Blue Hill Nursery Stock
- Thread starter Tree Spud
- Start date
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
NICE!!!
In getting prepared for this year’s order of Dolgo seedling rootstock from Blue Hill, I came across my notes from last year. I don’t know if I did it the best way. It worked though.
I ordered 1/4“ last year. I planned to put them into three trade gallon pots, trimming off only any defective roots. In round numbers, 80% fit just right, 10% were too big, and 10% would have fit into smaller containers.
My air-pruning three trade gallon pots had straight sides (weren’t tapered) and were 9” in diameter. I poured the potting mix in 7” deep. One cubic yard of bulk potting mix was enough to fill just over 70 pots. (I compressed it a bit, especially when making sure that the grafted stem was sticking straight up).
When I started to run short on potting mix, I tossed 1” of rotting wood chips from a flower bed into the bottom of the pot first. Since I normally set my air-pruning pots on concrete for their summer, I didn’t think it would matter if the lowest 1” had some air gaps. The Dolgo seedling roots grew through the chips just fine as far as I could tell.
For the 10% that were too big, I first tried some five trade gallon pots. They were a little bigger in diameter than the three trade gallon ones, but the issue with fitting the roots into them was that the roots were not longer in all directions, just in one or two directions. I put 1” or so of rotting woodchips in each bag first. The Walmart bags formed a roughly elliptical cross-section with 9” and 13” axes. That allowed for an extra 4” of root length, and when I placed the tree in off-center, I gained even a bit more room for long roots. I then put 6” of potting mix over the top. I think one cubic yard of the potting mix would have been about right for 55 bags.
I ordered 1/4“ last year. I planned to put them into three trade gallon pots, trimming off only any defective roots. In round numbers, 80% fit just right, 10% were too big, and 10% would have fit into smaller containers.
My air-pruning three trade gallon pots had straight sides (weren’t tapered) and were 9” in diameter. I poured the potting mix in 7” deep. One cubic yard of bulk potting mix was enough to fill just over 70 pots. (I compressed it a bit, especially when making sure that the grafted stem was sticking straight up).
When I started to run short on potting mix, I tossed 1” of rotting wood chips from a flower bed into the bottom of the pot first. Since I normally set my air-pruning pots on concrete for their summer, I didn’t think it would matter if the lowest 1” had some air gaps. The Dolgo seedling roots grew through the chips just fine as far as I could tell.
For the 10% that were too big, I first tried some five trade gallon pots. They were a little bigger in diameter than the three trade gallon ones, but the issue with fitting the roots into them was that the roots were not longer in all directions, just in one or two directions. I put 1” or so of rotting woodchips in each bag first. The Walmart bags formed a roughly elliptical cross-section with 9” and 13” axes. That allowed for an extra 4” of root length, and when I placed the tree in off-center, I gained even a bit more room for long roots. I then put 6” of potting mix over the top. I think one cubic yard of the potting mix would have been about right for 55 bags.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Wow, you are ambitious. Will you be planting and fencing all of those this spring?
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Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
I have these coming from Blue Hill this year and I am pretty excited to finally get some of these guys in the ground. 3 ordering cycles I would put things in my cart and they would not be in there when I went to check out. Frustrated each time this happened I contacted Ryan and the last time he took my order (last fall) for this springs shipment via email. He said when inventory gets low and others have them in their cart and beat me to the checkout is likely what causes that to happen FYI.
2 Deer Luscious Persimmons
2 Full Draw Persimmon
1 Tin Cup Persimmon
2 Danville Kieffer Pear
2 Malus Pear
2 Sweet Advent Pear
2 Deer Luscious Persimmons
2 Full Draw Persimmon
1 Tin Cup Persimmon
2 Danville Kieffer Pear
2 Malus Pear
2 Sweet Advent Pear
I'm in the middle of bench grafting a bunch of 3/8" Dolgo seedling rootstock from Blue Hill and I am totally impressed by the rootstock they sent. I've been doing this off and on for over 20 years with rootstock from multiple sources and I have never seen rootstock with anywhere near this many roots on it before.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I had some great dolgo rootstock from him in years past. I have not bench grafted the last two years.
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Ryan at BH is a great guy. I've been to his place and shot the breeze with him a number of times. I just chatted with him the other day to clue him in on the location of a couple all-winter-long slow dropping apple trees. I wanted him to graft some scion off those trees to keep them preserved going forward. Ryan is REALLY INTO finding and grafting good trees, and he's a good guy too.
BuckSnort
5 year old buck +
Those roots are IMPRESSIVE!!
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Your picture shows why Dolgo seedling rootstock has done so well for me on my soils. All of those fine roots get them off to a quick start versus the carrot type rootstock on antanovka.
I could be wrong, but I feel that quick start is so important to survive with wildlife trees that usually get minimal care.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
Your picture shows why Dolgo seedling rootstock has done so well for me on my soils. All of those fine roots get them off to a quick start versus the carrot type rootstock on antanovka.
I could be wrong, but I feel that quick start is so important to survive with wildlife trees that usually get minimal care.
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This picture is of dolgo rootstock that I got two years ago. The picture is also buried in some other thread.
Different climates and different soils probably leads to other choices.
It took me 8 or 9 tries to post this picture with tapa talk.
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I'm all done bench grafting for this spring. The majority of my 1/4" are now in three gallon pots. For the rest, I stepped up to Walmart bags. With the 3/8" rootstock (which I think he calls "Wild Crabapple"), some fit into Walmart bags, but the vast majority I looked at and thought there'd be no point in bothering to pot them. I'll plant them after the grafts heal for a few weeks. The roots on those looked like mops, better than what Ryan shows in his photo at https://bluehillwildlifenursery.com/product/wild-crabapple-malus-dolgo/
Some of my Blue Hill Dolgo seedling rootstock showed a touch of cedar apple rust initially. It was about the same as I observed last year on their rootstock. I am starting to trim my whips such that only the grafted wood has leaves now.
Their Wild Pear rootstock didn't display any cedar apple rust. The grafts I made using scions from a Sweet Advent pear tree are the most vigorous of anything I grafted this year.
Their Wild Pear rootstock didn't display any cedar apple rust. The grafts I made using scions from a Sweet Advent pear tree are the most vigorous of anything I grafted this year.
