I look forward to every video you put up! Something i can learn each time. Bought a bare root mont royal plum you suggested this year! Just leaves so far. Made the codling moth trap with molasses for my only apple tree.
Mid-Missouri, USA We have one mature Juliet bush cherry and one mature Carmine Jewel bush cherry. This week, I have picked 6 1/2 gallons of cherries and there is probably 3 gallons left on the bushes, I have grown cherries all my life and this year are the best that I have seen. I would not have believed that a bush could produce so many cherries. I have 10 more younger bushes growing.
Probably my favorite time of year as well here in MN. Everything bursting to life reminds you of the beauty and resilience of nature, Great year of growth so far, the trees are blowing up with branching and new growth. I have several redbuds in one of my orchards, pretty trees. So many thanks for all the knowledge and wisdom you have given! You have a wonderful orchard Sir. Morrels, what a nice treat. Awesome idea on the spores. I get lots of fungal and mushroom growth in my orchards and gardens. Part is due to wood chipping, partly to the fact that when I have cleared areas for planting I leave tree stumps in the ground. Have some grapes and kiwis growing, different varieties and they are so easy to propagate. Huh, you just gave me a way to use the abundance of strawberries I have in an area I am tearing down and rebuilding. Moving into the stage of propogating my own rootstocks, exciting stuff. Have some monster 2nd year onions making flowers this year, they popped very early. I have gotten over my lamenting of losing trees on occasion and have learned to use your method of survival of the fittest. Had a little fireblight in one of my orchards, lost a few, but many were affected, they worked their way through it and are bouncing back very nicely. Still feeding my birds and man are there lots of them. Some of the rhizomatic trees drive me crazy.... box elder and siberian elm.... personally I would tell people to never introduce them to their area. Got a few dead trees with live rootstock to over-graft. Sorry for the long post. Commenting as I watch. Slow going on my hazel nuts, will be looking at different cultivars. Hard to find good ones for MN other than native hazels. Chestnuts are proving to be a tough nut to crack, they haven't done well so far. Learning those cycles and letting nature do it's thing. Not too much for pest issues here. Love my wasp buddies. Still adding nitrogen fixers and other helpers. I do a few different methods in my different orchards. Always learning. I call it parts of a whole. Every bit I learn informs me of how it all works together. I'm lucky to have good clay/loam/forest soil. My romance series cherries are growing so well and fast. Sadly, sweet cherries are pretty much a no go here. That said, I have several peaches that are not only growing but thriving. Fresh from the tree peaches in MN.... Awesome! I am also fortunate to be surrounded by forest growth... habitat, shelter and windbreak, life all around me. I have an incredible crabapple, old, right in the center of everything. It looked like crap years ago, it's regenerating and the apples are so good to eat and so many, makes great apple butter. I never cut my trees out without giving them time and a chance to come back. I have another crabapple that is so healthy, but they are the worst apple I've ever had. I will be over grafting that one. I've found open field planting to be my least productive and successful planting. No fungal background I think, so I've been planting my black walnuts and things like mulberry in those places. The romance series cherries are super and heavy producers. Don't fight nature, you won't win. Nature, in order to be commanded, must first be obeyed. One of my orchards, first two years I planted with pumpkins and other squashes and melons, worked great. I have also seen that a plant may not do well in one spot, but do work in another. Always learning. And loving every bit of it. Thanks again so much, I appreciate you. My currants are such great plants, very productive, shade loving. Excellent, thanks for the walk through. What a pleasure.
that's neat there are morels growing! I've only got ugly looking yellow mushrooms growing under my trees, but I seem to recall hearing something about mushrooms being an indication of a good ecosystem for trees so I'm taking it as a good sign.
Thank you for all your inspiration! We started our permaculture orchard in North Texas in Jan. Managed to get the first 48 fruit & nut trees planted in guilds. Have to pause on the planting until Fall as it has warmed up. It's been one of the wettest Springs which has helped us in keeping things watered. We planted the onions & garlic as soon as we planted the trees & it has helped keep pests away so far.🤞 Now we are adding the support plants: comfrey, fragrant herbs & pollinators. Land had lots of trees which were thinned out but put in giant piles so we are doing hugelkultur to again help keep things from drying out in the hottest months of the summer. Trying to use what we have on the land to best advantage. Also came across many bird houses at a former woodworker's estate sale. Thanks to you for the birdhouse idea for attracting more birds. I cant wait to install all of them on our small, 5 acre, permaculture orchard. 🌳
That is FANTASTIC. You have in place what will give you a great taste of abundance. Harvest will eventually creep up on you until you don't know what to do with it all. Glad the videos have been helpful. And the birds thank you as well.
Valuable information to me, as I grow my little permaculture gardens & maintain my 5 mature apple trees! Thanks for sharing! Hugs from Alberta & blessings to all 🤗🇨🇦
I wanted to ask this under the masterclass video...but.. Anyway, regarding looking at properties to purchase, I am finding more and more counties are using the program provided by ESRI to show the GIS information within a property search. This program is great for gett8ng an Arial view, along with soil types, wetland classifications, etc. I was able to show my parents neighbor why his slab was singing, also showed my mother why the Boulder pile was sinking, as well. One an area has been even minimally developed, zoning allows construction without regard to what the geological surveys show.
Hello Stefan, thank you for the walkabout! Your channel is so precious to me as I live in a very similar climate, albeit on another continent :) You have grapes on a lot of your nitrogen fixers. Which grapes are those, that they do not need to be taken down for winter? I only know of Amur grape which can withstand such cold winter temps.
First you said pears are the exception to needing horizontal branches, but then you said you wanted a flat pear tree - can you elaborate on this? Thanks!
I like the confuser plants. I use lavender an Thyme. I was thinking something stronger for raccoons. How about i hang an ice cream bucket with fish fertilizer in it. That should mask the smell of my cherries.
Have you read the any of Olav Hauge? He was a writer and apple orchard farmer from Norway. Interesting fellow. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Excellent channel. Very inspirational and informative. ✌️
Love your orchard. I don't think you should run your mushroom soup through the irrigation system. You risk ending up with a fungal monoculture and that's as bad as a plant monoculture. If the fungus runs out of food, they then begin on the plants. I'd collect a whole series of edible fungi . Make your soups and water in various areas with a watering can going across the rows of trees rather than down a tree row. It's the trio idea but using fungi. Fungi can eat other fungi before turning on the living plants.
I like your videos and re watch them all time when have a thought or question. I know you more or less go 1 variety on trees you have graphed nut I was just wondering of you or others had input on my trees I top worked. I converted 2 Bradford pears to fruiting trees. I have 4 or 5 apples and that many different pears. this is first year to start fruit this fall be 3 years since graphed but these trees are growing at a rate of 6 feet and more a year. since I did several limbs this growth makes it near impossible to trim to any shape and pears now are arching down. apples bloomed and are starting to produce only a few at this point but am I ever going to really have any fruit at this growth rate? graphs done this spring end of April have grown 2 feet. I am forced to cut a few limbs because some are starting to break and droop badly. have not heavy trimmed again but when do I get double new limbs considering a heavy prune now to try and get form back (such as crossed limbs and such) anyone have any ideas on what I should do ? at this point am thinking have a growing tree to keep future graph stocks but do not need any more trees
Good morning Stefan, you mentioned that you had a hazelnut tree that wasn't as immune to filbert blight as expected. Are you able to divulge the cultivar? I have the Gene and Carmela cultivars and really hope those aren't the ones you've had a bit of trouble with..
I would love to but we lost the tags years ago. Sorry. They are from Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara and were probably their seedling trees from their best cultivars. Seedlings don't all turn out good.
I love knowing about another nursery, thanks for sharing. I bought all of my trees from Whiffletree and am always happy with what I get, but will definitely check out Grimo. Do you have any dwarf chinquapin oak bushes in your permaculture trios? I'm in PEI and thinking of trying them out but hesitant because I'm having difficulty sourcing them (other than from seed) and not finding much information on disease resistance.
A question - is there any possibility of grafting a haskap into a blueberry/huckleberry base - or - vice versa and grow both species from a single plant ? Much like a Franken-bush.
If I can step in - nope, I very much doubt it, haskap is completely unrelated to blueberry, it's actually in the same family as honeysuckle. I mean, you can try, that's part of the fun..!
@@srantoniomatosI wouldn't say unviable but certainly difficult if not impossible to scale currently. With the right marketing and venue he could probably do pretty well. It's just he is only getting so far with that model with how things are. He also has less cost compared to more conventional operations which use lots of heavy equipment, large infrastructure sites, synthetic soil inputs, herbicides, insecticides etc. At the very least he is keeping a much higher percentage of his income. He probably won't be a millionaire/billionaire but when you have no grocery bill and make thousands it can be pretty decent for normal people.
@@malikjackson9337 certainly...nothing is impossible. Its just that complexity and diversity makes all managment (prunning, harvesting, and all parts of the comercial side) much more ineficient. But good marketing, selling direct, at higher price can make it possible, even for a small operation like this. Maybe not to live on it (its too small) but to make some, or at least dont get under the costs... But to live off the farm and compete directly on the markets with professional producers, well, its a all different game, in size, efficiency, and on the comercial size. To some markets this would even be illegal. And at this size he couldnt even feed a small store trough out the 4 month season. Amateur homestead self producing is completly different from comercial farmming.
I am trying pawpaws this year first time in 4b. Same as Stefan. I wonder if they will survive in this climate, we get -32 celsius spikes for a few days every winter in January. Do you have any knowledge on which cultivar is most cold hardy?
I'm in 4b/5a. I planted 8 Pawpaw seeds last spring. 4 sprouted. I kept them in gallon pots up close to the house and covered them with leaves. They all came through! I think Kentucky or Ohio has a university that specializes in Pawpaw varieties. Good luck!
zone 3b-4a ish i planted 2 last year put mulched leaves over top in nov with woodchips on the ground around them. ground is pretty cold have not woken up, scratched them with fingernail still green
I love how over the time, the orchard doubles as a nursery
Absolutely and weeding trees and shrubs gives a constant supply.
God bless you sir, can’t overstate how much stress relief I get from watching this guy talk ship on orchards
Wow, thanks
I look forward to every video you put up! Something i can learn each time.
Bought a bare root mont royal plum you suggested this year! Just leaves so far.
Made the codling moth trap with molasses for my only apple tree.
That is awesome!
Mid-Missouri, USA We have one mature Juliet bush cherry and one mature Carmine Jewel bush cherry. This week, I have picked 6 1/2 gallons of cherries and there is probably 3 gallons left on the bushes, I have grown cherries all my life and this year are the best that I have seen. I would not have believed that a bush could produce so many cherries. I have 10 more younger bushes growing.
WOW! That is a great harvest. Keep it up.
Probably my favorite time of year as well here in MN. Everything bursting to life reminds you of the beauty and resilience of nature, Great year of growth so far, the trees are blowing up with branching and new growth. I have several redbuds in one of my orchards, pretty trees. So many thanks for all the knowledge and wisdom you have given! You have a wonderful orchard Sir. Morrels, what a nice treat. Awesome idea on the spores. I get lots of fungal and mushroom growth in my orchards and gardens. Part is due to wood chipping, partly to the fact that when I have cleared areas for planting I leave tree stumps in the ground. Have some grapes and kiwis growing, different varieties and they are so easy to propagate. Huh, you just gave me a way to use the abundance of strawberries I have in an area I am tearing down and rebuilding. Moving into the stage of propogating my own rootstocks, exciting stuff. Have some monster 2nd year onions making flowers this year, they popped very early. I have gotten over my lamenting of losing trees on occasion and have learned to use your method of survival of the fittest. Had a little fireblight in one of my orchards, lost a few, but many were affected, they worked their way through it and are bouncing back very nicely. Still feeding my birds and man are there lots of them. Some of the rhizomatic trees drive me crazy.... box elder and siberian elm.... personally I would tell people to never introduce them to their area. Got a few dead trees with live rootstock to over-graft.
Sorry for the long post. Commenting as I watch. Slow going on my hazel nuts, will be looking at different cultivars. Hard to find good ones for MN other than native hazels. Chestnuts are proving to be a tough nut to crack, they haven't done well so far. Learning those cycles and letting nature do it's thing. Not too much for pest issues here. Love my wasp buddies. Still adding nitrogen fixers and other helpers. I do a few different methods in my different orchards. Always learning. I call it parts of a whole. Every bit I learn informs me of how it all works together. I'm lucky to have good clay/loam/forest soil. My romance series cherries are growing so well and fast. Sadly, sweet cherries are pretty much a no go here. That said, I have several peaches that are not only growing but thriving. Fresh from the tree peaches in MN.... Awesome! I am also fortunate to be surrounded by forest growth... habitat, shelter and windbreak, life all around me. I have an incredible crabapple, old, right in the center of everything. It looked like crap years ago, it's regenerating and the apples are so good to eat and so many, makes great apple butter. I never cut my trees out without giving them time and a chance to come back. I have another crabapple that is so healthy, but they are the worst apple I've ever had. I will be over grafting that one. I've found open field planting to be my least productive and successful planting. No fungal background I think, so I've been planting my black walnuts and things like mulberry in those places. The romance series cherries are super and heavy producers. Don't fight nature, you won't win. Nature, in order to be commanded, must first be obeyed. One of my orchards, first two years I planted with pumpkins and other squashes and melons, worked great. I have also seen that a plant may not do well in one spot, but do work in another.
Always learning. And loving every bit of it. Thanks again so much, I appreciate you. My currants are such great plants, very productive, shade loving. Excellent, thanks for the walk through. What a pleasure.
Congrats, you’re welcome and yes nothing beats easy.
that's neat there are morels growing!
I've only got ugly looking yellow mushrooms growing under my trees, but I seem to recall hearing something about mushrooms being an indication of a good ecosystem for trees so I'm taking it as a good sign.
Thank you for all your inspiration! We started our permaculture orchard in North Texas in Jan. Managed to get the first 48 fruit & nut trees planted in guilds. Have to pause on the planting until Fall as it has warmed up. It's been one of the wettest Springs which has helped us in keeping things watered.
We planted the onions & garlic as soon as we planted the trees & it has helped keep pests away so far.🤞 Now we are adding the support plants: comfrey, fragrant herbs & pollinators.
Land had lots of trees which were thinned out but put in giant piles so we are doing hugelkultur to again help keep things from drying out in the hottest months of the summer. Trying to use what we have on the land to best advantage.
Also came across many bird houses at a former woodworker's estate sale. Thanks to you for the birdhouse idea for attracting more birds. I cant wait to install all of them on our small, 5 acre, permaculture orchard. 🌳
That is FANTASTIC. You have in place what will give you a great taste of abundance. Harvest will eventually creep up on you until you don't know what to do with it all. Glad the videos have been helpful. And the birds thank you as well.
Your joy at the morels is so wonderful! Your videos are always a pleasure to watch + so much learning and validation of how this system REALLY works!
Thank you so much!
Valuable information to me, as I grow my little permaculture gardens & maintain my 5 mature apple trees! Thanks for sharing! Hugs from Alberta & blessings to all 🤗🇨🇦
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, Stefan.
Absolutely stunning
You are a true master of the permaculture 💪
Wow, thanks
Thank you!❤
I am so glad you showed us the newer area with the seedling trees. I based my spacing on what you were doing there.
Glad it was helpful!
You have the most informative and relaxing videos. God bless!
Thank you! You too!
Watching this video while I wait to have my semi trlr tire fixed.
I wanted to ask this under the masterclass video...but..
Anyway, regarding looking at properties to purchase, I am finding more and more counties are using the program provided by ESRI to show the GIS information within a property search. This program is great for gett8ng an Arial view, along with soil types, wetland classifications, etc. I was able to show my parents neighbor why his slab was singing, also showed my mother why the Boulder pile was sinking, as well. One an area has been even minimally developed, zoning allows construction without regard to what the geological surveys show.
That’s great, yes amazing info exists.
Looking forward to the video. I'm intending introducing a Permaculture Orchard style linear orchard alongside my food forest and coppice this winter.
Hello Stefan, thank you for the walkabout! Your channel is so precious to me as I live in a very similar climate, albeit on another continent :)
You have grapes on a lot of your nitrogen fixers. Which grapes are those, that they do not need to be taken down for winter? I only know of Amur grape which can withstand such cold winter temps.
There are many North American hybrids developed in the last 30 years. Look up the cultivars of Elmer SWENSON.
@@StefanSobkowiak Will look into it, thanks! Hope I can find some of his selection around these parts.
We love you Stefan!!!!!! Nova Scotia
dandelion flowers are delicuious :>
How do you find cultivars that work great in clay soil? I've never seen this information online. Zone 6, if that matters.
Great question, much needed info. I would say inquire of growers in clay. Not the best orchard soil due to drainage issues.
Plant on mounds and swales
First you said pears are the exception to needing horizontal branches, but then you said you wanted a flat pear tree - can you elaborate on this? Thanks!
My bad, pears are the exception and should be trained to flat branches. All other fruit should be trained to below horizontal.
I like the confuser plants. I use lavender an Thyme. I was thinking something stronger for raccoons. How about i hang an ice cream bucket with fish fertilizer in it. That should mask the smell of my cherries.
Have you read the any of Olav Hauge? He was a writer and apple orchard farmer from Norway. Interesting fellow. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Excellent channel. Very inspirational and informative. ✌️
Thanks, never heard of Olav.
Love your orchard. I don't think you should run your mushroom soup through the irrigation system. You risk ending up with a fungal monoculture and that's as bad as a plant monoculture. If the fungus runs out of food, they then begin on the plants. I'd collect a whole series of edible fungi . Make your soups and water in various areas with a watering can going across the rows of trees rather than down a tree row. It's the trio idea but using fungi. Fungi can eat other fungi before turning on the living plants.
Thanks
I like your videos and re watch them all time when have a thought or question. I know you more or less go 1 variety on trees you have graphed nut I was just wondering of you or others had input on my trees I top worked. I converted 2 Bradford pears to fruiting trees. I have 4 or 5 apples and that many different pears. this is first year to start fruit this fall be 3 years since graphed but these trees are growing at a rate of 6 feet and more a year. since I did several limbs this growth makes it near impossible to trim to any shape and pears now are arching down. apples bloomed and are starting to produce only a few at this point but am I ever going to really have any fruit at this growth rate? graphs done this spring end of April have grown 2 feet. I am forced to cut a few limbs because some are starting to break and droop badly. have not heavy trimmed again but when do I get double new limbs considering a heavy prune now to try and get form back (such as crossed limbs and such) anyone have any ideas on what I should do ? at this point am thinking have a growing tree to keep future graph stocks but do not need any more trees
That kind of growth is a good problem. If you fertilize or add compost hold off for a couple of years, they obviously don’t need it.
🙏 😎 🙏
did you sow the grass in the aisles or it grew naturally?
Grew Naturally
How do you keep your trees in such straight rows? Do you prune them back heavily when growing over the path?
Training and some pruning yes.
What is your tree/ row spacing? I'm getting ready to plant a small orchard and like the spacing in your orchard.
All different ones, depends on rootstock, soil and climate.
Looks to be about 12-14 feet between rows?
12-24 between rows.
Good morning Stefan, you mentioned that you had a hazelnut tree that wasn't as immune to filbert blight as expected. Are you able to divulge the cultivar? I have the Gene and Carmela cultivars and really hope those aren't the ones you've had a bit of trouble with..
I would love to but we lost the tags years ago. Sorry. They are from Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara and were probably their seedling trees from their best cultivars. Seedlings don't all turn out good.
I love knowing about another nursery, thanks for sharing. I bought all of my trees from Whiffletree and am always happy with what I get, but will definitely check out Grimo. Do you have any dwarf chinquapin oak bushes in your permaculture trios? I'm in PEI and thinking of trying them out but hesitant because I'm having difficulty sourcing them (other than from seed) and not finding much information on disease resistance.
Never tried them, ah so many trees to try.
I love your videos but am wondering how you will ever get rid of the plastic.
I don't plan to, it will be there for the life of the orchard. Then can be pulled up in spring before the plants come up.
A question - is there any possibility of grafting a haskap into a blueberry/huckleberry base - or - vice versa and grow both species from a single plant ? Much like a Franken-bush.
If I can step in - nope, I very much doubt it, haskap is completely unrelated to blueberry, it's actually in the same family as honeysuckle. I mean, you can try, that's part of the fun..!
I'm almost certain it won't work but please try it and report back.
Try. But since shrubs are so easy to multiply just have one of each.
Where can i buy Goumi berry bush in ontario?
Whiffletree nursery
I used elderberry as a nitrogen fixers, also blueberries; I trust thats not a no no.
As trios, I should say.
Hello Erwin, do you have anywhere I could read about elderberry being a nitrogen fixer?
Elderberry is not a nitrogen fixer.
Any diversity is a positive step.
@@MalinaImportI googled it.
👍
Did you lose any fruits with all the strong winds in Quebec these past days, because I lost all my fruits
How sad!
Do you still run chickens down the rows between the fruit trees?
No, There is always next year in fruit growing.
Is anyone else curious about his economics and if his orchard makes money? Is this a good business model or side hustle?
If his making money with orchard he won’t bother making UA-cam! 😂😂😂
Any complex system, with lots of duversity, like permaculture, are beautiful, ecologic, perfect for homesteading...and comercially unviable!
@@srantoniomatosI wouldn't say unviable but certainly difficult if not impossible to scale currently. With the right marketing and venue he could probably do pretty well. It's just he is only getting so far with that model with how things are. He also has less cost compared to more conventional operations which use lots of heavy equipment, large infrastructure sites, synthetic soil inputs, herbicides, insecticides etc. At the very least he is keeping a much higher percentage of his income. He probably won't be a millionaire/billionaire but when you have no grocery bill and make thousands it can be pretty decent for normal people.
@@malikjackson9337 certainly...nothing is impossible. Its just that complexity and diversity makes all managment (prunning, harvesting, and all parts of the comercial side) much more ineficient.
But good marketing, selling direct, at higher price can make it possible, even for a small operation like this. Maybe not to live on it (its too small) but to make some, or at least dont get under the costs...
But to live off the farm and compete directly on the markets with professional producers, well, its a all different game, in size, efficiency, and on the comercial size. To some markets this would even be illegal. And at this size he couldnt even feed a small store trough out the 4 month season.
Amateur homestead self producing is completly different from comercial farmming.
The orchard is profitable but I’m not pushing it like I used to. Educating is more fun for me.
Plant some pawpaws!
I am trying pawpaws this year first time in 4b. Same as Stefan. I wonder if they will survive in this climate, we get -32 celsius spikes for a few days every winter in January. Do you have any knowledge on which cultivar is most cold hardy?
I'm in 4b/5a. I planted 8 Pawpaw seeds last spring. 4 sprouted. I kept them in gallon pots up close to the house and covered them with leaves. They all came through! I think Kentucky or Ohio has a university that specializes in Pawpaw varieties. Good luck!
I have and am waiting
zone 3b-4a ish i planted 2 last year put mulched leaves over top in nov with woodchips on the ground around them.
ground is pretty cold have not woken up, scratched them with fingernail still green
@@grantsilzer4460 That is wonderful news, wow! Thanks for sharing.
Heads up berries unlimited sends out diseased dieing plants
Too much noice canceling. We want to hear the birds. Great video otherwise.
Noted!
It looks so springy there 😂, we are in infernal season here already ☀️🏜️ 🔥