Recent content by sandbur

The way my wife marked our frozen applesauce is a good record of ripening times.

My neighbors brought two bales of hay and that has helped

I am surprised the feds did that reasonable of a job.

Dang, I am getting old. I hand planted these spruce and one must be 20 inches at the base.

Is that land managed by county, state, or feds?

Deer are eating any crab that hits the ground. I shook some more limbs today. I also started pruning a few dolgo seedlings. Then the snow drifts got too deep.

This wild crab that tipped over decades ago has yielded some rootstock.

Somewhere I posted a forked dolgo rootstock. I bench grafted to half of it and also bench grafted to the other piece of bare root. It took. I buried the graft and had to dig down later to remove the tape as it didn’t disintegrate.

Old age on my part and dang spell check confused my post on the Big Dog. I nicked a shallow root on the Big Dog with the roto tiller and it was exposed. A bud developed and I nursed it along in a pot. The wild crabs also respond to injured roots and some exposure to the air. When potting...

In another thread we were discussing growing rootstock from seed. Big Bore mentioned it. I have used rootsuckers to grow rootstock. Look for them around hardy wild crabs/apples or around older trees that you have purchased. The first tree I planted in the home orchard was a chestnut crab and...

About -32 or 33 for a brief period at daybreak is the coldest I have seen. No one has Clowns Nose that I can remember.

It is too early to detect winter kill from this year. My St. Edmund’s Russet was suffering last fall and I suspect it will be the next to come down. It was one of our favorites for eating.

I didn’t read all of the comments, but will add my two cents. IMO, baiting deer is not ethical but baiting bear is. This follows the laws in my state. Is it just a matter of tradition? Last summer, my family fished with a guide from the UP on Lake Superior. His family has baited specific...

I didn’t reread this thread, but I might just be repeating previous posts. Variety of trees in a location depends on many factors. CAR exposure, other disease, etc. I feel varieties selected should depend on the purpose intended for this location. A bow hunting location needs a tree with the...

You may have hit on why I have so much struggles with Anty rootstock. On heavier soils it is ok and they tend to have a higher pH and hold the pH better. I have lighter soils on higher locations and it doesn’t seem to do well.natural pH is lower. Very light soil, I don’t even plant apple trees...