Last fall, we planted 5 baby trees - 2 pears and 3 varieties of apples - all grafted onto Siberian crabapple rootsock. We planted late in the fall, on the reccomendation of the local orchardist, and crossed our fingers and said our prayers that the wee tree-life would make it through the winter.
We are pleased to announce that one of the pears and 2 of the apples came back healthy and happy!
The others are still growing below the graft, so we may cultivate some Siberian crabapple as well...
The pear needs a pair to cross pollinate, so this fall we will be getting at least one more baby tree. But there's a whole area, downslope and towards the northeast of of the garden that we're considering turning into an orchard - more trees and also some berries: huckleberry, service berry, high bush blueberry.
For these kinds of plans, the sooner started the better, as the trees take 5-7 years to bear and the bushes about 5 as well.
How awesome! I recently found that I have a crabapple tree and it's got baby apples on it. I hope your orchard grows and turns out amazing.
ReplyDeleteOh I hope so too!! I have such hopes for apple sauce and dried apples, and pies, and oh my!
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