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.

  Greetings! Been a while. Been tied up with family concerns and then; Helene! A scary event for sure. 86mph winds to this side of Georgia. Just a county up AND over; they got it way worse then we did.  While we certainly had some damage; folks west and north of here got it much worse. And the poor soles in NC.  Hard to believe; not a single Apple tree pot/bag/tree took any damage. Well from the storm. Had a serious bug problem. And I think I over sprayed.  Thought Old Fashioned Limbertwig died. But it too came back. I had wondering if my P.2 trees were going to dormancy. I had read they do that. But today they too are putting out new shoots. Lastly I have a goodly pile of rootstocks to plant for stooling. But I will let them get the latest growth spurt though.

 Doing a bit of tree trimming. Clipping sprouting root stock to maximize scion growth before dormancy arrives. Also scouted out good areas to bed down root stocks for bedding and clipping for stooling.

 I am going to try a few avenues of breeding southern climate root stocks. In the stable there is: Polish: P.1 P.2 P.14 P.22 From Malling: M111 MM109 From Geneva: G.214 G.935 Oddballs: Malus Brevipes Malus Micromalus {strain with tasty snack size fruit} Jadernicka { Versatile Cider notable also used as rootstock

 Just walking around. Here are my to risen from the dead pile trees: Old Fashioned Limbertwig: This is my M111 graft line. G.214 is to the left and P.2 grafts on the left. Below is Hudson's Golden Gem:

 Yes! Google translate did it once again! Piervomaiskoie does not mean "Pervotastemachine" as it replied. I am reliably told the name literally means "First of May". A reference to the fact it stores unerringly until the next Mayday celebration holiday! The egg is on my face. In the meantime; Old Fashioned Limbertwig has leafed out and is growing well after being rescued from the "Dead Graft" pile. I intend to check on Hudson's Golden Gem tomorrow. The other variety that made an amazing Lazarus return.

 Sort of a few Surprising Apples not thought "Low Chill": Mason Jim Day Arkansas Black Ben Davis Horse Maidens Blush Jennings of Florida Red Astrakhan Red June Rome Beauty Shockley Transcendent Crab

 Greetings all! My second procedure seems to be a success and I'm getting back out to the trees more regularly. Some observations: Pots versus bags for growing out? This year I was curious which would end up better. So I ended up with mostly 3 gallon pots and bags. After watching them grow; it appears the pots have taller and healthy trees.  I find the PVC bags a bit annoying with leaning over and making the soil uneven or making leaning trees. And sometimes the folded over edges collapse under watering. It is also time to try some chip budding.

 Been taking it easy after some leg surgery. Everything appears to have gone well with that. Apart from getting out and killing some aphids on various plants; I've been limited to inside. But I did make a new list on Apples that Root by cutting/ have Burr knots. Here is the latest and greatest compilation list with some surprising entries as of July 11th 2024. I would welcome your input as to trying some of these to confirm the mostly British reporting. Lots of Burr Knotts: Benoni Ben’s Red Burr Knott Charlotte Daunt Cornish Aromatic Heusgen’s Golden Reinette Lord Burghley Rivers Nonsuch The Nelson Tom Putt Winter Banana At least some Burr Knots: Appletown Wonder Arthur W. Barnes Baldwin Ballyvaughan Seedling Beachemwell {Patton & Tathum} Belle De Pointise Beverly Blenium Orange Blue Pearmain Brabany Bellfleur Byford Wonder Cissy Colonel Vaughn Cottenham Seedling Cox Orange Pippin Cox Pomona Devonshire Quarreden Disharoon Duke of Devonshire Edith Hopwood Egremont Russet Emneth ...

 Going out to check this years grafts; and I was shocked our blog namesake apple has come back from the dead. A Blairmont on M111 set two buds into leafing out so very late in the year! This is why I leave perhaps dead looking grafts with a touch of green out and cared for. Hopefully it will fight on. Perhaps giving me further wood to graft this fall.

  A worthwhile read: https://nmfruitgrowers.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/inbreeding-in-modern-apple-cultivation-by-hans-joachim-bannier/

 Good ole triple digit heat on the thermometer. 101F. Have to water all the critters well early. Made a count on the pad. 47 live trees and 3 iffy. Over on the work bench there are another 6-7. Still going to chip bud some Anna and Dorsett Gold yet.

 Really perturbed with fireblight this year. I am down to 42 live grafts on the grow pad. Hope those grafts yet to bud take soon. Probably another 35 are there. I have some surviving scions I pulled of root stocks. I will attempt to chip bud as many as possibly on saved root stock from dead grafts. The G.214 line is the sorriest of the line up. With a Mother Plant and 4 surviving grafts. I'm really disappointed in Geneva root stock. P.2 was doing far better. But the last really hit P.2 hard. Lost 6 beautiful Shockley grafts. All told 18 P.2 grafts survive. Plus the mother. And my ironic favorite; P.1 on P.2! As soon as it gets more height it is going deep planted as a nurse root so I get a true P.1 tree{much like M.7Elma} The rest of course are good ole M111. 20 of them. Will definitely have to re-order some scions. Terry Winter, Tarbutton, Hoover, Mrs.Bryan after such a great start. Cauley. Norfolk Beefing, Hudson Golden Gem. Devine, St.Clair.  So far a few seem pretty robust...

 So far 14 grafts have been lost to fireblight. 8 on G.214. 4 on P.2 and 2 on M111. By no means is that final.I still have to go through the stooling pots and plants on the pad. And also does not count any of the late grafts which are to early to tell. On the bright side; quite a few are making the transition to young saplings now.

 Yes; two plagues of the South have arrived. Oppressive heat and high humidity. And if you try to go out in the cooler morning the swarms of Yellow Flies have arrived. And only some heat relief. Monitoring fireblight it seems to have stabilized with the drier weather. But the damage is done. Have vigorously sprayed fungicides, and some copper sulfate though it's a bit late for it. I'd guess a 3rd of the grafts were seriously damaged. I've topped and beheaded about 4 grafts to save the root stock after a through cleaning. More are coming.  Of the late grafts courtesy of UGA; Mrs. Bryan is the first to leaf out.  Sill have 7 or 8 community pots to re-bag. So far the trees bagged seem to be doing well. But aghast! Have to make more soil mix to finish. Going to add more sandy loam to be less wet. Talking to other growers this is a bad year for fireblight with a new strain. I have Rouville which was a bullet proof rated tree on Fireblight. I think one will die. Pear growers se...

 Not surprisingly Fireblight on blossoms has arrived. My have lost a few grafts. I drenched the trees and especially buds with fungicide that includes copper sulphate. We will have to wait and see. Also have now bagged 18 grafts in the new bags.  I think Devine got wiped out on all buds. Though the rootstock is ok.

 .....I still managed to get a dozen trees moved to their new 3 Gallon grow bag homes. other then restringing the weed eater; this was the sole item accomplished today. I found it takes a bit of getting use too. But you can arrange the bags flat bottomed and mutually supporting. And I believe they are tough enough to last despite their thinness. Taking the rest of my hatch day off!

 I've been a bit sidetracked but have managed to do some minor things. Some of the good news is some of the laggard scions have decided to get with the action. Been fighting a lot of typical spring afflictions. A bit of fireblight. Good old Cankerworms. The darned ant raised aphids. I fear I have lost my Circaussian grafts to leaf stickiness of some sort. Hopefully the very tiny twiggs break new leafs though.  Friday I should receive 150 3 gallon grow bags. So I need to spend the next two days getting a new batch of soil going. More composted mulch, composted manure, a bit of sand and my bought biochar'ish compost to mix together. 

 Out checking the grow pad, I got into pulling empty pots and checking interstem grafts. Also pulled all the cuttings pots for my apple rootstocks. G.214 on M111 is not something to try. Everything was failing. Managed to regraft 11 out of 12. Nor did any of the stooling G.214 take roots. Pulled P.2 and M111 just to check progress. Got 8 P.2 and 10 M111 with healthy roots. Took the G.214 cuttings that were clearly alive. Layered them in a large tub and covered them. Then put them in a dark place to give them another try. Re-potted P.2 and M.111 and returned them to the grow pad.  Wish they were like Brown Turkey figs. Have 20 potted out and another 16 in collective pots for lack of pots. All well rooted. Found another pot of slow take apple grafts. About to investigate those after lunch.

 Looking over the graftlings; was getting suspicious of a pot with 6 cleft grafts. The first I did in fact. So I tumped over the pot and started inspecting the grafts. Red Detroit was the first and the rootstock {G.214}had failed. Managed to cut the scion in half. It was good. And "Q" grafted it on a G.214 and P.2. Next was the only Tanyard Seedling I had. Had to trim it back. But also successfully put it on G.214. Also saved 2 Circassian apples and a Dorset Gold on M111. So glad I checked!!!

Took a deep dive on scions top worked on existing trees. Pretty convinced Dorsett Golden has incompatibility issues. 4 had dead swollen graft unions. One modest. 3 really large.  Have 2 left on Dorsett that the Jury is out on.  Looks like Centurion Crab is better. 2 great takes. 2 looking ok. 1 got removed by wind damage. 2 are looking viable. St.Anna Boskoop on Anna looks about ready to bud. Also not doing the v graft on top work anymore. 

 Those sad trees in a bag of wet sawdust just could not be ignored. Garden weaseled a bit of wood mulch and mixed it with soil. Made 3 pots for each rootstock for now. Let them grow out and I think I will try to plant them end to end in the ground in late fall. Checked out my Georgia Origin champs so far. Wallace Howard, Parks Pippin and Disharoon are the top in vigor so far. Now Yates, King Solomon , Shockley, Spice of North Georgia are catching up.  Terry Winter and Tarbutton. Slow as sin. Look dead. Very green inside though. Practically everything from Southern Cultured has taken. St.Claire, Devine , Hoover , Cauley , Orange Cauly, Chickasaw.

 Got out the wife's new battery powered weed eater and went to town in spurts. Looks real good. But it just makes more work. Have to sit down and hand weed and re-mulch again. Found ant farmed aphids and some kind of worm in the new shoots of my older trees. Gave them all a nice coat of olive oil sheen spray. Looks like they were jumping ship to get out of it. I need to find the ole vaseline and ring the trunk of the trees again to stop those darned ants from bringing aphids. Seeing more scion takes here and their. Have no idea how much longer Norfolk Beefing and Hudson Golden Gem can last without budding. One Hudson finally popped. Parks Pippin is giving Wallace Howard a run for most vigorous scion.

 Put them on the concrete pad. 45 out there now{5 small pots in the hot house}. And 88 more in group pots. Was concerned some scions had dried out. Pulled a very tan and hard looking Tarbutton. And snipped an end. Quite green and juicy inside to my surprise. I'm just assuming there are a lot of late budding plants in my collection. Because the others are limber and greenish but un-budded. Anyway I resealed the Tarbutton and put it back. So we have 133 grafts, Not counting 8 top grafts on Anna and Dorsett Gold or Centurion.

  Fixed the one scion I planted upside down. And found enough nubs to make 3 other grafts while I was at it. Looks like I will have plenty of Shockley. Other notes butterflies, bees and hornets had been mobbing a Parks Pippin and Hoover in a race to flower. Had my money on Hoover. But Parks Pippin burst 2 white fragrant flowers today. First flowers since Pink Lady/Cripps Pink bloomed. Lastly I hauled all the single potted grafts over to the concrete pad with a wagon. Put some in the hothouse to see how that effects budding out. Re-arranged the plants out there by rootstock. Then filled in the lines with M111 grafts. Still have another 50-60 to single pot. Speaking to our namesake Blairmont; it seems to be in the late bloomer camp as far as budding.  Other notable laggards? Piervomaiskoie, Norfolk Beefing, Hudson Golden Gem, Husk Sweet and Tarbutton.  All from that " I will twist and contort for awhile team."

 Been a busy day. Watered the herd and plants. Re-arranged the green house and culled some dead plants. Mixed up a half load of soil. Finished of all grafts into soil now. Inspected the plants in feed bag root wraps. Though 4 of 6 took on grafts; they were very goopy and lost a lot of soil as well. To me it seems to be begging for root rot. So those 6 too were placed in pots. I was also curious about my fast take scions. Most of them were on P.2. Some were G.214. just one on straight M111. None on interstems. Either M111/P.2 or M111/G.214.  The girls got excited because 4 grafts were putting out bright flower buds. Have not had the heart to tell them I will pinch them off eventually. After I get good pictures of the flower to go in each variety's info file. Few of these old apples have many pictures available. Lastly I put the cull on my first 2025 scions list. It is still large. But a sizable cut was made to order some other year. The focus is finishing up my Georgia Origin a...