As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Two years ago, for 44.99, we purchased a Honeygold Apple, the best apple that the University of Minnesota ever bred, in the hopes of God getting us our place and the Uncle going away and never returning.
Winter came, and Honeygold, all 7 feet of it spent the winter in the porch. Last year, I waited on God again, and this time satan sent the cats to claw the bark on the tree. I thought I saved it, planted it last fall, but it was deader than the Uncle come spring.
Disgusted as this, another low blow from satan and shitty humans. I cut it off, above the graft, and hoped that a shoot would come out of it which was the Honeygold part. At this moment I have two suckers below the graft, which means a different solution in time.
The solution is what is above in rootstocks. America produced two fine university programs in breeding in the Geneva station for rootstock advancement and the breeding out of Minnesota......from the 1920's to the 1950's. For my critique, I really do not like Honeycrisp. It fails in comparison to Fireside which is a sweet, huge, crisp apple. Honeycrisp has only gotten worse with the planting it around the world, as the apples are either bitter or watery.
If I was President, I would ban all fruit tree production in Washington State. They have thee worse fruit in all that rain, orchards too many hundred years in production and it is not cold enough there. British Columbia has better fruit, but the best fruit in America comes from Michigan and Minnesota in apple production.
In noting that, we invested again, in another Honeycrisp, in which we invested in roostock, which means T Bud grafting which I covered here years ago, as an August project to restore the order of life.
Cornell University in the Geneva station has wonderful rootstocks. In my experience, if you plant a dwarf tree, it will die too soon. If you plant a standard tree, it will take too long to produce. If you plant semi dwarfs though they will live around 25 years and produce loads of fruit. They are easy to pick from and the best choice for lot planting.
I like a rootstock which is resistant to disease, cold hardy, and does not require staking. My choices are the G 30 and the G 210. I opt for 30, but that goes out of stock early, so 210 in the alternate and what has appeared here.
The Malling are good, but I obtained a dwarf Spitzenberg from a nursery in Washington state. The Spitz is a beautiful apple, tastes wonderful, but has disease problems. I had a dwarf, and here it grew to 15 feet tall, then got diseased and died. Saddens me yet, and in speaking with New York orchards, they suggested I try in the future a roostock which withstood the infection which destroyed my tree.
So enters the rootstock and the adventure in grafting. T budding is easiest and is why you see most nursery trees grafted in this efficient manner. I will pot up my rootstock in large planters, establish them, then transfer, once the grafting is complete. Great deal of work for an apple tree, but here am I not a rich person, so I have to get my trees from the most affordable means.
This is something I would much rather be engaged in, as plants calm me, and apple trees which are good delight me. I dislike eastern apples a great deal, but not as much as west coast apples. The best varieties began with the Haralson and that window seems to have closed as in all honesty, the Rhode Island or Northwest Greening was about as good of apple as there was and that is vintage.
Anyway that is the filler here and what is the plans. Just need to get things growing by God's Grace and have another adventure in matter anti matter.
Nuff Said
agtG
