I have about 70ish fig tree cuttings I’m trying to grow. Also some 40ish attempts pomegranates from arils and about 36 attempts at date trees. They’re all pretty drought tolerant, so I was going to try my hand at those first.
If you want a few after any of them sprout, I’ll be happy to pass a few along.
Would love to try and propagate some of them. Thanks!
Back on the family farm in Ohio my father took a wild Crabapple tree and grafted different varieties of apples to it. Every year he would cut off a few limbs and graft a different apple type. Now we have over 12 different apple varieties on the same tree. By keeping a few original Crabapple limbs the tree now self-pollinates every Spring. The wild Crabapple root stock is hardy and also disease resistant.
Interesting. Are you planning to try to use the Santa Rosa to pollinate the Bruce Plum?
Gotta grow them up first… but that’s certainly an option.
I don’t know about all of the other varieties, but I love crabapple jelly. My grandmother had many crabapple trees in northeast Louisiana and made jelly every year. Yumm!!
I have:
I’m in Lucas (east of Allen), but could cut some small branches/shoots, wrap in wet towels, and meet at DMS some Thursday evening.
I’d love a cutting from the Pear tree; especially if the fruit tastes good!
I’m not a huge fan of persimmon, but if it’s a healthy tree, I’d like to see if I can propagate a shoot or two.
Have a few apple shoots started already and grow ‘Sharp Blue’ and ‘Rebel’ blueberries at my parent’s place.
I have 2 blueberry bushes (Not sure the varieties), and a blackberry bush (or maybe it’s raspberry - had it 3 years and it has not produced flowers/fruit) that are all in the ground. And I have a fig and a limequat that are in containers. I’d need to look up the varieties. All are small except the blackberry bush. The fig is a new addition that I need to find a place in the ground.
I plan to get some cutting from a lime tree at my wife’s childhood home in McAllen the next time I’m there.
Blackberries bear fruit on two-year-old canes, so remove any canes that have already borne fruit. If the cane breaks when you bend it, it’s likely already borne fruit and can be pruned back. Now (or perhaps 3 weeks ago before it got hot) would be a good time to prune. Google “how to prune [insert name of fruit here]” to learn the specifics.
Thanks, Mike! I’ll give that a go - probably this week as I’m likely not going to be at home.
I have most of those trees in my backyard:
Meyer Lemon
Thai lime (leaves are good, fruit is gross)
Plum (not sure the variety, but produces small fruit)
Lots of peach trees (probably about 10 trees, 3-4 varieties)
Also have:
Apples (fuji, honeycrisp, green variety of some sort)
Pears (don’t remember the type)
Kumquat
Kalamanci-small orange/lime that is typically grown in the Philippines
Papaya
Bunch more that aren’t mature yet
Most of these trees are already grafted onto rootstock suitable for north TX. If you’re just looking to personally practice grafting you’re more than welcome to get cuttings from whatever you want. If you’re looking to grow a tree from the cuttings to get fruit, then we should go down the rabbit hole a bit further to address sterile technique, best rootstock choices, where to plant, chill hour requirements, etc
A class perhaps???
Lol, beat me to it.
Sure I’ll put up a class for outdoor gardening, we can talk about fruit trees too. If there’s enough interest maybe a separate class on fruit trees for N. TX.
Socially distancing myself has led to some free time and of course I have fallen down the rabbit hole of the internet… but I found out that apparently citrus trees are highly regulated in CA and TX (an elsewhere). And as such, there is a budwood program in both states where you can buy certified disease free bud sticks to graft onto other rootstock.
So as soon as the pandemic pandemonium trails off a bit, I’m planning on ordering some bud sticks of Australian finger limes because they’re amazing. (may be a few weeks)
What I’m curious about though is if anyone else wants to order anything at the same time to keep costs down because the biggest part of this is the shipping.
TAMU Budwood program: https://www.tamuk.edu/agriculture/institutes-and-other-units/citr/budwood.html
Available species: https://www.tamuk.edu/agriculture/_files_AG/citr/Availability-List-2019-2020.pdf
I’m always down for some exotic tropical plants, especially if they taste good. We just received a bunch of tropical apple trees from Kueffel Creek… turns out we had to pay an extra $52 for the proper certificate showing its disease free
I’ve been wanting to do some outdoor gardening lately, and would love to attend such classes
Check the calendar in a few days, I put in for an outdoor gardening class on Friday April 3 at 7pm.
Cool, ping me in a few weeks and we’ll see how many have sprouted.