Thekla McDaniels

Sounds like you are in a good situation to try harvesting fiber and medicinal bark.

I don’t blame you for not wanting to endanger your hybrids though.

I read a recommendation to prune a branch that needs pruning, and get the inner bark from that.  But are there any branches low enough down to try that?

My first thought is that it would be easier to harvest the inner bark when the tree is actively growing… but that’s a hypothesis, and like all hypotheses needs testing.  Maybe the opposite is true🤣.  Or some other situation!

Further, the mental experiment of collecting inner bark from the Siberian elm prompted the thought that the inner bark of the Siberian elm from arid conditions is not likely to be rich in mucilaginous compounds, or it might have concentrated compounds that become slippery when exposed to moisture.  In other words it’s not hoing to be slippery during the harvesting process, but might be super slippery when exposed to moisture.

Gotta find a few trees to experiment on!  I guess this is where the prevailing negative attitude towards Siberian elm as “trash tree” becomes an advantage

Thanks for the videos.  I guess the fiber use is the inner bark.  I don’t have any trees to experiment on, but I could likely get a branch off a tree and try for the fiber.  I do have experience spinning and weaving, so it would be a matter of separating the fibers and experimenting.  If the inner bark of the Siberian elm spins well it would be a new local crop.

I am thinking there would be a time in the tree’s annual cycle that would be “best” for harvesting the fiber.  Highest quality fiber, or easiest to work with, or nicest textile, combined with least damaging to the tree.

I have to say though that I don’t understand the government recommended harvesting method which looks to me like it would kill the tree.

And my guess is that the medicinal part of the tree is also the part desired for textiles.

Anyway, thanks again for the videos.

I would get enough shallow cardboard boxes to lay them out one tomato thick.

I don’t know if they will ripen when stacked, probably, because commercial tomatoes are packed in boxes.  The point of making them one layer deep is that each one receives light, and you can see them all.  You can remove the occasional tomato that begins to rot.  You get the tomatoes as they ripen.

I think as long as they are green there is so small amount of photosynthesis.  
To encourage ripening, put an apple in a loosely closed paper bag with the tomatoes.  The loose closure is so that the tomatoes can breathe… they are alive, and need to carry on respiration.  And, to contain the ethylene gas released by the ripe apple.

I keep the boxes of ripening tomatoes at “room temperature”, which at my house is closer to 60 than 70 F.

Love it, Pearl!

I am especially impressed that you were able to provide such clear instructions.

As school girls we would go through a phase of making and playing with these, then come back to them a few months or weeks later.

We made them out of anything.  Returned school work, especially! We’d make little ones out of the strip of paper removed to make the square.

We numbered the outer flaps and colored or named the inner flaps, with the fortune under the inner flaps.

“What’s your favorite number”. Then open, close the folds, alternating the plus then diagonal folds the chosen number of times, stopping with the mouth open.  Then the girl would choose the favorite color or name from those exposed.  Fortune read from under the chosen color.

If we didn’t have scissors handy we would fold the crease marking the strip to be removed, creasing it tight with fingernail against wooden desktop, back and forth several times to weaken the paper fibers.

Then moisten a finger in our mouths and run the moisened finger along the fold.  It took a few moistenings of the finger to moisten the whole length of the fold.  🤣 This was a fastidious process!  No spitting drooling or messy liquid saliva.  

The moist finger was also used to erase a mistake in schoolwork, made in pencil.  We didn’t use ball point pens unless we were making a final copy of written work.

Interestingly, my family moved several hundred miles away in 1962.  In our new location the schoolgirls didn’t make these.

If you turn the fortune teller face down it can be an “Easter” (or otherwise) basket

M Ljin wrote:How are their medicinal (mucilaginous) properties? I would also be interested to know about how their fiber is. Those are the two major things I look for in an elm…

In my part of the world, slippery elms grow as a low shrub, waiting for openings in the canopy before they shoot up—I wonder if this sort does too?

I don’t understand what fiber you’re referring to M Ljin.  I have seen the fluffy harvested and dried slippery elm bark, is it that?

Other than the Siberian elms I have no experience with live elm trees, and only seen plastic bags of the dried fluffy bark.

Thanks

Those samaras look like Siberian elm samaras , which I have eaten in the green phase.

I believe I have made reference to F1 seedlings.  My mistake.  Your hybrids are likely the F1 generation.  (Seeds off the first cross).  Seeds off your hybrids would be F2 or beyond, which means there is potential for a much broader array of traits from the seeds.

If these trees result from a natural cross, and possible subsequent cross, back cross, self pollination, there is no knowing what the process was.

About the cuttings, I got mixed up, Reo.  I thought you said you were going to try root cuttings.  I don’t know enough about cuttings to have an idea or opinion about what tissue  to try rooting. I would say do the one you have most knowledge experience and success in😊

As for seeds… I am a member of “VOGA”.  That stands for Valley Organic Growers Association.  That’s the North Fork valley.  It’s a small region with lots of interest in and producers of local organic and beyond food… other interests too, herbal medicine, fiber production, local cheese, local pastured chicken etc.

Between now and seed time I might be able to find a few people who would be interested in germinating the hybrid seeds.

I speculate that many of the seeds may not be viable.  We do have Siberian elms in our region but many people do not have any respect for the tree’s value.  There might be more interest in the slippery elm Siberian hybrid.  There might be interest related to plant breeding, and a novel cross.

Possibly I could find people who would each be interested in trying 100 seeds.  or a thousand.

That way we could have multiple situations, multiple sets of methods etc.  If we only get 1% germination we may need lots of individuals to get a few healthy trees, which I expect would be diverse, and maybe some would not do well here in alkaline soils, intense high elevation sunlight and arid air and soil.

It’s just conjecture,

I am excited about trying large numbers of seeds, because I don’t expect a high rate of germination success.   In my mind, there may have been millions of seeds that didn’t germinate to get your two trees.

We also have an ag experiment station whose scientist might think it an interesting and worthwhile project.

And based on my errors (F1, what kind of cutting, etc),  I may need to revise more of my input, once I have calmed down some.  It’s the excitement about such an undertaking that is contributing to my inaccuracies 🤣.

I would like to try a lot of seeds here in the desert.  I am interested in what traits would come forward in these conditions.

Root cuttings also sound interesting, but are they tender when not dormant?  Would I need to have them in a protected environment?

I have had just about every one I have tried ripen, regardless of color…. and I have had them last into February if picked really really green.

I have always been glad to have them in deep winter, but they don’t have the same flavor as August tomatoes.

One year I brought so many in, I was canning tomato juice in December as they ripened.  When summer came, I could really taste the difference.  Like the difference between a tree ripe peach and a grocery store peach😊.

I would love a chance at the hybrid, but we’re 6-8 months out on seed production…

It might be fun to try for a stable hybrid, but also fun to see how much variation we see in the F1 and beyond…

Or, if rooted cuttings are easy, you could name and patent your best cross.

It would be good to preserve native genetics in a disease resistant cross, like the big ones you have.