A Thread About Trees

[WallabyOfChaos]

I thought I would start a thread for those who love trees as a place to discuss growing tips and techniques, health, our favorite trees, etc.

I feel as though I am a bit of a tree addict. Right now my window sills are full of seeds and seedlings that I have started. I love to grow trees from seed and for some crazy reason I can't seem to let a seed go in the trash. Here is a list of the tree projects I have going right now.

Seedlings:
1 Red Oak (about a year old)
6 Cottonwoods (6 months old)
4 Plums (just sprouted)

Waiting for germination:
1 Cherry,
4 Mulberries

Stratifying:
7 Honey Crisp apple seeds

I know my plums and the apple seeds are very unlikely to produce good fruit, if any fruit at all, because they came from store-bought produce. But if they produce some oxygen and a little shade I will call it a win.

So what is everyone else growing?

 

[lazy gardener]

Did you plant it at the same depth it was in the root ball? Typically, you don't want to "bury the trunk." My preference would be to have the tree sitting level with the surrounding soil, with a tiny bit of a basin around the trunk so that when you water it, the water will soak into the root zone instead of running off.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

I didn't mean to let this thing go dormant. It's been pretty busy around here.

Well anywho, here are some updates on how my little tree projects are going. The 4 plums are all doing very well. I guess I should have thought a little more about when I planted them because they are getting kind of tall and it seems like spring is forever away. I still don't know where they will go permanently yet. One of the four mulberry seeds has sprouted in to a pretty little thing. There is something new coming up in the mulberry pot. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I guess I will need to transplant or remove one of them when I get it figured out. The cherry never made it. It got dropped and spilled, which damaged the little sprout and ultimately killed it. Sadly for the apple seeds, I have run out of window sill space so even though they were ready to go I had to throw them out. Only 4 of them made it through the stratification, the others kind of rotted so I'm guessing they weren't viable to start with. On a happier note, I have a surprise lemon tree coming along nicely. I had some lemon seeds set out while it was still kind of warm hoping to get one to sprout and see if I could make it a house/patio plant, but our dogs managed to wreck them. I scooped up all the dirt I could and picked out all the dry, crispy lemon seeds I could find and used the dirt to re-pot my two lavenders. About a week ago something strange had come up in one of my lavender pots, so I pulled it up carefully and it was a lemon! Here are a few pictures of what I have going now:

Two of the plums:


The mulberry. This was a few days before the mystery seedling emerged.


And, the little lemon that could.

 

[RedIII]

I forgot about the link Leslie posted until now and decided to check it out. The dogwood seeds I ordered a couple of weeks ago from another site still haven't gotten here, and I'm worried that they got caught in a mail machine somewhere and torn open

So, I remembered the link here and went to check it out, and sure enough! They have dogwood trees! Now I really need my tax returns, haha.

Thanks again, Leslie!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

the pepper trees we have here in California are in the Genus Schinus
Schinus molle ( california pepper tree) or Peruvian pepper
schinus terebinthifolius ( Brazillian pepper tree)

 

[jerryse]

More info on mulberry trees. There are male and female trees. No fruit on male trees. In Illinois we have the native red mulberry (Morris Rubrum) plus the white mulberry (Morris Alba). Mostly mixes of the two. I do find some that appear to be one or the other. White mulberries can be black,white,or in between. I have seen male trees develop a female branch after storm damage. I have seen this twice on 2 different trees. I have also seen a white fruited tree change to black fruit after being cut back. These cases are likely bud sports.

 

[jerryse]

Hi,
Does anyone know if a Snow Apple is the same thing as a Maiden Blush Apple?
Thanks,
Karen

No snow apple's other name is famouse spelling is probably wrong. I am not familiar with maiden blush.

 

[mlongworth]

I have a catalog for tree of antiquity and they carry maidens blush and a ton of others. www.treesofantiquity.com

 

[jerryse]

Marking my spot .

http://www.growingfruit.org/t/old-magazine-article-on-grafting-etc/476/10 This is interesting . I learn a lot on the Growing Fruit forum .

 

[country girl44]

I planted lemon seeds and so far only one has started. tiny but it's growing. I'm hoping for a few more.