2014 Grafting Adventures of CrazyED

[sandbur]

Geared up for pruning day tomorrow. I think I have around 175 trees now. Not pictured (2) pole pruners and my silky pole saw. If anyone needs scionwood private message me. I don’t have a list other than what has posted in this thread. I might have time to grab a couple things.


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I probably have 80% of my pruning done. Wildlife trees get far less attention. Some get none.


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[CrazyEd]

I put in 4 nonstop hours and maybe got 1/3rd of the way through. Reaffirms I have a lot of trees. And they are getting big :)

general observation, trees look good. Some, insane. Pears definitely seem to go nuts once they have 3-4 years in the ground. I have some real nice looking pears. Very upright growing, hope to finally get a few eaters I had about 8 kieffer last year. Northern spy another tree that is very upright growing. Winter wildlife crab is still king as most vigorous. Only found one tent caterpillar nest.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

C.E. -
Is most of your operation commercial growing?? X - 2 on Winter Wildlife being vigorous!! Love 'em.

 

[CrazyEd]

Commercial growing? Me? No. Lol. All hobby.

 

[CrazyEd]

41 more grafted trees, off to the farm.


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[Honker]

Cool to see Ed! I'm curious to hear how the scions I sent you perform amongst the other cultivars you have.

 

[greyphase]

41 more grafted trees, off to the farm.


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Feed the addiction.

 

[CrazyEd]

Cool to see Ed! I'm curious to hear how the scions I sent you perform amongst the other cultivars you have.

I do have a red and yellow honker crab around the property, somewhere! Everything is tagged but with so many trees I cant always remember what is where. I have a drone now and have intentions of making some maps this year of my trees.

 

[CrazyEd]

Hope y’all are doing well. We are starting to get some really nice harvests on our farm. Pictured Liberty, Wolf Rive, Honeygold, Kerr, Honeycrisp, Franklin. Honeygold seems to be a family favorite.

From the growing side of it. I have had a few of my initial trees planted around 2010-2012 grow out of their window screens and were griddled, thankfully not fatally. So this summer we flagged the cages and upgraded using 48” wide aluminum window screen 32” wide to accommodate large trees and last for years.

I’m eyeing up a Milwaukee Tools cordless pruning sheets to make pruning faster and easier. I have no plans of spraying anytime. With such a huge focus on planting disease resistant varieties, totally happy with the quality of fruit we are getting.

Still have about 50 grafts that need to be planted. We have about 40 at the farm in an enclosure and graded them this fall. 20 trees are 6-7 feet tall and well feathered so we plan to get another solid batch out there working this spring.

Cheers and Happy Holidays and Hunting!

 

[CrazyEd]

I also bought 2 presses and 2 choppers. Game on! Full on Maximizer and electric chopper and a manual chopper to keep at the farm with the tabletop press.

 

[CrazyEd]

One other discovery in the 2022 growing season. I got Northwest Greening scions in 2016 from somewhere. Grafted 3-4 trees, even gave one to a fellow forum friend. “Hey, are these red apples I thought they were green?” Me “F, I noticed my 2 trees are red too, lol. Oops.”

It happens. Everything else seems to be on the money.

Ordered some grapes from Stark Bros this morning. New things to come in 2023!

 

[bigboreblr]

What's your thought / opinions on kerr and liberty far as 2 legged eating goes. Also drop dates. Got a few liberty's on B118 coming. Kerr I have grafts coming to put on anty's.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Liberty here in Mid-Michigan (Zone 5) ripening date is 4th week of September. Apples start dropping then

 

[CrazyEd]

Liberty lives up to its reputation. Excellent all around apple for eating and cider and deer. A++ storage quality. We harvested most of our liberty but some are still hanging.

Kerr is also a great variety. I walked by a Kerr tree tonight after hunting and it still had 40+ fruit hanging. I would say great apple for wildlife. Eating I would say they are alright. Not my first choice but we put them in our sauce and our cider. My dad ate one two weeks ago and he said it was still good.

 

[homerj1]

One other discovery in the 2022 growing season. I got Northwest Greening scions in 2016 from somewhere. Grafted 3-4 trees, even gave one to a fellow forum friend. “Hey, are these red apples I thought they were green?” Me “F, I noticed my 2 trees are red too, lol. Oops.”

It happens. Everything else seems to be on the money.

Ordered some grapes from Stark Bros this morning. New things to come in 2023!

Look like this?

Northwestern Greening Apple

Large fruit, crisp, firm, juicy, with slight aroma. Great pie apple. Cultivar Northwestern Greening Hardiness Extremely Hardy (-50F or Colder) Parentage Golden Russet X Alexander Color Green with Red Wash Season Late - Mid Notes Baking, Eating, Juicy, Aromatic Shipping Height 2 to 4 ft

www.slngrow.com

 

[AtomApple]

Are the wolf river apples the ones in the bucket? I’m curious how big they get, rumor is they are a large apple.

 

[sandbur]

Liberty lives up to its reputation. Excellent all around apple for eating and cider and deer. A++ storage quality. We harvested most of our liberty but some are still hanging.

Kerr is also a great variety. I walked by a Kerr tree tonight after hunting and it still had 40+ fruit hanging. I would say great apple for wildlife. Eating I would say they are alright. Not my first choice but we put them in our sauce and our cider. My dad ate one two weeks ago and he said it was still good.

How tall are your Kerr trees and what rootstock are they on?


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[sandbur]

Look like this?

Northwestern Greening Apple

Large fruit, crisp, firm, juicy, with slight aroma. Great pie apple. Cultivar Northwestern Greening Hardiness Extremely Hardy (-50F or Colder) Parentage Golden Russet X Alexander Color Green with Red Wash Season Late - Mid Notes Baking, Eating, Juicy, Aromatic Shipping Height 2 to 4 ft

www.slngrow.com

I see the link says hardy to -50. I have struggled with my NWG trees and am not sure why. Slow growth and they seldom fruit.

It is interesting that Golden Russet is a parent. I have one of those on dolgo. It had one or two blossoms last spring but has not fruited yet. Per my memory, which can be pretty poor.


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[rocksnstumps]

NWG and -50 degs does seem like a bit of a stretch. Maybe that was also with lots of snow ground cover. For what it's worth the area the original tree was found by Iola, WI would have in the past seen temps around -30 degs but of course in recent decades not nearly as cold. I grew up within 25 miles of where NWG and Wolf River apples originated and can relate did see -30 temps without wind chill back in the 1970s while delivering your early morning newspapers.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Are the wolf river apples the ones in the bucket? I’m curious how big they get, rumor is they are a large apple.

WR get well over a lb. This one is pinning a 500 gram (1.1 lbs+) scale. And yes, you can make a one apple pie with the super big ones