A quick look at Chucks Frankenapple tree that we re-grafted to 5 different varieties last February. Everything went as planned except the chip bud and growth is vigorous.
What Type of Lime Should You Use for Tanning and Rawhide?
I remember many years ago trying to understand what type of lime I should use for tanning and being really confused. This video and blog post are an attempt to foster a basic understanding of lime as well as which type to use and where to find it.
Lime is used in tanning to loosen the hair for removal, and sort of clean the skin fiber of unwanted substances. It is used in the same way for processing rawhide as well as skin for making glue. While there are other alternatives, lime was most commonly used in 18th and 19th century tanning processes and by home tanners since. It is easy to use, accessible, safe, predictable and does he job well.
What we call lime exists in a cycle. There are three stages in the cycle and once the cycle is completed, it could theoretically be started over again. Only one of the stages is useful for tanning and in the majority of other arts.
The first phase is the one in which lime naturally occurs. That is as calcium carbonate. Calcium Carbonate is what shells and limestone are made from, the natural materials from which we make the lime that we use. This form would include chalk, limestone, dolomite, marl, marble, shells and coral. Calcium carbonate is fairly inert and stable. Ground limestone or ground shells can be used as a soil amendment to raise ph and provide calcium, but not for tanning.
Shell, limestone and marble, three common forms of calcium carbonate. Any of the stones may have any number of impurities, Magnesium being very common. Shells are probably ideal for tanning use since they are very pure being almost all calcium carbonate. They are also very easy to turn into lime.
If we heat calcium carbonate up red hot we end up with Calcium Oxide aka quicklime. Qucklime is mostly an interim stage, though it has some uses in the arts and industries. As relates to tanning, it is an interim stage. If you read old tanning books that say to use quicklime, but that is because they acquired quicklime and slaked it immediately into the the next form for use. Quicklime is easy to transport because it is very light, and it just made sense in the old days to order freshly burned quicklime and transport it that way. It would then be slaked immediately as it does not keep well.
Quicklime, also known as lime shells whether made of shells or rocks. As far as tanning goes, quicklime is just an interim stage. Voraciously thirsty, unstable and highly reactive, lime shells should be processed immediately. When quicklime is mentioned in old tanning literature it is often stated something like "take fresh burned lime". Easy to transport because of their light weight, lime shells were often delivered fresh and slaked immediately in the liming pits.
When we add water to quicklime, it produces Calcium hydroxide in one of two forms. If we add a lot of water to the quicklime we end up with lime putty. If we add only a little water, the quicklime disintegrates into a fine powder that can be stored dry.
The dry powder, Dry lime hydrate is what you can easily buy for processing hides for tanning. It is available at hardware stores as "type S lime" or "builders lime" and according to some of my viewer/readers as "barn lime" in some parts of the country sold for spreading on barn floors. Just make sure that you are not getting dolomite or agricultural lime which is just ground up rocks.
Dry lime hydrate, the stuff you can get at the local building supply, is made using small amounts of water, which causes the burned quicklime to disintegrate into a fine powder. This process doesn't always work on shells. At least use hot water with shells, then it might work. Really though, you should make lime putty at home. It is more stable and more potent than the dry hydrated lime.
Lime putty can be made at home. It is more potent than dry hydrate and less apt to go bad since all you have to do to preserve it is keep it under a layer of water where it will keep indefinitely. Either dry hydrate or lime putty can be used in tanning to equally good effect though, you just don't have to use quite as much lime putty. For more on lime in general and burning lime at home, see the lime page.
To make lime putty, just use more water. The solids will settle to the bottom of the storage container.
For more on what lime is actually used for, tanning and pre-processing hides, you can see this video on de-hairing.
Related Videos
DIY Japanese Axe Puck Whetstone, Cheapest and Bestest
I needed an axe puck to carry in the woods, and the ones available were either too coarse or too expensive. So, I made my own. 20.00 for a small, high quality 250/1000 grit axe puck AND a 6 inch sharpening stone left over! I'm very happy with the results. I own other King brand sharpening stones and I love them. Once I got some Japanese waterstones, the rest of my large collection of sharpening stones accumulated over decades became obsolete overnight. This stone, like a lot of the King stones, is a bargain just for the stone, let alone a stone and an axe puck. Links below.
Use these links to purchase and a I'll make a small commission
King 250/1000 Grit: http://amzn.to/1OEZ9RC
King 6000 good to compliment 250/1000 to finish tools very sharp. May come glued to a plastic base, read reviews: http://amzn.to/1OyLYfZ
King 1000/6000 Good stone, good value, too bad they don't make a 4000/8000 though: http://amzn.to/23WKgMo
Oak Gall Leather Tanning Experiments and the horrible horrors of Case Hardening
I picked some fresh oak galls to extract juice from this spring. When fresh and green in April, our large oak galls from the California Valley White Oaks are very juicy and exude a clear liquid when squeezed. I put a piece of skin in the straight juice to test it and it case hardened, a phenomenon where the skin is shocked by the extreme astringency, becoming shrunken and stiff. In case hardening, the outside surface of the skin is so tight and contracted that the tanning stops or proceeds slowly because new tannin can't penetrate to the interior of the skin. In the video, I discuss the fact that fear of case hardening often leads to just the opposite problem, which is far more common, not using enough tannin. The experiment also provides a few other talking points.
Giant Leek Project Part II, Planting the Seedlings
It's time to plant my leek seedlings. It's a little bit late, but then again, I've noticed that if I plant them later, they seem to be less likely to suffer from rust, a fungal infection. That may be a coincidence, but I'm going on the working assumption that it's not, so it's not really too late, though it's getting on. For people in colder climates, it is getting rather late. I grow them through the entire winter, but they are only so hardy and will begin to suffer some damage if they see temps below about 20 degrees for very long (that's a guestimate BTW, don't take those numbers literally). I'll revisit this project sometime later in the season. I still have leek starts in the store. It is probably too late to grow very big leeks in cold weather climates without protection,but if you're usually above 20 degrees F, you can just grow them on through the winter.
Two More Lame Hatchets, Council Camp Axe and Vaughn Sportsman's Axe
A short overview of two hatchets I bought to check out. I don't like either one. The council tool hatchet has potential, but it is far from useable out of the box. Given that it needs a lot of work just to function properly, I think a better option is to acquire a quality vintage head to put a new handle on. I doubt I'll acquire any more hatchets to review, because I'm pretty sure the head that I want is not going to come with the handle that I want, so they will all need modification anyway. I'll concentrate my hatchet related stuff on making and putting on handles and modifications, and maybe some stuff on using them.. Hatchets are an essential tool to me and I'm somewhat disturbed that I can't find anything to recommend that is really first rate out of the box. I know it's been a total axe-and-hatchet-fest lately, but I'll get onto some other stuff soon. Just thinking about and using axes a lot, so it's what I've been up to lately. I just hit 2/3rds of a cord on my cordwood project. I'm now back on schedule to finish my cord by or before June 1st!
Apple Breeding, Planting Out the Seedlings in Nursery Rows
The apple breeding project is going pretty well. I lost two of my seedlings to fireblight and I'm guessing they won't be the last two, but loses are to be expected even if they aren't welcome. The good news is that 12 of my seedlings blossomed this year and I have fruit on at least most of those. Stay tuned for tasting! Honestly, I don't have very high hopes for most of them because of the primitive red fleshed apple genes I'm using, but we'll see. It's all a learning adventure for me more than a destination.
The seedlings from last year's crosses are up to about 6 inches high and ready to plant out. Ideally I may have planted them a little sooner, but they are still growing vigorously and have not used up all the nutrients in the flat mix yet. I put them very close together this year because I have so many projects and cash crops in the garden now that I'm running out of room for food! 125 seedlings could take up a lot of bed space. These will grow in the beds until next winter when they will be cut off and grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks for permanent placement in the trial rows. I have made a lot of exciting crosses this year too, more than I can probably handle. The plan is to offer some of the seeds for sale next winter/spring in my little web store for those adventurous enough to join me in this experiment.
Straightening an Axe Handle by Steaming and Limbering the Fibers
This video is about straightening the green baywood axe handle that I made a couple of months ago, which warped during seasoning. The first steaming failed, so I pulled out all the stops this time around soaking, steaming and stretching out the wood fibers to even out tensions in the wood. I've been using the axe quite a bit and it has stayed put even though it is flexed a lot during use. Long term results may not be as good, but for now, so far, so good, so I'll call that a tentative success!
Fatliquors, Eggs, Brains and Oils, Natural Emulsions for Conditioning Tanned Leather
Fatliquoring is the simple process of using natural oil in water emulsions to carry lubricants into the skin fiber. Fatliquors penetrate quickly leaving a uniform layer of oil on the fibers deep inside the skin. Eggs, brains and spinal fluid contain natural emulsifying agents and oils. They are sometimes used alone, but often with extra oils added. The concept of fat liquoring is simple and easy to understand. Making egg yolk fat liquor is pretty much the same as making mayonnaise which is essentially oil emulsified with egg yolk.
Pleaching Trees for Size control and Fruiting
This one is just a short walk around video showing some trees I've been twisting together to keep them out to of the way. The technique is called pleaching and the possibilities are intriguing. My friends at The Apple Farm in Philo California used it to build a living shade arbor with mulberry trees over a patio. Eventually the branches from strong grafts. Another friend, Mollyanne Meyn uses it and also tying the branches down to form a cool Tim Burton-esque row of Pink Pearl apple trees. So cool! More pics of Mollyanne's tree below.
Pictures of Mollyanne's tree, Mira Exterior Design http://www.miraexteriordesign.com/index/ Most of the tree was actually formed by tying down the branches which grew together to form grafts. Lately more of the branches are pleached.
originally they trees were just tree prunings stuck in the ground for a bean trellis which rooted and grew.
Leek Starts and Apple Pollen
When I shot the giant leek project video, I accidentally planted some of my older seed, so I can't use those plants and had to re-sow using 2014 seed. There is nothing wrong with the starts, they are just a generation behind as far as my selections go. The germination was excellent, and they are nice healthy looking little guys. I'm all out of the newer 2014 seed, but, now I have a flat of these leek seedlings that I can sell. They are in the store and probably available for a few weeks. They will be dug as ordered, washed, bundled in groups of 50 to 100, trimmed and shipped. 4.00 for 50 or 7.00 for 100 See those here...
I also put up some varietal apple pollen just as an experiment to see if people might be interested in acquiring some pollen from the varieties that I use in breeding. Cross pollination is easy enough. Here is my video on making pollinations for breeding.
That's all.
April Apple Breeding Update, Seedlings and Blooms!
A short video update showing some red fleshed traits in seedlings and the new blossoms in the trial rows. I'm finally going to get some fruit out of these guys! More below...
The seedlings are mostly up now and ready to plant out, though there are still a few stragglers. Many of the crosses I made with Maypole, an intensely red fleshed apple that shows pigmentation throughout the plant, are showing obvious red pigmentation. Not all of them though, some seem to be taking after the other parent, whatever that might be.
One of the seedlings is showing pinker blossoms than the others. I'm hoping that means it will have redder flesh. We'll see in a few months, or maybe many months since it is a Lady Williams cross and Lady Williams won't be ripe for over 10 months! Wow.
Since several people have asked about getting pollen from me. I decided to add it to the store to see if that is a service people might use. Here is the link. I only have a few varieties this year, but If it seems like people will buy it, I'll have more next year of all the varieties that I like and use in breeding.
Sinew Wrapped Axe Handle Experiment
This experiment is to see what the advantages and limitations are of using a sinew with hide glue wrapping as a method to protect axe and hammer handles from incidental damage. Sinew is the tough fiber that connects bones to muscles to effect movement. When applied to wood with hide glue it makes a tough and resilient layer that can prevent splintering when wood is under heavy stress. This method has been used in some of the strongest traditional bows in the world. It is something like fiberglass, but the fibers are much stronger. Hide glue is also remarkably tough and resilient. Just try to break a sheet of it sometime.
The experiment is to see how the sinew holds up under impact and abrasion and also how well a coating of linseed oil will protect the water vulnerable wrapping and hide glue from moisture under normal use. The known advantages of sinew are that it is strong, shrinks on drying and can be applied in such a way as to have a very low profile. The result is little added thickness and a smooth transition from the handle to the wrapping. I have experience using it on bows and for wrappings on arrows. If wrapped on the tip of an arrow it prevents nearly 100% of damage to the tips of arrows shot into logs, dirt and rocks. I think there are probably better alternatives, or perhaps sinew combined with other materials would be good. I know I've used it on a handle before, but it's been so long, I can't remember what happened! I hope to get around to more experiments around this subject sooner than later.
Since there are strong proponents of the double bit axe for splitting wood, including my buddy Wylie Woods, I hope to test it's advantages and limitations this year. The axe in this video is an old plumb I got at a yard sale. The bit is very fat, which I have found to be common in Plumb axes and hatchets. it would need a lot of work to use for chopping, so I've been splitting with it, for which I imagine that is an advantage. For now, I reserve judgement...
My homies the Vidos are worth your time: Axe Connected website and Scythe Connection Website
Buckin' Billy Ray Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TfKdsYycg Keep in mind this wood is as he says is in very nice splitting condition. Dudley Cook recommends this method in
Hide glue series playlist: https://youtu.be/39EaMNL56w0?list=PL60FnyEY-eJCPd_eQyiP4JE6RLtCgmNxE
Cool Axe and Hatchet Technique for Small Diameter Wood
Okay, this is a simple technique for wood up to around 2 inches in diameter. It is very effective and reasonably efficient, especially when you consider maintenance and cost of a chainsaw. Cutting up small wood with a chainsaw can be dicey too, especially if it's crooked. It can fly all over and cause the saw to snag and kick back. This technique is probably faster than using most, if not all, hand held manual saws and it is certainly a lot funner.
One Cord, One Year, Cutting All of My Firewood With an Axe This Year.
Greetings internetians. There is just something about axes and hatchets that gets some of us all worked up. If you’re one of those types, I have an interesting project to talk to you about.
I’ve been interested in and using axes and hatchets for a long time. It’s something I enjoy thoroughly. If at any given time I think, what would I like to do if I could do anything, running out to the woods with an axe and chopping wood is right up near the top of the list! Seriously, I think that all the time. But I rarely do it. There is no time, it takes too long, I have other important things to do, blah blah blah… so when I need firewood, out comes the chainsaw.
I started out as a complete novice with only some books, like Kephart’s Camping and Woodcraft, and others in that genera. Later I met Mors Kochanski and picked up his excellent book Northern Bushcraft. I almost hurt myself many times, broke handles, replaced handles, broke them again, made my own handles and generally picked up the basics in the school of hard knocks. I’m not a rank amateur, but I’m no pro either, and by any traditional standards I’m still probably a complete and utter dorkus with an ax. Why? Because I don’t use them often enough, or consistently enough. I use hatchets a lot more for small tasks around the place, and running around in the woods doing other stuff, but axes find less day to day use. I do a lot of my limbing with an axe, but not a lot of felling or bucking. Well, I’m over that. I’m feeling better these days than I have in a while and as always making ridiculously optimistic plans, like cutting all my cordwood this year with an axe!
To some, that may sound like a nightmare, or like the least fun thing ever, but to me it sounds like just about the FUNNEST thing ever! I’ve already started. Best idea ever. Now, I will be forced to dial in my gear, clean up, profile, make handles for, haft and sharpen all those axe heads that have been languishing coated in rust for years. I’ll also develop even more personal, contextual opinions about handles, profiles and blade shapes than I already have, and chop my way through enough wood to be entitled to opinions about any of it. Yep, fun galore, and not probably as hard as it may sound.
Most people that have swung an axe have not exactly had a great experience. There are a lot of factors that go into efficient and effective axe use and few of them are typically in play in the average scenario. Sure, if we start with a dull axe, that has a fat bit and a thick handle, and if we have no practice, don’t understand the necessary strategy, strike at the wrong angle, can’t hit what we’re aiming at and start out expecting to make progress if we just give it a huge effort, it’s going to suck and we are mostly going to end up tired and discouraged with very little work done, if not injured or with a broken axe handle. Honestly, even starting with a sharp axe will not help that much if everything else is not dialed in pretty well. A good sharp axe in effective hands, if used to make careful, measured cuts, is effective and fun to use. Watch a lumberjack competition sometime.
When I first was thinking about doing this project, I found the idea daunting. Now I don’t. One of the things that encouraged me was reading that a good hand in the old days could put up two cords of wood a day with an axe. Two cords is a well stacked pile 8 x 4 x 8 feet. YEAH RIGHT!? Here is a quote from a random account I was reading the other day out of the 19th century. It is an instructive letter to the editor about not using too heavy an axe. Full text below:
“When night came we piled up our wood and measured it. Joe's pile measured one and a half cords, mine only three-quarters of a cord….. The next morning I felt lame and stayed at home. Joe put in his cord and a half, as usual.” The farm implement news, volume 7 1885
Now, it doesn’t say what length the wood was cut to in those things, and that could make a very big difference. Cutting 24 inch fireplace logs, 4 foot logs for transport, or arm-span lengths for a furnace of some kind is a good bit different than cutting the 16 inch logs I need for my wood stove. 200 feet cut into 24 inch lengths is roughly 100 cuts, while at 16 inches it’s 150 cuts. That is very significant. The other woodstove on the property takes logs about 12 inches and down. I’m not cutting for that one :)
Another encouraging thing was hearing Mors Kochanski saying in this video that he could drop a 12 inch 50 foot tree, limb it and cut it into arm span lengths in guess how long? 10 to 15 minutes, maybe less! skip to 11:00 min for that part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aijEY9njOw
You just don’t get that good, or any good at all, whackin’ at a few trees or logs on the weekend. Nope, as I’ve said about other things, if you want to get good at something and really understand it contextually, put yourself in a position where you do it as a lifestyle thing. I need to cut wood this year. If I decide that this year it’s axes only for felling, limbing, chopping and splitting a certain amount of wood, I’m going to learn a lot very fast! Immersion! that’s what it’s all about!
Axes have become very popular. That is really cool. It is heartening to see the upsurge in interest in interacting with natural environments and using basic tools and materials. Because of that, there is an increasing amount of information out there, but very few people that can actually use an axe effectively. Of those of us who are not complete novices, fewer yet are anything like experts. And it’s no wonder. How many people chop enough wood with an axe to even get good, let alone very good? Not very many. That is an inevitable consequence of our modern way of life.
Well, one Person’s work is another’s play I guess. As long as I have the energy to do it joyfully, effectively and relatively safely, chopping wood is fun as hell. Using an axe, or splitting wood, or doing anything that requires skill and focus is very similar to a challenging sport. And boy does using an axe require focus!
Axes and hatchets are extremely dangerous. An axe is nothing to play with and chopping anything with an axe is a time for humility and sharp focus. At first it is clumsy and tiring and seems futile, but as you gain skill, it becomes increasingly an extension of you and you can get into a groove, or zone as they say in sports. The danger inherent in using an axe has a good and bad side. On the one hand, danger makes us focus and adds an element of immediacy, much like a competition sport or a hunt does. But, then it is also just dangerous and there is no way around that. It can be more or less dangerous, but it is still dangerous to everyone, all the time, not matter how much experience they have. And it’s especially dangerous when we’re learning.
I was planning to do a cordwood challenge where I challenged people to cut a chosen amount of wood with an axe. I decided to put that off. Putting yourself on a deadline with only two months to go (done by june first is my goal, so there is time for drying) is not safe when doing something dangerous and unfamiliar. My personal goal this year is just a cord, which is 4 x 4 x 8 feet stacked neatly. I’d kind of like to do more honestly, but I actually don’t even need to cut a cord to get through next winter. Honestly, I have a lot of wood now and may not need to cut any at all. I might make charcoal out of some of my left over wood just to make room! I probably don’t usually burn much more than a cord most years and often less. I thought it could be a one cord challenge, but that is unreasonable for a lot of people and it seems better to just challenge people to pick an amount, even if it’s small, like a quarter of a cord (One quarter of a cord equals 4x4x2 feet stacked).
A person, could end up with an expensive hospital bill using an axe, or worse be maimed for life. You could cut yourself where there is no one around and bleed to death. We face these kinds of possibilities every time we pick one of these things up. If you lack experience with an ax entirely, or with using similar long handled tools, a year of gaining familiarity might be in order. That is a challenge in itself, so no hurry. I’m just suggesting that this could be an edifying experience for some people. There are many ancillary skills required too that one might not pick up if not pressed a little to do so in order to accomplish a goal. An axe needs be sharp to be safe and effective. It also needs a good handle. Novices often break them. I've broken many. We all do. Or you may have an axe with an old, weathered or warped handle that needs a new one. Every axe user should be able to replace an axe handle, and it’s ideal to be able to make one.
As far as resources for learning go, I’m not sure I’m up to the task of teaching you how to use an axe, though I will certainly be sharing stuff and talking about the things that I learn or improve at. I’ll try to spend some time on YouTube collecting some stuff worth watching. Maybe I’ll make a playlist of them all, we’ll see what I come up with, but honestly, most of it is either not very useful, if not actually dangerous. Book wise, Mor’s Kochanski’s Northern Bushcraft is a great read and probably the best thing going when it comes to axe safety. I’ve also read the axe book by D. Cook this year and like it very much. Both authors are thorough and thoughtful. most importantly, their knowledge is something they own out of experience.
So, axe interested parties experienced or not, give some thought to taking on my challenge next year. If you are inexperienced, it will be a journey. You’ll need to acquire an axe which may or may not need renovation. Spend the next year learning about axes and getting your gear dialed in, practicing etc. Then when next late winter/spring rolls around, you’ll be primed to improve rapidly and succeed. There is much to be learned and skill to gain. Axes and hatchets can be very versatile tools. Using one requires a lot of energy, but it is also great exercise. Compared to using a chainsaw, an axe will greatly increase your coordination and strength. It is also a more intimate way to interact with wood. You have to pay attention. Enough said for now. I’m hoping to have my cord cut by June 1st so it has time to season. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me about this project and various axe related things in the coming year or more.
The Axe Book by Dudley Cook: http://amzn.to/1WQYhJe
Mors Kochanski's Bushcraft, great for axe use and safety
Horace Kephart's Camping and Woodcraft, read free!
full text of Light versus Heavy Axes.
A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator describes his experience with axes, which we give in part as an item of interest to our readers who rely so much upon work with these tools:
"My first axe weighed 4-1/2 pounds, being the heaviest one I could find at the time. I was fresh from a class in natural philosophy, knew all about inertia, and had learned something of the force of gravity and the laws of falling bodies; had rightly guessed that chopping wood might be hard work, and determined that my knowledge of physics should help me out. I would have a heavy axe, a long handle—would move slowly, and take strokes that would count when they fell. My axe handle was 34 inches in length, the longest one in the store. I had hired a tough little French Canadian, weighing about 120 pounds, to help, he brought an axe—a mere toy I called it, which weighed 2-1/2 pounds, with a handle only 26 inches long. I told him I had a fair-sized job for him, and thought it would pay him to buy a full-grown axe. He smiled and said he gussed his would do. I had decided that we would work separately during the first day or two, in order that I might show what I could do. As I began to swing my axe I felt proud of its ponderous blows that rang through the woods, and rather pitied the poor fellow who was drumming away with his little axe, taking about two blows to my one. Presently I had to stop to rest, and then again, and still again; but my man, kept pecking away quietly, steadily, and easily, and seemed perfectly able to do all necessary breathing without stopping his work for the purpose. When night came we piled up our wood and measured it. Joe's pile measured one and a half cords, mine only three-quarters of a cord.
The next day I felt lame and stayed at home. Joe put in his cord and a half, as usual. When I went to the woods again we worked together. Not many days passed before I found an excuse for buying a lighter axe and a shorter handle. And every axe and handle that I have bought since, has been lighter and shorter than its predecessor. Whenever I use an axe now I select one very much like Joe's, both in weight and length of handle. I can use this without getting out of breath, and can hit twice in the same place. The result is that I can do more and better work and save a vast amount of strength.
Bulgarian Giant Leek Project
It can literally take only about 10 to 15 seconds to get from the soil to this point due to the tall growing habit and resultant lack of any major dirt cleaning. The larger one there is over 2 feet long. Of course the greens can still be saved for cooking or stock. It does take a long season to get them really big though.
This is a video project I just started to follow my progress while growing a crop of Bulgarian Giant Leeks, selecting the best specimens and saving seeds. I have just a few 2014 seeds available this year in the web store and I’ll have the seeds from this project in fall of 2018. Yeah, that’s a long time! Unfortunately, I just noticed yesterday that I planted the wrong seed in the video! I sowed 2009 seed instead of the 2014 seeds. I re-sowed with 2014 seed yesterday, but it will set me back many weeks. The original seedlings are already over a month old and doing well, but they are a generation back, so using them would really be a step backward. I’m really putting myself on the spot here with this project. I have performance anxiety. Will my leeks grow big enough? Will they be too skinny or too short and fat? Will they shrivel and droop in the cold winter snows? Can I really satisfy all those youtubers out there clamoring for giant leeks? I think so, but I’ll have to be on top of watering and feeding to make sure this project goes off well and I can deliver the big ass leeks I’m promising. Well, whatever happens, we're sure to learn something!
For those who dwell in Europe, you can check out Real Seeds. They carry Bulgarian Giant and have one of my pictures in the description. Their Mezier's leek also looks interesting.
Tips for Frankentreeing and Framework Grafting Apple Trees
The original Frankentree in 2015 with over 85 varieties in fruit, out of about 150 total grafts. Video at end of post.
I get a lot of questions and interest about building frankentrees and frameworking. I'd like to do either a book or high quality in depth video either this year or next, but, in the meantime, here are the most important points for success. All of this is covered elsewhere, I just thought I’d put it all in one place with photos to make it more accessible. This is applicable to pears and apples. Plums are also pretty easy and should be more or less the same. Cherries I’ve had mixed luck with, but haven’t worked with them a lot. Most of my cherry trees are still single varietal. for now… For scions check out the North American Scion Exchange trading site. It is awesome! I've also just put scions in my web store. I am mostly sold out for this season, but there are a few left. I should have more quantity and variety next year.
When to graft. I actually don’t know when you should graft. I know what I can get away, but I’m not sure what people in colder climates deal with. And so your journey begins! Go forth and find that out! I can tell you that it’s okay to graft during bloom. Once the tree is really growing vigorously, grafts will still often take, but many times they will not grow much in that season, if at all. They may just actually sit there dormant till the following season. I've grafted dormant scions in July with some success, but they didn't grow until the following year. It is also bad for the tree to butcher it all the way back after spring growth is well underway, so don’t wait too late. Early in the bloom season before growth really gets cranking is still an okay time. I can graft from anytime in February on into spring.
Topworking v.s. Frameworking: Topworking basically means cutting into larger limbs and adding a few scions to each stub in order to grow an entire new top to the tree. Frameworking retains the framework of the tree and adds more scions here and there in order to replace just the smaller branch structure and fruiting wood. The advantages to frameworking are pretty compelling. Quicker fruiting, less trauma to the tree and you can add more variety at one time. The advantages to topworking on the other hand are that it requires less work, less time and fewer scions. A topworked tree should grow back pretty fast, but it will still take some years. If the top worked tree had a good form to start with, then that all has to be regrown and trained with lots of pruning. I think frameworking is usually preferable when it is feasible, and the work can be spread out over years if need be, or as scions become available. In a small home orchard or back yard situation, it is rarely necessary to resort to the brutal practice of topworking.
This tree had to be grafted into a large stub after is was snapped off by a bear.
The same hacked off tree a year later showing the still very open wound. Note also the water collecting and the black color from bacteria or mold.
Graft placement and Tree preparation: Whether the tree is grafted all at once or in stages over years, there are a few points that are important to keep in mind. You want the tree to have a good form that is physically strong, fruitful and easy to manage and harvest.
*Height and shape: If a tree is very large, but has good form, don’t butcher it to make it smaller unless it is of little value for some reason. Trees which are neglected (or never trained at all) and grow into poor forms with a lot of very tall upright sections that are way out of reach without a huge ladder, often need major surgery to bring them down to a manageable height. They will usually need major thinning as well to get an open branch structure. It is important to have light inside the tree. Very dense trees lose the ability to fruit on the inside of the tree and fruit quality is poorer without sun. Keep in mind that the bigger the cuts, the longer the healing time and the more risk of introducing infection into the tree. Big cuts often have to be made though and the decisions are not always easy ones. At some point though, you just have to start cutting.
Take a look at the tree in these pictures sent by reader Joe Holthaus which he inhereted and plans to frankentree. In terms of structural strength, fruit production and maintenance/picking, this tree is poorly trained. This shape is inherently weak, though it may be fine for a long time yet. The top has been cut off mostly at one level 3 or so years previous, probably to bring the height down. You can see where it was cut off and clusters of large shoots have grown up. It has been allowed to grow back freely from the cuts making those tall upright shoots. I would remove most of those new growths at the top, bringing it down to where it was hacked off a few years back. Then graft into the remaining few shoots after shortening them to stubs. After that, if the tree is pruned every year to to shorten the previous year's growth, it can be maintained roughly at that height, like an annual haircut. The branches that do grow horizontal already can be pruned back to stubs retaining the main framework. Sometimes you will retain only the main scaffold branches, and sometimes you will retain side branches too. It just depends. In a lot of cases, most of the wood 1 inch and larger will be retained if it is well placed, and removed completely if it is not. yI would trim those big stubs back to the trunk so they can heal over and prune the suckers flush with the trunk as well. When new suckers grow back in the spring, they can be pulled off early and through the summer as new ones emerge. Pulling them off will discourage regrowth more than cutting them to stubs during the dormant season the way they are in the picture (numerous sucker stubs low on the right hand trunk).
*What to cut off and what to leave. I like to prepare the area or the whole tree and then graft. Whether you are just adding a scion or re-grafting a whole tree or section, you generally need to thin out some competing wood. What I can say that you don’t want to do is keep adding things to the outside of the tree. Lets say I have an apple tree that I like well enough and want to keep, but also want to put on another variety for some reason, like for better pollination or just for variety. Think of the branching structure of the tree more or less as wood that produces fruit and wood that doesn’t. In frameworking, you more or less want to keep the structural wood and replace the fruiting wood. Now this will vary with all sorts of conditions, but generally, larger wood stops producing fruit after a time. I would say that on average I’m grafting into wood between 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch, though not infrequently smaller and larger depending on the situation. If I add just to the smaller wood on the outside of the tree, the tree keeps growing outward and there is a limit to that. It is better to go into the tree a little further. By grafting in closer to the main scaffold branches, you prevent the undesirable phenomenon of the tree creeping ever larger outward, and you also insure that everything beyond the graft is the new variety.
Bride of !Frankentree! at my neighbor's place. The limb in the background is mostly prepared, though I didn't end up grafting to every stubs on there. Some of these are spaced a little bit too close together, but can be thinned later. You can see that I've pretty much kept the main branches and then reduced the fruiting wood to stubs. See further down the page for photos of this tree after a seasons re-growth.
*Thin it out, space and spacing: Thinning of existing wood can be done for several reasons. Many trees just have too much congestion to make good fruit. The tree will produce the best and sweetest fruit if the interior of the tree has light. Air circulation is also good. There is a mindset that natural is always better. When it comes to growing trees, I disagree with that view. The way trees grow naturally works from an evolutionary standpoint, but that does not mean it is ideal, or that it is best for their health, and certainly not for our needs. I've come to see the growth of a tree as an adaptive but somewhat chaotic process in which it basically competes with itself. Just like some of our behaviors, it has served the tree well enough to survive evolutionarily speaking, but it does not serve them best in every case. Left to their own devices, trees will often shade out their own interiors, over compete with themselves, become clogged with dead wood, and very often form weak structures that can break under weather, snow or fruit load.
For our purposes here, we also are concerned with the allotment of energy within the tree structure. More leaf and twig area means fewer resources for each section, branch or twig, so we can direct energy into the new grafts or wherever we want it by removing some wood and leaving other wood. (We won’t get into it here, but you can also do that with bud selection.) So, the short version is this. When you add a graft, remove any wood near it that is not valuable to give the new graft space and direct energy from that area of the tree into the new graft. Thus the graft has less competition, but also gets more light, which will allow it to grow more.
As far as how much room, a good rule of thumb is at least inches apart along the limb on larger structural wood. And not 12 inches on one side, but staggered side to side. So, from one graft measure 12 or more inches and put a graft on the other side of the limb. That way each graft on any side of the limb is about 2 feet from the last. That may seem like a lot, but it is not. Once those new grafts grow out some side branches, they only have to grow 12 inches to the side before running into each other. That is just a rule of thumb. You don’t want bare sections of branch exposed to the sun either, or they will sunburn. And convenient stubs to graft onto never occur exactly on a spacing. So, just think in terms of about an average of 12 inches staggered and it will work out fine. You can do some closer for sure, and put on extra for insurance, but plan on removing some of them later.
To prepare all at once, or gradually?: If the tree is healthy, I have never found it necessary in frameworking to leave any of the old variety to grow on the tree. But then I have a high percentage of success on my grafts and a confidence born of experience. It may be different with very old and weak trees, I don’t have enough experience to tell you that. If the tree is healthy and I have enough scions, I’ll cut everything off. If it makes you feel better, you can always leave a percentage of the old tree for insurance. If you are just beginning at grafting, I would just do some random grafts here and there to get a feel for your ability and how well your grafts are taking. You can then proceed as you gain confidence, and nothing is lost if any graft fails. Even if you go for it though and half the grafts fail, it will probably be just fine. I used a lot of difficult side grafts on the original frankentree and about half of them didn't make it. Even though I had cut the entire tree back, it was perfectly fine. The tree does need something to grow into. It has to produce leaves and gather energy to survive. If a lot of grafts are put on, then it can grow plenty of leaf area pretty fast. In Topworking, where you chop off most of the tree and graft on only a few scions to each stub, “nurse” limbs are often left to feed the tree while it regrows it’s top and those are cut out after a year, or maybe two years. In Frameworking this doesn't seem to be necessary, probably because the tree regrows so much leaf area the first season.
Bride of Frankentree sequence. Starting to prepare the uncut tree.
The prepared tree. The unfinished section on the left was left to the old variety, though it was pruned back more after this picture was taken. Not every stub that was left was used, but the tree was more or less ready to graft here.
The mostly grafted tree. Note some grafts are probably 12 inches long.
Leafing out first spring.
Just a single seasons vigorous regrowth. The tree bore fruit the second year, though not a ton.
Scion length: I like to use longer scions for frameworking. They have the potential to produce fruit a little sooner. They don’t always do so, but they have the potential anyway and do sometimes. I will typically use scions with 8 or more buds if I have them and up to around 12 inches long. Different varieties will grow in different ways, but typically 2 or 3 buds near the tip of the scion will grow into long shoots and the others will either sit there, grow into short shoots (which sometimes bear at their tips), darts, or fruit buds. Sometimes those extra buds just sit there and do nothing, but at least there is a chance and you can sometimes have fruit the year after grafting. It is fine to use short scions too with only one or two buds if that is all you have.
Bud facings: You can use pruning to choose buds to retrain the tree to grow as you want it to. The bud at the tip of the scion is usually the one that will grow the most vigorously. If grafting on a downward facing branch, you might choose to prune the scion back to an upright facing bud (or just graft it on in a way that the last bud points up) so that the branch will start growing upward again. If grafting to upright stubs, choose buds that face outward into an open space. In subsequent years, you can keep choosing outward facing buds to encourage more spreading growth.
Which Grafts to use: It doesn’t matter too much what kind of grafts you use if they take and grow. I use cleft grafts, whip and tongue and bark grafts for the most part. Bark grafts are made by slitting open the bark and tucking in a scion. They are better for large stubs than cleft grafts because there is no need to split the wood. They also create a lot of cambial contact and that is always good. The bark has to be slipping, but that happens pretty early.
Here is a bark graft. The part of the scion facing the wood is cut to a long sloping cut. Of course it is wrapped tightly and sealed up as in the photo near the top of the page. This is better when grafting large wood than splitting the wood itself open. They are easy and seem to take very well. The bark must have enough sap to slip easily from the wood though.
A healing whip and tongue graft showing the form. If you can make it look like this and there are no major gaps when you squeeze it together, you're good to go! For people that are not used to using a knife, this can be a challenge and is probably the biggest hurdle for most beginning grafters.
If you need to add a branch in a section of bare wood, you can try a side graft. The branch is cut upward so that water will no collect in the cut. The scion is cut in such a way as to wedge into the side cut and is jammed in forcefully. If done right, no wrapping is needed, but it is probably good to seal the whole area with grafting paint. I do so anyway. The Grafters Handbook, by R. J. Garner is where I learned a lot of this stuff and about frameworking as a distinct concept. http://amzn.to/1pGXG23He also recommends another graft that does not require wrapping called the stub graft, which I have used a little, but am still getting comfortable with.
A side graft. The cut is made upward so as to not collect rain water. If made properly, it needs no wrapping or nailing in place. I will usually paint the whole cut area thick with grafting paint, though I didn't here. These are a gamble. Mine fail quite a bit, but they heal up pretty fast if they fail.
A healed side graft.
Wrapping and sealing: Grafts should be wrapped tightly. Especially if the scions are long. You can use a lot of different things. White PVC budding tape, green plastic landscaping tie tape, strips of heavy plastic bags. But, whatever you use, make sure you can put some stretch on it and stretch it as you wrap. wrap several layers up and down the graft area.
I like to seal my grafts along the whole length. At the very least seal the end, but sealing the whole length is easy to do and is good insurance. If you are just experimenting, you can use white glue cut with a small amount of water, or just latex paint. I use Doc Farwell’s grafting wax, which is basically like a very rubbery latex paint. The tree buds are very strong and should be able to push through any of those coatings as long as they aren’t applied just ridiculously thick.
Aftercare: I will usually let the new grafts grow as they will the first year. You can encourage certain buds to grow out into shoots though by notching just above them through the bark and into the wood slightly. Other than that though, I would pretty much leave them alone.
Along about July sometime, you may need to unwrap the grafts. They should be fine by then, but if you live in a very windy area, you may want to rewrap them till the end of the season. Unwrapping and rewrapping is fine. If I don’t want to rewrap, I’ll just cut down the side of the wrapping with the grafting knife and the wrapping falls off. You have to cut into the bark a little, but it will heal up very fast, so no biggie. What you don’t want is to see the wrapping constricting the growth of the branch, so always unwrap before that happens too much.
A graft that was never unwrapped and constricted growth. At best, you slow the growth of the branch and at worst, the branch can break at that weak point.
If a graft fails to take, a shoot will often spring up at the base of the old stub and can be left to grow out for grafting onto in the following year. Otherwise, most growth from the old variety should be removed as it sprouts from invisible dormant buds during the spring and summer.
In subsequent years: If your grafts take and the tree is healthy, it will regain a “normal” look in a pretty short time. Make every cut just above a bud and think about which bud you are cutting to and which direction that will make the tree grow in or if it will make the new shoot grow down, or up. On long new shoots, you can select the buds which you want to grow out into new branches and in late winter/early spring, you can notch just above those to make them extend into shoots for fruiting laterals or for whatever purpose. Notching is a very effective technique on apples.
I can’t go into pruning here. I’m already approaching 3000 words! Some general principals though. You want light and air inside the tree. At the same time, you should also strive to shade the main branches and trunk, because they can be sunburned easily causing necrosis (tissue death) and inviting boring insects (yawn...). cut out or shorten crossing branches and thin out dense growth. Typically, once you reestablish the permanent structural wood you will shorten all new wood each year. Shortening makes future pruning easy and controls the height of the tree. The most important exception being with trees that bear on the tips of shoots like Granny Smith, Kerry Pippin and Bramley’s Seedling. Some of them bear on both tips and on spurs along the branches and others bear almost all on tips of the previous year’s growth. If you prune those tip bearers short every year, you won't get any fruit, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax there.
The above is the information you most need to know strategy wise to successfully pull off frameworking. If you’re just starting to learn grafting, how you proceed is really up to you and the value you place on the tree you are working with. Starting gradually to build skill and confidence is fine, or if the tree is not valuable, you could just go for it. If you start small, you are not likely to do any serious damage. Trees are resilient and adaptive. They are used to being broken by snow, wind and falling trees, ravaged by bears, chewed on by rodents, attacked by fungus and insects. You should not be losing sleep over cutting a few branches back and making some grafts to experiment or practice.
Look at grafting information and practice on some scrap prunings until you can make good fitting grafts that show no light and match up well when squeezed tightly. You can use a sharp pocket knife or sheath knife, or a razor/utility knife if it is of a type that the blade doesn’t wobble. If you want a real grafting knife, this one below is affordable and it is what I use most of the time. Whatever you use, it should be sharp. Learning to sharpen and use a knife is where this battle is won honestly, and those are skills worth having, and that you can use in so many different arenas. Get out there and make it happen! Good luck!
How to Clean Out a Horizonatally Drilled Spring or Well
This under 4 minute video is about cleaning my horizontally drilled spring. The spring was drilled into the hillside at least 30 feet at a slight upward angle long before I moved here. The first ten feet of pipe are solid and the rest is perforated to allow water to seep in. When I moved here, it only ran about 1/2 gallon per minute all year, but the owner said he thought it used to run more in the winter time. I called the local driller and he told me how to clean it. Once cleaned, the spring gushed 10 gallons a minute for hours as it let off the built up pressure, which it does now every time I clean it. They often will slow down over a long period of time. One of our neighbors actually drilled a new well because they thought their horizontally drilled spring was just drying up and didn't know that it could be cleaned out. Mine needs to be cleaned about once every year or two. This time it was nearly clogged to the point of going dry while the previous two years it didn't need cleaning at all, maybe because of the drought? With all the rain we're getting this year, the drought, worst in most people's memory, is over. Yay for water! If this spring wasn't here, I probably wouldn't be either.
The first time I cleaned the spring. I was surprised and pretty happy!
Apple Breeding Series: Planting the Seeds
Here is my installment of the apple breeding series which deals with planting the seeds. Written version below.
https://youtu.be/_dOSZneuBv0
Apple seeds generally require stratification in order to break dormancy and begin growing. Think of stratification as a clock or timer of sorts. After accumulating X number of hours below a certain temperature, the seeds believe they have gone through winter and it's okay to grow now. Stratification is not difficult. If you harvest the seeds in the fall and put them into cold storage, then they will be ready to plant in late winter or spring. Apples which are stored in cold storage must certainly contain seeds that are stratified enough to be ready to grow too, but I haven't tried it. I would assume so though. The other option is to simply leave the seeds outside. You can sow them in the open ground and let the cold weather work on them, or you can sow them in flats and put those outside. Whatever you do, I don't think you need to think about it too much. I haven't, and it works well for me. Just keep them cold when up until you are growing them out.
I like to start mine if rich flat mix in the greenhouse in later winter. Anytime between about the end of January and the middle of Feb is good. Later is okay too, just don't wait too terribly long. The flat mix I use is 2/3rds of old flat mix, with 1/3rd new sifted compost. I just keep the same stuff cycling year after year. Some of the mix gets planted out into the beds when plants are transplanted out into the ground, but the new compost addition each year replenishes that. I use this same mix for all my vegetable starts and most everything else that I pot up. I also add some handfuls of coffee grounds and wood ashes, and if I have it, oyster shell flour. It's good stuff and grows great seedlings! For more see my old blog post on planting flats and flat mix.
The seeds are stored in small plastic bags, labeled with their identity, see the video on that step here. I like to use some sawdust in the bag to moderate the environment. Sawdust also has some antimicrobial properties, unlike paper. Don't use paper! The sawdust should be damp, not wet. If the seeds begin sprouting, that is just fine, just poke a hole and stick the root down in there. the unsprouted or barely sprouted seeds I plant 1/2 inch deep. If the seeds are dry, I can't tell you much, because I haven't grown out dry seeds, so you'll have to look elsewhere for that information.
If you are new to growing seeds in general, it is important not to over water or the seeds and seedlings may be attacked by decay. Some say that the surface of the soil should dry out between watering. Just don't let them dry out too much and don't keep them sopping wet. You should however water them well the first time, but then allow the flat to drain and dry for a few days. As long as the soil is moist, the seeds should be okay. Roots like air. A damp mix with air space is ideal, not a wet mix where all air space is filled with water like a sponge.
You can also plant the seeds in the open ground. Just prepare the site well first and put a layer of fine material such as compost, coffee grounds, sawdust, etc.. over the bed surface to prevent the crusting that is caused by rain and water. That way the seeds can come through easily and the exchange of air in the soil will not be unduly hampered.
After getting a healthy start in the greenhouse, the seedlings are planted into a nursery bed outdoors to grow for the season. I would say the ideal time to transplant them varies by their progress and the weather. I think anything between 2 and 3 inches tall is pretty good, but they can be transplanted earlier or later depending on the weather etc. If they are to be grown in pots, especially in a greenhouse, they can be transplanted when very small, if care is taken, at almost any time really, but I'd probably wait till you have at least a couple of true leaves on them.
One parting warning. Almost every spring I have mice in the greenhouse, and almost very spring they eat some important plants before I remember that this happens every year and set traps. This year, the first night I lost about 15 of the already sprouted seeds, including most of the Cherry Cox x Sweet Sixteen seedlings and a bunch of the Sweet 16 Wickson crosses. Now I have 3 traps set and have killed 3 mice in 4 or 5 days. Next year maybe I'll remember to do that pro-actively! Same thing happened last year. :-/ With multiple traps and good bait (roasted bay nuts for me, but almost any roasted nut or nut butter is good) it is almost entirely preventable.
That's it for now. I'm sure we'll revisit these seedlings when it's time to plant them out in the garden.
I will am getting my first blooms this year, so in all likelihood, we'll have some fruit to look at later in the year. Isn't that exciting! Who knows what will reveal itself...
A Look at a Re-grafted Apple Tree One Year After
This is a quick look at an apple tree I grafted last year. This tree was grafted very similarly to the one that I did in a recent video called Apple Tree Makeover, so it provides a few good talking points.
