Small pummelo and sad looking persimmon.
I owe very special thanks to Glen Miracle and Laughing Frog Farm for my new Acres Home and Tennosui pear trees. Glen, and other members of the Texas Rare Fruit Growers Club, have figured out a great trick. They go to Houston Garden Center locations when they're having one of their big sales, and buy ornamental Bradford pears. Glen said he got them for $6 the last time he went. Then they graft on good eating pears onto the Bradford rootstock. Ingenius!
I had planted a small pummelo and a sad looking Fuyu persimmon that I got for $5 from the clearance section at Plants for All Seasons along the fence as placeholders. The persimmon was half-dead when I planted it, and my wife won't eat them anyway, so I just pulled it out. Literally. I pulled it out of the ground with one hand. The roots had not grown at all into the native soil. It's in a 3-gallon pot now if anyone wants it. The pummelo is now in a nice 10-gallon pot formerly occupied by the Barbados Cherry, which was killed by the freezes.
I'm very excited about these pears, as they will help me bridge the summer gap between figs in July and pomegranates and persimmons in the fall. I selected the Acres Home and Tennosui because they are reported to be delicious low-chill pears with good fire blight resistance. I planted the trees, and pruned them back a little bit. Growth on pear trees tends to be very upright, so I used homemade limb-spreaders (sticks) to widen the scaffold limbs.
I had planted a small pummelo and a sad looking Fuyu persimmon that I got for $5 from the clearance section at Plants for All Seasons along the fence as placeholders. The persimmon was half-dead when I planted it, and my wife won't eat them anyway, so I just pulled it out. Literally. I pulled it out of the ground with one hand. The roots had not grown at all into the native soil. It's in a 3-gallon pot now if anyone wants it. The pummelo is now in a nice 10-gallon pot formerly occupied by the Barbados Cherry, which was killed by the freezes.
I'm very excited about these pears, as they will help me bridge the summer gap between figs in July and pomegranates and persimmons in the fall. I selected the Acres Home and Tennosui because they are reported to be delicious low-chill pears with good fire blight resistance. I planted the trees, and pruned them back a little bit. Growth on pear trees tends to be very upright, so I used homemade limb-spreaders (sticks) to widen the scaffold limbs.
!!!CRACK!!!
I must have put just a little too much pressure on one of the Acres Home scaffold limbs, because it broke at the main trunk. I ran as fast as I could for the grafting tape. I repaired the break as best as I could, and wrapped it very tightly in parafilm. Hopefully that will save the branch.
New pear trees planted in the west corner of the yard.
Very upright scaffold branches
With limb spreaders added (and break repaired).
