Spring Tree Order

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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:45 pm

Thanks for the size measurements George. I know that I used a wider diameter when I did it before. I also used the 4' diameter when I planted the apples at camp. That size made it hard for a deer to reach the tree over the wire. Those wire cages from camp can be brought home now because the trees that made it are now above what a deer can top, even on their hind legs. That should give me 5 cages and metal stakes to go with them. I was thinking about that plastic mesh fencing that is 4 ft high and has a small hole pattern for rabbits as well as deer. I have not priced it yet, but I would think plastic should be cheaper than welded wire. It gets brittle from the sun with time, but it should last until the trees are high enough so that the deer are not a problem. I normally figure a tree 6 ft high is beyond a deer's reach. 5 ft might be high enough, but I know for sure that 6 ft is. I agree with you that it is always great to be able to re-use something that someone else thought was junk. I take apart old appliances and save the screws, nuts, bolts etc in small jars and cans. It makes me feel great when something breaks and I go to the garage and find just the thing that I need to fix it with out going to the hardware store to buy something. Maybe its old time Yankee ingenuity that I like, maybe its just that I am cheap, :lol: But I love to re-use things that many would call junk. Because of that I do have a lot of junk laying around waiting for me to find a purpose for it :lol: I have space, 2 garages, large basement, shed and I find that Junk expands to the space allotted. ;)
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:13 pm

Since it is cold out and snowing heavily here today I have been looking on the net for trees. I got on the Millers Nursery site. They are located in upstate NY in the finger lake region. The lakes have a mellowing effect on the winter cold, but they are way North of my place and at least as cold , if not colder than my location. They get a whole lot more snow up there, but believe it or not a deep snow cover helps trees survive the cold winter and protects the roots. I felt their prices were not too bad, I won't say they are the cheapest, but I believe they will have Hardy plants that will survive and grow, and hopefully prosper at my place. I have picked 3 different filbert nut trees, Royal, Butler and a hybrid called Fingerlakes. The 1st 2 are about $20 each for 2 or more and the last one is just over $10. I have space for 5 filbert nut trees along the road. They also have a Northern Hardy Pecan for $8.85 each for 2 or more. I plan on planting 2 for pollination. They will go up in the upper field away from the orchard. There is an All In One Almond tree that they claim is self pollinating that I am looking at for $21.65 and a White Mulberry for $10 that I hope will self pollinate. I am also considering the All American Pawpaw. I have never tasted one, but I know they are hardy around here and they claim they taste like Banana custard. Because they do not keep well, or ship or keep well you will never see them in the Grocery Store. I feel it is worth the $26 of my money for 2 of them just so I can taste one ripe from the tree. They will fruit in a few years. I have not picked a Chinese Chestnut tree variety yet, Millers has one but it is un- named, Mussers Nursery about an hour north of me also has one. I drive by Mussers on the way to camp so I can avoid shipping costs. I was debating about 2 for camp and 2 for here at home. With out the chestnuts its about $140 for the 8 nut trees and 3 fruit trees. That amount won't break the Bank, I may get some " What do we need those things for " here at home, but I find that they forget after the bill is paid. ;) I have not totally made up my mind yet, but I am leaning toward buying from Millers Nursery. Anybody here deal with them in the past, it would be nice to have a reference from some one.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby George Collins » Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:50 pm

Guy, about them paw paws, they do taste amazing. We have large native colonies on the creek that runs through Youngblood's pasture. When you plant them, make dang sure you provide them shade for the first year at least. They will actually fruit best in full sun but they can't tolerate such intense light exposure for the first year or two. I've planted a bunch: some in full shade in deeply wooded zone 5 type areas for my grand kids to one day visit and others in my forest garden. Those that are in the garden are protected by tomato cages well wrapped in shade cloth.

Funny story about planting paw paws. Couple years ago I saved a dang butt-load of seeds. Stratified em all up like you're supposed to and long bout the following April, the kids and I took em to the creek. I bet we out out a thousand seeds. All up one side a creek bottom and down another. We were putting them on the banks of feeder streams, along side old sloughs, in every nook and every cranny one would think to plant such a thing.

Guess what happened that night?

Eight inches of rain.

If we got a single tree out of it all I've never found it.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Fri Jan 25, 2013 11:56 pm

A fella from Clarion Pa gave me some Pawpaw seeds a year ago. Clarion is 2 hours north of me so I knew if those trees grew up there above Rt 80 they would grow at my place. I have looked everywhere for those seeds. Can't find them any place, :lol: no clue where I put them, I thought it was in a plastic baggie on my dresser, but No. I have a place in the garage where I keep all the left over seeds from the garden. Maybe when it warms up a bit I will check out there. I don't really worry about keeping seeds in the Ref, my garage is quite cold these days. I have to worry about my Beer freezing out there, :lol:
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby George Collins » Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:04 am

One more thing, if memory serves, paw paw seeds cannot survive desiccation.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sat Jan 26, 2013 12:56 pm

OK, keep them moist, I am guessing you are talking about the young trees as well as the seeds. Carry water to them for awhile until the get very well established and well rooted. You guys know that I go with the no work theory of gardening and I normally let the Good Lord do my watering for me around here and help Him along a bit with heavy mulch. It is a distance from the house to the garden and the orchard and water is heavy, so I do not carry that much of it by hand. Filling buckets and putting them into my cart to move them to the trees would be a little easier, but the water slops out of the buckets and spills all over the place. My normal way of getting water to the garden has been to fill 2 two gallon watering cans, one for each hand so that I am balanced, and walk up to the garden or the butterfly garden and water the newly planted flowers and garden plants. Each plant gets 3 to 5 sec of water poured directly on the young plant. That process does not normally last very long, maybe 2 days or so for the garden, a couple more for the flowers and then I consider them established. Once a plant is established here on the hill its on its own, survival of the fittest you might say. Trees are a bit different, they cost more, they are a lot more work to plant, and if they survive and grow you get the benefits for many, many years. So putting some extra work into getting a tree established and making sure that it will thrive is worth the effort to me. I was told years ago that when planting a tree you dig a $10 hole for a $5 tree. Now that trees are $20 I guess I need to dig a $40 hole. :D Of course my time is more valuable now than it used to be, so I guess every thing has gone up with inflation, ;) Bottom line is that you put a lot more work into planting a tree, so giving it some water to insure that it will make it the 1st year makes sense.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby boo » Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:06 am

woo hoo - I just learnt something new (again) - air layering. Thank you George, I had never heard of this before. I'll be trying this method on the good producers.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:52 pm

I know Boo, I was really excited when George posted his video on how to do the air layering thing. I even forwared it on to a neighbor who is all gun-ho to try it this spring. Even if you don't try fruit trees there are still a lot of bushes that can be tried. I have heard that many bushes that you buy at the nursery were started using that meathod.
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:00 pm

Boo, I just realized that I know 2 local people around here with Mulberry trees. I may go and ask them about letting me try to air layer a sprig from their trees. :D They have both been very generous with me in the past, I met them both on Freecycle when they gave me gifts that they couldn't use. One gave me old furniture, the other gave me plants. Both have become friends and I have been able to return the favor to each of them by passing along plants that I had that they didn't or gifting something else that they needed that I had no more use for. Freecycle is a wonderful group, and the local chapter here is run very well. I think I will send them each an email today and see what they say. :D They may even have young trees sprouting up under their trees that I can just go and dig up. Do mulberries send up shoots from their roots like many other fruit trees do? Digging up a root sprout might be easier than air layering, but after seeing Georges video I am all excited about trying that process. I used to have some rooting hormone here in the garage, that was many years ago and I do not think I still have it, or if I did find it I doubt that it would still be any good. The powder was to be added to the soil, or dissolved in water to help a plant or cutting send out roots. It was to work the same way that willow water works to get a cutting to send out more roots quicker. I have never made any willow water and never tried willow water when I tried to sprout a plant, but I have seen pictures of how well it works and how many more roots a sprig will put out if you put it in willow water to sprout .
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Re: Spring Tree Order

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:27 pm

I just realized that some people here may not know what willow water is or may have never heard of it. It helps plants send out more and stronger roots once potted, or it will encourage a shoot or cutting to send out roots if you use willow water instead of just regular water to soak it. To make the willow water you just cut willow branches from a willow tree. Any willow tree will work, weeping, pussy, golden, any type of willow tree. You then cut the branches to a length to fit into your mason jar or bucket and you steep them in the water . Placing the jar in the sun will help get the sap out of the branch, that is really what you are trying to do here. Then you can plant the willow sprig [ because it will often put out roots in this process ] so that you have a good supply of organic rooting product in the future. Take the willow water that you have made and use it instead of plane water to start cuttings, pour it on newly potter plants, use it to water plants that seem to be struggling, it just helps the plant form more and stronger root systems. There are several videos about this, here is one.

http://www.examiner.com/article/willow- ... d-cuttings
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