The Adventures of CrazyED the beach sand guy

[sandbur]

I liked the pictures, Ed. those kids will enjoy the apples in a few years.

Honey suckle only grows under a few trees for me also. I think I have two plants on the farm. I wish I could say that for buckthorn.

Please let me know when those kerr drop/ripen.

That Roxbury reminds me of a few of my trees. An occasional Morse bunches, black ice plum, and a few others. Is it winter injury?

 

[CrazyEd]

I liked the pictures, Ed. those kids will enjoy the apples in a few years.

Honey suckle only grows under a few trees for me also. I think I have two plants on the farm. I wish I could say that for buckthorn.

Please let me know when those kerr drop/ripen.

That Roxbury reminds me of a few of my trees. An occasional Morse bunches, black ice plum, and a few others. Is it winter injury?

given the winter we had I suppose winter injury is possible. however the root should be good and Roxbury is rated for zone 4 on starks website.

 

[huntall]

Great place and orchard! How many acres you working with?

 

[CrazyEd]

Thanks. I own 20 next to my dad's 20 which is next to my grandpa's 120 or so. So we have about 160 total to work with but in recent years our focus has been on our 40.

 

[huntall]

Cool..thats great! Its a lot of fun.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've not heard of a " Monster crab " Ed. The one in your pic looks like it's doing well. What's the scoop on " Monster crab "? How big is the fruit - drop time - edible? The kids look great. Bet they'll be having a blast on the property for many years!

 

[CrazyEd]

I've not heard of a " Monster crab " Ed. The one in your pic looks like it's doing well. What's the scoop on " Monster crab "? How big is the fruit - drop time - edible? The kids look great. Bet they'll be having a blast on the property for many years!

I got the monster crab scions from jhoss on the other forum. As far as I know it's just a made up name, mainly for the monsterous amounts of fruit this tree puts out. I think it's basically just a wild crab or maybe an ornamental of some type. I grafted it last may. here are some pictures of the fruit that he gave me. I assume some sort of critter will like this tree. It seems to be a pretty aggressive grower, i know he said his young grafts were putting on fruit year 1. I planted mine out on the farm this spring. It had a little winter tip die back, but I dont think it's a hardiness issue, i think the young growth on my graft just didn't harden off in time. I think it should do just fine from a hardiness standpoint once established. I don't have any other details about it but I thought it looked good for wildlife, I like diversity.

 

[sandbur]

3rd Leaf Wolf River B.118 - it has one apple, it's first.

Not sure what is wrong with this 3rd leaf roxbury russett (b.118). It looked rough like this last visit on June 7th, it's the only tree that looks like this. Hopefully it pulls through.

Black Ice plum. I suspect winter injury. The Alderman plum looks fine.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Man - that monster crab is LOADED with apples! I'd like to have 3 or 4 of those around our field edges at the camp. With that amount of fruit you could attract/feed all kinds of critters.

 

[CrazyEd]

Man - that monster crab is LOADED with apples! I'd like to have 3 or 4 of those around our field edges at the camp. With that amount of fruit you could attract/feed all kinds of critters.

My tree should have some scions in the next few years otherwise you might be able to get some from jhoss on the other board. If you don't know how to graft I might be able to graft some for you in the future too.

 

[dipper]

Curious to why you don't plant clover, because it is technically an invasive species? What about alfalfa, would you grow it? It would do great in your sandy soil. I would only plant it at a couple pounds/ acre so you can grow other things with it. It doesn't need to be cut. It will be browsed well after it flowers, and it gets nice and tender again in early fall. It does fine on it's own not being cut either. It is not native, but it doesn't have invasive traits like red clover does. It will damn near live forever(cutting it is just another reason it only lasts so long for a farmer-especially cutting it into spetember, those roots shrink when it's cut, leaving it vulnerable to the cold). The kicker is nasty cool season grass control. I've got alfalfa still growing in my broadleaf patches that's been there for 20 years. The reason it's still there is because I control the cool season grass. I obviously don't cut the alfalfa either, the deer browse it from spring-late fall, along with the other broadleaves growing with it. Some chickory might also be good for you.
Hey those lupine pods are just starting to turn brown, I'm watching it damn near every day. It looks like it will still be in the pods on your way back from up north.

 

[CrazyEd]

Yeah my dad would prefer no red or white clover on our land. he is worried it would spread. he might be ok with alfalfa at low rates. I have tried to stick to other stuff instead of clover. he gave me some purple prairie clover which I planted in my foodplot, I figured it's a decent alternative and very drought hardy. compromise I guess.

cool on the lupine. we are starting to gather some seed too. wild ginger and blood root a few weeks ago, spiderwort and columbine should be ready in not too long too.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Ed - I wasn't hinting that you give me some scion wood when it's available! That's a nice offer from you, though! I don't graft either. I was just thinking " out loud " like if a local nursery had some monster crab - I'd pick up a couple for the camp. We have a good number of apples, crabs, & pears planted now. I was thinking diversity as far as the monsters. But thank-you for the offer! Mighty nice of you. I hope yours grow well for you.

 

[Doug Galloway]

Exposed mud on drawn down or areas which are low for extended time by can flood are good places for broadcast plots. You sand may not hold water but areas like that will. HAve you thought about plotting it?

 

[CrazyEd]

Made it up to the farm today, it had been about 3 weeks. There was an inch of rain in the gauge, not sure when that fell but it's a good sign. Now for the tour.

Dunstan Chestnuts continue to thrive and grow like weeds. I will probably add a few more in the future. They have passed the hardiness test in my neck of the woods, they also seem to love my sandy soils (I did backfill the hole same way I do apple trees but still) i'm a fan.

 

[CrazyEd]

This one is just reaching over the top of the 5' concrete mesh.

Closer Look

 

[CrazyEd]

Swamp white oak doing great. Started from acorn 3 years ago.

2nd Leaf Dolgo Crab B.118 - i'm letting it go rogue

 

[CrazyEd]

Arkansas Black grafted to B.118 in May 2013.

Whitney Crab grafted to B.118 in May 2013

Winter Wildlife Crab grafted to B.118 in May 2013

 

[CrazyEd]

Prairie Spy grafted to B.118 in May of 2013. A nice Butterfly Milkweed in the background too.

Purdy grafted to B.118 in May 2013

Monster Crab B.118 grafted May 2013

 

[CrazyEd]

some Brassica's hanging in there, hopefully the rain gods show up again soon.

3rd Leaf Kerr B.118

Same Kerr