Fedco Scion Order. 12.7.18

Porter Apple.  Source:  USDA pomological.  1905.

I'm not sure if I posted this already.  I've added most of the apple varieties that I want to try, but decided on 3 additional scion from Fedco.  Two are repeats of scion that I grafted last year, which grew but not a lot, and I would like more on another tree (King David and Sweet-16).  Those were on a small Winecrisp tree that I may have grafted too soon, planted that tree bare-root in 2016 and also grafted then, plus a deer chewed off half of the Sweet-16 so it is only about 1 inch of stem now.  I had actually forgotten that I already had King David on another multigraft tree.  It took, but the other branches are more vigorous so I want to give it a better start anyway.  I could wait and take scion from that graft, but if I buy one now, that gets me a head start.  I would also like to add a Winesap (early 1800s), and scion from that has been offered to me from another hobbyist.

At this point, I have about all of the apple cultivars that I can keep track of.  Most of my apple trees are now multigrafts with at least 5 varieties per tree, although a few are individual dwarf trees and a few are just beginning to experience my grafting obsession.  I've learned a lot along the way.  The apple growing goals are:

*Mostly disease resistant varieties.
*Mostly varieties that I can't buy at the grocery store.
*Ripening season from July until late October, with storage apples through most of the winter.
*Many varieties for cross pollination, usually within each multigraft tree.
*A chance to taste the same apple varieties that inspired people and gave pleasure for, sometimes,  hundreds of years, at times when there were no grocery chains, import fruits, and minimal food additives.  To savor living history.  To connect my senses with those of actual and historic ancestors, by experiencing the rare pleasure of what they enjoyed.
*A chance to taste some unique flavors and varieties that are not available otherwise.
*To compare experiences with other gardeners and hobbyists.
*To experience tastes from my own garden and orchard, free from corporate homogenization and factory processing.

Some of the descriptions are really colorful.  I doubt that my own taste buds are that sophisticated.  But maybe - this year's apples gave unexpected and delightful surprises.


King David Apple - Fedco description, Orange-Pippin description.  A cross between Jonathan and either Winesap or Arkansas Black.  Intro 1893.  Diploid, precicious, large apples, some disease resistance.  From Fedco on flavors:  "Pineapple, tangerine, lemon, sweet, sour, tart, sharp, aromatic and spicy all rush around simultaneously."   From Apples of North America, King David is described as vigorous, and is a diploid, and disease resistant, so might be a good addition to the new Gravenstein tree.  Gravenstein needs a pollinator because it is triploid, and needs a vigorous variety because it is also vigorous.

Sweet-16 Apple - Fedco description, Orange-Pippin description.  Descended from Northern Spy crossed with Malinda, developed at University of Minnesota. 1979.  Diploid.  Per Fedco: " Fine-textured crisp flesh contains an astounding unusually complex combination of sweet, nutty and spicy flavors with slight anise essence, sometimes described as cherry, vanilla or even bourbon."  From Apples of North America, Sweet-16 is resistant to apple scab, fireblight, and moderately resistant to other major apple diseases.  Vigorous growing and late blooming.   From Apples of Uncommon Character, "a misty explosion of melon and bubble gum, satisfyingly sweet, passingly tart" also described as flavors like bourbon or cherry life savers.  Apples for the 21st Century, "flavor is very unique and sweet-tart cocktail of flavors."

Opalescent Apple.  Fedco description, Orange-Pippin descriptipon.  Per Fedco:  1899.  " Crisp, sweet, tart, juicy—but most of all it’s supremely flavorful."  From Apples of North America, Opalescent has a creamy yellow flesh, crisp, sweet flavor, vigorous, but does have susceptibility to fireblight.  Good storage apple.


References:
Links, plus:
Apples of North America - by Tom Burford - describes 192 varieties, in addition to additional information about growing apples.  Excellent reading about many apple varieties, especially historic apples.
Apples of Uncommon Character - by Rowan Jacobsen - describes 123 varieties, and recipes.  Also excellent and sometimes poetic reading.
Apples for the 21st Century -by Warren Manhart - Reflects the author's 30 years of experience testing over 140 varieties, with 50 cultivars described in the book.

Transplanting a 13 year old Liberty Apple Minidwarf Tree. 12.3.16

12.3.16  Liberty Apple Tree on M27 Rootstock.

 Today I moved an approx 13 year old Liberty apple bush from the old place in Vancouver to the Battleground garden.  It's stretching the definition to call this a tree, although it really is a miniaturized apple tree.  This is a graft of Liberty apple scion onto the mini-dwarfing rootstock M27, which produces a shrub-like apple tree that grows around 5 to 7 feet tall.  It's not vigorous at all.  The roots were confined to a volume a little bigger than a 5 gallon bucket.

Despite the small size, we get a nice crop of a few dozen apples from this tree every year.  If I don't thin them, they are small.  Liberty is very disease resistant, and the apples are absolutely delicious.

I have grafted scion from Liberty onto a less limiting understock, but still wanted to keep this tree for more immediate reward.
I dug it, shook off as much old soil and old potting medium that remained after so many years, and re-planted in what was a squash vegetable bed this year.  The new spot does not have competition from a gigantic Kwanza cherry and lawn, that were issues in the old location.   This time I knew the roots should be in the best contact possible with the native soil.  There was virtually no root damage.  I did remove small branches that were touching the ground.

12.3.16  Liberty Apple Tree on M27 Rootstock

As usual, I gave it a hardware cloth collar to hinder vole damage, a good layer of wet leaf mulch, and fencing to hinder deer browsing.

I don't think it will miss a beat.   I'm hoping for a nice crop of  Liberty apples, in 2017.

Fig Tree to Move

Petite negri fig, 15 years old.  I am looking for someone local who wants a fig tree for the digging and transporting.  Posting here so that I can link to Home Orchard Society Forum.

In 2012 I moved a similar sized Brunswick fig tree, which did just fine.

Eggs. 11.22.16

The hens had stopped producing, so we fired up the light timer in their hen house.  Now they are on 14 hours days again, and producing eggs.  The white egg is from a leghorn.  Small hen, big eggs. I bet that one hurt.  The smallest is from an Ameraucana.  This is her first egg.  Most of the rest are Rhode Island Red or mixed heritage hens.

Planting a Dawn Redwood, Metasequia glyptostroboides. 11.17.16

Dawn Redwood with ball/burlap/clay removed.  11.17.16

Close up of Root Ball.  My finger touches a girdling root that will be removed.

 Today we planted a Dawn Redwood Metasequia glyptostroboides tree.  Dawn redwoods are deciduous conifers, related to Bald Cyprus and redwood trees.  They were known in the fossil record long before living trees were found in Southeast China.

I wanted to plant a tree for a memorial for my aging dogs.  Planting a tree gives me peace of mind and a focus for my thoughts.

To the best of my ability, I followed the bare-rooting method described by Linda Chalker-Scott of WSU.  I had done that before with a Gravenstein apple tree in full leaf, so far so good.  It looks radical, but the logic is sound.  This tree was in last week's shipment at Portland Nursery, balled and burlaped and placed in container with compost yesterday.  Because it was so recently dug, there has been no chance for roots to fill throughout the container.  It looks scary, seeing so few roots, but this feels like a good chance to catch it before roots grow in bad directions, setting the tree up for future girdling and early failure to thrive, or death.

As Chalker-Scott notes, fall planting is an excellent time to plant trees.  They have the remainder of the fall rainy season, plus late winter and early spring,  to add feeder roots, before starting to produce leaves next year.

When I removed the ropes and burlap, most of the clay just fell off.  I hosed off the rest.  This is the tree inside that pot, that you can't see unless you remove the burlap and wash of the roots.  It looks so drastic.  I've planted lots of fruit trees that were as drastic looking, and they did great.  So I think this is OK.

The girdling root is removed.

Holding another deformed root that crosses through others.  I removed that one too.

 Three photos illustrate the root pruning that I did.  Even though it seems this tree already has almost no roots, I removed the ones that looked like they might lead to future troubles, such as girdling.  One appeared to have auto-grafted onto another.  I removed the smaller of the two.

In the end, my root removal was very minimal.

I also followed other recommendations by Chalker-Scott.  Her two books, "The Informed Gardner" series, are the best that I have read.  In this case, I planted the tree much more shallowly than the burlap would have indicated.  It was too deep.  All  of the roots are fully buried, but the root flare is still at the soil level.

Second, I did not amend the soil with anything extraneous.  The tree has nothing between it and the native soil.  The roots are in full contact with the soil that will nourish and support the tree.  As I discussed with the Gravenstein tree, I also did not want to attract moles and voles to this tree, which I suspect to be an issue if I include compost additives in the soil.

This is the area that I cleared of blackberry brambles and some fallen Douglas Hawthorn trees, over the past couple of weeks.  The soil has been nourished by fallen blackberry leaves, rotting brambles, and tree leaves, for unknown number of years.  But even if that was not the case, I would not be adding compost or other amendments to the soil.

I did tie support to the tree, very loosely.  The intent is not to prevent swaying, but to keep it from falling over if there is excessive weather.  The main thing holding the tree in place, is the soil and root interaction.

The tree is planted about 6" shallower than the burlap was.

There were daffodils on sale at Home Depot.  I planted a wide circle outside of the planting hole area.  Those are for my benefit, but I like to think the bulbs deter underground rodents. There is no proof, that I know of, that daffodils do that.

Ning with the tree.  He's about 5'10".  Temporary deer fencing.

 Finally, I provided hardware cloth vole protection, and fencing deer protection.

This week I will also add some wood chip mulch, and check the support.  The rope is very loose, by intent.  This makes me a bit nervous, with such a tall tree - about 8 foot.  However, the trunk is thin and the top is not very heavy.  I've had posts that were heavier and not any deeper, and they stayed in place just fine.

As an after thought, I looked at those pruned roots and wondered if Metasequoia can produce shoots from roots.  I can't find any such info on the internet, but there are trees that grow from root cuttings.  So I planted those in my ginkgo seed raised bed.  If they grow, fine.  If they don't, nothing lost.

I think this will be a beautiful and healthy tree. 

Prunings saved for root cuttings experiment.