Before knowing I was closing the nursery, I started several seed beds of cornelian cherry and pawpaw trees from seeds. The plants are grown in raised beds in a mixed woodland type of environment with irrigation. (Slow but steady wins the race with these species. Ask my mascot, the box turtle.) The issue was it …
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Blog
November 7, 2026
There is still time to schedule tours of Oikos Tree Crops tree crop farm this year. So far the weather has been fairly nice. A tour lasts about an hour and a half. It is a walking tour and covers roughly a half mile of trails up and down hills. You also will get a …
Continue reading “Fall Farm Tours Still Available-Pick Persimmons”…
August 10, 2026
When I first started propagating plants in the early 80’s I realized I needed moisture proof tables that could handle lots of weight. The tops had to be immune to wet acidic soil. I soon found out that the office tables said to take moisture had particle board coated in a linoleum type top which …
Continue reading “Propagation Tables-Plant Production Available Now”…
August 6, 2026
For the first time in a long, long time wood tables made exclusively with harvested hybrid American chestnut wood will be available at the Oikos Tree Crops farm direct. Currently slated for November release, I am busy as a beaver trying to make use of a crop of wood which was harvested over a decade …
May 3, 2026
Every variety of fruit has a certain history found within it. Trying to find that history is sometimes best explained by turning the seeds within it into seedlings. The seedlings continue to tell the story is surprising ways. Here is the continuing story of a 250 year old pear tree from Maine and my experience …
May 2, 2026
Finding the perfect combination of flavor, productivity and ease of harvest takes partience in the world of the rose only because the fruit of of the rose has never been given serious thought. As everyone knows the rose is a floral crop not a woody plant fruit crop. This was my attempt at finding that …
April 25, 2026
Finding the right seed sources for trees was important to me. Chestnut trees are grown throughout Michigan and many great examples exist of both cultivated and wild trees of unknown origins. It was both a puzzle to solve and a means for me to secure seeds for my nursery for tree production. One such selection …
Continue reading “The Inbetweeners: Hybrid American Chestnuts”…
April 25, 2026
The “Ozette” potato was considered the only ‘wild’ cultivated potato direct from South America to North America by Spanish explorers in the late 1700’s in the Pacific Northwest and raised by the Makah tribe. (See the above picture of it grown at my farm twenty years ago.) I liked that idea as a sort of …
April 11, 2026
Of the many chestnuts I grow, the chinquapin never disappoints. Every year it is laden with crops. The only thing I wish was that I planted more of them. I only had four producing plants for many years. Yet from this small grouping, I found out how specific it was in growing it to obtain …
Continue reading “Chinquapin Chestnut and A New Variety: Resilient”…
March 30, 2026
Free shipping for all orders placed now through December -2026. New seeds are coming on line shortly including American persimmon. Yet never underestimate the need for a wild selection of a common crop plant as the Quantum potato makes its debut as an actual real potato using the selections with the heaviest yields. Edgar the …