shears take are of that issue. Now I am carried away, and each tree is becoming a multi-graft. I figure it’s a fun way to try many multiple varieties in a limited space, for low cost. If a variety doesn’t work out, I can easily prune it off. Plus, I can have early, mid, and late bearing on the same tree. I don’t need bushels of each, so I like this method.

I’ll update on Mango pawpaw as the season progresses. Sorry yours didn’t grow. I think Mango is a Georgia variety.

#22

We took a ride down to beautiful Afton, VA to Edible Landscaping. We picked up a Susquehanna and a Shenandoah Pawpaw, a Salavatski Pomegranate, a Black Crandall Current, and 10 asparagus. The staff was great and helpful. We were able to get everything we went for and were also able to see many growing specimen. As Michael says in his videos, take the trip! The area is fantastic, very beautiful, not to mention, vineyards, a distillery, and a brewery!

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#23

From raintree:
(they should be arriving this month)
Two nadias.
one sweet bagel peach.
one tri Lite peachplum
one fall gold raspberry
one aronia
one sweet nuggets pluot.
one Nanking cherry
one st Julián rootstock
one beach plum.

#24

Gotten 30 out of 40+ so far from mail orders. Potted half till I figure out where they go, plus 135 strawberries to find location for. Gotta figure out where to place ten more apple trees as well.
Over shopping, lack of planning.

#25

Planning is half the fun. As soon as I’m done harvesting, I’m walking around the yard trying to find places where I can fit more into. Then, once I have the openings, I start researching and shopping, which continues until I’ve filled the spaces. After that, I try not to find anything else. :smile:

I planted the trees from my Bay Laurel order today. I was struck by how small the roots are. Well, it was much easier to dig the holes than in the past. I was able to do all 9 trees in less than an hour and a half. And that time included pictures, mixing up latex paint & water, and pacing off the spacing, as well as the usual digging and planting.

I think there may be a different reason nurseries butcher the roots than most people assume. Yes, I think that saving $$ on shipping is part of it. But, maybe more importantly, smaller roots lead to happier consumers, as it is much less work to dig a small hole, than a big one. When presented with a monster root system, a customer has 3 choices- kill their back digging (ouch), trim the roots themselves (I would feel too guilty to), or just cram it in a small hole (again not good for the tree). So, by trimming the roots the nursery has made things easy for the customer- no need for any hard decisions or excessive digging. Even if it isn’t the best option for the plant, it must not be that bad.

Now, that said, part of me would like a bigger root system. I feel a bit guilty that I was relieved today when I saw how small the roots were.

The bottom plant (the one with the big roots) is a Natchez blackberry. The other 6 are stone-fruit on Citation (4), Mariana (1), and Lovell(1).

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#26

Doesn’t anyone use a tiller to do the hole? I bought a electric tiller for 100’sh to dig my holes with, though everyone may not have the hard clay Soil yard like myself, with the random boulders/rocks.

On laptop now instead of tablet, much easier to type.
-Directgarden
5in1 pear tree
boysenberry

-Indiana berry -
Razz blueberry
Doublegold Raspberry, Royalty purple Raspberry

-Henryfields -
Honeyberry wild & sweet, Key Lime dwarf, 3x Nanking bush cherry
2x Saskatoon blueberry, plum superior, Blackberry Apache, Random Blueberry

-Gurnney’s -2x PREMIUM BLUEBERRY (ka-bluey)
Blackberry -Ouachita, Blackmagic, Jumbo, Marion
Raspberry - Sweet repeat,mammoth, Jewel, Anne, Caroline, Red latham

Cummings - Apple Tree’s G41 Dwarfs.
Frostbite , Sundance ,Goldrush
10x G.41 rootstocks.

Gardensalive -Triple Crown Thronless Blackberry, Raspberry Caroline

That would be the ones shipped this year, had 47 plants shipped last year.

I gotta figure out the location for all this plus more, and that is not counting the flowers, Vegetables or herb’s, or other fruit’s from seeds like Mellon which take a ton of space. All of this so far is just going to the front yard, because I am to lazy to do it in the back yard, because the weeds are super crazy and lack of water/power that can reach.

Bob, all the roots on mine were small to ok side like you mentioned, but they shipped the Triple brown blackberry with roots 2 feet+ long.

I spent at least 3 hours getting 3 apple tree’s from cummings nursery in the ground, with a tiller speeding stuff up 10x as fast. Any tips for going so quickly?

#27

The reason I was able to get them in the ground so quickly was that the root systems are quite small. I didn’t dig the hole much bigger than I needed to fit the roots- maybe 1’ wide and a foot deep. One step I took the day before was to use a propane torch (basically a flame thrower :slight_smile: ), to kill the entire strip of grass. I’ll be mulching with wood chips too, but I’ve seen grass be stubborn.

One thing that helps a bit is using a 6’ iron digging bar. You can poke at the soil to loosen things up before shoveling it out. It’s also useful to pry out rocks.

In the past, I often took 1+ hours to dig a single hole. I would make them 3+ feet wide and more than 2 feet deep. Given the amount and size of rocks I have it was a ton of work. I’d break some of the rocks with a sledge hammer, before I could move them. In order to be able to get everything planted, I would start digging in November and would keep going all winter, a few holes a week, until snow cover. I wasn’t able to do that this year (partially collapsed lung while playing badminton), so I was happy for the shortcut.

I haven’t gotten my Cummins order yet, but I’m sure the roots will be bigger. But, I didn’t get as many from them this year- just 5, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of digging to do for my Arboreum order as well.

#28

Cummings roots were like the top few roots from the photo above for me, the rootstock has even less roots surprisingly.
I use a electric tiller to dig my hole, takes 10-15 minutes tops for a 1-2 foot hole deep and 2-3 foot wide, but I add better soil to the mix as well. Very little physical work to make a hole… Will post some pic’s in a new topic for some advice before they settle in/tips,etc later today or tomorrow.

#29

My spring orders were placed months ago and all seeds have been sent , but waiting for live plants and bulbs to be shipped for appropriate planting time for our zone and location.

Nourse Farms: Mara Des Bois Strawberry 50 plants, Sparkle Strawberry 50 plants, Caroline Raspberries 10 plants, Blueray Blueberries 3 plants, Purple Passion Asparagus 25 plants ,McDonald Rhubarb 3 plants, Red Currant Johnkeer, Elderberry SamdayL and SamyL.

Filaree Garlic Farm: Music, Rose Du Lautrec, Chesnok Red, Russian Redstreak

Steele Plant CO. : Beauregard Sweet Potatoes

Dixondale Farms: Yellow Spanish, Copra, Candy Onions.

Seed Savers Exchange: Cert. Organic German Butterball Potatoes, Purple Viking OG. , and a few heirloom tomato seed.

Local Conservation Seedling Sale: Black Ice Plum 2, Toka Plum 1, Black Gold Cherry 2, Madison Peach 2, Boyne Raspberry 5 plants, Duke , Elliot and Blue Ray Blueberries 2 each.

Gurney’s: 2 Dwarf Meijer Lemon, 1 Dwarf Key Lime, Fort Laramie Strawberry. (Have not ordered from Gurney’s in many years, keeping fingers crossed)

Burlington Rose Nursery: Alchemist Clmber, Crepuscule Climber, Veilchenblau Climber, Zepherine Drougn Climber.

I also received my seed orders for heirloom tomatoes : Abbattista Paste, Rebel Yell, Morado Vejer Dela Frontera. Along with many other varieties from trades and my own saved seed from my fav. heirloom tomatoes I have grown for many years. Already sowed and ready to transplant. Along with heirloom kale, chard, spinach and Rouge D’ Alger Cardoon… etc…

Ginny

#30

Ginny Rebel Yell is and awesome tomato! I never grew Abbattista paste but that is on my want list now!
I have a lot of seeds if you ever want to trade. PM me for list.
The rest of your orders look awesome too! I’m growing onions and garlic too! Thanks for your post, i have to check some of the nurseries. I have ordered from most you listed, but a couple I never heard of. On blueberries, if you have more room, look at Toro and Liberty.

Chills thanks for bringing up Wapsipinicon peach tomatoes. I recieved free seed in the mail today from a user on Tomatoville. He also send me a few seeds of Cowlick’s Brandywine. I have been looking for that strain for some time! I also discovered about 10 other fuzzy tomatoes while discussing them there too!

#31

Drew,

I’ll PM you re. hot pepper spray and tomato. I don’t want to hi-jack this thread.

#32

Drew this is my first year growing Rebel Yell. I have been wanting to grow this tomato for a few years now, but had too many on my list to try. I bought seed of Abbittitsa Paste from the Secret Seed Cartel. I am low on seeds since I planted most of the pkg. , but I can spare 5 seed and that would be enough to try it and also save seeds from. Germination is excellent. Send me a PM with your address. You will like Brandywine Cowlick’s, although I found absolutely no difference in this strain compared to the regular plain old Brandywine that I have been growing for the past 20 years. Both are excellent .

I grew out the Wasp Peach a number of years back. It was good, but I could not get used to the “fuzz”… lol. I am also a longtime member of TVille… barefootgardener

Ginny

#33

Where did you order your blueberries from Drew? I never heard of those varieties.

Ginny

#34

I got them from Raintree Nursery. Liberty was developed by Michigan State University.
I was not that impressed with the specimens, One Green World has Liberty I would go through them.
One Green World and Raintree are out of Toro. One Green World is an awesome nursery!
Watch for Toro at either next season.

Brighterblooms and fast growing trees has it but they want outragious amounts. Amazon has a super small specimen for 4 bucks,

#35

I just received part of my Henry Fields order. I don’t normally order from them, but wanted a Romeo bush cherry, which they were the only ones selling. Of course, to get the $25 off a $50 order, I had to throw in a few other things. So, I added a male kiwi (always good to have another pollinator) and a few Nanking bush cherries (probably not from my yard, but know someone who can use them).

There were two “huh??” moments when I opened the box. There was a letter thanking me from being a Gurney’s valued customer (though I’ve never ordered from them).

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I happen to know they have the same parent company, so it isn’t a big deal- just funny to see both companies logo’s in the same box (one on invoice, the other on the letter).

The next thing I noticed was a note saying that my plants are dormant and to plant them as soon as possible. Actually, this kiwi doesn’t look so dormant. I bet I’d do it some serious damage if I planted it now (with at least another month of freezing temps ahead), which some of their other customers may not know. Not a bad thing for me, I’ll just take care of it with my house plants for a while.

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#36

Bob, how big was the Romeo you received? When I emailed them to ask about it they said they would be 18-24 inches high. I decided not to get it since I really didn’t have a good space, but just curious if they really came in that big.

#37

I’m not sure, as that part of the order hasn’t come in yet. It is scheduled for Saturday. But, the 3 Nanking cherries which were supposed to be 18-24" all appear to be in the upper half of that range.

#38

That looks really nice and healthy from the pictures.

#39

I forgot about the 3 dwarf banana plants I have on order from Rare Seeds… :grinning:

#40

It’s small (less than a foot tall) and has at least 3 stems- I’ll need to prune all but one off, once it gets going. But, yes, it looks healthy and was a good bargain at $7.50 (after the half off). I don’t regret getting it- I just thought that the note was a bit funny.