Tweet
My addiction to planting fruit trees has gotten out of hand and out of budget, so for the last couple years I've been trying to find ways to get my fix for free.
I started with blueberries. It doesn't get much easier than this to propagate from rootings. I have a neighbor that has huge healthy bushes. I'm not sure of the varieties. Each year all around the perimeter of his bushes are suckers and seedlings that only need be dug up and transplanted. I use the word 'dug' loosely here, because most of them can be pulled up by hand and still retain much of the root system. This year I got about 20 from him - and he'll still end up cutting down quite a few with his lawn mower this Spring. I planted a dozen along a fenceline and gave the rest to another friend.
Where ever a fig limb touches the ground it will root. If you have a fig tree with a bushing structure you can use this to your advantage:
This is the same limb a few days ago. Not the best picture but you can see where hair roots have formed. It will take a year or so to establish itself but with plenty of water it will survive and grow.
Getting good free apple trees can be a little more challenging. I wish I could say I had 100% success with this but its more like 30-40%. When most people find suckers coming up around their established fruit trees they immediately cut them off. This is an opportunity for free rootstock. Bend them over, throw a little more dirt around them, anything to get more contact with the ground. Then in the following year dig them up.
Last years suckers:
You can see one of them really took off. This picture was from a couple days ago.
Dig them carefully to preserve the hair roots.
Free commercial grade rootstock:
Let them establish for a year for best results, or if you are feeling lucky graft them right away.
This winter I've also tried grafting satsumas to the native Bitter Oranges that grow all over our fence rows. I believe this is what the commercial orchards use for rootstock, and we have hundreds of these on our property.
This winter has been tough on all of our citrus, but by taking a few clippings in the fall and storing them wrapped in a damp paper towel in the fridge I should be able to recover my losses at no cost within a few years.
I started with blueberries. It doesn't get much easier than this to propagate from rootings. I have a neighbor that has huge healthy bushes. I'm not sure of the varieties. Each year all around the perimeter of his bushes are suckers and seedlings that only need be dug up and transplanted. I use the word 'dug' loosely here, because most of them can be pulled up by hand and still retain much of the root system. This year I got about 20 from him - and he'll still end up cutting down quite a few with his lawn mower this Spring. I planted a dozen along a fenceline and gave the rest to another friend.
Where ever a fig limb touches the ground it will root. If you have a fig tree with a bushing structure you can use this to your advantage:
This is the same limb a few days ago. Not the best picture but you can see where hair roots have formed. It will take a year or so to establish itself but with plenty of water it will survive and grow.
Getting good free apple trees can be a little more challenging. I wish I could say I had 100% success with this but its more like 30-40%. When most people find suckers coming up around their established fruit trees they immediately cut them off. This is an opportunity for free rootstock. Bend them over, throw a little more dirt around them, anything to get more contact with the ground. Then in the following year dig them up.
Last years suckers:
You can see one of them really took off. This picture was from a couple days ago.
Dig them carefully to preserve the hair roots.
Free commercial grade rootstock:
Let them establish for a year for best results, or if you are feeling lucky graft them right away.
This winter I've also tried grafting satsumas to the native Bitter Oranges that grow all over our fence rows. I believe this is what the commercial orchards use for rootstock, and we have hundreds of these on our property.
This winter has been tough on all of our citrus, but by taking a few clippings in the fall and storing them wrapped in a damp paper towel in the fridge I should be able to recover my losses at no cost within a few years.
Comment