I like the idea of a variety of trees having a variety of yields.
The person in question works with fruit that he is not responsible for growing, but tends the trees.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. He has enjoyed his own ‘intimate relations’ with trees.
He describes his method of growing as ‘passive organic’.
Some of the trees that he works with are from a more or less heritage orchard.
Varieties that one can only eat ‘in person’ because the mass marketing system has knocked them off of the shelves of many stores... But that is another story!
Very interesting thoughts on seedling trees! I like!
The whole notion of just tossing the seeds (or sprouting for eating – but that’s another story, again)... doesn’t ‘feel’ right.
I like the idea of experimentation.
The idea is always put across that we ‘have’ to buy root stock...
Hmmm... Guess what we need is enough space to grow these experiments??
How else would we know? Is there any other way other than waiting for fruit?
Do we need to work with a whole tree in order to find out what the edibility factor of its fruit will be?
*From:* Douglas Hinds <mailto:cedecor@gmx.net>
*Sent:* Sunday, December 23, 2012 9:17 AM
*To:* permaculture <mailto:permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
*Cc:* Frances and David <mailto:fdnokes@hotmail.com>
*Subject:* Re: [permaculture] fruit trees
On 12/23/2012 8:33 AM, Frances wrote:
Sea buckthorn not only produces a highly nutritious fruit (which requiresMany excellent tropical fruit bearing trees are also legumes.
processing and gloves to harvest), but it is, reputedly, a most adaptable
plant to earth conditions, and has natural protection from other creatures
that might want to harvest the fruit. And, it is a nitrogen fixer!
... an apple and pear specialist ... explained what the off/on nature ofYes but - from my experiences (primarily with subtropical fruit, i.e. avocados), some varieties are prone to this behavior (heavy crops one year but light crops the next) while others are not. Furthermore, while thinning may be good anyway (to obtain larger fruit), there are other alternatives, such as growing a variety that produces it's heaviest crop during the off years. That way you'll have plenty of fruit all the time, to eat and sell.
apple harvests was about – this, no doubt, applies to other fruit trees as
well...
In any case, these are genetically based traits, so how hard can it be to develop a cross that tends to produce every year? After all, _somebody_ had to develop or reproduce the varieties already in use.
People often refer to the phen. of an ‘on’ year and ‘off’ year for apple
harvest. What Bill explained was that, the trick is to thin the apples when
they are the size of ping pong balls, making selections among closely located
specimens... Otherwise, the tree has such a huge hormonal output that it has
little energy for the buds it is also preparing for the next year. The trick
is to even out its hormonal workload with a result of a more consistent
year-to-year yield. Otherwise, what happens is that the buds are few for the
following year on the year of a huge apple outlay, and then, in the year with
less apples, the buds for the following year are proportionately higher in
number... Very interesting to learn about the life cycle of the apple tree,
we thought, and to understand more about its productivity cycles.
Once again - I seriously doubt that the phenomena you refer to is an innate characteristic of apple trees per se. I would expect that trait to be present in _some_ apple varieties but not all. And remember, those of you who think seedling apples are inherently bad are rejecting the means of resolving this issue. IOW: If the quality of most seedling apples is less than ideal, all it means is that we human animals still have more work to do, since that is exactly where all new varieties come from: Chance (or intentionally crossed) Seedlings that are then reproduced by whatever means, and if the means isn't planting seed, the genetically instability will continue to remain. So plant the seeds, see what you'll get and then plant again. :-)
DH
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