Thursday, September 12, 2013

Sweet Sixteen (apple)

I decided to thin out my orchard by the barn.  The trees are too close together to conveniently mow between them.  One of the trees that is slated for removal is my one tree of Sweet Sixteen.

I decided to combine a couple of activities.  I noticed that I have a shortage of apple seedlings to graft over.  I also noticed that Sweet Sixteen is an exemplary mother.  The trees sometimes have excessive spurry wood on them, but a significant percentage seem to carry the Sweet Sixteen aromatics.  Those aromatics originated in Northern Spy.

The south end of the future asparagus bed
10 gallons of windfall Sweet Sixteen.  Possible pollen parents include GoldRush, Liberty and some Jonafree seedlings.
Spread on the ground.

Tilled in.

Add water and wait.

I am also short of pear rootstock, so I am pondering potential parents.  So far (Harrow Sweet X Mustafabey) and (Potomac X Olympic) are the leading contenders.

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