Semidwarf Orchard Re-Do and Cleanup. 20 Dec 2023

This was last week.  I removed all of the deer fencing around the semi-dwarf apple trees, and made big headway on pruning them.

Three views.

I've been trying to get a few of these trained to the Goldilocks zone of bearing branches too high for deer comfort but low enough for me to maintain - thin, bag, prune.  This is about as good as I can do.  Last year I did that with the pears, which worked out *almost* just right. All still need more pruning and training this winter, but this was a BIG step in progress.

The Liberty and Jonagold trees are about how I wanted them.  The Akane needs more training, but is close.  Ditto for the Winecrisp.  I left NorthPole as a tuft on top, to pollinate the two triploid trees.

The grass is uneven - wait until more needs mowing, then do this as well.  No use wasting gasoline just for this area.

With the deer fencing removed, now it can all be mowed with the riding mower.  Much faster and easier.  I'll use grass and clover as ground cover, no more thistles and blackberries to contend with.  

Winter Garden Cleanup in Minitree "Orchard". 20 Dec 2023.

 I've been cleaning up the sides, under the espalier trees, and the middle, under the mini-fruit trees.  There has been some encroachment by aggressive weed grasses and this is the time to fix that.

Mostly I've been laying flat cardboard from boxes in top and covering that with a thick layer of tree leaves.  The cardboard will self-compost in a year, and the leaves will last about that long too.  Then tney enrich the soil.

The black containers will be roses.  The one on the right is the David Austin rose, Vanessa Bell, with  ground cover of trailing sedum and muscari.   The other isn't planted yet.  I'm mulching the main pathways with arborist chips, which will take my traffic better than the leaves.

About 2/3 of the winter work is completed now.

Jonagold Apple MiniTree on Bud-9 Rootstock, Delayed Graft Failure. 20 Dec 2023.

 While doing some garden work, I noted this tree was leaning.  Not a lot, maybe 30 degrees from vertical.  I bent it to straighten, and the rootstock snapped completely off!  Pop!

Bummer!  It was a nice size and shape now, blooming size and probably would have borne fruit next year.

Photo is after I cut nice scion for grafting.

I don't know why it snapped off.  Sometimes there can be graft incompatibility.  That happened a few years ago with a purchased Pristine graft on a multigraft tree.  Jonagold is triploid and quite vigorous.  Maybe too much vigor for Bud-9?

I guess I will just use the Jonagold for the Espaliers.  I have a couple of Bud-9 rootstocks that need grafting, but would I be setting them up for the same issue a few years on?  It's a good question.

It's interesting to look at the red color of the broken wood.  That's typical for Bud-9, which also has red cambium and red leaves.  I wonder if it would stay red as dried wood for finishing.

I think that trees on Bud-9 always beed to be tied to a post for support. 

Gingko Scion For Grafting. 20 Dec 2023.

 I collected these scion for grafting in late winter.

The original tree is a male, thirty years old, that I grew from seed that my late dad had collected.  It's a beautiful tree.   I wanted to preserve it at the Battle Ground house, and grafted scion onto seedlings that I grew from locally collected seeds.

But it grows weird.  I straighten it up, but it always grows almost horizontally.

I don't know why it grows so weird.  Maybe I grafted it upside down?  Would it grow that way?  I don't know.

The tree has some offshoots.  I decided to graft a couple of those with scion from the top, and see what happens.  I'll store the same as I do apple scion.

Collecting Apple Scion. 20 Dec 2023.

 I'm not happy with the red flesh apples.  They are too small, too sour, even astringent, too hard, and just not very good.  That's the bottom two tiers of each of theree espaliers.  Too much garden space to waste of something I don't like.

I read some where that lower tiers on espaliers are not as vigorous as uppers.  I don't know if that is true.  I decided to remove most of those lower tiers, and graft vigorous varieties that I know I like, in their place.  So it's an experiment.

I collected scion from the varieties Akane and Jonagold, so far.  

This is way more than I will use.  It's good to have choices for grafting, and they needed pruning anyway.  These are in plastic zipper bags until later winter.  I don't like using plastic, but these are washed, re-used bags.

There are three espaliers to re-graft.  Not sure about the third choice.  Porter is vigorous, and good so maybe that one.