I am always surprised to find that no animals will consume the pawpaw seed. There is really only a very insanely small number of seeds that animals or insects will not eat. I often viewed my nursery seed beds as the most valuable portion of my nursery as well as the most expensive buffet of …
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September 9, 2022
Briana Apricots Harvested this Year from Three Generations of Trees Mention growing apricots in the north and often you will hear “Not apricots, they flower too early”. But at the same time the question of its possibilities and practicalities arises. The apricot shares a long history with humans as both the seeds and the fruit …
Continue reading “Briana Apricot-From Seed-One Great Fruit Nut Tree”…
September 9, 2022
Starting from beach plums, I began growing lots of plums at my farm in the early 1980’s. I had no irrigation at the farm and filled 5 gallon buckets from my house 25 miles away. (I always had to take corners slowly!) I was a fan of yucca extract and humates and used them in …
Continue reading “Plum Good: North American Plum Selections”…
September 9, 2022
Wild plums are found everywhere in North America. Many of them look alike. Some are small shrubs like the beach plum. Others are tall trees to thirty feet like the Chickasaw plum. They thrive in the mountains. Some live in wetlands. Others are found in the desert. I think I have grown them all. But …
Continue reading “The Wild Goose Plum-From One Seed to Another”…
August 1, 2022
Finding blueberries is pretty easy in Michigan. Where I live in southwestern Michigan there are many farms dedicated to growing them. With one farm exception that uses massive irrigation on sandy soil with lots of mulch, they are grown in wetlands or were wetlands prior to their farming. As the image above of my family …
Continue reading “The “Madeline” Blueberry-The Wild is Brought Back”…
March 8, 2022
It is a not the healthiest world we live in right now. Not everyone is accepting of others but sometimes in the midst of it all, there are break throughs of understanding and compassion. The same is true of our relationship with plants. In some ways, on some deep emotional level …
February 22, 2022
Many years ago right after graduating from college, I began joining organizations and arboreta and played an active role in seed exchange. During that time, I found many like minded individuals that thought the best safety net for plants is dispersion. I wanted to be the Seed Savers Exchange of woody plants. Without some sort …
December 18, 2021
A work of art like this stone Egyptian water buffalo at the New York Met can last many lifetimes. Plant discoveries can create the same effect. By contributing to that which has come before, it can make life easier for future generations. A certain level of appreciation for the artist and scientist is generated …
Continue reading “Full Expression Plant Discoveries-Find What You Are Looking For”…
November 20, 2021
The American Persimmon Defined When I first heard of the American Persimmon I had just graduated from college with an interest in starting a fruit farm with my brother in southwestern Michigan. I had a small landscape maintenance company trying to develop the concept of edible landscapes. In the winter I would work by pruning …
November 7, 2021
When I first started growing groundnuts over 20 years ago, I had little information on how to produce the plant or use it. It was an edible wild plant I remember reading about in high school when I was diving into those survival in the wild books. I remember ordering the tubers from J.L. Hudson …
Continue reading “The Groundnut-Weed, Protein and Global in Nature”…