What did you do in your orchard today?

[CrealCritter]

Some of the parafilm is falling off the grafts. Kind of neat to see graft callousing in its early stages.

Cleft graft

Whip and tongue graft

I sprayed the orchard today for leaf spot. It's been a very wet spring so pretty much expected.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Parafilm fell of peach bark graft. Bark graft is on top, bud graft is on the bottom still wrapped with parafilm. This was a 3 year old root stock I dug out of the mother orchard this past late winter. 1 year old scion wood from my mother in law's peach trees. Kind of interesting to see early callousing of the bark graft to me. It's calloused together tight and water proof.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

At least for the time being, the Contender Peach I bought this year has peaches on it.

 

[CrealCritter]

At least for the time being, the Contender Peach I bought this year has peaches on it.
View attachment 23386

Late frost got ours this year and other trees are still to young. But i'm very happy you'll have some

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Mini Horses]

Feb week of heat had my plum tree bloom. March week of frost killed them. No plums again this year . Might as well cut the tree down.

 

[CrealCritter]

Feb week of heat had my plum tree bloom. March week of frost killed them. No plums again this year . Might as well cut the tree down.

But we like trees. Remember from grade school, trees take in CO2 and release Oxygen. Almighty's self-healing / self-growing / self-multiplying creation.

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Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Well it's looking like we'll be having a grafting party in March. My favorite daughter in law is wanting to start a small orchard like the one I'm working on starting.

Wednesday evening I showed her how to air layer MM111 rootstocks. I did one as a demonstration, then kicked back sitting on a bucket and answered questions, while she did the remaining 9. When she was done she asked if I had more root balls . I said I'll show her how to harvest scionwood in February. I sent her home with a Fedco catalog so she can pick out some scionwood for varieties she wants to grow. Here's her handy work.

I also ordered year end overstock rootstocks from Fedco. 10 OHxF97 semi standard pear and 15 Lovell Peach rootstocks. They arrived last week bareroot, buds breaking and some leafed out. I potted them and am slowly hardening them off. I couldn't resist the hugely discounted prices. Lovell peach rootstock can also be used to graft, appricots, plums and almonds. Lovell is also interesting as it used to be the industry canning peach up until recently. I'll most likely plant 3 to 4 Lovell ungrafted rootstocks for canning peaches and for growing more rootstocks from the peach pits.

I also want to graft cherries this March, so I'll be ordering Mazzard rootstock also.

Yep it'll be a bench grafting party come March alright

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Mini Horses]

I have a lot of trees. This is 4th yr in a row no plums. Weather! It's now annoying and getting gnarly to look at. At my age, I'll buy fruit! Mostly it's figs and apples for me. Goats have eaten 3 of 4 apple trees. Deer took out the blueberries. I'm not dealing with any more. I can get these things from local u-picks. . Less hassle, too.

There's at least 200 acres of trees around me...pine & hardwood. Between International Paper and farmers with tree lots, plenty of trees. Plus trees in my pastures for animal shade.

 

[R2elk]

Stuck an air layer on an apricot branch. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, the branch is still going to get cut off.

 

[CrealCritter]

In anticipation of our grafting party come March. I ordered 50 3 gallon nursery pots. 50 new pots plus my 20 plus pots I already have should be enough for the party I don't know if you have noticed or not but the price of nursery pots has sky rocketed, even on ebay

While my son and daughter in law were in Tennessee they picked up the pots. Saved shipping cost and was able to purchase for at least 1/2 of what I would have paid by an online order

Good pots, fantastic price, if you can pick up yourself and save on shipping.

Containers - Nursery

So 1 cuft of bagged soil will fill 2 3 gallon pots. Meaning I'll need 35 bags or about a yard of compost. I prefer bagged soil so I can bring it inside to keep warm for grafting. I probably have 15 bags already but will definitely be looking out for a sale thankfully trees don't require special soil so the cheap stuff works great.

Here is the latest pics of the little kiddie pool nursery. Everything is growing, but I need to pick up some liquid copper to spray the leafs for leaf shot hole. It came on with a vengeance after the rain we had Sunday. Kind of expected though.

Jesus is Lord and Christ