Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[Smuvers Farm]

Pruned the fruit trees today.
Dh is still pru ing the Bradford Pear trees so he can cut the grass under them without having to duck. Lol
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Thought I'd see if any of these apple cuttings will root.

on your apple cuttings.... how many trees do you have currently? Are they producing? How many bushels? SQUEEEE I am SO excited!!! Man I need an apple tree.... or 7....

 

[rjohns39]

Since I have such a limited space for my fort knox orchard, I really want to buy this guy's trees. He says he'll teach me how to maintain them and get new starts done. Maybe next year.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Which one(s) rj?

 

[rjohns39]

Figure the apples will be candelabra and the peaches fans, not sure about the pears, and cherry trees... I think the fig will be just a regular fig tree. What I've been working on is getting his advice on how to lay out the orchard. I'm giving myself a 3' walkway between the fence and the trees, so I can work both sides and the deer cannot. Planning on trees over 3 sides with red raspberries in the corner by the gate. If there's room, maybe a couple kiwi's in the back. Then the middle will have berries and table grapes. Strawberries around the base of the trees.

 

[chickadoodles]

on your apple cuttings.... how many trees do you have currently? Are they producing? How many bushels? SQUEEEE I am SO excited!!! Man I need an apple tree.... or 7....

Thank you. I am also very excited. A few years ago we bought a red and golden delicious and another pear. We also had 3 plum which have all died. And a peach. So I am trying to add to what I already have and this year I am wanting to add a couple more but I am not going to plant them in the orchard. I will keep them in our greenhouse when we get it done but in 1/2 barrels. We also have blue berries, strawberries and elderberries.
We have only been adding a few trees a year. Since it's just the two of us.
I added some grapes last year.

I know most people with orchards have a lot of fruit trees and I wanted more.
But my dh is having problems with a disk in his neck and another one in his back so he has a hard time trying to dig the holes for me.

 

[chickadoodles]

Figure the apples will be candelabra and the peaches fans, not sure about the pears, and cherry trees... I think the fig will be just a regular fig tree. What I've been working on is getting his advice on how to lay out the orchard. I'm giving myself a 3' walkway between the fence and the trees, so I can work both sides and the deer cannot. Planning on trees over 3 sides with red raspberries in the corner by the gate. If there's room, maybe a couple kiwi's in the back. Then the middle will have berries and table grapes. Strawberries around the base of the trees.

It sounds like your going to have a beautiful orchard!

 

[chickmom3941]

Re: keeping cats off seedling shelves: When that was an issue for me (sadly, no longer ) I would set a set of shelves in front of my S facing living room window. Set up a light, and then wrap the whole affair with heavy duty tin foil. Kept the cats out, captured the sunlight plus the flourescent light, and bounced it back to the plants. Also, held in a bit of heat.

I used to think Cilantro tasted like soap. In a way, it still does. But, my taste buds have changed a bit, so I now enjoy it in small quantities. Interestingly, my hubby, who never complained about Cilantro in the past, can now taste it a mile away, and finds it objectionable.

We LOVE cilantro here! I also discovered there is culantro, which supposedly tastes like cilantro, only stronger. I ordered some culantro seeds because the cilantro plants don't seem to last real long here, so I'm hoping to have better luck with the culantro plants.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

I am pretty sure I've found 3 apple trees I'd like to plant. My issue is, 2 of them are listed as pollinizer needed. Can they cross pollinate each other (the 2) or would I need a pollinizing tree for each one?

 

[Smuvers Farm]

We LOVE cilantro here! I also discovered there is culantro, which supposedly tastes like cilantro, only stronger. I ordered some culantro seeds because the cilantro plants don't seem to last real long here, so I'm hoping to have better luck with the culantro plants.

Culantro huh? That would be fun to try. All the cilantro around here is so mild tasting.... compared to the cilantro we got while in El Paso.

 

[chickmom3941]

Thanks for the Burgess exposure. I'd not consider ordering from them, but it's good to expose such poor companies where many folks will get the bad news!

I do well with Fedco Trees, and with St. Lawrence Nursery. Have heard good reports regarding Starks.

When ordering seeds, beware as well. Many small companies are owned by Mega companies. I was all set to order from Seeds Now, (have done so in the past) until I found out that they are owned by Monsanto. I'll not do business with Monsanto, and will not choose to order from a company who buys from Monsanto. Fedco, and Pine Tree will not sell GMO. And Fedco is hugely involved in OSSI: Open Source Seed Initiative. This is a movement to move many seeds away from genetic patenting laws and putting ownership of the genetic material back in the hands of the individual gardeners where it belongs.

I ordered a pear tree from Jung Seeds two years ago. It arrived in very good shape, a good size, and had an excellent root system. I ordered from them after hearing good reviews, and found them to be very solid. The tree is doing great, and may fruit in another year or two.