In addition to see CAR in its full glory, I top-worked some seedling P. americana to Superior and Alderman hybrid plums today in the rain. I did my first rind grafts today doing this, having only done whip and tongue and cleft grafts so far.
It will be interesting to see how they fare in an unmanaged state and in among 100 yards of a fence line lined with P. americana and all of its attendant pests.
Yesterday, I planted Blackpearl cherry, and I finished the lionshare of apple and pear grafts. I also took some photos.
Blackpearl on Gisela-6 in one of my typical hillbilly raised beds:
Freyburg apple graft on Newtown Pippin/ Geneva-16:
Here is a curio-- I noticed a two-year old Rubinette chip graft on Gingergold/ B.9 popping out yesterday (after doing nothing at all last year)!
Gingergold is forming little apple fruitlets:
Here are @BobVance’s Triple Crown blackberry starts greening up yesterday:
Here is the Desert King fig @Greenguy traded me last year… getting bigger:
And here are my potted American persimmon seedlings pushing out new growth:
Bronze Paradiso fig gifted last year from @fruitnut:
Red Gravenstein apple on B.9 flowering profusely:
The Worden pear on OHF.87. Notice the new Tyson grafts in blue tape from another forum member to remain nameless (unless he wants to be revealed!). The old Winter Nelis graft from @Lizzy (white tape, top left) is growing away nicely. And a small chip-bud of @BobVance’s Magness pear in yellow tape can be seen too, if you zoom in:
Here is the mystery (Verte?) fig stump I transplanted from a friend in Burke, Virginia who no longer wanted it. It’s huge! And it survived this past summer AND winter completely exposed above ground-- roots and all!
The Roxbury Russet apple on Geneva-30 recently shipped from Cummins has tight-cluster blossoms. It is potted up now, but it soon will be planted in the backyard next to my hammock:
Northsky blueberry on the front stoop is full of flowers:
Hey Tom, I’m curious. I noticed those upside down tomato cages in your photo. Are they being used for any kind of fruit (besides tomatoes)? I have actually used them for young raspberries- the first year or so- and they do a good job and are a very simple way of supporting the canes. Just wondered if you’ve found another use?
Today, I picked up my Magness pear on OHF.333 from Boyer’s. I love Magness so much, I decided to get a whole tree on dwarf roots.
It looks robust and has a substantial root system:
While I was there, I inquired whether they had any dwarf cherries in stock (sometimes they have these in small quantities even though they don’t list them in their catalog). I lucked out; they had the Sam cherry on Gisela-6 for a great price-- yowza!! They are having a special sale on what’s left of their bareroot stock-- 25% off!
Here are both trees heeled into a pot (Magness pear, left; Sam cherry, right):
As a turkey hunter (sorry for those that offends) I enjoyed your turkey photo. That guy was in full display/strut. Hopefully he was gobbling for you as well. There are few things more fun than tricking a big tom into gobbling and walking across a field/woods to come to you, just because he thinks you are another bird. I enjoy that much, much more than the actual shot! BTW…I’d like to see a photo of your cabin sometime. based on the post the bird is on, it must be a very rustic cabin, which I love.
I use them to keep my dog away from seedlings! I just planted a few black currants, and a highbush cranberry I moved from my cottage to here, All protected by cages! He may run into them but soon learns to avoid them. Also I have found the cages work best and more size appropriate for peppers. Tomatoes always out grow them. Although I’m seriously thinking of growing just dwarf tomatoes, as the plants never grow very tall, and seem more hardy, never become lanky, and produce some of the best tomatoes around.
Yes he stayed right out in front of the cabin for a couple of hours looking for that mysterious hen. He was safe as our season is only open from daylight till noon.
He was completely safe as our season closes at noon everyday but he stayed around until dark strutting and gobbling, looking for that mysterious hen. It was really quite a show.
Awesome cabin! Two thumbs up!
Cityman,
It was just haphazardly lay around the little paw paw tree so that I won’t accidentally step onto it while working in the area.
I found that the “tomato cage” is very useless as its namesake but if you arrange and tie 3-5 of them up like an Olympic symbol, then they would be quite sturdy, no more tomato plants tumbled down from a strong wind. And once the tomatoes passed its cage’s height, I tied up another Olympic cage, inverted, set on top of my first Olympic then tie them 2 Olympics together. And I repeated a few more arrangement/set up like that for my tomatoes row and interconnected them, they were quite formidable after that.
Tom
Thanks Matt, if I can get that M111 rootstock to pull through maybe I can have a nice big apple out front some day
See this link:
http://articles.extension.org/pages/31143/using-grow-tubes-in-vineyards
They are commonly used by grape growers, it gives the plants more warmth; the tubes let in filtered sun. I used them on some grapes and blackberries, but now I only use them to protect grafts.
Ok thanks. Grow tubes and tree shelters seem to be functionally equivalent.
Derby42, that’s an impressive collection of dried oak leaves in front of your cabin. No weeds!
Picture perfect
Yes, lots of oak leaves there in the fall. If my apple tree lives I am going to gather a bunch up and put inside the cage for mulch.
