How I Make New Apple Varieties, Simple Pollination Method Anyone Can Do
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 кві 2022
- Updated pollination method for breeding apples. The apple seeds from these crosses will be available next Winter. Best crosses ever!
Support on / skillcult has been critical in keeping me experimenting and making content. If you want to help me help others, this is probably the best way to do it. Thank you Patrons for supporting the mission!
Donations can also be sent via PayPal @: www.paypal.com/paypalme/Skill...
Buy less, but buy it through my links! Shopping through my affiliate links generates revenue for me, at no extra cost to you, click links here, or go to my Amazon Store page: skillcult.com/amazon-store/ But seriously, buy less, do more.
Organza Bags: I recommend buying different colors for Different sizes.
6x9: amzn.to/3xn19Jg
8x12: amzn.to/3uumWwO
12x16: amzn.to/3E4xRAr
16x24: amzn.to/3E1IP9N
The Paper I use for pollen packets, black so you can see the pollen. Origami thickness, black all the way through, not coated:. Well into my second ream! amzn.to/3utxZGF
Gelly Roll White gel Pen #10 tip: amzn.to/37E8SrK
Standard gear I recommend. I either use or have used all of it.
Council Tool Boys Axe: amzn.to/3z0muqI
Bahco Farmer's File: amzn.to/3Hbdhij
King two sided sharpening stone: amzn.to/32EX1XC
Silky f180 saw: amzn.to/3yZzM71
ARS 10 foot long reach pruner: amzn.to/3esETmM
Victorinox grafting/floral knife: amzn.to/3Jki1E9
Wiebe 12” fleshing tool: amzn.to/3sB0qSl
Atlas Elbow Gloves: amzn.to/3FwB5g6
BOOKS:
The Axe Book, by Dudley Cook: amzn.to/32kx7sN
Bushcraft, by Mors Kochanski: amzn.to/32q2rpT
Subscribe to my channel for more insightful Self Reliance related content: ua-cam.com/users/skillcultsubs... Click the bell icon to be notified of new content. Subscribing doesn’t mean that much on it’s own.
Blog and website: www.skillcult.com/blog
Instagram and Facebook @SkillCult
I am getting ready to plant 24 grafted trees today and your videos have gotten me really excited about growing a lot of different varieties. Thanks for documenting your project and sharing it with us!
So you've contracted the apple disease ;) Seriously, that label printer is awesome. Big time saver.
Make sure to watch his tree training videos. I followed his process and my trees are getting amazing structure without lopping off the leader...huge time saver.
@@paulsell2438 I've seen a few of them. In 2020, I planted some apple seeds and now I am starting to think about how I want shape the trees. I will be trying out the notching method for stimulating branch growth on those trees.
@@HacknBuild notching was a game changer in forming my trees...good luck 👍
This year I am crossing your Surgarwood with another Etter apple, Thornberry. Also crossing Sugarwood with Otterson.
Have you fruited thornberry? I have it, but I think it only fruited weakly a couple of times. Never been able to figure out what it's about.
@@SkillCult I have a bench graft done in 2019 to a M7 . It fruited for me last year. It grew well, it was scab free in very scaby year, it’s flesh had only the slightest pink just under the skin, and the taste and texture was great - nice sugar acid balance. I’m making the cross with your Etter masterpiece so as to create a three way Etter seedling. Thanks for all your inspiring videos.
Thanks for sharing your skills. Can graft thanks to you and adding apples to my orchard every year in the UK
🍎 !
Have you found any golden Harvey?
"The Edholm Method: Tree Training for Dummies" I like it...😎 those bags might be useful this year for my elderberries as well. The birds just decimate them before I get to harvest. My Black Strawberry and BITEME! were the first trees to flower this year. Already began making a few crosses with existing apple trees here. Thanks for the massive amount of knowledge you out out to the world.
I hope you get some good fruit out of those. Sometimes the first fruiting is pretty lame. Don't pick BITE ME! too early.
Can't tell you how much I appreciate your knowledge and offerings. Your pollen is gold for people like me who are just curious and want to dabble in interesting things. I have a very small orchard nestled amongst hills that is rather well protected from winds and I have no knowledge of any other fruit trees within miles.....I sit in the middle of vast stretches of grass seed fields. Now that I hand pollinate with pollen from you I have been getting much better fruiting. I hope you continue to share your expertise for a long long while. Next up for me is getting comfortable with pruning so I can get my inherited trees back in good shape over the next new winters. Kudos!
Hi Cindy. glad to help. You should definitely learn to graft and add some new varieties to those trees. It will completely take care of your pollination issues and you'll have a lot more variety. and long season!
@@SkillCult I SO appreciate this! I will do just that! So glad there are people like you who share experiences and trials. Gotta learn from somewhere! Thank you and thanks for your answer, it will def make a difference for me!
Skillcult!! Missed these apple videos
A ton of tips! Nice to see those subscriber numbers go up, I predict 100k subs by July 1: party time. Thanks for the video.
Within the first 5 minutes im smiling for you and exited to see the development.
Were all gonna make it
Great video, congratulations Steven. keep your excellent work, your input into the community is really important, the content in the SkillCult channel is helping and inspiring a lot of people and new comers to a new wave of agricultural and genetics game. Thank you a lot, hope I'll be able to grow your apple varieties next to mine here in Portugal.
Interesting to see how your methods are evolving. I'm still using indivual pollens, a glass rod and my special scissors for removing calyx. 40 hours work last year produced 300 seeds (and we had some bad frosts) which was fine; I also get a lot of seeds from adjacent pollinations by bees - noting which pairs are both adjacent and flowering at the same time.
I like the bagging method. I'll see if any of my controls self pollinate, then maybe try to grow some of the seeds out if they do.
@@SkillCult Looks a good method. Would be interested in your results (and germination rate) with the self-pollinated. I am finding that some SP trees produce pips which do not germinate. It surprised me, and I'd be interested to see if you find the same.
Excellent new content Steven, and I'm keenly interested in your new methods and crosses. Thanks for feeding my addiction!
Great stuff there Steven! Good to hear you are successful at fundraising for the new homestead!
And a thought about breeding: Using a mix of pollen is actually similar to the concept of mob breeding sometimes used in animal husbandry, where you let a selected group of males compete to breed your females. You don’t select just one, but select a group that has good traits, but then let the nature do the job of selecting the strongest one among them. While it is much easier time and management wise, it might have positive effects on the breeding results as well. In any case, it is definitely not detrimental to the end goal. You can never predict what exactly will come out of breeding anyway:)
Almost all of your scions that I bench grafted have taken, with the exception of the Williams pride x Vixen, but it's still early. Framework grafts have not show signs of life but we still aren't at bud break time. I'm very excited to see how these varieties do on the east coast.
Good to hear! Look forward to hearing feedback eventually.
Thanks! Maybe you could sell sprouted seedling trees someday. Still had no luck with the germination of the seeds I ordered. I tried the temp cycling method as you wrote out, without much luck.
@@wtfrankian I should have video content on sprouting seeds soon. Try sprouting them in the fridge, either in soil, or in a damp medium like sawdust or charcoal. Or put them in and leave them until they sprout, instead of cycling. Also, avoid too high heat or they can go dormant.
Thanks for the vid
A great carpentry joke Steven and a great Spring video with beautiful blossoms! Kind Thanks! Did you hear about the skeleton that walked into a bar and ordered a beer and a mop? DaveyJO in Pennsylvania
I did not, but I'm assuming the joke is the punch line :)
@@SkillCult of course, I knew you would
My apples haven't budded out yet so I'm getting my fix vicariously.
It’s crazy the differences in season. My apple trees are just starting to bloom now. Glad your sales did well. Love your content, as always.
Wow, that is really late. I guess stuff probably grow and ripen faster there too.
@@SkillCult Yeah we have maybe 100 frost free days. But even for here we were late this year.
I asked this question before so hopefully I didn't just miss your reply. Do you notice a trend in your seedling apples, where the seedling tends to take more traits from the seed parent or pollen parent? I presume it's a complex mix of dominant and recessive genes like with human babies, but you do always label seed x pollen (or vice versa, I've forgotten) so maybe you have some wisdom on this.
Also, best of luck with the move! I passed on seeds this year because I have to move soon myself. Luckily I do all my apple growing in pots for now (besides convincing people to let me graft onto their trees, hah)
I don't think I have quite enough data and results yet to make those observations well. I also have not paid a lot of attention. I have found myself tending toward crossing in certain directions. I don't know how much that is imformed by experience or just some kind of "intuition" of some sort.
I had the same problem with only the petals removed, a lot of bees the next day. I also wanted to get some organza bags, the only thing ist the rare time.
I hope I can get some black strawberry scions one of these days.. I never catch when you offer them.
Hey looks better than your old laptop! Macbooks are great.
I've pretty much always had macbooks. I'm on the third. Expensive as hell, but I think I save a lot of accumulated time.
In my neck of the woods (Southern New England) the Macoun apple often develops a berry flavor.
Didn't know that. It hasn't impressed me much here, but it is a hard climate for a lot of apples.
Can you share the video where you discuss making bud clips, I'm interested in seeing if that will be better than tying down branches?
ua-cam.com/video/BBmHuPok3w8/v-deo.html it's just about getting a wide angle right where the branch leaves the trunk.
I love that joke! Gonna have to throw that around the jobsite. I love messing with the little baby boys, sorry but a girl gotts to have some fun.
If you sold the ready made bud clips, I would buy them :D
Hello!
Is it possible to make new varieties using this method with pears, plums, figs and other fruits? Thanks in advance!
Came for the bio char stayed for the apples.
One thing that I have been doing in the past that has proven to be quite tedious to do is use disposable foot sox (stockings) to cover each fruit that I want to protect on my pear tree from bugs and other pests. My tree is still young and not very productive so I was ok doing this, and it works. Once the tree grows bigger, however, I will have to find something else that works. Seeing your organza bags seems to be less work for protecting the fruit and more time efficient. Do you think it would be feasible for that or is there a better way to do this? Thanks
Tried my first sugar bee apple today. It was good but not great. I have a crimson crisp to try next.
It seems to be a steady stream of crisp, sweet apples without a lot of flavor character. It would not be hard to inject some flavorful genes into the mix. They must not want to. I would guess that many of those new crisp apples pollinated with wickson could yield something really unique and special.
@@SkillCult They raved about the sugar bee at the produce stand but It still taste like it was missing something to me. Have you tasted one or read the story about them? I have heard honey crisp can have bad fruit every other year. I use a lot of EM1 and bokashi in gardening and I'm thinking of putting it in holes around my fruit trees.
@@matthewking2209 I've had honey bee. It was okay, just not very dimensional flavor wise. same with all of them really, though I haven't tasted them all. Opal was pretty good, but the possibilities are so great. If your frame of reference is store apples, it's easier to get excited about a new one that is slightly better or more interesting, or does they things they do well slightly better.
@@SkillCult Store bought apples are just a reference to possible trees I would like to plant without wasting money on something I wouldn't like. I know the flavor would be different from what I grew than something grown commercially or on a farm. I grow mostly veggies and about 40 different types of tomatoes and peppers every year. I have come to realize soil health, biology and things like biochar effect the flavor and nutrition content. After watching your video of how you got to where you are. I would Like to share my path.
We share some similarity but through different paths. While you put in action what came from punk rock, Christ reveled Himself to me and my path suddenly changed. I was in bondage to meds, cigarettes' ,the food I ate, entertainment ,my bad habits and routines. This event happened as I sat on my carport smoking cigarettes' and on pain meds. I was hit with conviction that put me on my face and reveled the Truth. I was given a choice and excepting what was offered I was told to fast and pray. I was obedient to it and in 12 days I was set free and learned what it mint by the words man should live not by bread alone but every word that preceded out the mouth of God. I was being brought to a place to be completely dependent on Christ and not materials or people.
To be in the world but not of the world or be lead astray through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. I haven't had a cell phone or tv in 7 years and my computer is going on 8 years now. I use tings like the computer, power and the internet but am I dependent on these thing No. I have been to a place to where all I had was Christ, my world crumbled around me and I found all I needed was in Him. I would love to be 100% self reliant but I don't know if that is even possible in a neighborhood with only about 3/4 of an acre. I could acquire land but what about those who are lured in to this world. If everyone had enough land to be self reliant then I don't know if there would be enough land for every family so that freedom only works for some people. I'm thankful that in Christ there is another way to not be controlled by this world. As Jesus said for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
My pursuit is to work with my hands and learn to provide for those when this worlds systems fail and to help those in time of need. I do think something is ingrained in us from God and the fall of humanity, being kicked out of the garden of Eden. There is a longing to be back there, for example in paradise with Christ the tree of life bares 12 different types of fruit 12 times a year. In the beginning we were to be gardeners to tend it and keep what God had made.
Hi love the videos, looking for advice on cutting a cherry tree..i only see 2 scaffolds where i want to cut for BYOC.. but i don't know if the other nodes near it have been activated or knocked off , what would you do? I can cut higher by a foot to incorporate more scaffolds.. but was hoping to keep it lower.. I'm perplexed .
Sweet cherries are a pain in the butt. they want to grow with no buds, then put out a ring of scaffolds, then grow up again. It's hard to get them to do what you want them to do. You just have to work with what they give you. Don't overthink it.
@@SkillCult ok I'll just leave it for now.. and see if any activate thanks!
Really hoping you can find an affordable piece of land you can set up on man. You've done too much to stall out at this point. Thanks for everything.
Whats the best way to connect to you socially these days, would like some input on something
I have watched a lot of your videos. I don't think I have seen anything about how you get your rootstock. Do you grow rootstock from seed, or buy it, or wut?
I buy some. I grow some too, seedlings and stooled apple clonals stocks. It's not that hard to grow rootstock by stooling, but you have to plan ahead. I use some suckers too. for bulk rootstock, I usually buy from copenhaven or willamette valley nursery.
What are your thoughts on using linseed oil as a leather treatment? I have an old knife with a stacked leather handle. Over time the leather has shrunk a little and as a result the guard is loose. I was thinking about soaking the handle in linseed oil in an attempt to swell the leather thus remediating the looseness.
That might be okay. I"m not sure you should fully saturate it though. I would probably look at the possibilty of tightening the handle, or even adding a ring if you can take it apart. Some, like the old westerns, have a screw nut you can tighten. Other are peened over on the metal end of the handle. If not, I guess I would probably try soaking with oil enough to fill it back out.
@@SkillCult Experiment update: I left the handle soaking in linseed oil for a week without sanding off any of the old patina which was on the leather. The handle seems heavier than it was before but I might just be imagining that because it doesn't seem like the leather swelled very much. I have since tightly wrapped some twine around the tang in between the leather washers and the guard. I saturated this twine with linseed oil and left it to cure.
With the addition of this twine the handle is very tight.
Conclusions: The leather did soak up some oil, as some did squeeze out when I added the twine. Perhaps it would have worked if I had left the handle to soak for longer or sanded it to better expose the pores. I'm hoping that the twine will become a hard composite material with the addition of oil.
Thanks for the reply!
Can you sterilize in between applications with isopropyl alcohol? People kill pollen with that with other crops like potatoes
the issue is really conservation of pollen. I could just use new swabs, but then I waste all the pollen on the old ones. I got some tiny microbrushes for makeup that I'll try next year. But even so, I think it will be more pollen than I want to waste. The other option is just collecting more pollen, but that's not always possible. but if I wanted to be completely sure of the parents as possible, I'd have to use a new swab every time. I could keep track of the swabs by labeling with both parents, but talk about hassles I don't need....
Anyone know if he sells seeds or seedlings that would do well in zone 3?
None of my stuff is really tested in cold regions yet. I do usually have some crosses made with trailman. I would get that and put pollen of other knon hardy varieties on it, like chestnut crab and sweet 16.
How did your controls turn out, did any actually self pollinate?
I have not seen a single control that grew any apples so far. Haven't checked carefully
I have a question, can a genetic parent of an apple, like Golden Delicious pollinate its offspring Jonagold? I think I messed up my flower groups when I planted these new trees.. I have wolf river, golden delcious, jonagold, and scarlet spire columnar, plus some random crab apple tree growing in my landscape forget its name.
I would guess that would work fine. The easiest way to insure great pollination is to add more varieties. Most of us don't need many entire trees of any one apple, so just grafting on a few other things will give you diversity, longer season and likely very good pollination without having to do the research.
I'm planting about 2, 4, 6, or 8 different varieties of many different fruiting trees... Is there anything i shouldn't have close to others. Apple, Cherry, Peach, Plum, pear, persimmons, pawpaw, mulberry, some others.
Not that I know of.
Did u get to turkey hunt this season?
No
Please tell me Can flowers be pollenated through the bags?
It's unlikely. The point of using the bags is to prevent pollination.
What happens if I take pollen from a watermelon flower or something like that and stick it on some strawberries vice versa? Anything lol
If the plants are closely enough related, you may get an interspecies hybrid. But they usually have to be very closely related. Normally you are crossing the same species together. But in the case of a strawberry, they have been crossed between different wild species to get new varieties. Same with apples, you can cross a modern apple with a crab apple many times. Strawberries are very different than watermelons though, so that won't work
First!!
when will we see some axe videos?? wink wink
dude. youve done messed up. you've literally contaminated all of your collected pollen. the result of which will forever skew your results. it's fun to wing it and experiment and its all in good fun, but when it comes to selling seeds and pollen to customers it will now be a complete gamble for true to name results.
i wanted to buy seeds and pollen from you but now i can't.
if you were worried about cost you should have used q-tip cotton swabs. disposable and cheap. single use. one box would have lasted years.
well that's one way to look at it. The problem with using multiple swabs, as I said in the video, is wasting so much pollen. A lot of the pollen is bound up in the swabs and if it is only used on one variety, a lot can be wasted. I got some very small micro brush makeup applicators that I'm going to try this spring. But there is also the issue of keeping track and isolating the swabs from each other. So imagine I'm using 20 to 30 packets of pollen and pollinating sometimes a 10 or more varieties with one pollen at times. so then I have a separate swab for each cross, not each pollen or each variety. Each of those brushes must be labelled if I'm going to keep track and pollinate a branch more than once, which I almost always do. and I can't just throw them all to gether and fiddle through them. So what then? wrap each one up individually? It's enough work as it is. Is it worth it? i don't know, but probably not. I might give thought to a potential system for that though. It obviously doable, it will just take a lot longer and maybe anotther organizer. Collecting more pollen as well, which is not always available.