An unexpected consequence of grafting this week has been the bonanza of potential scion wood I have accumulated from the understock. I saved more than I can use so if anyone wants some I'll send it for the cost of postage.
These are mostly cherry and and couple interspecifics so far. If the post office delivers on time I will also have apple this weekend.
The buds on these are pretty tight on these as there is still a bit of snow on the ground here and the ground is still partly frozen. PM me for a list of cultivars.
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
Here is some important sanitation and background information of current concerns in the area;
site:google.com "little cherry virus" grafting harper
Also what's been circulated in the news over the last couple years is that farmers are having to burn entire orchards in an effort to overturn the spread. In the effort to return to normal farmers are buying up new trees from known sources at such a fast rate that even the lower tier resources/retailers of newer cultivar sweet cherry trees can be hard to get.
Before receiving budwood from anyone please make sure you are covering the basics. The listed viral type diseases are the most serious as you can see the little cherry virus gives very poor quality fruit. But even the less monitored virus' such as 'prune dwarf' and 'ringspot' can cause serious tree health issues west of the Cascades as a result of a no-spray program for bacterial gummosis (ie. bacterial pseudomonas syringae 'syringae') and the synergy of destruction when both exist at once.
And as well; almost all dwarf cherry rootstocks are hypersensitive and will react at the graft to remove the tree when even in the case of milder prune dwarf and ringspot are present.
Growing stone fruit trees in here in Connecticut is rife with enough misery that I can count only three orchards having cherries and a few more than that with peaches. That is probably why Google doesn't turn up a single reference to ' "little cherry disease" +"connecticut" '. Anyway, at this point all my Prunus originates from Dave Wilson's Nursery which is the 'known source' of choice in this regard.
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
Inside the PM reply you sent me yesterday shows you will be grafting the 'krymsk-1' for plums. Since I know you have experience and pleasure breeding I might suggest to keep one of them ungrafted as a breeding experiment to make new hybrid crosses with another dwarf and very nice rootstock 'pixy', formerly patent US-PP4061.
The excellent quailities of short plum trees on each these two rootstocks are worth looking into, because as I noted elsewhere on the forums in the past, are excellent here in PNW highly irrigated conditions. It holds true for hybrid plums, which may also be applicable to rose breeding, that prunus hybrids have a better reach on variable environmental conditions that otherwise threaten their chances and livelihood.
You could be a Conneticut pioneer!
I have no idea if the wide cross krymsk-1 is fertile as a pistillate (as female) parent but it has plenty great looking pollen under magnification and the flowers are produced right off the bat down to ground level. Usually when I need to get a wide cross to bear pollen such as this I need to bring cuttings in the house in December. Because left outside to themselves in our naturally cool springs the krymsk-1 hybrid is the only plum I have ever seen bear pollen in such a way. It could be that the prunus cerasifera part in krymsk-1 helps pollen fertility since that eco-type is native to rainy Great Britain such as similar to our cooler conditions.
'pixy (6x) x krymsk-1 (2x)' seedlings. But pixy is no longer available. I tried it once but it got stolen from my yard. I still have my sources person should you (or others) like to try any female pixy propagation?
Around 10 years ago, I bought some fig starts via Ebay from out of country. At the time, I did not know that it was illegal to buy it here. Ebay, of course, is apparently not liable, but individuals are. Then I had a surgery and was unable to care for them, and the fig starts had died, so I discarded them. Then a USDA Agent appeared at my door. It was a very unsettling experience. Since then, I have learned a lot about why. Entire industries and thousands of jobs depend on the agricultural sector. Also since then, I only obtain scion locally, or via nurseries that are USDA inspected and certified. For me it's just a hobby, and even though I enjoy it, it's still just a hobby. How would I feel if I thought a plant start that I obtained was the source of a major problem?
It's generous to share plants and scion, but I try to discourage sending it across borders, and wont send or receive it myself. There are new insects and diseases introduced on a regular basis - it seems every year a new one comes along.
Sorry to be a wet blanket. In light of how easy it is for some infectious diseases to spread, I think it's best to be cautious.
I finished apple grafting and have scions available for postage of:
Bardsey
Cherry Cox
Craigs Crimson
Dapple Dandy
Enterprise
Fred Gravenstein
Fuji
Gala
Hudsons Golden Gem
Karmijn De Sonnaville
Macoun
Pink Lady
Pristine
Red Boskoop
Send me a pm if you are interested.
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
how to pm or maybe i dont have permission yet??Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
1 Guest(s)