The Old Folks Home

[Arielle2]

Very interesting information, Arielle. No, I haven't looked into the trees you mentioned. All but two of our newer apple trees came from Starke Bro. Nursery down in southern Missouri. I know they use a quince for their pear trees because we had two Asian trees snap off at the ground and what came up from the roots as far as we can tell is quince...plus, that is what they told me they used on the Asian pears.

I'm less than thrilled with their stock as when I talked to them, I told them we wanted fruit that would be hardy in our growing zone and resistant to disease....2/3rds is neither. The Asian pears and some of the apples have succumbed to Fire Blight. The 75 thornless blackberry plants that we bought from them are not cold hardy as promised. We lost 90% of them this past winter. They were 5 years old.

Last year we planted two Candy Crisps? I'd have to look at the tags again that we bought from a local Amish Nursery that so far have been thriving.

We managed to get our 'leaning tree' mostly upright and restaked. What you said about them makes sense. This tree, an Arkansas Black, bore heavily this year and it's crop literally pulled it over.

Unfortunately, you have to do your own homework.... Stark is a sell sell sell store. Try googling and looking for the STATE UNIVERSITY information as they are tasked with accessing, testing, and often developing varieties suitable for their own state. Then that info is supposed to get to local extension offices.

Sources that I think are reputable are ACN nursery, and CUmmins..... one is a wholesaler that puts a few aside for us little people, and the second is run by the children of dr cummins who worked for cornell developing the Geneva line of apple root stock that are resistant to a number of pome fruit pests and diseases so that they now sell fruit trees on these stocks and you order which variety you want on a rootstock that you need.... also they have plums, peaches, etc.... the rootstock is listed for every item.

I no longer buy from a local nursery, at least in my area there are none that I have found useful.

Quince is very useful for making jams-- the jelling agent.

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Mulberries are very easy to grow, and will grow very big if not kept in check. SOme 30-50 feet tall. I was gifted d3 by a member on BYC a number of years ago and they are already 8 feet tall. Then found others that were donated by wild birds...... a fairly pest resistant fruit tree.
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[Arielle2]

What microchick said:
"
@KDOGG331. Trust my advice and word of warning spoken from an old gal! The day will come when you will not be able to eat 15 mini candy bars at once because as I like to put it, the day comes where you may as well just take em out of the package and smear them on your backside and hips because that's where they are going to wind up anyway. It's never too early to kick the candy habit. As a treat, yep, but not as a habit."

We dont buy candy, none. Once I figured out how dangerous snacks like candy are I put a stop to trick or treating as my kids came home with a years supply. AND I will dig out ever Reeses peanut butter cup aand every Butterfinger.... and eat them all. Just better for me to NOT have such in the house...lol

A friend did a Halloween party for years and that was enough-- a few hours of filling up on fabulous homemade treats and a barbeque. Everyone in costumes, and lots of games and a scavenger hunt.

This year my oldest is heading to a friends house for Halloween-- likely to binge on gaming not on candy. My younger one? Off to a friends house today to carve pumpkins.

 

[perchie.girl]

Mulberries are very easy to grow, and will grow very big if not kept in check. SOme 30-50 feet tall. I was gifted d3 by a member on BYC a number of years ago and they are already 8 feet tall. Then found others that were donated by wild birds...... a fairly pest resistant fruit tree.

Been researching Mulberries... I used to stop my horse along a highway To pick Mulberries off a tree that hung over the bicycle lane.... Loved them.

There is a dwarf variety that can live in a pot. I want to do that to get a little height on it before putting it in the yard. My plan is to espalier them to let them grow along a horizontal fence... I will have to make a fruiting tree run for them though.... Ground squirrels, Birds, .... you name it In the desert if they find food they will come.

good to see you again Arielle... Love your research. I went another rout though.

deb

 

[Arielle2]

Face it oldsters....it's like the guy who once told my husband, 'If I knew I was going to live so long I would have taken better care of myself when I was younger!'

Unfortunately, a lot of us could say that....except for KDOGG who still has a chance.....y' hear me girl!?

LOL

My grandfather died some 20 years ago-- mid 90's and still driving his friends around, his younger sister made it to 105!!

When my great aunt passed, Stopped by the funeral home for my youngest to see and make a point--- why mom is adamant about good food and health....

Cancer also runs in the family--- on a quest to beat it before it gets started..... appalling to find the main stream medical professionals are rather limited in treatments and prevention.... and much is overlooked.

2005 NIH study showed that fasting during chemo treatment had a SIGNIFICANT effect on the tumor shrinkage.... asked my mother who was treated for breast cancer,after this study was published, twice at Dana Farber was not told of the beneficial effects of fasting... rather they used an experimental drug...

Fasting is getting more attention now, looking how metabolism is affected, and how the mitochondria are rejuvenated.... and the wonders of the body to fix itself if given the chance.

Fasting clears my thinking.

Here is food for thought... I know we are the older crowd but this got me thinking...

 

[pennyJo1960]

Tell you in 84 when it hit me they did keep me alive with what was modern meds at the time yes darn near worse than the cancer .. they have come along ways on those treatments working to strengthen our own immune can not be wrong .. tell someone that has always had low blood sugar bout's does not fast for long

 

[microchick]

Thanks Arielle for the excellent information. I have turned to the local extension office for help with our thornless blackberries. We had to wineries interested in our crop. One year we harvested over 50 pounds which was our best harvest. The next year we opened a berry to check it and found a tiny worm in it despite our spraying schedule. Turned out we had a fruit fly problem, a new variety that was just making an appearance in our area. And good luck getting rid of them. We worked and worked and finally gave up. In spite of spraying and picking the fruit just before ripe, we found fruit fly maggots in the berries. I was beat. Blackberries are a lot of work to start with, dealing with dead canes, pruning, weeding. To have to deal with a fruit fly that is almost indestructible is more work than I wanted to put in on the project. The last year that we had a crop, we ate the good berries and tossed the infested to the birds. The chooks loved them. Last winter the freeze took 80% of the the canes. The rest were mowed.

Sometimes ya just got to know when to throw in the towel.

As for Starke's we had one Asian pear tree loaded with fruit break off at the graft. I took pictures of it and emailed Starke's asking them if they could tell me what happened to the tree as it appeared to be a graft failure. After two weeks of no reply, I called them. The person I talked to said yes she had seen the pictures and it appeared that the tree had been damaged by a weed eater. That's when I started laughing and told her nope. Didn't even own a weed eater. She kept telling me it was weed eater damage. I kept telling her I didn't own one at the time of the tree's demise or for the two years since it had been planted. I think we went back and forth like that for a while until she finally offered me 50% off a replacement tree. I told her no thank you and hung up.

A year later I found out about Fire Blight and looking at the pictures we had taken finally decided that the tree's trunk had been damaged by blight leading to it breaking.

I haven't bought anything from them since.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Geee wonder why you haven't there micro with such great customer service NOT
About to clean brooder then out to coops

 

[bruceha2000]

Yet a man can go topless... go figure.

Yep, what's up with that?

AND I will dig out ever Reeses peanut butter cup aand every Butterfinger.... and eat them all. Just better for me to NOT have such in the house...lol

DW doesn't like peanut butter at all but regular Wavy Lay's? "Betcha can't eat just one" Nope it would be the whole Family Size bag. That is why she doesn't allow them in the house. So we don't have any (that she knows about).

 

[pennyJo1960]

Love reeses peanut butter cups and butter fingers

 

[ShrekDawg]

I think my favorites are Reese’s, Snickers, and Milky Way. Twix are pretty good too and kit kat. I’ll eat anything lol Three Musketeers used to be my favorite but kinda gives me a headache now. All the chocolate or different kind of something.

Think Reese’s, Snickers and Milky Way are my new favorite.

And Justin’s dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups.

But don’t get those very often cause they’re organic and more expensive but they’re delicious lol