The Blairmont Apple Project

 Greeting on Christmas Eve! Hope everyone has a fine and enjoyable holiday with safe travels for all. With other issues reducing scion purchases the coming year; I will shift most focus onto rootstocks and a greatly reduced scion buying budget. Hopefully 30-40 new types. However talking around I've learned how I did rootstocks last year was not optimum. I had heard it was ok to keep rootstocks for a short while in the moist sawdust. However I feel this may had lead to reduced root development which contributed to last years fireblight attacks.  From here on out I will till an area just prior to rootstock arrival and heel it in the ground immediately.  Then a wise fellow with the Geneva program said to consider summer chip budding as a way to escape a large chunk of our wet weather fireblight pressure. And this makes a lot of sense given our leaf fall often happens in December. Allowing the new chip grafts to heal over and take.  Setting them out un-topped and dormant...

 Aside from maintaining a mother tree of each type; I will have the following in stool beds: 3 Geneva G.214 7 Polish P.2 17 Malling M111 1 Polish P1 5 unlabelled trees.{I have some evidence 3 are G.214} 12 of my M111 count is by rooting stems cut from grafts

 Been having issues with a leg wound healing up and have not gotten to tend the garden very much. In addition the cute little baby goats got out of their pen and decided apple leaves taste good. Spent a couple of days baby goat proofing the fence. And they seem to have been stopped now. Oddly despite already having some chill hour time; many apple trees are putting leaves back on.  Did manage to get most of the P.2 planted for stooling. Just 2 trees remain. Still need to get M111 and G.214{what few are left} in the ground. Talking to a very nice Geneva Professor and he would like me to try G.257 rootstock in our Fire Blight prone hot climate. so maybe in January/February I will get it to try here.  Already have P.14, J-TE-H, Muz Alma, Malus Brevipes, Malus Micromalus and Jadernicka coming to try in rootstock use or breeding. Who knows. G.257 might make that un-needed. Glad to see Treco finally has some P.18 to sell. I hope to add some small caliper of that and P.22 to my ...

 After relaxing a while and letting the trees grow in the last bits of the growing season. The inevitable happens. Raising Goats as the wife does; the pregnant does sometimes go rogue. And during one day in a series of days of pen breaks; one older doe name Flossy lead an assault on the Apple tree pad. And lo and behold I see Flossy leading the girls from the back pen. Knocking over and rolling the Apple tree pots and bags. Oddly not eating any. But; she still managed to break my fine 6 foot tall first year Shockley Whip on P.2.  Yes folks a metal handled rake went flying in her direction. After regrafting the tree it is struggling to stay green and leafy. But after securing the back pen fences; my Apple trees {and other fruit trees} are safe from Goat led disasters. But having pregnant goats does have some benefits. Meet 3 new family members: All 3 Girls of course!

 After a set back and infection of my chronic leg wound; I've been trying to rationalize what "IS" a Georgia Origin apple. And which apples deserve a spot in the orchard. Truthfully their are some surprises and disappointments. For example "Black Limbertwig" has been claimed as a "Georgia" apple since 1914. However advertising from central Tennessee in  1841 proves it is not "ours".  We will include it though. The same contention lands on "Hackworth" or as it was known in many Georgia Nurseries as "Allsummer". There are some claims this was a Georgia apple absconded away. There is not much evidence Nickademus Hackworth was a pomologist of any sort.  We will include it as "Allsummer" Then we have two Limbertwigs who both do not get much respect. Poor "Old Fashioned" gets so much disrespect. Sorry detractors; OFL is NOT "Red Limbertwig. Red is a medium sized apple that is smaller and keeps longer the...

 Walking around checking who really has come through a rough start. And we definitely have classes of members. The surprise is "First of May"{Piervomaiskoie}. More grafts of it have survived a tough year more then any other variety. I never hear praises sung about it. But it sure has much grit and tenacity. Qualities well desired for an easy care tree. Other standouts are Shockley, Yates, Disharoon and Wickson crab. With at least two grafts of each looking very good. Next we have survivors with a look of being haggard, but still growing. Parks Pippin, Golden Harvey, Old Fashioned Limbertwig{a lazarus come back twice}. Wallace Howard, Pionier, Hudson’s Golden Gem, King Solomon, Chickasaw and one last Blairmont. Then we regretfully have a sizable group of trees that are a testament to the lie of "Permanent Marker" .  About 16 trees that the names faded out on. Embarrassing. But over time I know what we grafted. And I can use their attributes to determine who is who la...

 October 15th is a bit out of off season for starting to bloom. Of course our Dorsett old and Anna Apples never bloomed at all. Though our Centurion Crab did set a small handful of tiny crab apples. This whole year has been out of whack. Of course I think flooding played a role to. Our now 9 month old Brown Turkey Figs just set out round three of fruit. Albeit a small amount.