Pruning and Training Chuck's Frankentree, Apple, Notching, Borers, Delayed Open Center

[@bulfrog5]

using the guitar string to delete the borer is brilliant.

[@russellhowe9631]

After watching some permaculture videos last year, I started putting runner beans and daffodils around the bases of some of my newly planted fruit trees. The daffs flower just before the fruit trees and bring in the pollinators, but also keep grass away from the base and flatten out to mulch and protect the soil from the sun and to retain moisture. The runner beans were to provide a nitrogen source and additional crop (in keeping with the Frankentree idea?) using the tree as a frame to climb up. I was thinking, that if you were to grow beans up the trunk, the leaves would protect it from the scorching effects of the sun. Just got some scion material off my mate’s plum tree so will be commencing my very own Frankenplum, thanks for the inspiration👍🍎💡

[@SkillCult]

I have a long standing project using bulbs as understories for just those purposes that is probably close to 10 years in. If you have any videos that talk about that, I'd like to see them. I conceived that approach by observing bulb behavior around here in our mediterranean climate, where we can't afford to have a bunch of other plants under the tree all summer sucking up the water and nutrients. I've tried to start making vids on it a couple of times, but haven't pulled it off yet. I do have some blog posts though that outline the experiment and progress to a point. skillcult.com/search?q=understories The preliminary results so far are that very few bulbs I've found do the job well. The most successful are amaryllis known as Naked Ladies. They are aggressive and kill off almost all annual weeds once established. Otherwise, only a very few Narcissus species perform well, the best being the chinese sacred lily and the double form of that which might be called constantinople, but I'm not sure. There may be one or two others, but nothing certainly outperforms those for vigor, timing, width and density of the leaves, earliness and going into dormancey early. They are not as effective as the amaryllis, but they are much hardier. I could grow beans if I irrigated, but I rarely irrigate my fruit trees, so I usually don't plant anything else underneath them during the growing season.

[@russellhowe9631]

I am going to do some videos about my gardening adventures this year, I have some footage shot from last year but I need some video editing ability as posting it in the raw would not be a pleasant experience for anyone. I am looking at a MacBook to buy in the new year once I have discussed it with my mate who knows about such things as I want to do some other visual art projects also. My last laptop got fried a year and a half ago and I haven’t replaced it yet after Windows 10 installed itself and I uninstalled it, so no more PCs for me. I did a load of cleft grafts yesterday using plastic bag wrap so excited to see what occurs, also have set some cuttings from the rootstock that sprouted after the original shop bought graft failed. Phase one of my Frankenplum is now in motion. Frankenapple, and Frankencherry in the pipeline:-) Frankenpear maybe as I’ve not had any fruit off my 2 season old pear yet. I haven’t done any meaningful experimentation with bulbs and trees as I have just been banging as much stuff in the ground as possible in the 8m x 10m plot that is my available back garden space. Will let you know when I do my first vid.

[@alternativepets2]

@@SkillCult I wonder whether growing onion and garlic around the trees would be as beneficial as those other bulbs.

[@Jhossack11]

Man, Skilly goes out on vacation and comes back droppin' cool vids! I like it, like it a lot.

[@SkillCult]

I'm skillin' it.

[@prettyoutside7464]

Love it, sir! Thanks for sharing. - Davi

[@666Necropsy]

really enjoy coming back and checking out the progress on your projects.

[@SkillCult]

cool. I like following stuff. Hard to get to it all, but I'm sure we'll revisit Chuck's tree again in a year or two.

[@blackguard5883]

Is it sad that when Chuck asked whether to notch above or below, I already knew the answer? Thanks for giving me these facts to absorb, and especially for making the learning experience enjoyable. I think your biggest appeal is that you are NOT pedantic. You just show how it's done, giving proper explanations as to the why of it. Again, thanks for sharing your brain contents with us Steve.

[@SkillCult]

I think that's awesome! I had already said it, but Chuck was busy looking up words in the dictionary. Phenology and Phrenology.

[@kubakielbasa5987]

With the notch I think the tree wants to heal it, but the bud uses up the nutrients.

[@newq]

Really makes me wish apples would work around here. :/ There's too many cedars in Kansas and they carry cedar-apple rust. Every apple tree I've planted succumbed to it.

[@SkillCult]

That's a bummer :(

[@ImTakinMeFishin]

Ever find a resistant strain?

[@andrejofak4787]

Hi, I am new with trees. Is there a SkillCut for stoner fruit like peaches? What you are doing with apples is really great, keeping them low height and looking so nice at the same time. I love this about art also - understanding the mechanisms of action(some call this science), but for the sake of keeping the poetry and story telling in motion...I see this in your approach to trees. I am an artist but have bought some land and have panted about 30 trees in last couple of months. There are also some old neglected trees on the property, eating mostly fruit this is something I am inspired to do and care for. Love your vids, that have helped me prune my first trees last week :)

[@emlillthings7914]

I've played with a hardy bush indoors in much the same way as you to with that apple-tree, minus grafting, and generally more adhoc and crude, yet the various responses from the bush were most in accordance with how your tree works. I use the insight to prune trees into funky shapes, whilst experimenting on ways to get as much 'tree pr.cm' while retaining ease of access(+harvest)... as you are undoubtedly gathering, it's partly why I've made a habit of topping trees with an axe. Have you tried/thought of grafting trees you'd generally make firewood/materials out of? I played with the thought, but my 'greenthumb' is a knuckly touch of death.

[@diogenesthevlog6589]

I learnt a lot

[@SkillCult]

Yay!

[@stephenluna7932]

Lots of fun seeing the progress does it matter what color latex paint or is white best?

[@SkillCult]

White is good at reflecting light and there is some talk that it is better at repelling borers. Any light color is probably fine though.

[@rosehavenfarm2969]

Hello, Mr Skill...new subscriber, I arrived from David the Good's channel. Thanks for the great information. We just planted our apple trees in March. You mentioned at the end of this video about fruiting vs vegetative buds. Is there a way to tell the difference? Thank you!

[@SkillCult]

Welcome. You can't always tell the difference, but fruit buds are typically fatter. sometimes they seem to decide not to make flowers though.

[@oxbowfarm5803]

In terms of the things that went wrong with the borer under the rope and the sunburn on the trunk, what kind of maintenance painting on the trunk is necessary? Once a year, once every three years? Should you be checking under things touching the trunk once a month or just every six for borer activity? I mean in an ideal world with all the labor you could wish for.

[@SkillCult]

It depends on the situation. This trunk was shaded until we cut off all the suckers and cleared the vegetation. Just up the trunk where it grew up always exposed to the sun, there is no sunburn. Still, it is best not to leave anything exposed that will get direct sun for long periods. the tops of limbs are especially bad the same way the top of your nose is more easily burned. I don't know the exact timing. My neighbor said he checks in the spring and in late summer. I'm not sure what happened with the rope. It was padded, but maybe it rubbed a thin spot. Borers like sunburned areas and I assume other damaged or cracked areas. Painting depends on the paint and the rapidity of tree growth. If the tree is growing fast, more often.

[@zombiefighterof1987]

I know this is off topic, but have you heard about the Wetterlings forge situation? Any thoughts on it?

[@SkillCult]

Nope, haven't heard anything.

[@zombiefighterof1987]

Well in the long and short of it, Wetterlings forge is closing and will be an extension of Gransfors Bruks now.

[@SkillCult]

Hadn't heard. I guess it just is what it is. Seems unpreferable though. Diversity is good.

[@harrybowman6245]

I guess its a good feeling to graft your own creation and bite me is the first tree thats name has a double meaning that I have heard of, are there any you know of ?

[@SkillCult]

I have not. Never thought of that.

[@southwestprimitiveantonio9123]

the traffic noise sucks!

[@SkillCult]

Yep, hadn’t been to town for about 3-1/2 weeks. It was culture shock. Unfortunately, I don’t have any directional mics.

[@portugeeprepper6821]

Hello new subscriber, just found the channel. Thanks for sharing the great videos, keep it up. I might try my hand at some grafting this spring. Btw I have a new channel on backyard homesteading, if you have some time please come on over and check it out. Thanks and take care!!