GARDENING 2025!

[Snowman]

Blackberry Plants...!!!

 

[RJ2019]

My blooming fruit trees got covered in snow today. I'm REALLY hoping it didn't mess up my fig grafts.

 

[Peanut]

Yesterday I changed the wheel base/track of the tractor. It had been set up for working hay. We used the old ford tractor for the garden. The old tractor needs a lot of work, new clutch, new hydraulic pump etc $$$. So, this week I had to convert the Massey for garden work. The wheels had to be wider, further apart.

Today I got the cultivators set up for tilling the garden on 36” rows. It needed 24 new bolts, some paint and the distance between the plows set.

I still have to adjust the planters… save that for another day. Won’t need them for a couple more weeks.

Bottom pick, old… when I get every implement and the tractor properly adjusted… planting and plowing is a breeze.

 

[sonya123]

the Jerusalem artichokes are in the ground I put some in a raised bed box and some on the edge of the garden , something should work...

Also put some asparagus roots I got at walmart ( I don't usually buy planting stuff there but wanted to try it) , we'll see if anything grows out of it

Husband tilled some rows for me to plant potatoes tomorrow . All we have is a crappy little hand tiller so him and son just do a little section at a time. We really do need better equipment but oh well....when we first started our friends down the road tilled our gardens for us. They ended up moving and no longer farming. Then we bought a tiller at rural kind made in China crap that couldn't be put together....it got returned, huge hassle. I found one on FB marketplace but the people that had it were not going to prove it still worked ( looked 100 years old...) so there went that one. We ended up buying a hand tiller for a few hundred $
At least we have a plow!

Peanut, you need to come here with your cultivator and till our garden LOL

 

[sonya123]

My blooming fruit trees got covered in snow today. I'm REALLY hoping it didn't mess up my fig grafts.

oh no, I hate that when that happens! Happens to our very large apricot trees EVERY year. They bloom, then it freezes. I think we have had a total of 5 apricots in the 9 years we have lived here...

 

[Peanut]

Peanut, you need to come here with your cultivator and till our garden LOL

The cultivators still need work. This coming fall I need to take them to a shop down the road. The guy can sandblast and paint them for me. They are made from US steel in the 60’s. Can’t buy equipment like this anymore so it’s worth my time to refurbish all the old farm equipment I have. It’ll last anther 60yrs for the price of paint and a few new bolts. I spent $100 on new bolts this week, only installed 24. But I have replacements for every bolt on it.

 

[sonya123]

The cultivators still need work. This coming fall I need to take them to a shop down the road. The guy can sandblast and paint them for me. They are made from US steel in the 60’s. Can’t buy equipment like this anymore so it’s worth my time to refurbish all the old farm equipment I have. It’ll last anther 60yrs for the price of paint and a few new bolts. I spent $100 on new bolts this week, only installed 24. But I have replacements for every bolt on it.

our very old 1980s JD tractor still works, I just wished now in hindsight it had come with a loader and a tiller attachment

 

[LadyLocust]

I planted 75 bare root strawberry plants last spring. They all lived and grew. This year, zero plants have shown. What are the odds of 75 not making it?
I just replanted 10 and have 50 more ordered. It is the normal bed where I always have berries so I know they grow there. They usually produce quite well.

Something ate them???

 

[Smalltimefarmer]

Something ate them???

Can't even find roots. Plus, they are inside a fence which is inside another fence.

 

[Smalltimefarmer]

Finally found elderberry seedlings at a nursery here in TN. I planted 4, plus gooseberries and blackberries. Hopefully, I can get some elderberries to make a tincture.

I planted some cool crops this week, onions, lettuce, spinach, kale and snow peas. We go from Winter to Summer with maybe a couple of weeks of Spring so my crops usually bolt early. I planted 3 packs of onion seed last Fall and zero came up. I found some seeds I had harvested from some sets last year and just planted them to see how and if they grow. I'll probably have to go back to sets.

 

[LadyLocust]

Can't even find roots. Plus, they are inside a fence which is inside another fence.

I was thinking voles (and maybe a Caddyshack scene).

 

[sonya123]

Can't even find roots. Plus, they are inside a fence which is inside another fence.

maybe grubs , happened to my broccolie last year. Husband ended up getting some insecticide to put in the ground ( and it worked) but I don't want to do that, so I just ordered some beneficial bacteria spray and some milky spore granules that will kill them without having to put poison in the ground
I am going to do an experiment, I will do a small section with the poison and see which works better just to see

 

[sonya123]

So on to my next problem /question: planting fruit trees! I want to get some ( a few apples , a nectarine and a cherry all suitable for our climate ) . I have tried before and failed, after a few months the leaves fell off and they just died. Any advice? Our soil is clay but we can add composted manure. I don't know how to improve drainage for wet years. Do I need to add sand? I know tree roots go mostly out, not down . Or maybe I added too much compost? Or the manure was not composted enough ?
Where do you buy fruit trees?

 

[Peanut]

@sonya123 If you set out apple trees be aware they are susceptible to Fire Blight which is common in rose bushes. Roses and apples are in the same plant family.

People usually don't make that connection but it's something to keep an eye on. Especially in summer when roses usually get hit with this blight.

 

[sonya123]

@sonya123 If you set out apple trees be aware they are susceptible to Fire Blight which is common in rose bushes. Roses and apples are in the same plant family.

People usually don't make that connection but it's something to keep an eye on. Especially in summer when roses usually get hit with this blight.

The only rose bushes we have are right next to the house a long way from where the trees are going. And, I looked for disease resistant stuff, so for I am thinking of ordering something called " dutches of Oldenburg" and Haralson ( they are what I want in flavor , disease resistance and grow in our zone)

 

[elkhound]

The only rose bushes we have are right next to the house a long way from where the trees are going. And, I looked for disease resistant stuff, so for I am thinking of ordering something called " dutches of Oldenburg" and Haralson ( they are what I want in flavor , disease resistance and grow in our zone)

buy apples most resistant to cedar rust for sure.

one apple tree that is on most old homesteads in south that produced year after year...and its not a storage apple..it a early apple used for apple sauce and fresh eating only...yellow transparent.

 

[Tommyice]

My apple trees suffer from cedar rust every year. Does anyone else have that problem? What do you? Do you spray?

 

[elkhound]

also never ever get a shiro plum if you have black knot in area..its the most susceptible of plums to BK of plums...i lost a 10 year old tree to it recently.

 

[sonya123]

buy apples most resistant to cedar rust for sure.

one apple tree that is on most old homesteads in south that produced year after year...and its not a storage apple..it a early apple used for apple sauce and fresh eating only...yellow transparent.

ok, I have been searching for the perfect apple tree to plant....about ready to quit! This is the requirements: it needs to grow in Virginia and semi clay soil , there is no sand here. Here is a big one, it needs to ripen early NOT end of October ( market is over by then and we can't sell them). this is the big problem . I want what we had here that died, and the closest I am finding is something called "wealthy" , which needs a companion tree to pollinate . The companion tree needs to be some Macintosh variety which I personally don't like all that much for eating. They are cooking apples. But neither is particular disease resistant . I don't know what sort of apple trees we have , we only have a few left that are alive , don't know how old. Never thought it would be that hard to buy some apple trees LOL
I don't like the yellow apples, don;t taste good ( like the yellow delicious that are sort of mealy you get in the store, those I don't want for sure)

 

[elkhound]

ok, I have been searching for the perfect apple tree to plant....about ready to quit! This is the requirements: it needs to grow in Virginia and semi clay soil , there is no sand here. Here is a big one, it needs to ripen early NOT end of October ( market is over by then and we can't sell them). this is the big problem . I want what we had here that died, and the closest I am finding is something called "wealthy" , which needs a companion tree to pollinate . The companion tree needs to be some Macintosh variety which I personally don't like all that much for eating. They are cooking apples. But neither is particular disease resistant . I don't know what sort of apple trees we have , we only have a few left that are alive , don't know how old. Never thought it would be that hard to buy some apple trees LOL
I don't like the yellow apples, don;t taste good ( like the yellow delicious that are sort of mealy you get in the store, those I don't want for sure)

Anna Hess that wrote the weekend homesteader and lived in south west virginia ,she and husband both wrote the blog walden effect says the #1 tree looking at all the old homesteads around from way back in the day..original homesteads..is the yellow transparent.

sonya...the trees you have that you like and produce you should graft on to new root stock and that way you know you get exactly what you want and produces on your homestead.

 

[elkhound]

p.s. also by doing grafting you can graft two varieties on one tree and they can pollinate each other.

p.p.s. get standard size tree. the dwarf and semi dwarf root stock is to short lived for climate change and more and trees need the full size root systems to live and produce better crops...my opinion.

 

[LadyLocust]

The daffodils are just beginning to bloom which means it’s time to plant root crops. Farmers Almanac says Thursday and Friday are good days so guess the season is underway.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I saw buds on my container raspberries, tried to work in the garden this afternoon but the wife started making sauce for lasagna and at about 1/4 the way into it had to have me take over. The sauce is done but the garden hardly got touched. I did see that several bunches of green onions are still producing and I think my parsley survived in a couple of places. I have a couple of doves that have decided to make a home out there, they flew up and about caused me to have an accident.

 

[Neb]

The Princess was examining the green house and spotted this!

That is leaf growth on one of the English Walnut cuttings. Some of the other have buds swelling.

For the record they treated with rooting hormone and rooted in moist sand covered with a plastic bag.

I potted up more of the elderberry clones until I ran out of pots. Still have a dozen or so more clones in sand waiting for me to get more pots.

We also found roots coming out of the bottom of one of the olive clone pots.

I love this cloning stuff!

Ben

 

[LadyLocust]

Tis the season and saw this cheat sheet. Thought some might like the quick reference.

 

[sonya123]

buy apples most resistant to cedar rust for sure.

one apple tree that is on most old homesteads in south that produced year after year...and its not a storage apple..it a early apple used for apple sauce and fresh eating only...yellow transparent.

So I listened to you and got 1 yellow transparent full size, I also got the semi dwarf ( only way it came) "wealthy" and a ruby red mac semi dwarf, plus a dwarf cherry

We will see . I hope I didn't waste all this money for something that won't work.....
I looked it up, it says people with orchards plant crab apple trees for pollination since they work well and grow well. We do have one of those and it will only be maybe 50 feet from where the other trees will go

 

[Pearl]

So I listened to you and got 1 yellow transparent full size, I also got the semi dwarf ( only way it came) "wealthy" and a ruby red mac semi dwarf, plus a dwarf cherry

We will see . I hope I didn't waste all this money for something that won't work.....
I looked it up, it says people with orchards plant crab apple trees for pollination since they work well and grow well. We do have one of those and it will only be maybe 50 feet from where the other trees will go

He said NOT to get dwarf or semi dwarf!!

 

[sonya123]

He said NOT to get dwarf or semi dwarf!!

the varieties I wanted only came in semi dwarf ...we'll see. The cherry I dont want a full size tree, we already have one and it's almost impossible to get most of the cherries off I don't want anyone falling off a ladder trying to somehow get to them
PLus I would have to space the trees further apart and then they won;'t fit below the garden where there will be fencing ( and the sheep and goats will try to eat them) . If you put small fencing around them it is a really hassle to try to get the weeds out. Trust me, I have thought this through, either small tree or no tree, the one is the exception.
The neighbors have a bunch of dwarf trees and they all seem to be doing ok
You know, I just thought of this: there is an entire orchard of trees next to our property. I probably dont need to worry about cross pollination at all....

 

[elkhound]

He said NOT to get dwarf or semi dwarf!!

the varieties I wanted only came in semi dwarf ...we'll see. The cherry I dont want a full size tree, we already have one and it's almost impossible to get most of the cherries off I don't want anyone falling off a ladder trying to somehow get to them
PLus I would have to space the trees further apart and then they won;'t fit below the garden where there will be fencing ( and the sheep and goats will try to eat them) . If you put small fencing around them it is a really hassle to try to get the weeds out. Trust me, I have thought this through, either small tree or no tree, the one is the exception.
The neighbors have a bunch of dwarf trees and they all seem to be doing ok
You know, I just thought of this: there is an entire orchard of trees next to our property. I probably dont need to worry about cross pollination at all....

its ok if you can only get trees on smaller root stock...if you want that tree to be a standard size per dr. jim cummins who ran new york experimental station for years and years and founder of cummins nursery all you do is get the graft below soil level and it will send out roots.

i have seen this happen in my own trees. trees that done that are still alive while others didnt live and the boring bugs killed that root stock and trees died...the others that had sent out roots you could see the root stock had died and the root system that developed above the graft kept tree alive.

 

[Tommyice]

He said NOT to get dwarf or semi dwarf!!

Doesn’t matter—it won’t stay dwarf. I’ve got a dwarf apple and haven’t been good about trimming it. Yesterday my cousin took 2-3 feet off the top and will still need a 10 foot ladder to prune again next year.