To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Canned Seedlings
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 16:03:36 -0600
I found some old notes from the NAFEX meeting or somewhere else. I had
scribbled.......
"Starting seedlings in containers will create large root masses and lead to
wider crotches, early fruiting and more."
Del Stubbs gave me a bunch of sprouting apricot pits in 2001, and I got 3 of
them to grow. All went into 1-gallon nursery cans in the beginning. Two
trees died, but the third flourished. It gradually was moved up to bigger
containers, ending in a 5-gallon can in Spring 2003. I finally got the
acreage I needed in July that year and planted the tree in the ground. The
root system was huge when I tapped the tree out of the can, and the tree put
on 3 feet in height this summer. Crotches are wide, too. Bob Purvis tells
me that the pits I got from Del are Montrose, an apricot from Colorado,
late-flowering and hardy down to -31F. My limited experience with this tree
seems to bear out the above scribblings.
What have others seen in regards to seedlings in containers?
Doreen Howard
IL-WI Border--Zone 4b