Recent content by Ruffdude

5A or 5B it seems to move every other time I check .

Here it is in September when I was on the roof cleaning gutters.

My best bird crab is the mature japanese crab that was here when we bought this house. Pine grosbeaks have been camped here for weeks cleaning it out and just left two weeks ago. Ruffed grouse usually fly into it every winter even though it’s inside my fenced dog yard. My main concern is...

My droptine has finally dropped its fruit. NE lower Michigan. I did give it a shake a couple weeks ago to accelerate this but the fruit that remained has now fallen on its own.

I’ve a couple trees to girdle this Winter. They are growing next to wild apple trees and I don’t want the apple to get blasted with sunlight when it has been used to growing in the shade of the tree next to it. Girdling offers a slow ease into it method of exposing that fruit tree to full sun...

How old is that tree? 15 years? Just curious, we planted some at my Club during Covid, we call them the Covid crabs but they are a mix of Morse crabs.

I have a droptine in my front yard, it’s a bit smaller/younger than your tree but it’s still got fruit hanging on 12/14/25. NE lower Michigan.

5b about 3 miles north of the 45th parallel but it’s only a mile from Lake Huron, the big lake keeps it warm I bet.

Sweet at first then tart

Stopped in at my local fur harvester trading post today and when I came out I noticed this crab/apple-crab on the edge of the parking lot. Fruit was starting to get soft, had decent flavor still. What does the brain trust here think it is?

I’ve got it caged so it’s growing really well but it appears the lower branches growing outside the cage are getting nipped a bit. I don’t think they would eat it to the ground but they do taste test it.

I agree with black chokeberry, I’ve had some luck with it in lowlands but also in the uplands. Another transition low to high shrub that has done really well for me here in NE lower Michigan has been ninebark.

Apples like rocky soil. It used to be a thing to throw a rock in the hole when planting an apple tree to help the roots anchor I suppose. But remember the root system below ground is the engine that drives what is above ground so if your trees have difficulty rooting extensively or deeply they...

Be careful with cardboard though, mice like to build under anything that provides them a roof.

Yes an English Setter