Grafted!

Last month I posted about my attempts to graft pears in my back yard. Through online gardening forums, I connected with a fellow who was kind enough to send me some pear wood from some of his trees to attempt grafting with as well. I finished the last graft today, and none too soon--the warm weather hasn't prompted bud break yet, but I'm noticing some swelling buds on my pear trees. Get this--the swelling buds are mostly on the pear scions I grafted last month! Which means the grafts are taking, and the scions are getting nutrients and not dying. There's still a lot that can go wrong, but my fingers are crossed. Hopefully, these new scions will be able to take as well before the weather gets too hot.

I currently look not unlike a Dalmatian, as the pruning sealer I was using developed a bad case of the sputters early on in the process, resulting in as much of the black gunk ending up on my person as the trees. Just thought I'd share.

For the record, I figure I'll do a roll call of what edible-producing plants I've got growing in the yard currently:

• Moonglow pear
  
  • Warren graft
    
  • Garber (?) graft
    
  • unknown graft
    
  • Acres Home graft
    
  • Tennousi graft
• Warren pear
  
  • Moonglow graft
    
  • Garber (?) graft
    
  • unknown graft
    
  • Tennousi graft
• La Feliciana peach
  
• Santa Rosa plum
  
• Methley plum
  
• Cheyenne pecan
  
• Pomegranate (unknown, white fleshed, tart)
  
• Pomegranate (unknown, non-fruiting, grr)
  
• Fredonia grape vines (2)
  
• Ison black muscadine
  
• Late Fry bronze muscadine
  
• Passiflora incarnata (aka Maypop passion fruit)
  
• Passiflora foetida var. gossypiifolia

I've also got a dewberry plant on the side of the house, an accidental transplant that doesn't quite get enough sunlight to fruit dependably, but that hasn't stopped it from making thorns. The fellow who sent me those pear scions also sent me cuttings from his "Mae" and "Cloud" pomegranates, which should produce much better fruit than the one I have, so I'll try my hand at rooting them. Not bad for a small, subdivision lot. I'd pack in a lot more if The Wife would let me. Ultimately, we plan to buy some rural acreage to eventually build on, and I've already got a wish list of cool plants to grow there, including paw paws, "cannon ball" black walnuts, olives and Devine cold-hardy avocados. My goal is for my family to eat year-round from the perennial trees and bushes, with a formal garden being a happy luxury. You know, for when civilization falls and everyone goes all Mad Max. :-)

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