Josh Smallwood

Angelika Maier wrote:I am about too start a small scaled plant nursery. I had this idea a long time ago but last month I propagated several hundred plants from my garden, put up a misting system and got really serious about this.
Who is doing the same? I have even started a discussion forum that like minded people can meet: forum.
It seems to get serious. I am naturally more interested in edible and medicinal plants, but I propagated every plant I know the name of (and that is one of the most difficult things)

This is definitely something that we will be doing on our homestead within the next year as we move to expand our home production greatly in the perennial area. I'm fortunate to have a nursery semi-close by that lets me volunteer and they're always a wealth of knowledge (and they don't mind sharing it!). We're trying to develop of nursery stock from which to collect cuttings from. Am definitely following your thread! Let us know how it goes.

No need to apologize. It helps me to hear responses and see your pictures. If it wasn't somewhat on topic i may feel otherwise but I appreciate all of the feedback. I've been staying in the shadows for a while but have recently figured out that the forum is pretty accepting and is here to help!

I appreciate all of the responses. I plan on waiting until all of the leaves are off to make a 100% determination as to what needs done. One of the three trees I think is on dwarf rootstock and isn't nearly as bad off as the other two. The one on dwarf gave me tons of apples while the other two produced nothing other than good looking flowers this spring. They also developed yellow spots all over the leaves which I need to do something about as well. I plan on doing a good coat of sheet mulching under each tree with some support species tucked in there. I may also do some black locust in the general area for nitrogen fixation but I have no intentions of turning my entire back yard in to a food forest due to my time and resources. Plus my wife is only on board for so much permaculture I will be doing a greenhouse this fall as well which will help me get some of this going for the spring.

So I bought this property in May and wasn't sure what to do with these trees at the time so I figured I'd wait till fall. Well, it's here!!! I've got three mature apple trees that somebody did a butcher job on within the past three to four years and it's way out of control now. I'm very new to fruit trees but have been trying to do my research and I know that for fruit I need horizontal and downward, not vertical and more vertical. Where the heck do I even start though. My original plan was to thing from inside out, taking at least a third of the growth out this fall but can I just go ahead and thin this baby out big time? I've searched YouTube and the forum but can't find anything this bad and I don't just want to cut it down and start over. Other than these three trees I have no fruit that will be in production for at least 2-3 years and one of the three put on some great apples this year that we've canned and canned some more from. Picture below. It was taking late in the evening with night settings so it's the best I have at the moment.

Never would have thought of the Christmas lights. Sounds like a great idea. Was thinking of doing the rocket mass heater inside of it but this may get me through this winter.

Keep me updated. It's beautiful up that way when the leaves change so I'd be interested in heading that way later next month for a little weekend excursion!

William James wrote:

Of the 2,000 [persimmon] cultivars known in China, cuttings of 52, from the provinces of Honan, Shensi and Shansi, were brought into the United States in 1914. J. Russell Smith, an esteemed economic-geographer, collected a number of types near the Great Wall of China in 1925 and some of the trees still survive in his derelict orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia.

https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/japanese_persimmon.html
Morton, J. 1987. Japanese Persimmon. p. 411–416

Anyone from southern Virginia around here? Does this place exist? That would be amazing.

William

Best I could find out is that it was located in Front Royal, Va. I asked around a bit in small talk this past weekend at an orchard/nursery an hour or two south of there with tons of persimmons and although intrigued, none knew of what I was asking. I did some googling and haven't come up with anything. I love close enough that a weekend adventure is not out of the question.

We had a great time yesterday at Edible Landscaping today in Afton, VA. Picked up Li and Lang Jujube's as well as a mango and select pawpaw... The curve ball of the day came when my wife won a door prize which were two super dwarf novak bananas. We live in zone 7a and this is beyond Zone pushing for me. We live in a small house and the crawl space isn't big enough to hold these guys in adequate sized pots during dormancy... We planned on building a small greenhouse, guess those plans just got bumped up. Anybody have experience with these guys, particularly in cooler zones where you've had to push them to keep them alive... We'd like to make this work and see it as a challenge. Everything else is going in the ground asap!

Much appreciated. Had some responses in another forum to pinch the buds and any small fruits off and make sure to keep mulched, fed and watered. Glad to hear it's not going to be a big deal in the long run.

Other than my introduction post, this is my first post to the forum so if i leave out useful information just let me know. I live in zone 7a in the foothills of the blue ridge mountains in Virginia. I'm new to permaculture as of about a year now and this is my first experience planting trees with a purpose other than ornamental. This past May we came across a half off sale at our local box hardware store on fruit trees. My wife and I picked up two plums, two pears and four peach trees (all trees of differing varieties). We also grabbed some hardy kiwi while we were at it and a pomegranate. Not knowing any better at the time we took them home and plopped them straight in to the ground. This summer has been brutal with irregular rainfall, heat and summer vacations which left things unattended for almost the entire month of July. So far everything is still alive, but the trees have struggled much more than the kiwi and Pomegranate. Last Sunday, much to my dismay, I found that one of my plum trees was popping out tiny white blossoms. See attached pictures for variety and blossom. My concern is will this do any irreparable harm to the tree. I've scanned google and can't find anything regarding the issue. Any help is much appreciated.

Couldn't figure out how to attach on mobile from my goggle drive so here are links...
Variety: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_VNM0TMc2oBcW5zQzBrbUpUZUE/edit?usp=docslist_api
Blooms: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_VNM0TMc2oBUE05dGZXb0FUVTg/edit?usp=docslist_api


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