My next project

[Turkey Creek]

I was contacted by Arbor Day Farm, which is owned by The National Arbor Day Foundation to do the grafting for their heritage orchard. Some of the trees in the heritage orchard are over 80 years old. J Sterling Morton owned the property at one point. ADF is located on the outskirts of Nebraska City, NE. Southeast corner of Nebraska just a stone's throw from the Missouri River. At one time there was close to 100 varieties in the orchard. They have replaced a few trees over the years, but sadly they have lost some of the original varieties. My job is to graft new trees from the existing varieties and track down scion wood for the varieties that have died off, not been replaced, and graft those. To say the least I am pretty pumped to be part of the project!

Today was the day for year 1 scion collection, they have a few metal signs indicating the variety, but some required us to use hand written maps that have seen better days! The orchard maintenance guy had already started pruning, but luckily I found useable scion on every tree we collected from. You can see what a old tree looks like when it was started out in a style I would not recommend! Water sprouts were thick on top of most trees, great for grafting purposes, but a pain for pruning every year. I am going to get them to grow these new trees in a central leader form.

Some uniques varieties from year one's grafting are Almata, Blue Pearmain, Coles Quince, Dr. Mathews, Early Harvest, Fall Russet, Irish Peach, Kandil Sinap, Maidens Blush, Ohio Nonpareil, Westfield-Seek-No-Further, White Winter Pearmain and Zabergau Reinette.

I will add a few more pictures as the project progresses.

 

[Neahawg]

What are the varieties they are missing?

 

[greyphase]

Just that first tree should keep you busy for awhile. Sounds like an interesting project. Keep us informed of your progress.

 

[buckvelvet]

Chris thats awesome! Really happy for you, you deserve that opportunity. How many trees of each do you have to replicate? What stock do they want them on?

Cant wait to follow along on this!


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[chickenlittle]

Neat. I was thinking of doing something like this for the town park. They have 6 old and declining apple trees. I have no idea what varieties they are but I assume they are grafted. The latest hanging apple was a tasty green apple and had nice apples on it so I grafted a couple for myself last spring. I should ask if they'd like them replaced.

 

[Bill]

Wow. Congratulations!
Yea it's a job, but that seems like an honor also.

 

[Turkey Creek]

What are the varieties they are missing?

I have located everything they were missing for this go around except Lamb Abbey Pearmain and Keswick Codlin. Doing every thing we can to make sure that the scion source is verifiable. Even GRIN doesnt have those 2, unless they are listed under other names.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Chris thats awesome! Really happy for you, you deserve that opportunity. How many trees of each do you have to replicate? What stock do they want them on?

Cant wait to follow along on this!


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They want them on M7. They are only wanting 1-2 trees of each variety as they have limited space. We are already looking at some other collaborations between them and myself, only time will tell.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That's a great project, TC. Very worthwhile effort to preserve the older varieties. Atta-boy, Chris !!!

 

[buckvelvet]

@Turkey Creek check your pms.

 

[buckvelvet]

They want them on M7. They are only wanting 1-2 trees of each variety as they have limited space. We are already looking at some other collaborations between them and myself, only time will tell.

Thats a big opportunity for your nursery, must have a good reputation locally too, cuz I've seen your stock, top notch.

 

[H20fwler]

Very cool project!

 

[SmallChunk]

Wow, good for you! This will be a fun one to follow!

 

[Keystonepaul]

some before and after pictures would be benificial to us on the lower end of the learning curve as you get into this project. Good luck!!!

 

[Apple Junkie]

I'm looking forward to tracking your progress too. It's an honor to a be asked to participate, and honorable to agree.

 

[buckvelvet]

TC,
Are they/you planting to do a mass replant (like remove the old stock) or not that extreme?

 

[Turkey Creek]

TC,
Are they/you planting to do a mass replant (like remove the old stock) or not that extreme?

No the old, healthy trees will stay. Replanting in the spots where trees used to be and then in a couple new rows.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Sounds exciting TC! Gotta keep the old varieties around for the next generation!

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