2025 Lawns & Gardens Thread. Making Lawns Great Again

[dendrite]

19 minutes ago, tamarack said:

That's impressive. 
Maybe they would survive at our 4B zone - median for winter's coldest is -24.  We were told that Reliance peach would make it here, and as that's my favorite fruit we planted a whip shortly after we moved here in mid-May of 1998.  Summers 1998 and 1999 saw great growth but the following winters killed back most of the increase.  2001-02 never got below -12 and the following summer we had 100+ sweet tennis-ball-size fruit.  Then Jan-Mar 2003 brought 12 mornings at -20 to -29 and the tree was dead, other than a weak below-graft sprout that showed up in June 2003 and died before first frost.

Your problem would be getting ripe fruit with your frost pocket and short growing season. There’s a couple of really early cultivars that may get you fruit in longer growing seasons…Halvin, Summer, Delight, and VE-21 come to mind. At the least they’re a tropical looking, ornamental tree in the landscape. 

KSU Chappell is by far the most vigorous variety out there, but not necessarily precocious. That’s a nice one to have if you want one to size up quickly. They can be slow growing the first few years so it’s nice to have one that at least looks like a tree. 

[dendrite]

I’ll add that there’s a guy growing them in VT (Buzz Ferver) that is right next to MPV airport. I know of a few people growing them in Quebec too. 

There’s someone in northern Aroostook near the border growing them, but he just planted them within the last few years. He’s lost most of his peaches as well so he planted those hardy Siberian C seedlings. 

[BrianW]

Some great late season blooms from my vines. All my clematis and morning glory are going nuts with flowers. The ice plant is still blooming as well.

Just noticed a few dandelions and clover flowering in the lawn as well. 

[Chrisrotary12]

So many munks in my buckets this week. 

[dendrite]

@wokeupthisam

Here’s a question I always wondered…

The Christmas trees are getting cut dormant after Thanksgiving. Can you cut dormant scions from a tree (winter pruning) and bark graft to a cut stump in the spring when the bark starts slipping? Or are the trees functionally dead after cutting and sitting all winter? I’m not familiar enough with firs to know if the sap tries to flow despite being chopped a few months prior. Being able to reuse a mature root system would have the new grafts sizing up quickly.

[wokeupthisam]

6 hours ago, dendrite said:

@wokeupthisam

Here’s a question I always wondered…

The Christmas trees are getting cut dormant after Thanksgiving. Can you cut dormant scions from a tree (winter pruning) and bark graft to a cut stump in the spring when the bark starts slipping? Or are the trees functionally dead after cutting and sitting all winter? I’m not familiar enough with firs to know if the sap tries to flow despite being chopped a few months prior. Being able to reuse a mature root system would have the new grafts sizing up quickly.

@dendrite

Yep, you're right you could provided there's enough healthy branches left on the stump for the photosynthesis needs when spring arrives.  Haven't tried grafting but for the root system reasons you noted, occasionally if we come across a cut stump with a whirl or two of healthy branches left, we'll leave them intact in the field and will see a few branches turn upwards the following season, attempting to become a leader and if that happens, after a few months we'll pick the best looking leader and snip back the other wannabe leaders but not the horizontal branches.  (Learned the hard way that cutting those support branches off too soon kills the stump due to losing too much photosynthesis).  If all goes well, after the growing season there's a new 'tree' 1 - 1.5 ft long growing off the old stump.  And as you thought, those 'turnups' have the benefit of a mature root system and can get to market size sooner than a planted seedling, perhaps more importantly they withstand the droughts better than planted seedlings.  Stumps left without healthy branches intact wouldn't support a grafted scion from what I've seen - and even stumps left with just one or two healthy branches generally die back quickly.   I haven't tried grafting because grafting skills aren't in my toolbox, but the 'turnup' results I've seen indicate to me it's a viable alternative. 

[tamarack]

20 hours ago, dendrite said:

@wokeupthisam

Here’s a question I always wondered…

The Christmas trees are getting cut dormant after Thanksgiving. Can you cut dormant scions from a tree (winter pruning) and bark graft to a cut stump in the spring when the bark starts slipping? Or are the trees functionally dead after cutting and sitting all winter? I’m not familiar enough with firs to know if the sap tries to flow despite being chopped a few months prior. Being able to reuse a mature root system would have the new grafts sizing up quickly.

Wouldn't that require storing the scions safely for months?  Or am I missing something?  I've done very little grafting - none recently - but I'd recommend cutting the scions in the spring.

[dendrite]

45 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Wouldn't that require storing the scions safely for months?  Or am I missing something?  I've done very little grafting - none recently - but I'd recommend cutting the scions in the spring.

Early spring can be okay if the tree isn’t waking yet, but scions are usually cut dormant in mid/late winter and stored. Then they’re usually grafted dormant to a rootstock that has the sap just starting to flow. That way you’re getting sap push from the rootstock through the scion as the graft tries to take and callous. You don’t want the scions to blow through their stored energy before the graft takes or they’ll start to dry and die out.

If you’re doing chip or T budding it’s a little different and you can do that any time during the warm season or even use semi-green wood with well developed buds and chip bud those in the late summer. That’s where you slice an individual bud off and graft it to the already growing plant stock you want.

I haven’t done any chip budding yet, but it’s done often with peach trees. I may attempt a few next year on my guardian peach rootstock I’m growing out with some Contender buds. Most of what I’ve done is with whip & tongue or cleft using whole dormant scion wood.

With fruit and nut trees, there’s differing times of the season for grafting certain fruit. Some fruit need warmer temps for the grafts to heal and callous or else they are more likely to fail. Apples and pears are easy peasy and are usually done early…but you can do them must of the warm season. Pawpaws and persimmons are later in spring as temps get more consistently near 80°. Many nut trees are later and can be difficult to get “takes”. 

[dendrite]

This guy is always a good watch. He’s doing a lot with red fleshed apple breeding.

 

[tamarack]

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

This guy is always a good watch. He’s doing a lot with red fleshed apple breeding.

 

Never seen that double notch before.  Demos I've watched had the single notch, wrap, and paraffin paint.

[Brewbeer]

put down fertilizer yesterday and winterized the irrigation system last weekend; we've had a couple of solid frosts but no hard freeze yet, hoses and outdoor shower still ready for use and the houseplants are still outside on the patio (covered for frost)