Care of a newly grafted apple tree
One
of my favorite parts of homesteading is the daily surprises.
Sunday, the hummingbirds showed up and I learned that the tiny birds
sustain themselves in the early spring on peach blossoms and the
like. Monday, I harvested our first two asparagus spears in
preparation for the hard freeze. And Tuesday I noticed that my baby apple trees were starting to leaf out.
Most of the trees' action
so far is on the rootstock, which is normal but which requires a little
care. With newly grafted trees, you don't want the rootstock to
put its energy into growing leaves and branches. Instead, you'd
like the plant to focus on healing up that junction between rootstock
and scionwood, then to start feeding energy into the scionwood
above. To keep the baby trees in line, I went through and
carefully picked off the sprouts coming off the rootstocks, and will
repeat the task as needed until the scionwood is growing strong.
Like many aspects of
homesteading, care of a baby tree doesn't take much time, but should be
timely. I think the biggest difference between someone with a
green thumb and someone who kills every plant they try to raise is the
willingness to spend a few minutes a day with their eyes wide open, then
a few more minutes tending to whatever needs their care. Just
walking through our core homestead with my senses wide open is another
of my favorite parts about homesteading.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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