Recent content by Brush farmer

It can be a response to any number of stresses, not only fire. The tree I personally observed this in was close enough to the fire to char it’s trunk. I read about it happening not long after with the wild fires in California doing the same thing to commercial orchards. I’m not sure what other...

I’ve seen blossoms come out in the fall on an apple damaged by a house fire, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with yours.

I got my flag in place this evening. As you can see from this picture this old tree probably doesn’t have a lot of time left. I’m glad I picked up some skill in grafting to be confident I can preserve whatever is going on with it. I’ll be keeping an eye on the apples if I get a crop this coming...

Will do for sure! I couldn’t get along without the stuff

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I’m going to go study the leaves over really well before they go away for the year. I’m not certain I can locate the exact spot where the apple was hanging but I know within about a foot on that limb. I know the limb for sure because it’s one of the few I can...

This is just a single tree by itself. The only other apple trees around are wild crabs, which I assume are the pollinators.

I’ve got a very old apple tree that in years past had completely fallen over. I discovered that while the top was dead it had a couple arm sized shoots growing vertically off of the lower trunk. I cut the dead top off and left the shoots to give it a chance. Later that year I learned it...

Jack, You may well be right on the point of acclimating seedlings. I know in pervious attempts at starting persimmons indoors I had wilted batches with very short initial periods outside in dappled shade which they had a hard time recovering from. From now on I’m just using my two nursery...

I’ve got a decent crop of persimmons so far this year. I took seed from persimmons right at the mushy stage and cleaned them well. I stored them in damp paper towel in the fridge crisper until late Feb / early March (after the worst freezes have passed for the year). I planted the seed in my...

I had some pear and apple scion wood left over this spring. After completing the last of my field grafts, I sat the scions still in the bag with a moist paper towel on a work bench in the house. I forgot all about them until cleaning up a week later. To my surprise the buds were pushed out...

Thanks for the info Jack. These behavior discussions really interest me because it translate into how I do my habitat improvements and also how I hunt. The better you know the animals the better you are at both.

I agree that the hens seems to arrive first and pick up calling activity in the morning and at fly up well before they’re ready to breed. Early season gobbling seems to be randomly located until the hens get more receptive and they hone in on these places. I’ve had an incident where I was...

That’s good to know Yoderjac! Besides proximity of habitat, feeding area, hens and nesting areas, I’ve been under the opinion that the areas gobblers choose to make their display is in some part instinctual similar to the migration habits of other birds. The neighboring farms have many similar...

I’m fortunate to have a place that holds birds really well largely for the same reasons you mentioned. There is one spot in particular that must be a prime strutting area because the gobblers fight continually for it the whole breeding season. It might be overly cautious on my part but I’m...

Nice! Me too! I’m especially happy I didn’t flush any turkeys on my hike back to the trees since they’re planted very close to my favorite hunting spot. I was a little concerned about trying to keep activity low this close to season but there’s no other way I was going to get the grafts done.