What did you do in your orchard today?

[R2elk]

Carmine Jewel Dwarf cherry

Evans-Bali cherry

 

[CrealCritter]

FB is really enjoying red haven peaches and i'm glad she is. This is her second bucket bucket of red haven that she's picked.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

This would be awesome!!!!! Count me in. I have Fedco saved for next spring

I have but one favor to ask. Please remind me at the end of February beginning of March and see if we can try and coordinate a date when you will receive your root stock. I want to send you as fresh as possible scionwood for a greater grafting success rate.

Here is our full grown semi dwarf asian pear pollinator for our standard Bartlet. It produce good medium sized brown skinned pears. I pruned it pretty heavy this spring, it hadn't been pruned in a very long time. As you can see it still has some vigor and sent up numerous amounts of new growth that could be cut for scionwood. It should really take off now and fruit out nicely next year and the following years.

Here's our standard bartlet pear. The tree is huge and has to be about 35 to 40 foot tall so most definitely it's on a standard rootstock. I picked it standing on a 16 foot ladder with a fruit basket extended all the way and still could get to the top of the tree. I also pruned it pretty heavy this spring. Same as the asian, it wasn't pruned for a long time. It also responded positively and is sending up a lot of new growth that can be for scionwood.

The original orchard trees were planted in the mid 70's and all came from Stark Brothers. That's how I found out about the Stark Bro nursery next door in Mo. They must be doing something right... They've been in business since 1816

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

After Wednesday they say it's supposed to rain most every day, who knows about forecasts though... It rained last night and is raining now. I may just wait until Saturday or Sunday to try my first ever attempts at chip grafting. I really want to wait until everything is well hydrated.

I'll be using this video a my guide. I think it's a good one. There is one thing I've yet to see or read about that's crossing my mind. It would stand to reason that you want to place the chip so it's oriented in the same position as it is on the bud stick. I guess it's common sense that you don't want to place it upside down. I suspect sap will only flow in one direction. So my suspicion if the chip were placed upside down it wouldn't take.

I'll share my experience with my first ever grafting attempts.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Can you gently bend the suckers out to the side a little farther away from the trunk and then feed them through the bottom of a pot? Fill the pot with dirt with some rooting hormone but leaving the top of the sucker sticking out, and add more dirt as it gets taller? Then in spring before the leaves start, check to see if it has grown roots in the pot. If yes, you should be able to cut the sucker off at the bottom of the pot and it will be a separate plant, to put into a bigger pot or plant in the ground elsewhere.

 

[CrealCritter]

What fun grafting apple trees, I enjoyed myself. It's some delicate work with razor sharp stainless budding knife.

First select a branch this year's branch and cut it off where it meets the main trunk or main branch. It helps if it's about the same diameter as the root stock you're grafting. Then trim off the leaves but leave the leaf stems. Now you have what is known as a bud stick.

Potted rootstock and bud stick

Next select a good bud to cut for the chip. Take budding knife and cut across the bottom of the bud the cut the bud loose from the bud stick by gently slicing top to the bottom of the first cut.

Good bud pictured and the cut chip.

Next do the same cuts on the rootstock, to match the chip cut from the bud stick.

You know you did a good job when the chip sticks to the root stock all by itself.

Next wrap with parfilm to secure the chip to the rootstock cut and snip off the leaf stem.

Pretty cool I had fun. I chip grafted a granny Smith, red delicious, golden delicious and an unidentified apple from the original orchard.

Plus I did a "fruit cocktail" 4 grafts, plus the crab apple produced by the root stock just for fun.

We'll see in a couple of weeks if the grafts took or not.

I believe I'll go try and T-Bud graft a peach tree next. That is if the bark will slip it might be to late in the afternoon now.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

T-Budding the bark on this peach sapling is pretty thick. But with the nice rains we had last night and the cooler temperature the bark slipped (peeled away easy from the sap wood). This is a lot quicker and easier than chip budding but kind of the same. Cut a T in the bark with the budding knife down to the sap wood. Then use the brass non sharp bark seperator to gently peel back the top of bark to expose the camban layer (green). Then cut a chip from the bud stick same as for chip budding. Slide the chip into the T top to bottom and wrap with parfilm. Easy peasy.

Three T bud grafts about knee high

Wrapped with parfilm

Budding knife it's a good one with razor sharp stainless steel blade and brass bark seperator.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

FYI... Fedco Trees opened ordering today for rootstocks, scionwood and pre-grafted bare root fruit trees.

Catalog Search - Fedco Seeds

Catalog Search - Fedco Seeds

www.fedcoseeds.com

I ordered rootstocks and scionwood. Grafting my own is the least expensive way I know how to get an orchard going. When this order comes in, in March it'll be my first attempt at whip and tongue grafting. But I believe I've done my homework, it'll just be time to put all the book and video learning into practice.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

I suspect spring is getting closer rather than further away. Starkbros shipped my replacement barefoot sunrise pear. I also noticed yesterday, the plum trees are starting to bud. I'll have to set this pear out in the mother orchard this evening.

Starkbros graft, this is most definitely a chip bud graft.

I suppose while I have the shovel out there. And it rained heavy last night, meaning everything is well hydrated. I'll go ahead and dig up three peach root stocks and bring them in to bench graft. With scionwood I harvested and storaged in the refrigerator since February 11th.

I'm quickly coming to the conclusion, that trying to start a mother and production orchard requires air-laying, scionwood and grafting skills, all of which is new to me. I've studied but that only goes so far... putting studies into practice is where the rubber meets the road persay. I thoroughly expect failures to learn from, so I'm not disappointed

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

It's true if you're early you can find potted cherry trees at farm stores. They are the first to arrive and the first to sell out, at least around here they are.

So, meanwhile at Rural King in town, they are selling #5 potted cherry trees for $49.99 plus tax, that's pretty crazy priced

Black tartarian is a sweet cherry variety for eating fresh. black tartarian requires another sweet cherry pollinator variety to produce cherries. A black Republican, Sam, Bing, Schmidt, Cavalier, Stella, Gold, Van, Heidelfingen, Vega, Montmorency, Vista, Ranier or Windsor would be required. But there were only Black tartarian available. I already have a bing and stella so, no thanks not at $50.00!

So I went over to Tractor Supply out of curiosity. They had #5 dwarf North Star dwarf tart (pie) cherry trees and some dwarf peach trees for $38.99. tart/pie cherry trees are self pollinating so no pollinator required. All peach trees are also self pollinating. I've been looking for a North Star cherry and a Reliance peach tree for the mother orchard, they had both . The manager was out there, somehow we got to talking about things,. I picked out the two trees I wanted, nice banchy ones to gather scionwood for grafting next February. She took the tags off them and said follow me. So I followed her to the register and she gave me 15% each tree, what a sweet heart she has

I told Farm Babe I bought some.more fruit trees and that 5 more are coming from tyty this week. She said: so will this be it for the year? I said, have you forgotten my rootstock and scionwood order from Fedco comes next month? That'll be 20 more fruit trees to put together and practice grafting on. She said how many? I said 10 apple and 10 peach. Her eyes got as big around as jimmy dean sausage patties then she said: keep going. So I'll keep going

Jesus is Lord and Christ