North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

For any interested folks,  here's the announcement for the KNGA
Summer meeting and grafting/budding workshop, coming up this
weekend:

KNGA GRAFTING AND BUDDING WORKSHOP

A KNGA grafting and budding workshop will be held at the Wilmoth
Nursery, 5969 Bacon Creek Rd, Elizabethtown, KY (Phone 270-369-7493) on
July 19 2003.  
Directions: 
Take Exit 86 from I-65 West on KY 222, proceedabout five miles west to KY
1904.  At this junction, turn left and go about 1.5 miles. 
Or, take KY 222 East from US 62 (about seven miles west of E-town or 2.5
miles east of Stephensburg), travel east on KY 222 about 2.5 miles to KY
1904, turn right and go about 1.5 miles.  
This will be an all day meeting with a pot-luck luncheon; there will be
no charge, but please bring something along for the pot.

The meeting and social activities will be on the Wilmoth's back lawn and
patio area by the swimming pool.  The pool wil be open for use by
members and guests, so bring swim gear if you desire to take a dip. 
Poll restrictions will apply: Children under age fourteen must be
supervised by parent or other family members.  Bring a folding or
lawn chair along, if you have them; we don't have enough to seat everyone
at the luncheon.

KNGA offers you an excellent hands-on learning experience whtn you attend
this workshop.  With grafting skills you will be able to propagate
and preserve valuable seedling trees which may be found in your area, as
well as named varieties which have been discovered by others. 
Hands-on practice is really the only way to learn.  Attend
this workshop - let the experts teach you how to bud and graft nut
trees.

Budding material(bud sticks) may be collected from the Wilmoth Nursery
grove as desired.  Members having rootstocks which the desire to
propagate onto this July should keep the stocks fertilized and
watered.  Stocks cannot be budded unless growth is in a flush or
actively growing stage.  An effort will be made to have all nut
trees labeled according to variety.

Note: If you intend to collect budwood to take home, be sure to
bring tape, permanent labeling pens, ziploc bags, damp paper towels, and
a cooler with ice/coldpaks to properly protect this material on the trip
home.  
Additionally, if you have budwood from a particularly good nut,
persimmon, pawpaw, mulberry or other fruit or nut tree that you'd care to
bring along, other members/attendees may be interested in taking some of
this material home with them to propagate into their own
collections.


I'd like to attend, but have doubts about whether I'm going to be able to
make it or not.  This is a very good meeting for anyone who is
interested in learning more about propagating nut trees and minor
fruits.  Various grafting/budding techniques will be demonstrated by
experienced grafters, and everyone has their own particular little
'twists' that they've found to be helpful.  It'll be hot, I'm sure,
but it's a good time!

Lucky Pittman