Fruit trees - now's the time to plant, and to get ready to graft.

[Bill C]

Hey folks,

 

A reminder that now's the time to think about fruit trees and vines.  Where are you going to put yours?  They're starting to show up at the nurseries.   Make sure that whatever you get is good for 750-900 chill hours (between 32 and 45 degrees F). 

 

If you already have trees, now's the time to prune.

 

And pruning brings up another subject:  Grafting.  If you have a tree that just hasn't been producing, it's possible that the one you planted isn't right for our area (back to that 'chill hours" thing again).  So what can you do?  Grafting a scion from a known-good tree is one possibility. 

 

It's not time to graft yet, but it's definitely time to collect scions.  A scion, for those of you who are wondering what I'm on about, is a 6-8" pruning from the known good tree.  Take them while doing the seasonal pruning (ie, now), seal the cut end(s) with tree wound dressing, drop in a ziplock bag and store in the 'fridge until late Feb or early March, when the sap starts running again. Collect a bunch of different size scions from each type of "parent" tree that you'll be grafting so you'll get a good size match on the receiving end. 

 

I've got Moonglow, Shinko, and Garber pears, Santa Rosa, Methley and Burbank plums, Sentinal and Rio Grande peaches, plus another white peach variety that I don't know the name of which I grafted on to one of mine because it produces such wonderful peaches. Let me know in the next few weeks if you're interested in any of them, as I'll be walking around with the pruners a lot. 

 

I'm looking for Muscadine grape scions.  Table grapes.  Anyone have some?

[Ty Mellon]

Bill,

This is a great contribution!  I am going to put this on the Facebook FOOGS page as well.  The interest by our members in Fruit tress is growing like crazy.  Please keep posting your knowledge.  It is a great resource!

 

Thanks!

 

Ty

[Rachel Butler]

great post! I am very excited about blueberry vines. Any recommendations?

[Bill C]

Rachel Butler said:

great post! I am very excited about blueberry vines. Any recommendations?

Good luck on blueberries. I wish we had the right soil for it. 

 

We have very alkaline soil here in most of the Austin area, and blueberries require acidic soil.  If you're pretty far east of 35 you might be getting into the more acidic area - you might want to test your soil.  I learned recently that blueberry bushes don't have the fine root hairs that most other plants do (which do the heavy lifting of sucking up the nutrients), but instead rely on certain microorganisms in the soil to pre-process for them.  And those particular little guys only like acidic soil.

 

You can grow blueberries here in a pot.  A big pot, preferably.  If I recall correctly, the guy I heard speak (an extension agent out of Fredericksburg) said to give them half peat moss and half sand, and that'll make them relatively happy.  They like lots of water, and that should be rain water if possible because well water and city water both have a lot of calcium (alkaline). 

 

There is a pick-your-own blueberry place out in the Bastrop area and I heard they had a great crop last year, so it's not entirely impossible around here.  They have blackberries too, and probably other stuff I don't know about.  a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/chickamaw-farm-and-ranch-mcdade>" target="_blank">http://www.yelp.com/biz/chickamaw-farm-and-ranch-mcdade>;