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Post by prairiegarden on Apr 25, 2016 17:14:10 GMT -5
It's a nuisance not being able easily to move some nursery stock round Canada. Sprout Farm north of Edmonton has interesting good looking stock but they don't ship to BC or Ontario. I'm getting a Simonette and a Redant apple this spring and have high hopes of them. They use antonovka rootstock.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 1, 2016 8:24:12 GMT -5
Finally got all the perennial stuff planted and the next day got a lovely soaking rain, the apple trees had been looking a little sad in spite of being watered but after a day of cool rain they are now looking enthusiastic again. So in 2-3 years should hopefully be swamped with fruit: elderberries, aronia, autumn olive, haskaps, raspberries, currants, strawberries,seabuckthorn, cherries, goji, rhubarb and maybe even apples. Time to build or buy a dryer...
I ended up with a Simonette & a Fall Red apple ( not a Redant as planned, with more knowledge came a change of opinion); the Fall Red apparently is available in some nurseries but I've never seen Simonette anywhere else. It was one of the trees that the U of Sask is in its gene pool, so if worth donating to a gene bank it seems likely be a decent apple.It was donated to the U of Sask. from someone who has a 300 tree "hobby" orchard who has all sorts of rare and interesting material and often offers scions at the scion exchange sessions. Fall Red several people have said is their favorite apple although I'd never heard of it before. Both trees are on Antonovka rootstock.
I got them both from Sprout Farms which is slightly north of Edmonton and I have been very pleased with the trees, very healthy well started trees. They were also cheap, always a bonus.
Now will have to try again to get nut trees going; apparently someone has black walnut in saskatoon, going to try once more with chestnuts and hazelnuts next year.
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corn
gopher
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Post by corn on Jun 3, 2017 0:51:50 GMT -5
Just found out that one of the people who had been growing a lot of varieties - his own and other material- has had his work picked up by his kids after his death, and they have some very interesting whips for sale this year. Two hours north of Edmonton a lot closer than Alaska.. All sorts of people doing interesting things in odd corners of the world, and so often they are only found by a sort of happy accident. |
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corn
gopher
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Post by corn on Jun 3, 2017 0:53:37 GMT -5
Which nursery name would this be?
Thanks
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Post by jocelyn on Jun 4, 2017 6:54:11 GMT -5
Dryers can be had for the price of a used cabinet style incubator. Run it with the vents wide open and they dry fruit and nuts quickly and well  Around here, one is good shape is $200, in less good shape, 150. |
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 4, 2017 18:31:48 GMT -5
Dryers can be had for the price of a used cabinet style incubator. Run it with the vents wide open and they dry fruit and nuts quickly and well Around here, one is good shape is $200, in less good shape, 150. What capacity would you need? Seems to me you could build one from a 48 quart cooler, a pretty effective one, for around $80. That's if every part was new, and you didn't bargain shop too much. Found materials and / or second hand stores would reduce that a lot. (Mine is small, but cost $8.) It would take about the same skill level as repairing a lamp. Parts: 48 quart cooler - the cabinet light fixture & bulbs - the heating element(s) electrical box for light fixture - not essential but probably safer with than without power cordthermostatone option for internal shelving optional muffin fan (Without a fan, warm moist air will rise out through the exhaust hole(s) that you'll drill, and be replaced by cooler dryer air through the intake hole(s) you'll drill. A fan on the outlet side speeds up the process.) optional vent covers It'll look nicer and keep the bugs out. Or drill smaller holes, but more of 'em. |
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Post by prairiegardens on Jun 14, 2017 6:14:30 GMT -5
The apple whips I got from Sprout Farm survived a severe attack of webworms AND my rather too concentrated canola oil spray to kill the worms last summer. Both are on Antonovka rootstock. I'm told it will produce a full size tree and the apples from the rootstock itself are perfectly edible. One whip has branches coming out both below and above the graft, as long as the ones above are growing at least as well I thought I'd wait to see if I get a dual variety. Sprout Farm are a smallish outfit but great people to deal with and prices very reasonable..
This spring I got two Russian bred pears as tiny rooted plants at the Edmonton scion exchange. One was healthy but eventually clearly was dying from something that I was told could be root bacterial infection from too much watering, so I transplanted both, as the other was also showing beginning signs of issues. The first died anyway and the second promptly also had all the leaves mottle curl,turn black and drop. Apparently aside from anything else pears loathe being transplanted from one pot to another, who knew? For some reason I didn't toss it, and yesterday noticed it has three new green leaves! The first to "die" unfortunately appears to have remained dead. This is sad as these pears are supposed to be both hardy to something like -35 c at least AND have delectable decent size pears. The guy normally doesn't have rooted seedlings, just scion wood. I have nothing to graft onto as well as having no experience even if there was a suitable tree available. So finding a compatible pear tree may be a search.
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Post by mjc on Jun 14, 2017 8:57:06 GMT -5
Why are you wanting to graft the pear?
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Post by prairiegardens on Jun 14, 2017 9:32:05 GMT -5
Pears need another variety so since one of the seedlings died I will need to get another variety to cross pollinate with it. There's no way to replace the one that died other than with scion wood next.spring, he won't be offering babies next spring, only scion wood. There's certainly no place else to access these varieties, this guy has been involved with breeding fruit trees for ages and clearly has contacts unavailable to most of us. One of the apple trees I got I learned about when looking through the gene bank lists, he had donated it.
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Post by mjc on Jun 14, 2017 12:22:44 GMT -5
The simple way around the problem is to make a two or more variety tree...
Let the seedling grow until it is a fairly well established plant, then select a branch to replace with another variety. No rootstock needed.
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Post by prairiegardens on Jun 15, 2017 16:12:44 GMT -5
Oh good point! Talk about missing the obvious....
I heard of someone doing this with sea buckthorn and had totally forgotten about it The little tree I thought was dead now has other leaves starting, I'm afraid to give it any water at all, so as soon as the ground is dried up enough will be popping it into the soil and keeping fingers, toes and eyes crossed.
thanks!
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