leexrayshady's orchard

[Lois E Brenneman FNP]

It is a fascinating place, for sure. The pics really help, also. There is nothing like actually seeing the pics of a bark graft and the container of wax to help you along, in that vein. I now feel like I could actually pull one of these things off. I have noticed that the Youtube stuff has grown exponentially as well. When I first bought the land in 2005 and started to get interested in grafting, there was virtually nothing on Youtube video-wise to help you out. The best was some expensive CDs of grafting workshop. Now, it seems there are how-to-do videos of literally everything. Presently, there are just countless videos detailing how to graft. I guess in days gone back, folks would depend on neighbors, family and friends for advice on how to do stuff. Now, we have the whole country open to us in terms of finding help with projects we want to do. What information used to take months and months of library research - if you even had a good county library (most folks did not) - can now be obtained in a few keystrokes on google.

 

[leexrayshady]

Yep I cant wait to try the chestnuts, I have had blossoms but no apples yet, The honeycrisp story is a neat one. I have been scouring the ARS Grin Database looking for those old forgotton apples. there are a bunch of SD ones that were children of a nevis crab which is only a hr or so from my place. I am thinking they used it because of its hardiness.

 

[greyphase]

Yep I cant wait to try the chestnuts, I have had blossoms but no apples yet, The honeycrisp story is a neat one. I have been scouring the ARS Grin Database looking for those old forgotton apples. there are a bunch of SD ones that were children of a nevis crab which is only a hr or so from my place. I am thinking they used it because of its hardiness.

Lee

Have you ever ordered scion from the ARS before? I too have been wading through all the apples they have and have come up with at least 10 or 12 that I would like to try next spring. I believe you have to put your order in by Dec?

Rick

 

[leexrayshady]

No not yet, I didn't try till last January and as your eluded to the order needs to be in by December

This is wetonka a child of that Nevis crab
ents:: Fruit: 2" across; oblate, solid bright red over yellow-green ground; dots yellow, distinct; skin unctuous; basin wide, slightly wrinkled; stem cavity shallow, obtuse, green. Tube cylindrical, stamens marginal. Flesh acid, solid, not very acerb, does not cook up; neutral flavor. Tree: heavy bearer. A winter crab for the FAR NORTH, freezing improves quality.

 

[Lois E Brenneman FNP]

Rick, I have never ordered from ARS. In fact, I was wondering how to do so. I saw a letter put out by them dated Aug 2012 which said they would send scions to persons who could not fine them locally. That was two years ago. Do they have a more current order form? I would like to give it a try but I can't find a link to do so. Up to now, I get my scions from a man named Robert Purvis who sells them. He has a lot of cold hardy varieties There is also Maple Valley Orchards wherein one can order scions. If you join NAFEX, they have scion exchanges. I am not much of a "joiner" so I never did join (well actually I did once) them but it is a good source of scion wood.

Actually, the chestnut crab is now making a comeback thanks to Stark Bros who decided to offer it. Stark also bought Miller Nurseries this past spring when one of the two Miller brothers died suddenly. The surviving brother did not feel he could carry on alone - sad, indeed. Anyway, they now have all of Miller's countless varieties which show up on their website with the notation "unavailable this year" My guess is that they will start offering some of them next year. Miller was always a good place to purchase apples - they carried a lot of varieties. I am sorry to see them go. I have a big issue with Stark because they now prune the hell out of anything and everything you order from them. You have no choice in the matter. It is a free "service" they offer to you only you have no choice but to accept it. I wrote them a very nasty note concerning this practice stating that they were ripping off customers for the scion wood from the prunings. Fact is that most trees arrive dormant to the customer so if you cut the scion wood off yourself, you can double and triple your trees, esp if you have potted rootstock handy and ready to do. They wrote back stating that such was not the case but that they were just trying to cut back on the number of replacement trees they had to put out because people were not pruning their trees before planting. The rep denied that they were keeping the scionwood from the radical pruning of customer trees. Of course, it is all BS. You don't have to prune your trees before planting them and if you do prune them yourself, then you get to keep the dormant scionwood, yourself (that is, if you don't buy the tree from grubby Stark who keeps YOUR scion wood and charges you full price for the tree). I recommend that everyone keep rootstock potted up and ready to go. Then when you order a tree, prune it yourself while it is still dormant and you will double, triple and even quadruple the number of trees you get from one purchase. I keep B118 and antonovkas potted up and ready to go. I try not to buy from Stark, if I can get the tree elsewhere but sometimes they are the only source. Another place you can buy wood or trees is BigHorseCreek farm. They have tons and tons of tree varieties available.

My latest "thing" now is growing pecans from seed. I ordered a pound of pecan seeds from a seed merchant - they are now in the frig stratifying. I am going to try to grow seedlings. The Nebraska nut growers will sell you pecan scionwood. They will also sell seed. I see where you are in PA and we absolutely CAN grow pecans well enough in our state. They make absolutely beautiful trees.

 

[Lois E Brenneman FNP]

Lee, can you provide a link to where you can browse their scionwood and order some. Thanks. Lately I have been looking into pollination and bloom times so as to be sure that my various trees have neighbors which have a compatible bloom time. Also came to find out that bees are a bit picky about how they do their job. Seems they won't change color when it comes to apple blossoms. It is either white or pink/red but not both. Whatever they start on, that is what they stay with and they will not switch camps. This means that you will not get the results you are hoping for if you are trying to use a pink crabtree blossom to pollinate a white apple blossom. The bee will by pass the opposite color in search of another tree of the same color. Some bees will switch color but they are the exception. Another thing about them is that they will travel down rows of trees BUT they do not want to cross over to the next row. Only 11% of bees are willing to cross from one row to the next vs work their way down a row - 89% of them will not cross rows. Finally, when it comes to bees, it has been discovered that a whole lot of pollination takes place in the hive itself. By that I mean, they all go back to the hive every night where it is very crowded. They then bump against one another and shed pollen from their own hairs onto the hairs of their neighbors. The next morning they fly out of the hive with their neighbor's pollen clinging to their hairs. In that way, some trees get pollinated with pollen from other trees which are quite a distance away from them. Bee A goes off in one direction; Bee B goes off in another. Later that night they both return to the hive and mix it all up then they go out again the next morning carrying their neighbor's pollen.

 

[2ndHand]

Lois, Thanks for posting the info on bees - very interesting...:)

 

[Lois E Brenneman FNP]

It sure is interesting BUT I would say ignorance is bliss in this case. Now I am neurotically worrying about blossom opening time and the colors. I think I liked it better when I was oblivious of all of this and just planted trees next to one another assuming I had taken care of the pollination issues. Now I am going around to see what additional apples I need for my late bloomers so as to keep them happy.

 

[greyphase]

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/tax_site_acc.pl?GEN Malus domestica
Lois
Try the above link(hope it works). It should put you into their list of domesticated apples. If you "click" on a variety it will put you on another page. Under Availability it will show if this variety is available or not. Some have a Narrative section that shows info on the variety. Some have pics of the variety. If you click on Observations it will put you on a (very confusingo_O) page which will tell you a lot about the variety if you can figure it out:mad:. I find it a very difficult website for the "common" person to understand, but it does hold a wealth of info. I've spent hours on it trying to understand what it all means and I'm still not sure about some of the "stuff" they show:(.
Rick

 

[leexrayshady]

http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/acc/acc_queries.html

In the text query search box type in what your looking for, like Minnesota apple, or apple pollination. Then when you find one you like click on request this germplasm

 

[leexrayshady]

Oops greyphase nailed it

 

[sandbur]

No not yet, I didn't try till last January and as your eluded to the order needs to be in by December

This is wetonka a child of that Nevis crab
ents:: Fruit: 2" across; oblate, solid bright red over yellow-green ground; dots yellow, distinct; skin unctuous; basin wide, slightly wrinkled; stem cavity shallow, obtuse, green. Tube cylindrical, stamens marginal. Flesh acid, solid, not very acerb, does not cook up; neutral flavor. Tree: heavy bearer. A winter crab for the FAR NORTH, freezing improves quality.

I have been eyeing those also, since you pointed them out.

Nevis was an old football rival of my high school in the 8 man football days.