North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[David Consolvo <fruitopia@nexet.net>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] More Che

That's true that grafting high on osage orange would help prevent drooping che trees from staying too low to the ground.  I'm trying to get my che-on-osage trees (low grafts) above deer-browsing height.  Some trees get easily to nice, easy-picking roundish trees of seven or nine feet, but more are staying low to the ground, foliage food for deer.

I've seen nary a thorn from any of my che, but they are all grafted trees.  I still don't like the thorns of the osage orange rootstock.  The osage rootstocks sometimes send out new growth, and I often don't notice them until I get stuck by a thorn.

David Consolvo
Hungrytown, Virginia


> From: Jwlehman@aol.com
> Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 22:10:20 EST
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [NAFEX] More Che

> Regarding high or low grafting of Che, Chris Inhulson, Montezuma, GA wrote in the current issue of Southern Fruit Fellowship:
>
> I have had the privilege of touring AJ Bullards fruit and flower planting on two occasions and both times I was impressed with his huge Che tree. On close inspection I saw that he had grafted the Che high on another member of the Moraceae family, the Osage orange, Maclura pomffera, also called Bois d'arc.
> I was advised at the time that this Osage orange did not sucker and so would lend itself well to a rootstock for its cousin, the Che. Grafting high, three to five feet to be exact, was also important because of the prominent drooping habit of the resulting Che branches. Lastly I was advised that it was necessary to graft not only female, but also male varieties to reliably produce fruit.
>
> Well, as stated, I was impressed ...yet not enough to do anything about grafting any trees of my own--the memories of the thorny suckers were simply too fresh...and besides, where was I going to find a graftable Osage orange?