A few habitat pics I thought you might enjoy

[Native Hunter]

2014 picture of collared cat...

 

[Turkey Creek]

Well that would be unique, but unless you have a high cat population I wouldnt think that it highly unlikely.

 

[Native Hunter]

Well that would be unique, but unless you have a high cat population I wouldnt think that it highly unlikely.

We will know in a few days. He will return the collar and tags to FW and they will know from the records.

 

[Bill]

That's cool. Beats a collard goose any day...

 

[Native Hunter]

I heard from my friend at F&W today.

• The collared cat was caught in 2014 about 4-5 miles from me by the same guy I have trapping my place.
• He gave it to F&W and they collared it and released it at the same place it was caught.
• Sometime after that the cat moved its home range south (to my farm and adjoining farms).
• Same trapper catches the same cat on my place a few days ago.

I think the odds of that happening would be slim. Just wanted to share with you guys.

PS: Her name was F27....

 

[Native Hunter]

I had a good day at the farm working in trees.

Tasks accomplished Today:

• Pruning and shaping a few fruit trees
• Cleaning out and pruning shoots at the groundline of a few trees
• Removing bracing from successful topworking from last spring
• Other miscellaneous tree work

Pears grow fast here. This is a pear that I set 4 years ago. It must be 20+ feet tall.

Another pear nearby the one above that was set at the same time:

Apple tree topworked spring of 2017 with scions from Chainsaw in New York. Incredible growth in one year.

This is an interesting one. In 2016 I cut down a big crabapple at the ground line and got shoots coming up. I save the best shoot and grafted it in 2017. Here it is today. The stick is pointing at the graft.

2017 Topworked tree. I pruned it today and removed the scaffolding:

That's about it for today guys. I'm going to be doing more tree work soon whenever I can catch at time the weather will cooperate.

 

[H20fwler]

Awesome work Native!

 

[Bill]

You should get that guy to buy you some lottery tickets!!

Do people ever graft pear trees? I've got one that produces tiny pears and not many of them but it must have a good root system. Just curious.

 

[Native Hunter]

You should get that guy to buy you some lottery tickets!!

Do people ever graft pear trees? I've got one that produces tiny pears and not many of them but it must have a good root system. Just curious.

Yes, I could have taken some pictures today of some just like yours (with tiny pears) that I topworked last spring. They grew about the same as those apples I have pictures of above. I changed them over to good pears.

If you have a bad pear that is too big to topwork, here is something you can do:

• Cut is off at the groundline with a chainsaw.
• Put a big cage around the stump
• You will get several shoots coming up. Pick the one that looks most promising and keep it. Cut the others off and put a ground mat over them, leaving the chosen sprout.
• Let it grow for a year or longer and graft it with your chosen pear when desired.

 

[Bill]

Can I cut it off now? Or is there a "best" time of year to do this.

 

[Native Hunter]

Can I cut it off now? Or is there a "best" time of year to do this.

I think now is a good time.

Keep in mind that there is a small amount of risk to this, but if the tree is too big to topwork and isn't making any fruit, it's not worth anything anyway. The next to last picture of mine above is where I did that with a big crabapple that had bad fruit. You can see that my new sprout is doing great.

 

[Bill]

Nothing to loose as far as I can tell. Basically just a shade tree at this point.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

WHAT are the odds of that cat being caught again by same guy ??? Pretty cool story on it.

Trees look really good, Native. Those top-worked trees are impressive. Just curious ..... what was bad about the "bad fruit" crab apple ??

 

[Native Hunter]

WHAT are the odds of that cat being caught again by same guy ??? Pretty cool story on it.

Trees look really good, Native. Those top-worked trees are impressive. Just curious ..... what was bad about the "bad fruit" crab apple ??

Thanks Bows. It was one of those that made pea sized fruit. I bought a few trees one time from a guy real cheap. The varieties were unknown and it was one of those. I have two more of those I will deal with the same way at some point.

 

[Bill]

 

[Native Hunter]

I did the same thing to sweet gums today, except that I sprayed gly on my stumps.

Don't forget to cage it to keep your shoots from being eaten. One more thing - I would choose a sprout as far away from the cut as possible. And, I would also mound dirt over the whole thing once you choose the sprout.

I forgot to mention before when we discussed this, but I have done two more trees like this that I had forgotten about. One was another crabapple and I have a nice shoot coming on good this year. Will probably wait until next year to topwork. Another was an apple that broke off at the ground. I got several 9 foot shoots the first year and just recently cut all back but one.

 

[Bill]

I'll cover it with dirt when it sprouts.

Here is another pear ?
This was a Keiffer it turned "black" last summer and I wrote it off. I went to steal its cage today and noticed some sprouts from the base that I managed to mangle getting my rabbit protector off. I cut it also. Any clue what caused it to turn black and dry out?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Fire blight ?? That's the only thing I've read that turns pears black. I'm no pear expert, but FB seems a likely culprit.

 

[Native Hunter]

I don't know Bill. Lots of things can go wrong (even underground where you can't see it). FB can certainly kill a tree, but it generally takes more than one season to completely kill it. But, like Bows said, it will turn black. Keep us posted.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Agreed, Native. ^^^^ I've never seen FB kill a tree in 1 year either, but God knows in the right conditions ?? I've had FB on an ornamental pear in my yard for maybe 8 years, but it only seems to affect the limb tips. We have 2 Kieffers and a hybrid pear at camp, so I'm interested in what Bill finds out.