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What You Need to Know About GMO Labels

22/4/2018

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By Jane Sandwood, guest contributor.
If you are interested in the growing heritage or rare fruits and vegetables, you are probably aware of the new trends in the food industry towards GMO labeling. While saving wild fruit gene pools is oftentimes the mission of heritage gardens, it is also essential to pay attention to the way you market and sell your produce to a consumer market that is increasingly seeking organic labels. This desire is largely a result of President Barack Obama signing a GMO labeling bill into law in 2016.
 
For gardeners  or farmers who grow heritage produce want to be able to label the products USDA Certified Organic, there may not be any genetically modified ingredients in the food items. In doing so, you can then label your products non-GMO, GMO Free, and so forth. Federal law now gives food companies the option to claim GMO ingredients in several different ways, such as providing a QR code or website with additional information on their packaging.
 
In time, this may advance the heritage foods movement, as labeling a food item non-GMO results in 87% of consumers believing the produce is healthier. Additionally, 55% of people think that genetically modified produce are more detrimental to the environment. Knowing these statistics, it is clear is that food growers and manufacturers will need to focus on transparent labeling to ensure that their products are trusted.
 
To learn more about the laws and restrictions on your organic heritage products, see this guide to organic and GMO labeling.
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Bushfire Relief

25/4/2017

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PictureSally with a multigraft “instant espalier” tree.
The Heritage and Rare Fruit Network has been conducting grafting days each year since 1990. We do it for many reasons, including to propagate and share the heritage fruit trees which people of past generations cultivated as part of a more self-reliant lifestyle.   By this means we hope to ensure that the heritage varieties of the past are preserved for future generations.   We also teach skills such as grafting. We share orchard design knowledge, including such techniques as selecting various rootstocks in order to produce trees in a wide range of sizes suited to a range of different terroir situations.   In addition we have access to a very wide range of fruit tree varieties to allow for a selection of ripening times over the greatest part of the harvest season - for example it is possible to select apple varieties that ripen from Christmas to perhaps the end of August.

We can access rootstocks at a relatively low cost. Our many members provide scion (tree cuttings) from a very wide range of varieties, so we are ideally suited to help people who have lost their fruit trees in fires or floods to recreate their orchards. Often we can provide varieties more suited to people’s needs or perhaps varieties they can’t access anywhere else. 

A short history: Following  the Black Saturday fires of 2009 we grafted fruit trees for the bushfire affected people in the Wellington and Latrobe Shires. We also grafted around 600 peaches, apples, pears and plums that were grown out for a year by the Murrindindi Shire predominately for the people in Marysville.   We held another grafting workshop for the Black Saturday  bushfire affected people in Calignee in 2010 after they’d had a year to recover.    Since then we have held grafting workshops for people burnt out in the Abefeldy fire in the Wellington Shire in 2012, and the Glenaladale fire in 2014.   In every instance the bushfire affected people have received the trees. The Wellington Shire paid for all the rootstocks (averaging less than $3 each) for the fire-affected people in their shire, as well as providing a support worker, a barbecue and sausages for the day   The Latrobe Shire paid for the rootstocks for the first batch of trees grafted after Black Saturday in their shire, and the second batch at Callignee were paid for by a government bushfire recovery agency.

The rootstocks for the approximately 600 fruit trees for Marysville were largely donated. Some were paid for by money raised at H&RFN grafting days.   The Landcare group helped organise the grafting for the bushfire affected people at Glenaladale, including a barbecue and sausages.   On the day, trees were also grafted for the general public. These were sold for around $10 each and the profits from the sales of these covered the cost of the trees for the bushfire affected people.
 We have learnt and shared many skills that allow people to have trees they couldn’t otherwise have.
 
This comprises two lots of four different apple varieties grafted to a single trunk at right angles, and would suit an espaliered tree trained to cover the corner of a building.   Such an espalier could include varieties ripening over a six month period from the same section of a wall. 

In conclusion: As best we can, we would like to make our diversity of knowledge and skills available to help people affected by flood or fire, and in doing so respond to the wishes of the locals as to how we can help.
 
ContactWebsite: http://heritageandrarefruits.weebly.com/contacts.html
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/heritageandrarefruit/


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Create Your Own Grafting Day

9/6/2016

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 Last year we created an email group and everybody with scion to share was able listed their varieties and share the list in the email group.
We had a get-together on the Saturday before our first grafting day and people shared scion.  It is hoped to do similar this year.
So, I send out a list of pears, apples, plums and cherries I have collected, and anyone conducting a grafting day can circulate it within their group and people can make choices before the day.
Also the lists of what everyone else has could be circulated and if attempts are made to collect scion from other people, to bring through with me.

Then anyone who is interested in growing rare and heritage fruit can organise a grafting workshop in their own local area. We suggest that these could include up to 20 people. I would be there to help get it off the ground, with hopefully one other grafter to help me teach people how to graft, and graft at least one tree for every participant. 
If there is more than one experienced grafter to help then going over 20 people could be considered.   If I can cover costs on the trip I will be happy. Last year with the trip around Western Victoria the groups charged participants $20 which gave them the first tree free and additional sales of scion for $2, rootstocks $6 and additional grafts $2ea.   This should cover my costs and leave a profit for the groups organising the workshops.   
I am attending on the understanding that any profits goes to non-profit groups such as those organising the workshops along with the payments of costs to any additional grafters.

The intent is to try to create a self sustaining group in the area of each workshop and assist them with future grafting days in the years to come.

Please message me with your email address on Facebook if you intend to organise workshops for-
  • the Sydney area around the 23rd/24th July
  • The area between Albury and Sydney on either 20th,21st or 22nd July
  • along the coast between Sydney and Bermagui on 25th, 26th and 27th July .

Neil Barraclough
https://www.facebook.com/neil.barraclough.9?fref=ts
10th June 2016

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Bengworden-Meerlieu Grafting Day

15/8/2015

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By Neil Barraclough
The Bengworden-Meerlieu 6th Annual Grafting Day combined a celebration of 25 years of grafting days. Seen in the photo from left to right were
Laurie Kirkham who learnt to graft at our first day and grafted many of the trees in their orchard as well as grafting for others in the following years.
Then Liz Kirkham, myself, Peter Frost, Janis Jones, my brother Ralph, Peter and Nola Mowbray, all original attendees with the two Peters, Ralph and myself all first day grafters.
Too late for the photo were Dennis Gedye, another grafter from the first day and Jane Gurling (talking to Angela Downey) who grafted at many of our early days but not sure about the first one. Getting five of the original grafters and seven of the early ones back after 25 years wasn't a bad effort. It was a bit of a reunion as some of us hadn't seen each other for over ten years and we were a very close group,

Well done to everyone in the Home Produce Group for a great organisational effort and thanks to grafters, Sal Testa, Ralph Barraclough, Nathan Goodman, Peter Frost and anyone I missed because I was yapping too much as I grafted.

The apple pie competition was won by Christabell from Picnic Point Apple orchard, well done.

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Ralph Barraclough found time between grafting to catch up with an old school mate.
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The grafting day combined with a winter market. People could browse the stalls and it took pressure off the grafters as there were not long queues despite a very good crowd.
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Always nice to have something different. Sally wanted a multigraft to go against a wall so got one grafted with branches only covering 180 degrees (half circle) with six varieties rather than the usual 360 degrees.
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Yinnar Grafting Day

15/8/2015

1 Comment

 
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By Neil Barraclough
Perfect day for grafting at the Yinnar Community Garden and with Neville Burley, Sal Testa and myself grafting it was a very relaxed day. One space left in the garden for a fruit tree so what did we put in? Just down the road there is a seedling apple that is just the best cooker in existence so it was grafted on to an apple rootstock and planted in the garden, ensuring its security should the one on the roadside be removed. The day finished with a bit of a demo of multigrafting on one of the gardens trees and a discussion of traditional pruning methods.
Well done Yinnar Commuity Garden on a great day.

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1 Comment

Lorne Grafting Workshop

29/7/2015

1 Comment

 
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Neil Barraclough
28th July 2015
Monday's first grafting workshop in Lorne organised by Swami Samadhijyoti Saraswati saw us make a start to setting up a nursery bed for propagation of rootstocks for future grafting days and various projects around the Lorne district.

The day started off with some beautiful home cooking and then local arborist Steve gave a talk on sharpening secateurs and knives.

Then local blueberry propagator Mathew Vincent gave a talk on planting trees emphasising the need for a square hole rather than a round one so the roots didn't just go around the inside of the hole. then he gave a brief talk on propagating blueberries in pots, 4 parts perlite and one part peat moss(?). He then showed how he cut the through the node on the bottom of the cutting encouraging rooting.

Great day organised By Swami with thanks to Annie the host and Mathew and Steve. Perhaps Swami would like to share her intended projects with us.

Swami Samadhijyoti Saraswati wrote:
It was a great privilege to host you
Neil. We have land stewards for our rootstocks and plum, and are in the process of implementing the next phases and inventories of local produce/producers. We'll be sure to keep you up to date and practice the skill
s that you shared ready for your next visit and advanced grafting techniques. The growing of edible landscapes is our focus with the Local Urban Farmers Network, Eat Local Month and the Surf Coast Shire Council.
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1 Comment

Multigrafting for a steady fruit supply

26/7/2015

1 Comment

 
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By Neil Barraclough, July 2015
This photo shows eleven apple varieties grafted on to a single rootstock to produce an "instant espalier".

The top one is a Lady Williams which should keep till at least September and the next one down is a Christmas Apple which ripens just after Christmas.

The other 9 varieties should give apples from when the Christmas Apple finishes to when the Lady Williams starts, meaning you will have apples from 9-10 months of the year from a section of wall or fence.

A normal espalier take perhaps 4-5 years to develop its laterals in the right place and only one variety. A reason why you should learn to graft: you won't be likely to find one in the local nursery.

The Christmas Apple was an old tree at an abandoned home on a farm at Stockdale and the original tree has died - lucky we saved it.

1 Comment

On growing from seed, apple mosaic virus and Snow Apples.

8/2/2015

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Sandra McHarg, 30 January at 23:01

Alexandra's post about unknown varieties of fruit trees reminded me of something I've been wondering about. We hear a lot about the loss of old varieties in pretty much every subfield of gardening. I wonder how much of that is due to gardeners relinquishing the responsibility of supplying plant varieties to large companies? Back 100 years ago keen hobby gardeners used to develop varieties of plants in their own gardens that they then passed on to other people, either privately or through a retailer. So what would happen if we took the plunge and did the uncertain thing of growing seedling trees and seeing if we came up with some good ones to share around?

Alexandra Westlund I think that's what we would be doing to be honest.
30 January at 23:19

Alexandra Westlund Even if just to develop good varieties for our individual growing areas.
30 January at 23:19 ·

Carolyn Gemmell Yes, I am all for local and residential varieties, there are interesting people doing it in the USA with nuts. And it’s actually how most of our food varieties have come to us in the past. I know you can get a lot of great cherry plums from seed, but my apricot experiments have been variable and not very successful, we know some people have got wonderful avocados and others are total duds, we have to keep at it though, we can't fall for the status quo and be fooled into believing that we can't produce things that are good and locally adapted, we certainly can , its how it was and will be again.
31 January at 10:17 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton I'm doing that with apples and peaches, Sandra, breeding them from seed. Peaches are easy because the seedlings are pretty much like the parents. We already have a successful new peach cultivar that's prolific, vigorous and delicious. Apples are a real challenge since they are extreme heterozygotes. (love that phrase)
31 January at 09:30 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton This book contains a list of which fruits grow relatively true to their parents' characteristics and which ones are extreme heterozygotes. https://www.createspace.com/4658970

31 January at 09:34 ·

Bec Elmes I have a small apple tree that my partner grew from seed, it's done quite well and I'm very keen to see what happens with it.  Even if it doesn't produce fruit that I can eat or stew, it will go to the chooks and supplement their diet while it fruits
31 January at 10:11 ·

Sandra McHarg I've got lovely freestone ripe peaches that I grew from supermarket seeds which have done very well in my garden, and this year a couple of seedling trees are fruiting for the first time that I think are second generation white peaches. So I know that they do well here, that they come reasonably true to type, but at the same time there will be just a little bit of genetic variation between the trees. My seedling plums are a bit more variable, mostly cherry plum size, so I've been culling out a few that are nothing special and keeping the good ones. This year I've set aside a strip along our back boundary where all the fruit tree seeds from our eating and preserving are being tossed. I'll see what eventuates, and maybe 10 years from now I'll do a cull back to the best ones.
31 January at 12:35 ·

Stu Burns Did you write that book, Cecilia?
31 January at 14:16 ·

Stu Burns By the way, I think people should plant seeds of things they have been told won't grow in their climate. If the climate is changing, there will need to be some changes. It won't take much to make stone fruits unviable on mainland Australia.
31 January at 14:17 ·

Robert Millet I have experienced this first hand. A friend found a great seedling apple in his yard, gave me some budding materials and i had a friend make several trees on to M27 dwarfing root stock. I then tried to give them away to nurseries or the like and  so far have had no luck . the tree is a great producer and in the gardener's yard is doing wonderfully well, loaded with fruit. oh well, seems that no one is interested, really.
31 January at 15:05 ·

Sandra McHarg Would you have a local community garden that might be able to grow them? Somewhere like that would be a good point for sharing out budwood- lots of people would have the chance to actually see it in fruit.
31 January at 16:24 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton Yes I did, Stu Burns. It is a subject I am very interested in, and the book includes some historic, but timeless and still pertinent info written by the great Melbourne botanist David Alexander Crichton.
31 January at 16:30 ·

Stu Burns Awesome! I will track me down a copy. I have a couple of books about breeding vegetable varieties, and I am a compulsive propagator. I grew some Lychee seedlings last year, but none of them lasted the winter, sadly.
31 January at 17:13 ·

Sandra McHarg Ditto my lychees. Mind you, I'm not sure where I could have grown a 10m tall frost sensitive tree anyway...
31 January at 17:32 ·

Stu Burns I usually don't think that far ahead. That's why I have dozens of avocado and chestnut and almond seedlings in pots! Also several sugar pines and a couple of bunyas.
31 January at 17:49 ·

Sandra McHarg I had seeds, I had a pot, I thought "why not- see what happens." smile emoticon
31 January at 17:51 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton Good one, Stu - Sugar pines only grow up to 82 metres tall; I'm sure you'll find a spot for them somewhere in the garden! I had to smile when I read "I usually don't think that far ahead." Ditto for me. I am also a compulsive propagator (trying to kick the habit - where is Propagators Anonymous when you need them).
31 January at 18:51 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton PS Sandra McHarg instead of lychees grow wampi/wampee. We are having a lot of success with ours, outdoors in Melbourne's climate. Lovely fruit similar to lychee.

31 January at 18:53 ·

Sandra McHarg Hadn't heard of that one. It's listed as being a cold zone 10-11 plant so it might be a bit marginal here. We're officially zone 9a-9b (mostly 9b with occasional 9a mornings), I have got a few zone 10's surviving in sheltered spots but I've lost the zone 11's I've tried. Daley' page reckons it will handle -5 with some protection, which is about our coldest. Maybe I could try it in a pot.
31 January at 19:32 ·

Stu Burns 82 metres or 82 feet? The only example I've ever seen is the one i collected seeds from and it's only about 10-12m tall I reckon. The cones are amazing though. About half a metre long in some cases.
31 January at 19:41 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton ". Tallest ever recorded was "Yosemite Giant", an 82.05 m (269.2 ft) tall specimen in Yosemite National Park, which died from bark beetle attack in 2007." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_lambertiana
31 January at 22:36 ·

Robert Millet Sandra McHarg: what a great idea! I have not thought of that possibility. How nice to tap into the collective mind of the world and get a great answer. Would that pollies did that honestly once in a while. R. Millet

1 February at 12:42 ·

Ben Waite I have a few things I wont to grow a seedling row of in the paddock... the problem is finding a good supply of seeds in Aus for some of the unusual ones. Sometimes there is a limited gene pool here unsure emoticon

I spoke to Fred at Petty's about growing 200 seedlings from his favorite 5 apples in the collection and growing them at my place smile emoticon

The flip side is good record keeping. We all know how hard it is to track things sometimes... I have a map / spreadsheet with all my varieties I try to keep up to date but it's hard. I reckon many 'lost' varieties are still about in old orchards as unknown trees
3 February at 13:49 ·

Sandra McHarg Very probable. We've got an old apple tree in our yard that we want to distribute budwood/scions from because it recently dropped a very large branch where I'd been standing about 30 seconds previously. It's got rot through the trunk so it's become quite unsafe. It seems to be growing on its own roots (it has a trunk too large to put your arms around) so we've encouraged some suckers to grow, and also have some seedling trees around.
3 February at 14:28 ·

Neville Burley Maybe need to give the retailers a break. If the clients only want pink lady apples there's no point adding others if they won't sell. Times are changing and their attitude will as demand for alternative varieties lifts so will their need for supply
3 February at 14:43 ·

Sandra McHarg Ditto nurserymen. No good developing a new variety that won't sell enough to be financially viable; either home gardeners or orchardists would have to buy them in high numbers for the economies of scale necessary for business survival to kick in. It's good though that there's people keen enough to chase up the old varieties and, like Ben, grow out seedlings to develop new ones. We've got a dangerously narrowing genetic base for a lot of our important food plants, so even if it's only a relatively small number of people doing these things, I think it may be important.
3 February at 14:52 ·

Ben Waite Neville is right of course... Nurseries sell what people want to buy.

There are niches already. Bulleen Art and Garden stocks some very different pears (maybe from the Toora collection?) as well as other rare fruits that seem to be done by home growers. Maybe there will be a push towards more diversity driven by more engaged and educated home growers.

I'd like to think that this is the thin end of the wedge of a movement to varieties that are good for home growers rather than the commercial situation, as the requirements are very different. Ditto for a lot of horticultural advice but that is a little off topic...

Personally, I'd be stoked if I develop a few varieties that would excite people in groups like this. Commercial success isn't likely for what I would like to breed for.
3 February at 16:32 ·

Neville Burley There are avenues for diversity, Neil Barraclough was sending genetic material to Yalca I think it was Traf Prince to have it on their 2015 catalogue but alas the tree is mulched. So as I said earlier it is happening again. There is also another new grower coming onto the scene as Nathan Goodman has restarted propagating fruit trees again and is looking at supplying the common and heritage varieties as well from Bairnsdale.
3 February at 20:09 ·

Stu Burns I think Bob Magnus in Tassie was starting to sell old(er) varieties too.
3 February at 20:14 ·

Petethe Permie our retail fruit tree list is 700 vars to the general Public and over 200 more for private collectors form Our collection ( quite a few people on this list have been our customers) many of our trees are certified organic and certified biodynamic ( unique in the world) Silvia and I have been working here to develop the collection for 20 years
6 February at 22:39 ·

Petethe Permie Our Nursery is Telopea \Mtn Permaculture & Nursery see www.petethepermie.com we also do many markets taking our trees and this Sunday 200kgs of heritage plums we picked tonight until dark more to pick tomorrow.

Petethepermie.com

Courses to explore Permaculture, organic & BD growing, heritage fruits, cheese making, cider brewing course...
6 February at 22:41 ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton Petethe Permie where are your lists of fruit trees for sale on your website?

7 February at 09:35 ·

Christine Hobbs Cecilia Dart-Thornton here is the link just navigate through it

http://www.petethepermie.com/fruit/

Fruit | Petethepermie.com

the list is available online now plus the markets we will attend over winter bare root season, see these details...

petethepermie.com

7 February at 18:59 ·

Petethe Permie the list up on our site is for bare root season 2014 but it give you an idea of what we have available, about April I will put up 2015 list with the new stuff to be added for this season.

7 February at 19:50 ·

Christine Hobbs Petethe Permie do you provide grafting wood of any of these apples? I can’t grow any more trees as I have only a suburban block, but have enough space to accommodate more grafts on the trees I do have. I am particularly interested in Gravenstein.. or maybe even Stewarts seedling..

7 February at 19:56 ·

Petethe Permie yes we sell virus free scion of 500 apples, and many other fruits come June long weekend

7 February at 22:12 ·

Sabine Hirsch I've just planted some mango seeds. Takes 2 mths for seedling to emerge - can't wait!

7 February at 22:51 ·

Neil Barraclough How do you get it virus tested Pete?

8 February at 06:11 ·

Christine Hobbs yes I am interested in this also as I have two apple trees that were completely virus free up until my son grafted onto them, I have suspected for a while it was either introduced by birds landing on my trees after visiting a neighbors infected trees, or maybe from the graft themselves. It is a wooly aphid type thing.. I dont like chemicals so I tried to eliminate by constantly just using my hose with a strong jet of water to spray off while the branches were less covered with leaves, hut now they are in fruit & lots of leaf cover I cant get the water in where its needed. I found that if I ignore it the wood where the wooly stuff is becomes distorted. so any other suggestions that are safe..

8 February at 06:20 ·

Stu Burns If there's a virus, it was probably brought by the woolly aphids, rather than the reverse. And they can show up whenever they like. But grafting can transfer virus between trees, and there's not much you can do about it once it is there.

8 February at 12:47 ·

Petethe Permie thanks for Virus question Neil, to clarify we are free of Mosiac virus on the apples and scion which you know is easy to see in leaf with the little yellow pixels, none of us can afford all the virus testing like when we wanted to bring some to Aust , mosaic is not that great an issue for the home gardener of even the orchardist but we as collectors want to keep our stuff as clean as possiblke so when we swap or sell we are doing it best as we can.

20 hrs · Like

Petethe Permie on that note unfortunately we learnt some hard lessons with Petty's orchard collection where we had 12 trees with mosaic virus then we ( being naive) let a young man collect 200 scion for his fruit tree business where he did not clean his tools and so when we also got new equipment and pruned all the trees as a community we also did not clean them effectively so now the entire Petty's collection has mosaic virus ( I was only able to mark about ten trees a few years ago that would be clean) it was lucky I had started my collection at home as well, I received 12 apples form Grove with mosaic and last year I received Royal Gala from Woodbridge with Mosaic, these I burn to try to keep it clean but it gets harder as its transferred systemically and thru secateurs ( it is also though that it can transfer if roots grow (graft) themselves together under ground which would explain some observations of mine especially with so many at just 1/2 mtr apart on wires.

20 hrs ·

Petethe Permie so Neil I don't think we could even expect to have EMLA M26 or M9 clean rootstock anymore in Aus

20 hrs ·

Stu Burns I wonder if it's possible to use tissue culture to get clean material? It's been done with other species.

20 hrs ·

Cecilia Dart-Thornton Yes Stu Burns as far as I know this is the only way to clean plant tissue, and plants that have received this treatment respond by demonstrating incredible vigour. That said, Mark Brammer of Strzelecki Apples has ben experimenting with heat-treating apple scion to try to get rid of mosaic virus.

Stu Burns Does it work? I imagine the temps to kill viruses must be pretty close to what would kill the plant cells too.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton yes that's the problem. I don't know whether he's had any success, only that he was trying.BTW I always thought apple mosaic virus could be latent, ie.even if you don't see the little yellow spots, it's still lurking in the plant. Is this right?

Stu Burns I would guess that the virus will show symptoms to varying degrees in different plants, and the only way to know for sure if it's virus free is to test it.

Petethe Permie to clear up the EMLA class rootstocks they basically out ran the virus and regrafted from fast growing tips yearly until it was declared virus free, one of the tutors on my Permacultiure Design Certificate class has been getting a rootstock of me yearly to attempt this. But really its not too big a deal as all the virus does is reduce photosynthesis and therefore reduce vigour a bit- seems no other effects, its just as a supplier i want to only give out the best scion possible

Neville Burley Yep Cecilia Dart-Thornton it can be latent, so we might be wasting our time a bit, as said above it's not that big an issue as it presents worse on trees heavily stressed. Think of measles (a very mild dose) and this is how it behaves. Most commercial orchards carry it but it's not seen or so small amounts not noticed as the trees are watered and fed well. I've seen trees heavily covered still producing very large crops.

Petethe Permie so on that point I have a list of apples I would like to get mosaic virus free as my ones came with it and are located in another place

Petethe Permie so Bess Pool, Red Limbetwig, Royal Gala, and a few more, it took years to get Snow apple ( Famuse) that was clean as all the trees being produced & sold had it & and even from the large nursery producers

Ben Waite The temperature is only around 40 degrees and can be from a few minutes to several weeks depending on the virus and plant species.

You could experiment on infected scion from highly susceptible varieties.... though you would need clean rootstock to graft it onto.

Ben Waite For apple, I would suggest a couple of hours for stored scion in a 40 degree water bath would be survivable... maybe do it and graft them late so they could kick straight into growing, as that treatment would probably break dormancy?

Cecilia Dart-Thornton I've got access to Snow Apple from the 1940s. I don't think it's Fameuse, I think it's the blindingly white-fleshed one kids used to get in their school lunchboxes. It's from an orchard that's organic and appears to be virus free. I brought some scion to the last Petty's Grafting Day. Will probably be able to bring more next time.

Sandra McHarg There's an apple tree hanging over our fence from the neighbour's yard which I think is a Snow Apple. White flesh, deep pink-red skin, small fruit and very tasty. The tree is old but I don't know how old.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton Is the flesh a brilliant white, Sandra? It could be the good old Snowy!

Sandra McHarg This is what they look like. I don't think they're completely ripe yet- I'm fairly sure they go pink all over.
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Sandra McHarg This is one I bit into. It was tasty enough that I finished it- sweet and crisp.
Cecilia Dart-Thornton This looks very much like a real Snow Apple, Sandra!

Sandra McHarg Yay....not officially "my" tree but almost so. smile emoticon When she prunes them we usually take her prunings to fill swales or bulk up huge beds. Will have to use some as scion instead methinks.
0 Comments

Green-grafting Day at Meerlieu, January 2015

4/2/2015

0 Comments

 
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Neil Barraclough17 January at 22:25
Sharon with a grafted apricot at today's green grafting day, there could have been around 50 apricot varieties on Goodmans catalogue in 1914 and there is no trace of most of them today. Sharon brought in some scions from some very old un-named apricots, likely varieties no longer in circulation. Virtually all apricots are grown commercially north of the divide and the varieties available are mostly best suited to growing in the warmer, less humid conditions north of the d...ivide. Sharons trees won't live forever so hopefully we have done our bit today to keep them going.

Third picture is Laura with baby and an avocado grafted on the day, two of our members grew out some avocado's to share around. There are some cold tolerant seedling avocado's growing locally and future grafting days we hope to propagate from these. The fourth photo is a bag of apple and bag of pear rootstocks that have sat in sawdust left over from the grafting in August, being tried grafted ;with actively growing scion taken this morning and transplanted bare rooted, we'll see how we go, pessimists get more pleasant surprises. Peaches were also grafted on the day.

Everyone had a great day and the green grafting opens up a lot of possibilities. The methods similar to the other post on green grafting but as the rootstocks were all going into shade no alfoil was put over the grafts just a plastic press seal bag with the corner cut out.

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The second photo is some peaches, apricots and plums grown in pots for the day and shared out amongst those who wanted something grafted.
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Third picture is Laura with baby and an avocado grafted on the day, two of our members grew out some avocado's to share around. There are some cold tolerant seedling avocado's growing locally and future grafting days we hope to propagate from these. The fourth photo is a bag of apple and bag of pear rootstocks that have sat in sawdust left over from the grafting in August, being tried grafted; with actively growing scion taken this morning and transplanted bare rooted, we'll see how we go, pessimists get more pleasant surprises. Peaches were also grafted on the day.

Everyone had a great day and the green grafting opens up a lot of possibilities. The methods similar to the other post on green grafting but as the rootstocks were all going into shade no alfoil was put over the grafts just a plastic press seal bag with the corner cut out.

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Julie Downey Brilliant :)

17 January at 22:31 ·

Christine Hobbs I live in SA, so obviously cant get to these grafting sessions. It would be good to be able to access some of the older varieties, also would be good to have several on one or two trees ranging from early in the season to late in the season, so there is a succession of fruit, instead of a big glut as often happens & then often the fruit gets wasted because you dont have enough hours in a day to do things with them like preserves etc. Is there a list of the names of these old ones.17 January at 23:06 ·

Neville Burley It was a great day :)

18 January at 06:14 ·

Neil Barraclough Why do the books recommend a cleft or wedge graft for grafting evergreens? Because the wood is too soft for a whip and tongue to hold the scion on. I prefer a whip and tongue graft to a wedge graft so do a normal whip and tongue with such things as avocado's and put a cloths peg on the top of the graft to hold it till the bottom of the graft is held with tape, then take the peg off and finish tying the graft.

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 Philip O'Kelly I hope you were able to use the peach and apricot trees I sent in with Sharon. I couldn't make it yesterday.
18 January at 07:49 ·

Terry Frewin A question Neil, Neville et al - I hear you about leaving some leaves on the avo rootstock - however I lost a small avo tree last winter so I dug it up and put the rootstock into a pot. It grew a couple of weak -ish stems above the original graft

union. I knew at the time that it was probably a mistake but thought I'd try anyway - I cut through the rootstock below the original graft and cleft grafted a piece of the good Marraweeney seedling avo onto it. Of course there are no leaves on the rootstock.....so, any idea of my chances of success in this case? I've covered it with a plastic bag of course loosely tied, and it's shaded.
18 January at 07:56 ·

Neil Barraclough Chances should still be good Terry, Neville Burley had to graft an avocado very low yesterday because it was so thin and it still should have a good chance. There is a bit of a view that you should remove all the leaves from below the graft, we're saying just don't dash into it and let the leaves get a bit of size on them first but it circumstances don't allow it then don't stress. The seedlings were fantastic thanks Philip, a few people growing and potting up some seedlings made peoples day as they could all take home a grafted tree, well done mate.

18 January at 16:57 ·

Laura Duck I was hugely appreciative that I could bring what I had to trade for plants

18 January at 19:44 ·

Philip O'Kelly Hey Laura got plenty of fruit trees here if you want any.

18 January at 19:55 ·

Neville Burley What do you have Philip O'Kelly just as a matter of interest?

18 January at 20:45 ·

Philip O'Kelly Peach and apricot if anyone wants them or swap for something else.

18 January at 21:28 ·


  • Christine Hobbs Out of curiosity I went looking fro a list of the named old varieties of apricots, I found this list & below the main list is another list of known varieties that ddi exist, but no longer found. I do wonder how many of these old lost ones may still be out there somewhere in old gardens, I do know apricots are not a long lived fruit tree, but if someone had grow these from the seeds, would they be true to form?? They may have been regenerated that way, but who would know, as I am guessing no one living now would be able to identify these old lost ones.
    http://www.heritagefruitssociety.org.au/apricots
    Heritage Fruits Society - Apricots
  • Neil Barraclough Similar on our website- http://heritageandrarefruits.weebly.com/apricots.htmlApricots  18 January at 22:51 · 
  • Christine Hobbs I found it interesting that one of the farms mentioned a Mr Thiele being the property owner, He could perhaps be related to me, I go back to the very early days of colonization of SA & Theile's which I have coming in on my family tree twice were on the first shipments of migrants .18 January at 23:07 ·

  • Neil Barraclough The leaves all fell neatly where they meet the stem off one of the avocado grafts I am looking after, this is a good sign and with reasonable care the graft is expected to take.
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Neil Barraclough On the other graft I did the leaf I left above the graft dried up but stayed on the stem, it's best chance would be if we all joined in collective prayer, not unhappy with 50% as the rootstocks had recently bee repotted and avocado's need to be growing vigorously to get good results but will check how Neville Burley went and if he got 100% will try removing all the leaves as he does.
 Neville Burley I don't normally remove all the leaves, just had to on one of them because the trunk diameter was so small I had to graft below the branch start point. I had several take with leaves below and I gradually remove them as the scion gets going.
7 February at 23:29 · Like · 1

Laura Duck What's the feedback on mine?
10 February at 21:01 ·


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Neil Barraclough Take the plastic bag off it and keep it well watered and shaded tomorow. Hopefully the leaf will fall off neatly when you take the bag off and that is a good sign. A light dose of fertilizer will help, err on the light side though.
10 February at 21:04 ·

Laura Duck Ok cool
10 February at 21:19 ·

Steve Burns Was this day advertised anywhere? I'd like to attend similar next year..
10 February at 21:49 ·

Ben Waite there is the budding day in Werribbee next week Steve. A little different to green grafting but still a chance to get a few trees
10 February at 21:55 ·

Neville Burley This was run through our Meerlieu group. It looks like my graft may have taken so I'm 3/4 so far for avocados
10 February at 22:29 ·
0 Comments

Soil Nutrients

13/12/2014

1 Comment

 
Kym Stroud Smith
20 hrs
· Melbourne
I've seen a bit lately on deficiencies in plants.... and I've noticed that many of my plants, all around the garden, not just in the veggies garden, have started showing some yellowing with green veins. Then looking at friends' gardens, here there and everywhere, I'm seeing the same thing for the first time. Veggies garden has had rock dust before planting, Citrus has yearly iron treatment as well as trace elements. Citrus in the chook yard. What do you think is going on here? Something to do with lock up of some elements?

  • Amity Grace Griffiths Following, as I have had it here too.20 hrs ·
  • Peter Hurley Same here20 hrs ·

  • Eileen Ray Same here19 hrs ·

  • Dean Bryant Correct Kym. Iron can be locked up by excessive calcium, zinc, copper, manganese or phosphorus. These elements are antagonistic to the uptake of iron.
    Even if you give it iron it will only lock up & not be available.
    The solution here is Potassium which stimulates iron uptake.
    Happy days.
    19 hrs ·
  • Dean Bryant Mulder's chart explains this perfectly.19 hrs
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  • ·
  • Dean Bryant You may also find this one interesting.
    The biochemical sequence. This is the order in which plant nutrients are taken in.
    19 hrs ·
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  • Cath Stephensen I remember reading an article many years ago on the role of K, potassium, in protecting plants from heat stress, and looking at the information above, it just emphasises the importance of the so called 'minor' elements in plants ability to withstand the environment they find themselves planted in. Don't forget the important role of soil microbial health in helping to make these nutrients available & to inoculate plants against bacterial & fungal attack.18 hrs ·
  • Dean Bryant Compost, compost, compost. Make as much as you can to feed your soil foodweb.
    The soil foodweb is responsible for making all nutrients available to plants. One teaspoon of good garden soil contains over a billion beneficial microbes & 5 miles of fungi. This is your invisible soil foodweb.
    18 hrs ·
  • Kym Stroud Smith mmm yep. thought it must be something like that. What interests me is that has become so widespread across many gardens. Sandy soil, loam, clay. Looks like I'd better turn the compost again ;)17 hrs ·
  • Dean Bryant Soil is my passion. We grow soil & the soil grows blueberries. We consistently achieve Brix levels of over 32% every year for the last 7 years. Brix is the measurement of nutrition within the plant sap. Tells me that all nutrients are available at luxury levels for the nutrition to be this high. To my knowledge nobody has achieved levels anywhere near this. The best being 14%.
    As soon as the leaves appear they are at 19%
    Our blueberries have never suffered any pest or disease & have a shelf life of over 8 weeks. Soil organic levels are now over 10%. All with making good compost.
    17 hrs ·
  • Kym Stroud Smith Dean that is fabulous! Congratulations!17 hrs ·
  • Susana Bateson Dean Bryant I think I read that you too add coffee grounds to your compost? When I pick my weekly 12 gal bucket of coffee grounds up from my local coffee shop it is often slightly mouldy in the bottom, are these moulds likely to good ones that add to the soil web do you think? I do not add all the coffee to the compost every week some I sprinkle around the garden to deter slugs and snails too. I have 4 x1 metre compost bins (approx size) for my 3/4 acre garden. I also add some to my 3 worm farms as the worms seem to love it.3 hrs ·
  • Dean Bryant Yes Susana Bateson the fungi you see in the coffee grounds is very beneficial3 hrs ·
  • Susana Bateson Oh good thank you Dean, I had hoped that was the case.3 hrs
  • Dean Bryant Coffee grounds also contain valuable nutrients. Go to your nearest cafe & ask if you can have theirs everyone.3 hrs · 
  • Dean Bryant I swap blueberries for mine. You could also offer to pay for a coffee for someone in advance.3 hrs ·
1 Comment
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    Neil Barraclough is dedicated to the preservation of our horticultural diversity.

    Neil is the founder of the Heritage and rare Fruits Network. Some of the group's Facebook posts have been copied to this website.

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