ACL Letter #18 - Sequoias, Seedlings, and Serenbe
The newly planted orchard in the old garden area at the farm.
Planting Sequoias
One of my favorite Wendell Berry quotes is "invest in the millennium, plant a sequoia". Expanding our time horizons, delaying gratification, and planting seeds that might take a while to fruit but will stand the test of time is a road less travelled, but we need folk to travel them.
We didn't actually plant sequoias. But it feels that way because won't be harvesting much from our newly planted trees for at least a few years. Instead of sequoias, we planted mulberries, apples, pears, persimmons, peaches, plums, sumacs, melon trees. I am hoping, with proper care, this orchard will be enjoyed by multiple generations.
Late fall and early winter is the time to plant trees. This makes the second time I have planted fruit trees in this particular area on the farm. The first time was in 2016. They were all seedlings and all started out really well. But after repeated abuse by a resident deer, whose incessant rubbing of his antlers along the trunks caused the bark to be rubbed completely off almost every tree, they eventually succumbed to disease and died.
So this time around, I was excited to use tree guards or "grow tubes". First, they tubes will keep deer off of the trees until they are well established. Secondly, the guards will form a nice micro climate and protect the trees on windy days as well as freezing nights.
I bought most of our trees from Hidden Springs Nursery. They sell their trees bare-root and 1-2 years old. They have tried and true varieties that are bred to be disease and pest resistant. It's a small nursery that is run by two ladies who have been in the business of growing saplings a long time. There were a few varieties I wanted that Hidden Springs didn't carry. These I bought from a local nursery. Instead of bare root, these trees were 2-4 years old and sold in pots. I'll be curious to see how the growth rates compare between the potted and bare-root trees over the next few years.
This is a grafted apple tree. If you look closely you will see the black tape where the "scion" was grafted to the rootstock. The "scion" is usually selected for its fruit, while the rootstock is selected for its vigor and disease resistance. In this picture, look right above the black tape and notice the white spots along the scion. That's where some critter decided to taste the tree. Another reason I'm excited about the tree guards.
A tree with a "grow tube" from Plantra
Potted apple tree going in the ground.
Here is a 7 year old pear tree. It's the lone survivor from 10+ trees planted in 2016. The scars along the trunk are from deer damage. The "suckers" or growth coming form the base of the tree is growth coming from the rootstock. It's NOT what we want and should be trimmed back. Because the tree is dormant, I will wait to trim until very late winter. This is good practice because the tree will need to actively heal itself once cut to prevent being exposed to disease, etc. In some cases, pruning or trimming too early can induce the tree to come out of dormancy before its time and this isn't ideal either.
Serenbe and Seedlings
In our latest podcast we talk about visiting Serenbe and the plants Morgan has chosen to grow this spring. (You can listen here on Spotify and here on Buzzsprout.) Now is the time to start ordering your seeds for the spring if you haven't already. The early crops like kale and cabbage will need to be seeded indoors now and your warm season crops like tomatoes in the coming weeks.
Lettuce and kale seedlings emerging.
We are still using seeds from 2020! We store our seeds in a mason jar in the fridge with humidity eaters inside. so far so good! This is our favorite variety of kale. Baker Creek calls it a cabbage, which is unusual. Toscano, or "Dinosaur" Kale.
This is the seed starter mix we are using. First time using it.
In ep.7 of the podcast I mentioned flipping the bag over and making sure the seed starting mix didn't have NPK in it. That's not exactly right. What I should have said, was I wanted to make sure the bag wasn't getting its NPK (or fertilizer) from chemical agents. This bag is getting its nutrients (NPK) from Earthworm castings and Oyster Shell. Once I saw this, I was good with it. The mycorrhizae added to the bag was icing.
Our humble little seed starting station.
Morgan (and baby) and I with Steve Nygren, the founder of Serenbe - an amazing little town/development outside Atlanta.
This is the entrance to Serenbe Farms from the neighborhood. To the left of where this picture was taken is a row of townhomes being built. to the right are established homes. This model is a win-win. The farmer has easy access to his market and can focus his efforts on growing nutrient dense food instead of post harvest storage methods and traveling to markets hours away in some cases. The consumers, or families buying form the farmer, can see where there food is being grown, know the person growing it, eat food that is at its peak freshness and nutrient quality, and live in a community where its delivered to their door weekly.
A look down the farm. In the distance you can see a chicken "tractor". This is a mobile chicken coop that is moved around the farm to spread nutrient dense manure to areas that are fallow. They also eat pesky bugs as they are emerging out of the ground in early spring. A great way to break pest lifecycles in organic agriculture.
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