Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Have your tried the North American Scion Exchange website for your remaining varieties?
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Project W: Columnar Apple Shot Plot
- Thread starter chickenlittle
- Start date
buckvelvet
5 year old buck +
Way to go! Failure is part of the learning process unfortunately, glad you have some good things happening!
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chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Thanks. I have them as a request on my scionlist on the scion exchange's new forum website. I have not tried looking for them on the yahoo group but a search of the scionlists there got no hits for spire. I have enough stuff to get done that those can wait for next year when I have smaller want list.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Here are some Golden Sentinel seedlings. I had 7 seeds from the tree I planted last year. All germinated for me in late Jan/early Feb. A couple died and the one in the back doesn't look so good, kinda wilty, but I do not think it has the columnar mutation. The other 3 in this photo I hope will turn out to be columnar trees. Especially for the one in middle front, the distance between leaves is quite short and that is a characteristic of the columnar mutation. I also have some Northpole and Scarlett Sentinel seeds still stratifying. I few had germinated and were planted last week.
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chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I have been late in doing my grafting. I am about 2/3 done. I did my columnar trees tonight. I have 16 done on a mix of B.118 and M.111. I bought the M.111 with 1/2" caliper specifically for columnar scions that can be about that size. I found the 1/2" to be challenging to work with. For cleft grafting smaller scions, I found not cutting the scion down the a sharp point was helpful in getting cambium contact on each cut. For the larger scions that matched the rootstock caliper, I managed a few whip and tongue that looked pretty good. I prefer the simpler cleft graft.
I purchased 3 new columnar trees from Stark, Maypole crab, Scarlet Spire, Emerald Spire. I planted those a few weeks ago. I thought about taking scions off those for grafting but decided to just plant them and get budwood or scions later.
I purchased 3 new columnar trees from Stark, Maypole crab, Scarlet Spire, Emerald Spire. I planted those a few weeks ago. I thought about taking scions off those for grafting but decided to just plant them and get budwood or scions later.
Bnhpr
5 year old buck +
1/2" rootstock is a bear to work with. I find 1/4 and 3/8 matches up with my budwood better. I take a bundle of each, to paw through as I cut up my scions. The fat end of the scion matches up with the 3/8 and as it gets smaller, I pick from the 1/4" bundle.
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chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Tbuds are starting to wake up. One is a columnar Wijcik Macintosh. The others are potted G.11 with varieties I intend to cross with columnar varieties. Wish it were easier to get good photos from my phone. Usually get the background in perfect focus for these shots.
buckvelvet
5 year old buck +
How are you going to cross another variety with a columnar? What are you expecting that to accomplish? These aren't being asked with negative connotations, just clarifying.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
My main goal is to have apples on the ground in bow range of a stand from the beginning to end of deer season, October to mid January. Columnar trees can be planted close together in row to give a variety of drop times, is easy to protect, and low maintenance. I could do that with normal dwarf trees too but i am concerned about drought tolerance while columnar can be planted on larger, hardier rootstocks.
I decided to breed new columnar varieties since so few are available. The dozen or so available in the US are all 1 or 2 crosses away from the Wijcik Macintosh, the original genetic mutation. I plan to try all of those but I am sure I'll want/need other columnar varieties with different drop times and better disease resistance.
As for the mechanics of crossing, it is just about pollen. Take pollen from one tree's flowers and pollinate another tree's flowers and prevent bees from introducing other pollen. Harvest and grow the seeds to see which inherited the columnar genes and grow those until they fruit. I have selected a number of varieties with good scab and fireblight resistance to cross with columnar varieties. Eventually I will look at intentionally introducing pathogens to understand the disease resistance.
I decided to breed new columnar varieties since so few are available. The dozen or so available in the US are all 1 or 2 crosses away from the Wijcik Macintosh, the original genetic mutation. I plan to try all of those but I am sure I'll want/need other columnar varieties with different drop times and better disease resistance.
As for the mechanics of crossing, it is just about pollen. Take pollen from one tree's flowers and pollinate another tree's flowers and prevent bees from introducing other pollen. Harvest and grow the seeds to see which inherited the columnar genes and grow those until they fruit. I have selected a number of varieties with good scab and fireblight resistance to cross with columnar varieties. Eventually I will look at intentionally introducing pathogens to understand the disease resistance.
buckvelvet
5 year old buck +
That'll take years but I'm in for following along on that for sure!
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Years of fun! My daughters are 9 months and 4 years old. I expect they will be expert grafters before they get to high school.
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chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I completed a couple weeks of bench grafting last night. 2 pears and 107 apples. Another dozen apple rootstock will be planted and budded or grafted later.
I have 16 grafts of columnar trees on B118 and M111. It is likely I'll have scionwood of a few varieties to share in the next year or two. If these take, I might have 5 or 6 trees each of Crimson Spire, Golden Sentinel, and Scarlett Sentinel.
As a comparison to the columnar trees, I plan to put some disease resistant varieties onto dwarf rootstock or use dwarf rootstock as interstems on M111 and B118. I grafted Liberty and PRI Co-op varieties on G.41. From GRIN and other places, I got Bud 146, G.11, G.41, G.65, M.27, Ottawa 3, P.2 and P.22 scions for interstems. In theory, the interstem gives you big roots for anchorage and moisture uptake while the interstem gives you a dwarf tree size. Messing with interstems is solely to satisfy my curiosity. Depending on my interstem graft success, some will get T-budded this summer to Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush. I could then harvest scions next winter from the budded trees and do more interstems. I want to preserve the harder to get dwarf rootstocks for continued use and will probably try layering some to create stool beds.
For my regular orchard, a bunch of cider and disease resistant varieties were grafted on B118 and M111. The B118 will get planted in my orchard and M111 in my new nursery. If the B118 grafts are successful, some of the M111 will probably get budded to something else or given away. Now that I know how to harvest pollen, any of these will be potentials for crosses with the columnar trees.
New Bench Grafts for my orchard
Ashmead Kernel
Baldwin
Black Oxford
Bramley's Seedling
Brown's Apple
Co-op 11
Co-op 17
Co-op 28
Co-op 34
Co-op 36
Co-op 37
Co-op 44
False Yarlington Mill
Frostbite - MN447
Golden Hornet
Green Hickories Park (Nice October eating apple from our town park)
Michelin
Minn 1734
Northern Spy
Nova Easygro
PRI 1918-1
PRI F2
Pristine Co-op 32
Puget Spice WSU AXP
Roxbury Russet
Sumatovka
Trembletts Bitter (Geneva)
Yarlington Mill
I have 16 grafts of columnar trees on B118 and M111. It is likely I'll have scionwood of a few varieties to share in the next year or two. If these take, I might have 5 or 6 trees each of Crimson Spire, Golden Sentinel, and Scarlett Sentinel.
As a comparison to the columnar trees, I plan to put some disease resistant varieties onto dwarf rootstock or use dwarf rootstock as interstems on M111 and B118. I grafted Liberty and PRI Co-op varieties on G.41. From GRIN and other places, I got Bud 146, G.11, G.41, G.65, M.27, Ottawa 3, P.2 and P.22 scions for interstems. In theory, the interstem gives you big roots for anchorage and moisture uptake while the interstem gives you a dwarf tree size. Messing with interstems is solely to satisfy my curiosity. Depending on my interstem graft success, some will get T-budded this summer to Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush. I could then harvest scions next winter from the budded trees and do more interstems. I want to preserve the harder to get dwarf rootstocks for continued use and will probably try layering some to create stool beds.
For my regular orchard, a bunch of cider and disease resistant varieties were grafted on B118 and M111. The B118 will get planted in my orchard and M111 in my new nursery. If the B118 grafts are successful, some of the M111 will probably get budded to something else or given away. Now that I know how to harvest pollen, any of these will be potentials for crosses with the columnar trees.
New Bench Grafts for my orchard
Ashmead Kernel
Baldwin
Black Oxford
Bramley's Seedling
Brown's Apple
Co-op 11
Co-op 17
Co-op 28
Co-op 34
Co-op 36
Co-op 37
Co-op 44
False Yarlington Mill
Frostbite - MN447
Golden Hornet
Green Hickories Park (Nice October eating apple from our town park)
Michelin
Minn 1734
Northern Spy
Nova Easygro
PRI 1918-1
PRI F2
Pristine Co-op 32
Puget Spice WSU AXP
Roxbury Russet
Sumatovka
Trembletts Bitter (Geneva)
Yarlington Mill
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I planted out all of my bench grafts since Thursday. About 55 went into my new nursery along with a dozen ungrafted rootstock. Another 50 went to field locations. I am hoping my success is better this year. Happy with the cool, wet forecast with no frost as they get acclimated.
I definitely have an appreciation now for the convenience of a backyard nursery rather than grafting or regrafting in the field. It has become a pain to keep track of stuff in the field. I would not mind so much if my T bud success had been higher. My columnar shot plot T buds got only one take out of 7. I think I took the tape off too soon. I might cleft graft these failures now Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush. If those take, I could move those next spring and replace with columnar trees from my nursery. Overall, I am happy with T budding. I have one good T bud of almost everything I tried. Some still appear to have viable buds and might improve my results further.
I definitely have an appreciation now for the convenience of a backyard nursery rather than grafting or regrafting in the field. It has become a pain to keep track of stuff in the field. I would not mind so much if my T bud success had been higher. My columnar shot plot T buds got only one take out of 7. I think I took the tape off too soon. I might cleft graft these failures now Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush. If those take, I could move those next spring and replace with columnar trees from my nursery. Overall, I am happy with T budding. I have one good T bud of almost everything I tried. Some still appear to have viable buds and might improve my results further.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
An observation on my t-budded dwarf rootstock in 5 gallon rootmaker pots. All 5 on Geneva 11 have pushed the buds while only 1 of 6 M.27 have pushed buds. The others on M.27 still look like viable buds but just not doing anything yet.
I did a count of apple trees in my backyard garden nursery and came in right at 100. 3 bench grafts yet to plant out and a number of columnar seedlings to plant out at some point.
It looks like many of the columnar trees I bought last year will flower. I need to harvest some pollen from some regular varieties and see if I can hand pollinate to create specific crosses. The Goldrush on P18 that I planted last year on the farm was about to flower. I might get pollen from it this weekend if some have not opened.
I did a count of apple trees in my backyard garden nursery and came in right at 100. 3 bench grafts yet to plant out and a number of columnar seedlings to plant out at some point.
It looks like many of the columnar trees I bought last year will flower. I need to harvest some pollen from some regular varieties and see if I can hand pollinate to create specific crosses. The Goldrush on P18 that I planted last year on the farm was about to flower. I might get pollen from it this weekend if some have not opened.
Merle Hawggard
5 year old buck +
You've been awfully busy! You'll have an awesome orchard for your bunch and the deer before long.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Last weekend, I did some field grafting. My shot plot T-buds all were failures so I cleft grafted those to Liberty and Goldrush and I'll move those next spring and replace with columnar trees from my nursery. I think I took the grafting tape off too early.
I collected pollen from Goldrush, Liberty, Dabinett, and Williams Pride. Also cleft grafted some perry pears onto some seedling pears and did some persimmon cleft and bark grafts of Meader, Prok, and Yates.
In my nursery orchard, many of my columnar trees will flower. Golden Sentinel, Scarlet Sentinel, Northpole, Tangy Green, Blushing Delight, and Maypole crab should all have some apples this year (assuming it doesn't get too cold tonight, low of 31 forecast) will have a few flowers but most were damaged by the cold. I pollinated a few flowers on Maypole and Northpole with Goldrush pollen and collected pollen from them. I expect to pollinate a few more Maypole flowers and some on Tangy Green and Blushing Delight.
For seedlings, I have in the basement 4 Golden Sentinel, 3 Scarlet Sentinel, and a dozen or more Northpole seedlings. I still have some Scarlet Sentinel seed in the fridge that I will try starting soon.
The various bench grafts I planted out in my nursery all look pretty good. I have had some T-bud setbacks. I T-budded some G11 and M27 in rootmaker pots. There were a lot of maple seeds in the pots from the neighbor's tree and squirrels were digging in them looking for seeds. I lost one T-bud and had a few more damaged. I picked out the maple seeds and put plastic mesh tubes around the T-buds. Now it looks like something has been eating on the T-buds. Based on where I moved them, my guess is slugs. I put out some slug-icide and will watch more closely. Looks like the slugs have done a number on my tubed young blueberry bushes and a yellow twig dogwood. In past years, I've resorted to multiple evening trips to the garden to spray slugs with ammonia/water mix. Slugs really slowed my pole beans down the other year.
I collected pollen from Goldrush, Liberty, Dabinett, and Williams Pride. Also cleft grafted some perry pears onto some seedling pears and did some persimmon cleft and bark grafts of Meader, Prok, and Yates.
In my nursery orchard, many of my columnar trees will flower. Golden Sentinel, Scarlet Sentinel, Northpole, Tangy Green, Blushing Delight, and Maypole crab should all have some apples this year (assuming it doesn't get too cold tonight, low of 31 forecast) will have a few flowers but most were damaged by the cold. I pollinated a few flowers on Maypole and Northpole with Goldrush pollen and collected pollen from them. I expect to pollinate a few more Maypole flowers and some on Tangy Green and Blushing Delight.
For seedlings, I have in the basement 4 Golden Sentinel, 3 Scarlet Sentinel, and a dozen or more Northpole seedlings. I still have some Scarlet Sentinel seed in the fridge that I will try starting soon.
The various bench grafts I planted out in my nursery all look pretty good. I have had some T-bud setbacks. I T-budded some G11 and M27 in rootmaker pots. There were a lot of maple seeds in the pots from the neighbor's tree and squirrels were digging in them looking for seeds. I lost one T-bud and had a few more damaged. I picked out the maple seeds and put plastic mesh tubes around the T-buds. Now it looks like something has been eating on the T-buds. Based on where I moved them, my guess is slugs. I put out some slug-icide and will watch more closely. Looks like the slugs have done a number on my tubed young blueberry bushes and a yellow twig dogwood. In past years, I've resorted to multiple evening trips to the garden to spray slugs with ammonia/water mix. Slugs really slowed my pole beans down the other year.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Some photos. Wijcik Mac T-bud on Polish 18 and last year's Crimson Spire benchgraft on Polish 18 starting to leaf out, might be 20" tall.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Update with new photos of the last two. Tbudded Wijcik Mac now about 18" tall. Last year's Crimson Spire bench graft has leafed out and grown a bunch of short limbs that will make good budwood or scionwood.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Photo of my older columnar trees. From left to right:
1st 3 bought from Stark Bros this spring
7 trees bought from Raintree in 2015
1st 3 bought from Stark Bros this spring
- Maypole crab, I removed most flowers, pollinated a few flowers by hand, has a couple apples on it.
- Emerald Spire - did not flower
- Scarlet Spire - did not flower
7 trees bought from Raintree in 2015
- Golden Sentinel on M7, about 6ft tall, only tree that had apples in 2015, many flower buds got hit by frost this year, a few apples on it
- Scarlett Sentinel on M7, flowered but no apples, probably frost damage
- Northpole on M7, flowered nicely, I removed most and hand pollinated some, has 3 apples
- Tangy Green on M26, flowered but I missed right time to pollinate, has 4 apples
- Golden Treat on M26, did not flower
- Blushing Delight on M26, has 1 apple
- Tasty Red on M26, did not flower, put on 6" more growth than the others on M26.
