AyyyBaw

Most of my layers this morning were Celeste, Scott’s black and yellow, Improved Celeste, Galbun, and LSU Tiger. I put a single Malta Black air layer in a pot this morning for you if you’d still like it this fall. Have a few other established trees in pots that I’ll be planting in-ground this fall - St Gabriel, black Celeste, CDD Mutante, Violet Sepor, Sal’s El and Col Littmans Black Cross. We acquired an extra 1.5 acres adjacent to our home and I’m planning a permaculture style garden there, so I’m in big time propagation mode. I already have the ridges and swales marked - it’s really ideal with slight swales throughout the property. I should be able to plant 6 pecans, about 30 figs, 3 loquats, and about 10-15 mulberries in the fall. I’ll fill in the rest with persimmon, jujubee, mayhaw, and pawpaw. Might eventually add some citrus if a suitable microclimate develops after these initial trees get established. I’m filling in the rear swale (and largest drainage) with LA irises this summer and seeding a 5,000 sq ft native prairie adjacent to that drainage this fall. Planning to document the whole process, but it just looks like unmowed strips on the ridges right now. I’ll kill that tall grass this fall where it stands and then cover the dead vegetation with thick hay to plant directly into. I do plan to try some zone pushing in there eventually, but initially I’m going with very low maintenance options.

Edit - the loquat air layers are just a seedling that hasn’t fruited yet. I’ll use those for rootstock this fall.

Busy day yesterday. I received scions from Marta at Really Good Plants on Friday. Every single one was excellent quality. I started rooting the following mulberry cuttings - black prince, chicken claw, tice, and maple leaf. About 2 months ago I rooted 12 red mulberry cuttings I collected from trees in my yard. I grafted all of those yesterday with DMOR9 and Australian green. Attempted 1 cleft, 1 veneer, 1 chip bud, and the rest were all T buds. I also stuck a few T buds on my older in-ground red mulberry trees. This morning I grafted a potted loquat seedling with argelino and big Jim white - 1 cleft and 2 veneer grafts. Last week I started rooting about 15 various fig cuttings. My rooting Tupperware is chock full of fig-pop method figs and mulberries now. Hopefully I’ll be posting successful pictures in the next several weeks so that we can document graft method/time of year success or failure rates.

10-4, thanks guys!

I’m definitely growing some roselle next year.

I also use shears and clip the backbone out basically spatchcocking them. Agree that if you set it up correctly then maintenance is easy. I have a 5 gallon water bucket piped to some auto-refill chicken water cups. 4” PVC going to a no spill feeder. I can feed and water without having to open the cage. They have a covered sand bath partitioned to an open section with the food and water. 1/2” coated hardware cloth so I can just hit it with a hose to wash out manure into a shaving pile beneath - makes great compost. I do sift the sand daily with a litter scoop and sprinkle some DE in it. I currently have 5 laying from my last batch and 20 3 week olds. Waiting to sex the young ones and cull most of the roosters. Some of mine are feather sexable but many of the new ones aren’t. You can absolutely make your money back and then some by selling pickled eggs. Those suckers go for $12+ for a pint in most stores.

FYI to anyone interested. Marta at Really Good Plants is having her summer scion sale on June 1st. I plan on rooting the following mulberries: black prince, tice, Riley’s chicken claw, and maple leaf and grafting Australian green and DMOR9. I have a 4’ potted seedling loquat that I’ll be grafting with big Jim white and argelino. I’ll also be trying to graft Izu, giant hana fuyu, and tam kom onto American persimmon rootstock. I’m thinking I’ll lateral graft most of these and possibly t-bud of chip bud a few too.

My grafted Suebelle white sapote is finally showing signs of new growth 2 months after transplanting into a pot. My big Jim loquat started pushing new growth about a week after planting in ground. Also have a couple loquat air layers and about 15 fig air layers going. New to me fig cuttings showing roots - col. littman’s black cross and Sal’s el. It’s been a fun past few months.

You talking about barn swallows or house sparrows?

If you want coreopsis get a dwarf variety for that spot. We have some eared coreopsis cultivar and they would look great right there. Regular lanceleaf coreopsis will get almost 3’ tall, beautiful too (we have some in the backyard), but too tall for that spot unless you prune often.

Stoke’s aster would also be nice there.

Purple possum. Never tried it, but came across a guy selling rooted cuttings at a farmers market for $5. Couldn’t pass it up. Figured I would dip my toes in with this one then maybe change to a better tasting fruit later on. So far this thing is as easy as it gets.

Super fast draining and I drilled additional drainage holes in the bottom and lower sides of the pot. Mulched with hardwood bark after I took the picture. Honestly, I would have never attempted growing subtropical/tropical trees in containers if it weren’t for this thread. My passion fruit is also setting fruit. It’s incredible how fast the fruit sets after a 1 day bloom - maybe 2-3 days after bloom and we have fruit set.