I am already planning on the scion exchange next spring. In fact, I think I'll buy a membership if they still offer the free admission with the purchase of a membership. What a sweet deal that is!
So here is my question. I'd be happy to bring scion wood, but I have no idea how it is prepared. Is there something I need to do with the trees, starting now, to prepare them to take cuttings from them?
I'll feel really dumb if I offer to bring cuttings and find out I should have been doing something with the trees 6 months prior.
I do have one small problem. I've got some great trees that I can't remember what they are. My memory gets worse as I get older, so I carefully wrote down the name and location of each tree as I planted it, but now I can't remember where I put the list.
I've got a descriptive spreadsheet for tree and location information, which I should store on Google docs or some other place better protected and backed up than my old home machine.
It's spring; do a comprehensive house cleaning and maybe you'll find your list. At worst, you'll find other stuff you lost.
If that doesn't do it, come to the All About Fruit show in October and bring the apples to be ID'd. Tag the trees immediately with something close to permanent. I like the aluminum tags that you write on forcefully with a ballpoint pen - no pigment to fade, just indentations. (Unfortunately, there are birds that like them, too.)
And yes, I renew every year at the Scion Exchange and get in free (but I get in free because I volunteer, which we'd love you to do, too).
[quote="Oregon Woodsmoke":3wc4y75a] I'd be happy to bring scion wood, but I have no idea how it is prepared. Is there something I need to do with the trees, starting now, to prepare them to take cuttings from them?
I'll feel really dumb if I offer to bring cuttings and find out I should have been doing something with the trees 6 months prior. [/quote:3wc4y75a]
You’re doing too many things right to feel dumb! And, you shouldn’t have to do anything. The cuttings, or “scions†are the ‘water-shoots’ that naturally form at the top of limbs. Some of us snap them off through the summer, as they basically hog the sun …but the best are likely the highest and hardest to reach, so just leave them alone… until around December.
Ask your preparation question around then, too – so we don’t have to repeat it. But we always need more sources of scion wood. Every time we lose a member we lose a source of scions… but with people like you - the reverse is also true.
[quote="Oregon Woodsmoke":3wc4y75a] I do have one small problem. I've got some great trees that I can't remember what they are. [/quote:3wc4y75a]
Whatever you do, don’t guess! There are two horror stories related to our exchange, and one is miss-marked scions. You can likely imagine waiting for a ten inch fruit tree to finally set fruit – only to find it’s not what ‘someone’ thought or labeled it…
The other downside is disease; Anthracnose and Arial Crown Gall are two I’ve acquired from our exchange … along with some amazing apple varieties… If you’re familiar with those and recognize them among your trees – don’t bring apple scions to the exchange... Some trees obviously present the symptoms, where adjoining trees harbor it. And, it’s not apparent on scion wood, so attendees can’t avoid it by sight.
As far out and over as you are, and if you’ve not added loads of other apple scions to your trees, they’re likely clean. …after years of our show, mine aren’t – thus I no longer bring apple scions to our exchange... Come on Viral Research!
Touch wood, the only problem I've had is worms in the apples and I am getting that figured out. My next door neighbor has tent worms, but I get right after them anytime they think my trees look nice.
I know what varieties I have (for the most part), just not which tree is which. I should be able to narrow that down as the younger trees start to bear fruit. I now know which Asian pear is which because the fruit is totally different in appearance.
I expect to know which cherry is which this year.
It might be possible to label a scion "mystery peach that has excellent mid season fruit, late bloomer, cold hardy". Serious collectors wouldn't want it, but surely, you've got some backyard hobbyists. A long as the new home knows that they don't know what the variety is.
I worry a lot about introducing disease.
My son is starting fresh, first ground break, and has no neighbor with fruit trees within 5 miles. He is planting everything he wants this year and then he is closing his orchard and no new plants allowed. I suspect that is probably smart.
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