What did you do in your orchard today?

[CrealCritter]

@CrealCritter used to make wines....gave it up, it seems. But was interesting to watch. I made a few bottles a couple years back -- with the "scientific" yeast/sugar/juice & balloon method it actually wasn't bad & drinkable. Not an ongoing thing. Nope. I'm still buying it. Patience factor.

Crisp 64 this morning. Coolest in months!! Reminding me that will be daytime temps before very long. I'm good with that. Chores done. Having coffee and contemplating another day at work. Yep, every day this week I've booked jobs. What was I thinking??

True... I no longer drink alcohol.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

I no longer drink alcohol.

I rarely drink alcohol but still make wine when the fruit is available. Some of the best wine I have had was some 20 year old chokecherry wine.

 

[CrealCritter]

With the parafilm narturally decaying and falling off I cant help but notice that cherry cleft grafts can look ugly. When the root stock diameter is larger than the scion, in order to match the cambium you sometimes have to push the scion off to one side or another. This leaves one side open but the other side calluses. Eventually over the growing seasons the entire graft will calluse over and it wont look so awful. Just remember your going to get some cleft graft die back on the rootstock with cherry. So you want push the scion deep into cleft and line up the cambium deep and below what will die back.

The cambium aligned side good callusing deep in the cleft, not so ugly.

The non-aligned side. Still good callusing deep in the cleft, which is what you want with cherry. Hopefully you can see how much die back there is. Push or tap that scion in deep to allow for die back and either match or cross the cambium deep and it should take. Cherry is a hardwood and one of the more difficult species to graft, I believe for this reason.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

I need to remember to cut and pot up my MM111 apple rootstocks attempts. I keep forgetting about them and it's the beginning of August already. If I don't pot them up soon I'll have to leave them on the tree over winter until very early spring

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

9 out of 10 of my MM111 apple air-layer attempts have visible roots. The last may have roots I'll inspect it after a good soaking in a bucket of water. 9 out of 10 that's very good sucess rate.

Some pics

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

I potted up all 10 even the one with no visible roots. With them being cut free from the tree they are on their own. I'll know soon enough which ones will become root stocks for grafting early spring.

No visible roots have formed on the one on the right but it looks like it's trying to grow roots. So I potted it to give life a chance.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Stooling/mounding for apple rootstock propagation.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

If you could grow just one pear tree, what would it be? Orient pear.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Mother in laws peach watersprout I bark grafted late February 2023 showing first sign of a successful take.

Early spring 2024 prior to planting in the orchard.

August 19 2024 and nearing the end of the second growing season. The bark graft is almost healed over. The peach tree has really grown a lot this year.

I find grafting pretty amazing.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

Eventhough, I have ZERO complaints with Fedco Trees. I found a new family based orchard called Maple Valley Orchards in Wisconsin, I want to try for early spring grafting rootstocks and scionwood. I would have went with fedco again, but fedco didn't have all the apple varieties I'm looking to graft this early spring. I would rather order just once instead of splitting between two orchards and arriving at different times... Of all my previous orders with fedco, everything I've ordered from them has been top notch. This includes their seeds and organic growers supply divisions also.

Here is the link to Maple Valley Orchards, has anyone had experiences with them?

https://maplevalleyorchards.com/about-us/

Thanks

Jesus is Lord and Christ