Konrad, this is a question I was going ask! I have three ten year old 'Candied Apple' crabapple trees that are in full bloom right now. Will they help to pollinate my 'Pristine' apple which is in full bloom as well? I have other apple trees coming along as well, but their blossoms will not be open until later this week. Many thanks, Merci! Mrs. G

Sounds like a good idea,.. not everybody has a Apple which doesn't choke. Perhaps start with title....orchard pictures 2012 Frank, yes and no, in the city yes, but I haven't seen one ripened good. Season is too short. For me in the country no, ..still trying, most graft's die off. I have not one apple fruited yet, I finally put a graft on a tree here at the house this spring. For the odd year with a long nice fall like we had last year might have worked out.

Konrad, I wish you would start a new post with the pictures (f you have them). I have two dwarf rootstocks from trees that the grafts died due to girdling from rabbits; want to use some of the prunings from my standard trees to try to graft to those. Good pictures are so helpful.

Hi Konrad! Don't sweat it. I have posted things to forums that were off the usual list for myself as well, and then forgotten to go back for a while. People get to wondering what happened. I try to remember to check the e-mail notification box but sometimes I forget. I have some bad news. Although things went well for the brood closest to the house, something went terribly awry for the one by the main channel in the creek. I went out a week ago to clean out the shells and when I opened up the box the worst smell hit me and I knew I had troubles. THe hen had died in the box, and there were only a few shells beneath her. I will never know exactly what happened here. THe opening is made smaller to hopefully exclude most coons, and the house is mounted on a slick metal pole high enough (the hole is right about 6 1/2 feet off the ground, with water within three feet of the base) and away from other trees to keep jumpers at bay. BUT when I checked this box a small branch had come down within 5-6 feet of it, and may have provided a leaping point. I still don't know. THe body was decomposed, but generally still intact, the wings still attached and the bones in place. I am thinking a coon would have made a bigger mess, unless it just got the easiest flesh and then went after the eggs. But, the fact that most of the eggs were gone, shell and all, makes me think snake. COuld a large rat snake kill an adult hen that easily? I guess...I don't really know. Maybe that's what happened, a snake got in there and managed to loop around her and overpower her, but then couldn't eat her and instead dined on the eggs. But would a snake eat over a dozen eggs? A mystery we can't solve I guess. I would love to have bees...my great grandfather had several hives. THe bad news is that that's the one thing I tend to be allergic to, stings, so I would be playing with fire. I still love finding a bee tree and watching them come and go...fascinating social structure. Your ducks, by the way, are green-winged teals. I am really horrible with waterfowl. I was thinking wigeon at first when I saw the eye patch, but then I was like, no, the red head is a GWT....had to go get the book out to be sure so I can't say I knew right off. How do you fix them?