Hi Everyone, It has now been two years since we bought our house. In between caring for our 18-month-old I am trying to establish a yard full of edibles. I would be very interested in a rooted cutting or established sapling from a fig tree (maybe a turkey fig ... something that doesn't get too big and that can survive in zone 7). I'm also interested in peach, plum and paw paw (I guess I would need two paw paw saplings). I've only just started to write up my "Haves" list, and I've also just ordered a ton of veggie and herb seeds, including a number of heirlooms. So please ask if there is something that you are looking for. The plants that I currently have to trade include June-bearing strawberries, a thinner clumping green bamboo that grows 14-15 feet tall and makes an excellent privacy fence (the shoots are also edible), English thyme, senna, and probably also cherry blossom tree saplings. Thanks so much, Angela

Hi, I'm a late poster on this one, so you've probably already traded the Paw Paw away. I also like boysenberries. I have 1st year McIntosh apple trees. I also have a hybrid strawberry that's vigorous, sweet and very early. I started with just 20 small transplants and now, a year and a half later, have a patch 50' X 4' that's full of berries. I can't tell you what the hybridization is because the local grower from whom I got it doen't want competition from other local growers. But it is a good one. I'm also live in upstate NY so my things would probably do well for you. Well, maybe you could let me know if you are interested. Thanks - Bill BC08@localnet.com

OK, I can help with this one -- As long as you have 2 or more trees that are genetically different, seed-grown or grafted ones of different varieties, as opposed to suckers taken from the same mother plant, you have the right genetic combination to make fruit. However, the issue might be proper cross-pollination. I picked up this tip from a gardening magazine some years back, and it really works. Paw Paw flowers are brown/purple for a reason -- they are carrion mimics that produce the scent of rotting flesh, although it is subtle, and are pollinated by various species of carrion-loving flies. In the magazine, there was a profile of a paw paw breeder from Jackson, Michigan. He went out every spring and gathered roadkill -- racoons, possoms, etc. -- and also enlisted the help of a couple of friends to catch big carp in the local river. He hung a carcass in each tree. He had like 200 trees, so I don't envy his downwind neighbors. Now, I know it sounds nasty, and it is, but it sure does make a dramatic difference in pollination. Now, being sort of weak in the stomach, I couldn't see myself hanging dead animals in my paw paw trees, and I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't approve, and someone would probably call the cops on me. So, my solution -- I use the bait powder from Ortho disposable flytraps -- I mix it with an equal volume of water and pour it into a foam or plastic cup that I tape with duct tape to a vertical trunk of the tree about 4 feet off the ground. Pour the mix in there about 4 or 5 days before the first blossoms open, because it gets progressively more smelly as it ages. By the time the blooms open, it will be rank smelling and attract a lot of flies. Some will actually fall in and drown, but that's ok, because it just makes it smell all the worse and attracts even more flies. When I did this, the blossom set increased dramatically, about quadrupled. A lot more fruit set and ripened. Too late for this year, but try it next and see if that doesn't make the difference. Finally, one other thing -- I have one tree that is a couple of hundred feet away from the other two -- that distance does cut down a lot on the transfer of pollen, and it sets far fewer. So, if your trees are far away, you can use my other method, which is to cut several longer branches of buds and flowers from a pollinator tree and put them under the tree which needs cross pollination in a bucket of water with some cut flower preservative in it -- they'll last about 4 to 6 days this way and will do the job.

Rusty, I'll bring the discussion back here, the PM was only to send you my phone number where the bots couldn't harvest it. You asked what else I grow. I have planted many plums, with limited success, but I continue to try new varieties. If you are going to plant plums plant a Mount Royal. You will not get plums every year, but when you do they are fabulous and abundant. If you time a visit for mid September you can taste some, I have a decent crop coming this year. Although every thing is running a little late again this year and they need a full season. It is claimed that mount royal has many strains and some are freestone or at least semi-freestone. My original bought locally(supplied by Bylands) is a full cling-stone. Very delicious, but during the on years we try to dry some and it is very labour intensive. I planted a second mount royal this year(from nut cracker in Quebec) hoping for freestone plums. If you are going to plant any hybrid plums in the future, plant a native plum next spring - they are slow growing and it takes them a while to start blooming and pollinating your hybrids. I also have planted a dozen apple varieties. Not all of them have borne fruit yet, but all of them have survived. I have not lost any zone 4 rated apples, where many zone 4 rated plums are no longer with me. The berries are the quickest and the most dependable. Raspberries, saskatoons, and haskap produce every year. I also have some sour cherries with a decent crop for the first time this year.