Flinthoph Luthhaughmer

Well, this goes to show that you should understand what you are buying beforehand. The person at the greenhouse told me that I could grow this Van cherry in a pot (wasn't true--it wilted everyday and also had bird nest roots) and that a sour cherry bush would pollinize it (that one died so I never got to test it). I'd like to think she wasn't a liar, but...man!

I love the grafting idea. I'll have to learn about how to do it. I get the impression it's a difficult skill to master.

Thanks John, for looking at your book for me. And thanks everyone else for your responses.

Whiffletree Nusery:

https://www.whiffletreefarmandnursery.ca/

They are in Ontario but do ship to BC.

Why are there only a few who do?

There, two different but informative responses, thank you. My tree is a Van cherry. She needs a boyfriend. I think it will bloom in the next week or two.

Sounds like what I should do is go sour cherry bush shopping when my own tree is blooming. Then I'll be able to see if any bushes are blooming also!


Does your book have the newer "romance series' of Canadian sour cherries listed? I figure that's what will be for sale around here. But maybe not. That's be great if you wouldn't mind checking that chart for me!

I guess I should have gotten a Stella! I find I buy stuff and plant it, then learn about it afterwards. ha.

Shooting the bears doesn't seem very permaculturey to me. Traditional farming is an endless battle to kill off "competing" nature. If bears live in the area, there will always be more. So you have to work with what the situation is.  There's heaps of bears where I live, people around here manage to deal with it. There's both grizzlies and black bears.

My friends have 9 apples trees and have very good luck protecting them with a simple string of electric fencing. They also have a little bulldog who likes to bark at animals--but the dog isn't always at home. I have two other sets of friends with  small farms with chickens and pigs, they they use livestock guardian dogs who stay on the property.

It's such a basic question, but I can find just two references anywhere on the internet. One guy says it works, another says it doesn't. Which is it?

I was hoping to have just one cherry tree because I have limited space and need to be thoughtful about how things will be shaded in the long run.

I'd get a Juliette sour bush I think. The tree is a Van.

You'd have to give it a new name too. "Olive juice" just doesn't sound appealing!

Oh wow, mushrooms are a really good idea. I had just recently started learning about that very topic! Thanks


I can bury some other older wood in the mean time I guess. I have some small piles I can use. I'm glad I didn't dig the entire trench yet then. eek!

So I collected a bunch of tree rounds after a big windstorm last year. Today I started digging the trench to bury them in. But my friend warned me that poplar can sprout! The wood sat outside in the snow all winter, I don't think its dry yet though.

Am I going to regret burying this stuff under soil? I think it's aspen. I hear it's hard to get rid of.

Thank you for the suggestions. I am surrounded by forests so I'll see what I can do about mushrooms. Though it is somewhat dry in this area. Good excuse for a hike!

Is contamination like this something I can have tested?

Now, if it does turn out to just be a case of nitrogen being robbed by woody stuff, could coffee grounds and diluted pee help to fix it?

Ugh, yeah that possibility has crossed my mind as well. I just learned of Aminopyralid a few days ago. I don't see the curling leaf evidence of that particular herbicide, but there are hardly any weeds growing! This would not be a good turn of events.

The lesson here (that i seem to need to learn over and over) is to listen to that gut feeling! I knew using poo from unknown sources might pose a risk of perhaps medications or invasive weeds from other places. But last year I didn't know that herbicides could be passed through and animal and compost heap to the garden.

It really didn't seem like "too much" sawdust in my heap.