Post by canadamike on Apr 26, 2009 0:20:21 GMT -5
I am in the midle of a fruit tree grafting session right now, thanks to one of our memebers from Quebec, ericdelo.
He lives about 2 hours away from me and I visited his operation this week end, His place is both a nursery for hardy fruit tree and a buddhist meditation school.
The first thing I noticed on getting to the property is the smell. Despite being north of me, Eric and Veronique are in a micro-climate, surely caused by the south facing sloping hills ( not hight enough to be true mountains) they live with. Live with is intentional here.
One of the first things Eric told me is a simple one: you seem to be a man of the ''nose'' .
Well, as much as I love smelling things, I was just in awe. Despite being north of me, their micro-climate makes them way ahead of Rockland,
My nose has no special gifts, we are in the ''skunky smell'' period of spring while in the property in Ste-Julienne the full smell of early summer is there, past the skunky early spring stage to the magnificent woodsy odors of the forest and spring, and coltsfoots were all over the place for the bees, I have not seen one yet here.
Gardening lesson for prejudiced ''zoners'' here. Zones are not everything. With the slopes of the hills and the heath they catch, Eric lives in Indiana for crying out loud. A 5-6% mountain slope facing full south does that. It brings you 2 zones down.
Eric re-teached me how to graft. I knew how but had not done it for ten years, and frankly, my knowlege about appropriate rootstock for specific species badly needed help in the prunus department, the one I always try to avoid and let the others take care of.
Now, the trick: Eric uses aluminum from pop cans to identify the grafts and trees. The metal is the perfect thickness to engrave with a pen. You make nine or ten identification tags out of one can.
Well, I feel like 16 years old now and want to thanks ericdelo for his help and kindness.
There is much more to say about Eric and Veronique, but I'll leave it at that for the moment.
If I wasn't so tired I would go on and you would all want to move to Ste-Julienne.
It is a wonderful thing to meet the other members when you can.
We are all more than chatters. Never forget it.
Michel
He lives about 2 hours away from me and I visited his operation this week end, His place is both a nursery for hardy fruit tree and a buddhist meditation school.
The first thing I noticed on getting to the property is the smell. Despite being north of me, Eric and Veronique are in a micro-climate, surely caused by the south facing sloping hills ( not hight enough to be true mountains) they live with. Live with is intentional here.
One of the first things Eric told me is a simple one: you seem to be a man of the ''nose'' .
Well, as much as I love smelling things, I was just in awe. Despite being north of me, their micro-climate makes them way ahead of Rockland,
My nose has no special gifts, we are in the ''skunky smell'' period of spring while in the property in Ste-Julienne the full smell of early summer is there, past the skunky early spring stage to the magnificent woodsy odors of the forest and spring, and coltsfoots were all over the place for the bees, I have not seen one yet here.
Gardening lesson for prejudiced ''zoners'' here. Zones are not everything. With the slopes of the hills and the heath they catch, Eric lives in Indiana for crying out loud. A 5-6% mountain slope facing full south does that. It brings you 2 zones down.
Eric re-teached me how to graft. I knew how but had not done it for ten years, and frankly, my knowlege about appropriate rootstock for specific species badly needed help in the prunus department, the one I always try to avoid and let the others take care of.
Now, the trick: Eric uses aluminum from pop cans to identify the grafts and trees. The metal is the perfect thickness to engrave with a pen. You make nine or ten identification tags out of one can.
Well, I feel like 16 years old now and want to thanks ericdelo for his help and kindness.
There is much more to say about Eric and Veronique, but I'll leave it at that for the moment.
If I wasn't so tired I would go on and you would all want to move to Ste-Julienne.
It is a wonderful thing to meet the other members when you can.
We are all more than chatters. Never forget it.
Michel
