2014 Grafting Adventures of CrazyED

[CrazyEd]

So a person can paint the trunks anytime of the year as long as the weather is conducive?

I hope so :)

 

[CrazyEd]

Man your trees are so stinkin good lookin, i hope i do better grafting this year!


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Thanks, yes i am very happy with my results so far. Some of my trees look as good if not better than some of the higher quality nursery stock i've purchased. The extra year of pampering in my home nursery here really makes a difference. I've got some great looking 1 year old trees that i'm already looking forward to taking a big jump this summer. I don't mind keeping a tree another year if it doesnt look absolutely stellar because I know it will have better conditions here than at the farm.

 

[JERRED GRACEY]

why do u paint the trunks? what does that help or prevent?

 

[CrazyEd]

why do u paint the trunks? what does that help or prevent?

Sunscald/winter injury/southwest injury

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sunscald is cracking of the bark from rapid thawing and re-freezing cycles in winter / late winter. In case you didn't know that already. The sunny side of the trunk gets the sun and thaws out some and then freezes again. White paint reflects the sun's rays enough to prevent warming to the point of thawing.

 

[Spiider]

"50% white latex paint, 50% water, + a little permethrin"

So how little is a little (of the permethrin)? How much are you mixing at once?

 

[CrazyEd]

I probably did 1 cup paint 1-1.5 cup water, 1 tablespoon permethrin. No scientific measurements here just guessing. My mix was not very thick and seemed pretty watery.

 

[CrazyEd]

Well, we staged my new orchard today. Dad and I headed up to the farm today. We basically put stakes in and then used the truck and trailer to drop 3 bags of manure and 2 bags of gravel at every planting site. 25' between trees, and 25' between rows in most cases. This orchard will hold 40 trees. We cut a few cages but not all of them, the rest will need to be cut when we plant.

Turkey Creek sent me 3 Kiefer pears as well as a mystery pear which were planted today. Why all the bagged dirt you might ask? This is why.

I mix in a good helping of watersorb. After dumping it in the hole I mix it up until you can't really see it.

Then I throw in a bag of gold and mix that in too.

What is the gold?

Once i'm all done, I put down down black plastic (6'x6' 8 mil) and 2 bags of pea gravel. And then i shovel some more sand from my planting hole on the plastic to hold it down and cover it up.

After we had all the materials distributed and a few trees planted, we planted about half of this orchard with a mix of native warm season grasses (Switchgrass, Big Blue, Indian Grass, Little Bluestem), a bunch of Forbs like Partridge Pea, Rattlesnake Master, new england astor, butterfly milkweed, thickspiked gayfeather, some winter rye as a cover crop, some medium red clover, a tiny amount of purple top turnips and groundhog radishes.

 

[CrazyEd]

Me doing some labor.

Earthway spreader seeding the new orchard.

We did find one casualty today.

Standing in some switchgrass

 

[Turkey Creek]

Hey I recognize that tree! :D Man you have alot of work ahead of you, but I cant wait to see how it looks in 10 years.

 

[buckvelvet]

Wow, really nice Matt. You guys do great work, I as well can't wait to see pics when this is all thriving. What all did we plant tree wise out of your nursery stock this year?

 

[greyphase]

Good job Matt. Still can't believe your ground. I'm used to my rocky Pa soil.

 

[buckvelvet]

Good job Matt. Still can't believe your ground. I'm used to my rocky Pa soil.

I feel C.E.'s pain, my dirt looks exactly like that when I flip it over.

 

[tinytim]

Wow! that looks great, I can't believe there is not a single rock showing in that pile of dirt! I can hardly find a spot to get a shovel in the ground without hitting a boulder here

 

[CrazyEd]

Wow! that looks great, I can't believe there is not a single rock showing in that pile of dirt! I can hardly find a spot to get a shovel in the ground without hitting a boulder here

We do hit a few rocks from time to time but most are not bigger than a golf ball. When we do find them they usually have nice color, nice little field stones.

 

[CrazyEd]

What all did we plant tree wise out of your nursery stock this year?

Here's my planting list for 2016. I will snap a few pics of everything when I dig them out if i remember. Very excited about these trees, some of them have exceptional size.

Black Oxford
Airport Apple
Centurion
Chestnut Crab
Enterprise
Florina Q
Florina Q
Galarina
Galarina
Goldrush
Harrison
Honeygold
King David M7
Liberty
Liberty
Northwest Greening
Pristine
Roxburry Russett
Scarlett Ohara
Scarlett Ohara
Sherry
Winter Wildlife Crab
Winter Wildlife Crab
Wolf River
Zestar
Zestar
Magenta Crab

 

[buckvelvet]

Here's my planting list for 2016. I will snap a few pics of everything when I dig them out if i remember. Very excited about these trees, some of them have exceptional size.

Black Oxford
Airport Apple
Centurion
Chestnut Crab
Enterprise
Florina Q
Florina Q
Galarina
Galarina
Goldrush
Harrison
Honeygold
King David M7
Liberty
Liberty
Northwest Greening
Pristine
Roxburry Russett
Scarlett Ohara
Scarlett Ohara
Sherry
Winter Wildlife Crab
Winter Wildlife Crab
Wolf River
Zestar
Zestar
Magenta Crab

Excellent!

 

[Lot2Learn]

Here's my planting list for 2016. I will snap a few pics of everything when I dig them out if i remember. Very excited about these trees, some of them have exceptional size.

King David M7

What is your theory about putting the King David on an M7 root?

 

[buckvelvet]

What is your theory about putting the King David on an M7 root?

Good question my graft is on Ranetka, lol!

 

[CrazyEd]

What is your theory about putting the King David on an M7 root?

It was a free rootstock provided at a grafting class I took. Such a good looking tree I didnt' have the courage to sell it.