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Post by gsquared23 on Jun 13, 2022 17:51:06 GMT -6
Another pear graft going nuts. Dang deers munching on my mulberry grafts. I shoulda caged Picked a mess of wild mulberries. Wife and the kids helped me pick them for over an hour. Could you imagine if these were all 1.5” from a grafted tree Wife made them into a pie
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Post by benmnwi on Jun 28, 2022 20:08:39 GMT -6
When do you guys take the grafting tape off the topworked trees? Every year I seem to wait too long, but I'd hate to pull them too soon and have them snap off. I have about a foot of new growth on the scion.
I only topworked a couple, but my success was good.
A couple of my frankentrees have fruit growing on them for the first time. I have no idea what varieties they are, but I have a couple trees with a dozen grafts on random branches. I hate to throw away scion, so leftovers end up on a few trees on whatever branches I can reach.
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Post by smsmith on Jun 28, 2022 20:14:25 GMT -6
When do you guys take the grafting tape off the topworked trees? Every year I seem to wait too long, but I'd hate to pull them too soon and have them snap off. I have about a foot of new growth on the scion. I only topworked a couple, but my success was good. A couple of my frankentrees have fruit growing on them for the first time. I have no idea what varieties they are, but I have a couple trees with a dozen grafts on random branches. I hate to throw away scion, so leftovers end up on a few trees on whatever branches I can reach. What kind of tape? I usually don't worry about anything until the following spring. If I notice girdling, I'll make a vertical slice along the side of the tape.
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Post by benmnwi on Jun 28, 2022 22:21:17 GMT -6
When do you guys take the grafting tape off the topworked trees? Every year I seem to wait too long, but I'd hate to pull them too soon and have them snap off. I have about a foot of new growth on the scion. I only topworked a couple, but my success was good. A couple of my frankentrees have fruit growing on them for the first time. I have no idea what varieties they are, but I have a couple trees with a dozen grafts on random branches. I hate to throw away scion, so leftovers end up on a few trees on whatever branches I can reach. What kind of tape? I usually don't worry about anything until the following spring. If I notice girdling, I'll make a vertical slice along the side of the tape. I just use slices of Kwik trip plastic bags for my grafting tape. Seems to work as good for me as real grafting tape. I left a couple all year before and the scion seemed to outgrow the rootstock and they seemed like they might snap off in a wind since they were so too heavy. I assumed I just waited too long, but I'm always more worried about taking the tape off too soon and having them snap off in the wind. That has only happened a couple times in the last few years though.
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Post by smsmith on Jun 29, 2022 6:41:51 GMT -6
I'm not sure what to say about plastic strips. I'd probably just keep watching them for girdling.
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Post by smsmith on Jul 12, 2022 14:08:15 GMT -6
I've got two. One is 9 years old and yet to produce a fruit. I don't think the fruit buds can take winter temps here. I've decided HGG just isn't hardy enough here. A graft from last year appears to have died back most of the way to the rootstock. My older tree may have a bloom or two, but it looks like it too has some dieback. I'd sure love to grow the variety here, but it doesn't seem promising. My 9 year old HGG is done. I cut out a bunch of dead limbs this spring. I just mowed that orchard and the remaining growth on the tree is turning yellow. I don't know what is killing it, but I'm going to remove the tree. Think I'll hit the stump with glyphosate too. My HGG graft from last year had about a foot of winter dieback. I trimmed it up, but I have my doubts if the thing will ever amount to much. I may just cut the graft off and let the rootstock grow for a few years, then graft it to a variety that actually produces here.
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Post by badgerfowl on Jul 12, 2022 14:29:30 GMT -6
Sucks about your HGG Stu. It says their zone 3-8. It's the biggest tree in my orchard. Such a unique tasting apple. I had the 2nd one die on me and I can't remember why but it didn't last more than 2 years. Other one is 10 years old now.
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Post by smsmith on Jul 12, 2022 20:16:11 GMT -6
HGG is a really tasty variety, that's why I've been trying to grow them. I see Fedco lists them as zone 4. It seems I've seen it rated as low as 3 and as high as 5. It just sucks hind tit here.
I may source a scion from somebody in a northern location some day and try again.
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Post by benmnwi on Jul 13, 2022 11:00:29 GMT -6
I've decided HGG just isn't hardy enough here. A graft from last year appears to have died back most of the way to the rootstock. My older tree may have a bloom or two, but it looks like it too has some dieback. I'd sure love to grow the variety here, but it doesn't seem promising. My 9 year old HGG is done. I cut out a bunch of dead limbs this spring. I just mowed that orchard and the remaining growth on the tree is turning yellow. I don't know what is killing it, but I'm going to remove the tree. Think I'll hit the stump with glyphosate too. My HGG graft from last year had about a foot of winter dieback. I trimmed it up, but I have my doubts if the thing will ever amount to much. I may just cut the graft off and let the rootstock grow for a few years, then graft it to a variety that actually produces here. Last winter also damaged more apple trees at my place than normal. It reminds me that I need to have a half a dozen or more potted seedlings growing at my place at all times so I can just give up on the damaged trees and plant a more hardy replacement to be topworked later. It seems like the trees that have winter damage once tend to struggle again, even if they seem to bounce back temporarily.
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Post by smsmith on Sept 14, 2022 8:49:27 GMT -6
Fedco just opened up for spring '23 scions/trees in case anybody was interested. I'm going to try and not order any more scions, but it is tough.
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Post by badgerfowl on Sept 14, 2022 10:59:42 GMT -6
Whitetail Crabs is open now too for 2023 trees.
I had 4 in the cart and then the $70 shipping just killed it. I don't need much more so I just added 2 to my existing Cummins Nursery order for 6 total for next year. I think that's it for fruit trees then. Should give me 44 or so at The Shed.
Need to get some bigger spruce for a screen for next spring. I'm thinking white spruce from cold stream.
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Post by smsmith on Sept 14, 2022 11:11:17 GMT -6
Whitetail Crabs is open now too for 2023 trees. I had 4 in the cart and then the $70 shipping just killed it. I don't need much more so I just added 2 to my existing Cummins Nursery order for 6 total for next year. I think that's it for fruit trees then. Should give me 44 or so at The Shed. Need to get some bigger spruce for a screen for next spring. I'm thinking white spruce from cold stream. After planting bareroot evergreens the last 2-3 springs...I'm back to saying I'll never plant another one. You do get larger stock by going bareroot, that's for sure. It is also a sure thing that it's going to take a heck of a lot longer to plant 100 bareroots than 100 plugs. I'm thinking I may order 3-400 white spruce plugs from Itasca and call it "good enough" for 2023.
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Post by badgerfowl on Sept 14, 2022 11:16:25 GMT -6
Whitetail Crabs is open now too for 2023 trees. I had 4 in the cart and then the $70 shipping just killed it. I don't need much more so I just added 2 to my existing Cummins Nursery order for 6 total for next year. I think that's it for fruit trees then. Should give me 44 or so at The Shed. Need to get some bigger spruce for a screen for next spring. I'm thinking white spruce from cold stream. After planting bareroot evergreens the last 2-3 springs...I'm back to saying I'll never plant another one. You do get larger stock by going bareroot, that's for sure. It is also a sure thing that it's going to take a heck of a lot longer to plant 100 bareroots than 100 plugs. I'm thinking I may order 3-400 white spruce plugs from Itasca and call it "good enough" for 2023. I'm only doing like 10-15 3-4 footers. So not much worse than my typical apple tree planting. They are going to get the full treatment though. Cage, mat, mulch. Deer annihilate anything over the winter at this place. I tried 90 plugs unprotected and none made it.
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Post by smsmith on Sept 15, 2022 19:58:25 GMT -6
I see Fedco increased their price for an 8" scion to $6. I just looked at Maple Valley Orchard's scions from last year. They have some of what Fedco has and a bunch that Fedco doesn't have. The price was $4 for a 12" stick, but that isn't a current price.
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Post by wklman on Sept 16, 2022 11:13:35 GMT -6
Gonna plant a couple more bagged and burlaped trees again next spring. They seem to be the way to go for me. Full size tree. Just add water.
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