I have a Minnie Royal/ Royal Lee pair in a raised bed that went in earlier this year. Fingers crossed. There is actually a commercial variety of low chill cherries that I would LOVE to get my hands on but they sell only to commercial growers. They are known as the "little darlings," Royal Edie and Royal Helen. They fruit later than Minnie/Lee. I have not tasted any of these myself. I'm hoping to have five or six raised beds with 4 in 1 hole. I'm still collecting the trees, but by January should have everything. 4 "Royal" low chill cherries (Minnie/Lee, Edie/Helen) 4 Interspecifics, most likely: Flavor King Pluot Flavor Grenade Pluot Emerald Drop Plu-ot Bella Gold Pea-cot-um A single Weeping Santa Rosa 4 Plums and friends: Sweet Treat Plu-erry Burgandy, Mariposa & Catalina Plum 4 Nectarines and friends: Spice Zee Necta-plum Snow Queen, Panamint, and Double Delight Nectarines 4 Peaches Considering Sugar Giant, OHenry Mid Pride Eva's Pride (Any input here?) Maybe a avacado hole... Maybe an apricot /aprium hole...

Thanks for the advice Alex. I think I'll give that a try in the spring. The trunk is 2 feet in diameter and overall it is quite far from dead. It was infested long before I moved in 2 years ago and I've only had to remove a couple branches from it in that time. The upper half of the tree appear to be quite healthy still. My plan was/is to anchor one end of a trellis directly onto the tree (there's a post that won't move) and plant the fruting female plant about 10 feet away to run along the trellis. The male non-fruting plant would be planted at the base of another side of the tree and left to run more or less wild up the tree. I don't have any experience with kiwi's, so I'm not sure if 1) the asthetic will be any good (aka wife factor) and 2) how well the tree and vine will interact. It's my understanding that eastern hemlocks have very shallow root systems, so not sure how well the kiwi would establish. I have rhubarb and a paw paw I planted about 8 feet away this year and both seem to be doing quite well. A foot away may be a different story though. I guess there's no harm in giving it a go and seeing if it works or not. Worst case, I just buy another male and fit it in somewhere.

Like many other similar commercially available products this one is intended to save the user a lot of time researching and making a home made contraption. It is virtually animal-proof, which is good for city dwellers and for country dwellers worried about animal pests. And it is solar in that it works best in direct sun, the green plastic transmitting light so heat collects inside which, as I said above, speeds reduction greatly. It is not a composter, although it does make a small volume. Ours was $90, which seemed expensive, and that was a price subsidized by the county which was selling it along with earth machines, maybe they still do. But it's still in good shape after 8 years. Here's that info. It was written by one of the bright lights on this forum, who's moved on. Not sure why he bothers covering additions with straw - if you don't you get fruit flies and smell which don't matter if there's a cover. Also keep in mind this guy lives on the mild west coast, not the bitter cold in winter cursed rest of the country, so his contraption would work better for a longer part of the year. Home made digester Get a barrel, garbage pail or some sort of cylindrical thing and dig a hole in your utility area a bit larger and deeper than the vessel. Punch many holes into the bottom and sides of the vessel. Many. Put drain rock in the bottom of the hole sufficient to hold the barrel at or just above ground level. Now back fill the circumference with drain rock. Now you have a barrel buried into the ground, surrounded by drain rock. Make a heavy cover, lid for it. I use 3/4 plywood with pieces of 2x4 screwed to the bottom such that the 2x4 sits inside the circumference of the pail and the ply now can't skid off the pail if you tread on it or run the wheelbarrow over it. Attach a handle of some sort so you can lift the lid. Mine is high enough that I can get my rake, hoe, manure fork, whatever under it and flip it up w/o having to bend down. Inoculate the bottom with a handful of working compost. Have a reasonable supply of browns at hand. I use ruined straw bales, just flake off about a third and leave it by the digester. Into which we successfully add and compost chicken and turkey carcasses, any and all cooking oil or fat, cat waste, whatever dog waste is left by thoughtless owners or free running dogs, rib bones, crab shells and guts, clam, mussel and shrimp shells, squid and octopus leavings, fish remains and heads, etc. Understand I live by the ocean and not all of this goes in at once! In short and so as to not have my regular piles need constant attention, I use the digester for any yucky stuff. The odd time it will smell but an extra handful of straw takes care of it. No turning, no issues other than having to weed-whack around it often. The moisture goes quick, the remainder breaks down into, well, compost. Only icky part is when you need to empty it you have to dig out the partial stuff before you get to the done. And with it buried in the ground you are pretty much laying there, using a hand shovel and bucket like a kid at the beach. We are a normal consuming family of four and in three/four years I have emptied it once. Didn't need to, it wasn't full, I just wanted to see what it looked like.

I just wanted to post that I was out at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago. The large Q. acutas looked like they sustained some damage from teh past winter. Some twig and a few branches died back. Sad to see. But they will certainly survive. The Q. salicina looked like it had NO damage at all surprisingly. I have never seen acorns on them. Interestingly the Q. phillyreoides had some acorns. No apparent dieback. They all looked rather shrubby to me and not large single trunked trees. L. henyri and Q. myrsinifolias looked just fine. Q. glauca specimens at the Arboretum have all had a rough go of it over the years. Numerous diebacks. Pretty pathetic. They should really not be grown up here. But maybe they got some northern provenance stock that they wanted to try. I didn't see where they were from. Unrelated, but all the hollies looked great. Even Ilex latifolia. The Ilex latifolia in my yard looks great as well. No apparent winter damage. A small amount of leaf spot but overall I was very pleased. This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 10:33