olin erickson

What is the virtue of the “no prune” method? I wasn’t even aware that was a thing. It seems to me that might work ok with bush cherries or juneberries but with larger fruit you could be wasting your time and space. At least training branches more towards horizontal changes hormones and can improve fruiting.

I have a dozen apples that I planted from seed - they’re forming a hedge - lots of vigor, no fruit yet.

Just throwing out ideas here: did the cracks just appear in the winter? That could be from freeze thaw. People whitewash where snow reflection can add to this problem of bark warming even on the bottom of lower branches. Hard to tell the bigger context from the pictures. My other guess would be hail damage. Ive got lots and I may end up with some real Charlie Brown bonsai trees. On cracks like that where there is no obvious infection I would think some neem oil would help healing and prevent bacterial or fungal establishment.

Burr knots or Any point of injury are a place for infection to occur. I’m thinking mostly of fire blight. Some streptomycin powder is probably worth having in the tree first aid kit. Neem may help that too, but I’m not sure.

Good job. Keep posting. Moving chips is a lot of work. Get more; they’ll disappear quick - And it takes a thick covering to really smother most competition. Bindweed cant be stopped.  I haven’t read your full thread. Contemplating NAP etc on 3/4 acre.

I’m Curious about the status of the project. I came across this thread doing a search for G890. I live in 4a in the middle of Montana. I’ve been grafting and planting seeds the last few years. I’ve done pretty much everything talked about. I’ve come to the realization that if you want results like your grampas blueberries, money would be well spent getting a few trees from a good nursery.

I’ve tried cuttings of crabapple several times and never gotten them to root. One lady on a Facebook group has told me it is possible. I’ve got a whole row of trees that grew from grocery store apples and they are doing great. Unfortunately most of them will need to get transplanted.  Planting in place would be awesome if you don’t mind full size. Skeeter Polarski and others espouse the value of an in place tap root that only comes from a seed. I will try do topwork graft next spring on a few of my trees. Learn to bud graft so you modify those in place trees.

I went with pretty much the same sort of stuff - put in an order a couple weeks ago. I didn’t realize orders had to get in so early! Also went through the bulk dilemma, you may want to call copenhaven but their inventory page says they’re out of 890 in all but 7/16” which would maybe limit your choices. I had to learn to cleft graft this spring for that reason - the P18 I got was huge and some scion that I bought was teansie.  Cummins should still have a decent selection though prices are a little higher.

Great video-it inspired my wife to get me The Omega tool. It works but it dulls and needs new blades and a rubber bumper after 50 or so grafts. The change isn’t easy and it doesn’t operate as new. Good clean cuts = success. Last Christmas I got knives. I am trying to learn... skewered myself pretty good on about number 78 of 80.  I’d like a true bench mounted unit if I was doing more than 100 a year. Check out the scionon at either grandpas orchard or graftingsystems.com from what I’ve read they seem to be worth the investment. Growingfruit.org has lots of discussion on this.

As an update to my situation I was trying moist storage and they started growing mold in the fridge. I gave a bath in hydrogen peroxide and then rinsed with water.  I've been reading quite a few folk put in near boiling water then let it cool as a 24 hr soak and then immediately plant. I don't want the mold to get the better of me so I may start trying some indoor germination.

Very useful skill! It seems that selling small amounts of seaberry seed is all the rage on ebay and amazon, but you never know what you are going to get.  I thought I would check Alibaba, but that is pretty vague also.  I came across this and others like it; Hunjin, Chengse, and Chuyi mentioned. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311260135_An_elite_variety_of_berry_hippophae_rhamnoides_'Hunjin'  I don't know if there is anyway to find out if there are some landrace varieties or get some seeds from the thornless ones... I'd love to see Hippophae developed into a better agroforestry crop over here.
lots to be gleaned also at http://www.sanddorn.net/index.html - much of that site is in German.

I planted that first batch over in the Flathead, they were 18" bare-root mailorder and some grew to near 6' that one season... all 25(?) died. I stopped watering early but I think they didn't enter dormancy right in the fall. Glad I could get some encouragement. Skeeter might be onto something that trees dont really like to be transplanted. Anyway, I may have to forage some seed later this year.  I got a bit from twistedtree, but it won't be nearly enough to make a hedge for my East of the Divide orchard project. Thanks!

I've been researching Seaberry and it seems alot of breeding work has been done on thornless varieties over in Asia. Someone who can read Chinese could do a great service to the community by getting some of that distributed. I'd be willing to help on the distribution end and could help work at navigating the bureaucracy...