North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Mauch1@aol.com]

When I bench grafted apples and pears this spring, I stored the completed 
trees in damp woodchips [the roots], covered the container with a large clear 
plastic bag, under flourescent light at about 65F.  As the pear and apple 
scions broke dormancy, I've planted the trees either outside [the pears] or 
in pots [the apples].  The last 3 I planted had significant length to their 
developing feeder roots.  I have 4 additional trees that are not showing 
significant signs of growth.  QUESTION:  Should I pull the trees and plant 
them, or wait until the scions show activity?

This is the method that was shown to me for callusing prunus bench grafts 
with the exception that the air temp should be higher.  Since the spring here 
has been cold and very wet, I adapted it for my apple and pear grafts.

TIA for any recommendations.

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N    75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation
>From paul.simon@tcs.wap.org  Fri Apr 11 11:34:59 2003
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Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:34:52 -0400
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
From: paul simon <paul.simon@tcs.wap.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] planting /sod
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I only planted 14 trees last fall, but plan on growing them for at 
least 20 years. I improved the subsoil down to 24 to 27 inches with 
topsoil, very mature compost, and sandy loam, for drainage and slow 
release of nutrients. This increased volume for root development 
should help support the tree (M-9 apples) physically, and the 
increased CEC capacity will act as a nutrient reservoir.

We have to improve and supplement the root zone before we install the 
plant, not after the plant has become established. If I could have 
gone down 4 feet, I would have. Again, I only planted 14, but I used 
the best varieties into a superior growth medium.

I did notice 2 to 4 inches subsidence this spring, but my grafts were 
8 - 10 inches from the crown, and in no danger of being buried.

Paul S. zone 7 rose, rainy with temp holding in the 40's.


Chris wrote;

>I lift the sod, dig my hole, Plant the tree up to the soil level 
>with generally not using the sod (or only taking the lowest root 
>zone.  Then I use the sod (upside down) as the raised ring around 
>the planting hole that many books recommend having for watering.
>
>Chris Mauchline
>SE PA, zone 6
>40=B0 5' N    75=B0 51'W
>~650 ft elevation
>
><<Plant the young tree next,
>mounding dirt around it up to ground level.  Then in a couple days the sod
>slabs have dried enough I can shake about half of the dirt back where it
>came from. In another month or so the sod slabs have dried / died and I put
>the half circles, roots up, back in their original place around the tree as
>a mulch.
>Just curious how other folk do it. Happy planting, Del
>
>  >>
>From markl@nytec.com  Fri Apr 11 13:03:52 2003
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Subject: [NAFEX] monkey puzzle
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There are a number of monkey puzzle trees growing in Seattle, yet I have
never seen one produce a cone.  The tree is very slow growing.  It can take
40 years to produce its first cone, and at this age the tree is typically
100 feet tall.  And only after this waiting period do you know if the tree
is male or female.  For reasons given below, I would like to try growing
monkey puzzle as a nut crop.  I want to overcome two problems with this
tree:
          100 feet is too tall in my neighborhood.
          40 years is too long to wait.

I have read that bark inversion, scoring and girdling have a dwarfing affect
while inducing flower bud initiation... smaller trees and earlier fruiting.
Any opinions on applying this technique to monkey puzzle?

Here is some facts about monkey puzzle nuts that starting me thinking...
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Araucaria+araucana&CAN=LATIND
"Rich in starch, the seed is soft like a cashew nut and has a slight flavour
of pine nuts. This is a delicious seed and it makes very pleasant eating. It
is a food that can easily be eaten in quantity and can be used as a staple
food in the diet. Fairly large, the seeds are about the size of an
almond....This tree has an excellent potential to become a commercial crop
in the western parts of Britain, it is high yielding, has large tasty seeds
and is easily harvested.  Plants grow best in S.W. England and along the
west coast of Britain where they produce seed regularly and abundantly.
Female cones take 2 - 3 years to mature and break up at the end of the year.
They contain up to 200 large seeds. Plants self-sow in Cornwall. We have
records of trees regularly producing good crops of seeds in various sites in
Cornwall, Devon and the west coast of Scotland. We also have one report of
an excellent crop in 1997 from trees at Alvaston Castle near Derby and of a
tree in Bedfordshire producing a heavy crop... Its main disadvantages are
its slow rate of growth and the time it takes before the first crop is
produced - this can be up to 40 years from seed though we have often seen
plants less than 20 years old produce cones. The plant is dioecious so at
least one male plant needs to be grown for every 5 - 6 females -
unfortunately there is no way of telling the sex of the tree until it
flowers."