Trees at the periphery

General Gardening
1

Not every tree in a food island has an apple at the end of the branch. And some trees are hard to find by barter or at a nursery. Or, you want to grow several dozen trees and that fact is outside your budget.

For me that has meant propagating a cutting or growing from seed. Over the years I have had to make use of cold stratified seed, CS-seed are almost never successful dried or frozen.

Based on my direct trials cold stratification means putting your still damp seed into a zip-lock bag with something barely damp and into fridge. Till plant out.

My lazy home cold-stratification model is to set out seeds into a wide pot with fast draining soil, and to cover that pot with a plank. Leave pot outdoors till spring, uncover, Water as needed in spring.

2

My question is how soon did trees sown from seed bear. The other question I have is, have you ever bought any fruit tree seeds from ebay? I did recently and vendor claimed that the cultivar is dwarf. The only seed that germinated for me is the dwarf gala apple. I wondered if I have been suckered (no pun intended) with"dwarf"cultivars from seeds. they have dwarf kiwi, dwarf grapes, dwarf lychees…

3

Welcome Roundface.
“How soon did trees sown from seed bear?”

Using apple and crab apple as exemplars six to ten years from seed to next generation fruit.

“I wondered if I have been suckered with “dwarf” cultivars from seeds.”

Yes, I think you was conned. i don’t grow kiwi or lychee. But there aint no dwarf grapes.

A plant that might be built out of two or more sources of wood, may have dwarfing root-stock. or resistance to soil-born disease in its roots.

Seed persee isn’t where dwarf apples get their size limits from.

Hang out here, and read a lot, & then ask questions. i aint the sharpest crayon in the box. But if I can figure this stuph out, you can too.

4

The last crop of missionaries that built food islands were Swedborgian and Mormons. They both felt the need to create their vision(s) of what the garden of eden must have been like.

I have seen maps of older Moslem gardens.

Mine are being built on pagan sites. As a legacy project of mine through time…

5

Roundface, I’d be willing to take the end of a wager that a “Gala” apple on its own feet is a full sized tree.

The dwarfing genes are in the rootstock, of a grafted tree.

6

This is the begining of Japan maple wing-season. its a standard give away of mine, and fairly easy to germinate if you paint inside its lines.

Japan maple wings remain viable only as long as they stay moist. They are easy to cold-stratify outdoors.

If you must mail them in the pursuit of barter hold them in your fridge with a wrung-out paper towel.

I would not buy JM wings because they are not held (moist) and once dried–they-re dead. So, no E-bay.

7

Actually yes dwarf grapes exist.

8

I have to stand corrected. it seems there is a dwarf grape. Sort-of.

Being a fan of training bonsai, this might make some of the prerequisits for a bonsai candidate. But inasmuch as its reference in Wikipedia is as a green house only plant. IMO this is at best a ‘maybe’ bonsai candidate.

See: Pixie grape-Pinot meunier.

It may even less a compact yard candidate than it may be for bonsai training.

A-n-d nothing in the wiki article reads to me that its minature stature is universally inherited by seed. (which was how this was being sold, as seed not plants).

I think I’ll rest on “there are no dwarf grapes”, that I started out this thread with.

9

Chasing “yasubusa” (most dwarf cultivars) for a longish time. I have seen but not gotten some samples that are ankles and knees better than everything else in its kin.

Fer example, Pedro Dot breed up three mini-rose that are about 1/4 the size of its smallest kin. If you can even find examples of ‘Ti’, ‘Mi’, and ‘Si’, please let me know I have been on hunt for them for a while.

But to return to the author of this thread, Roundface was sold I suspect the brooklyn bridge, and not seed that would grow minature plants.

10

No need to bonsai the pixie grape it stays small. Just grow it in a pot. Not sure why you would want to grow this? You could just grow full size plants in pots too. If planted in the ground the pixie will not grow anymore, it will stay dwarf. Being a natural dwarf, of course it will stay small.
It’s a mutant of pinot meunier, a grape family used for wine and champagne production.

11

Drew, I think this is much more about somebody selling (or being sold) magic beans, than any interest of mine in viniculture.

12

I agree,
“never give a sucker an even break” - W.C. Fields