I like trying things out so I'm letting the polyembronic myer lemon seedlings grow together and experience inosculation aka natures version of grafting two trees together. I don't know what the hybrid will end up being but I have no problem with the flowers cross pollinating but I don't think it's required in lemons. The tangelo tree is by itself but there's another mature tangelo (the parent tree) on the other side of the 3 acre property, it's got 19 fruits on it so I don't think it's got any pollination issues. The watermelons however I have to grow a diploid variety next to it and hand pollinate to ensure good fruit production during melon season. The avos are basically wild around here and are doing their own little landrace pollinations, same with the papaya's.

2 sure-fire fixes:
  I. Put a spoonful of cayenne in a balloon and blow it up. Tie a knot and thumb tack it to a fence. Then rub the balloon with some bacon fat.
This works on ANY carnivore, from cats to bears. They take a bite, get a bang and a facefull of red pepper. They won't come back.
 2. There is a little trap that snares coons by the wrist. It doesn't catch any other animal. Coons have a paw that works like a hand, and they have to lift a trigger in the trap.
The downside is there isn't a safe way to release the critter. You have to kill them.

You're probably right that bird droppings could be a problem though, I would think one of the things you would want to avoid was nitrates.
I guess the easiest thing for you is to make sure the water that goes down there is already well filtered.

John Walsh wrote:I'm looking for Shagbark seed from trees like Porter, Grainger, Raudabaugh, Wilmouth. Also Shellbarks like Kreider, Keystone, or the hybrid Mitch Russell. There are a few places where scion wood is available for these guys but I'm having trouble sourcing seed.

I am looking for some scion wood of well-tried Hickory Cultivars, for a private garden project, to complete my huge collection of hardy nut bearing species (all diffent kind of nuts, pine nuts, chestnuts and others):

I am especially looking for:
Shagbark --> "Porter"
Shellbark --> "Kreider" & "Keystone"

Is there anyone, who can provide some twigs during the dormant phase, so that I can arrange the grafting after receiving the plant material?
But the shipping of the scion wood must go to Germany (shipping can be directly to me or over a friendly nursery in Wisconsin).

Maybe, there is someone abroad, who knows any contact where I can get the desired plant material...

thanks for posting the video Russ

John Walsh wrote:You can eat it, but it's insipid and somewhat unpleasant unless it's perfectly ripe.

Hi John,
Thanks, I'll pass on these berries.

None of the(admittedly few) mulberries I have bought have been grafted, and I've never seen a grafted one for sale, but this might be because they aren't a very common plant up here, only sold by permie nurseries, not the mainstream folks.

Two are named cultivars, which have clearly been cloned by cuttings (based on appearance when bought).

I've successfully cloned(~25% success rate) from a morus nigra, but no success with a variety of others... Will be trying again with different methods.