2016 Winding Down: 1 Post a Month Goal (at least!)

Its been a while since I’ve wrote on here or updated the site at all for that matter— largely because I haven’t found the time with my current day to day workload, and time spent on the computer is usually dedicated to landscape/farm design, administrative work, etc. However, I’m making a goal to begin again with periodic updates and postings. There are countless topics, ideas, concepts, photographs, and bits of content I’ve wanted to share for a long time that haven’t gotten out, so hopefully by setting this goal I will be motivated to share some of that material through the website. As life goes in spurts, and as we pass through the various phases of personality, desires, likes and dislikes—certain activities stick with us while others become less valuable or less useful, perhaps permanently or temporarily; as I develop my businesses and continue on my path I find that blog writing, to be quite frank, is not my favorite thing to do, nor a close runner up. What I DO enjoy is sharing what I observe, questions I have, ideas, so on and so forth. When I get emails or phone calls about how a certain video or podcast or article was beneficial to somebody, that is very satisfying and a big reason why I enjoy this work. When I began The Fruit Nut a major impetus was to fill what I saw as a ‘content void’ in the realms of uncommon fruits, genetic diversity, and ecological orcharding. Fortunately these topics are becoming increasingly popular and accessible it seems. My 1 Post a Month Goal will be a way for me to re-engage with the online world and share what I find interesting and of value to those topics.

In terms of the website, one of the questions I’ve been pondering is— given I have a decent understanding of my own blog writing strengths and weaknesses, how can I best structure posts, website management, and my overall time spent putting content out, so that it will best work with my strengths and weaknesses to create a positive workflow. I don’t necessarily have the answers to that but I intend to explore that question in the coming months. The goal is to avoid getting burnt out and continue to enjoy and actively use this tool I’ve created. All that being said, one pattern I’m attracted to is short, quick posts; that may mean a handful of photos with brief descriptions of each one or a few paragraphs telling a story about a certain fruit I recently found. Stuff of that nature— fast, easy, streamlined posting that will actually keep me posting! I digress. Below are some photos and a video of recent happenings…

My buddy Grant Schultz of Versaland is always up to some pretty cool stuff, recently he posted a video of a large American persimmon tree he found growing in Iowa. Good fruit set indeed, he even shares the cross roads. Scionwood anyone? Check my American Persimmons for Zone 5 to learn more about these heavenly sugar gems.

Beautiful jujubes and English walnuts sent to me from the good folks at Be Love Farm in California. — Beautiful jujubes (*Ziziphus jujuba*) and English walnuts sent to me from the good folks at **Be Love Farm** in Pleasants Valley, CA.

First year trying fruit from 'MSU' hardy kiwi vine. Interesting story to come on that, stay tuned. — First year tasting fruit from my ‘MSU’ hardy kiwi vine. Interesting story to come on that, stay tuned.

Fantastic infographic sketch from one of the coolest apple ladies— Eliza Greenman. Looking at the stategies and approach for addressing apple tree renovation. Check out Eliza's work on her website. — Fantastic info sketch from one of the coolest apple ladies— Eliza Greenman. Looking at the strategies and various approaches for addressing apple tree renovation and management. Check out Eliza’s work on **her website** and look for future posts on my **orchard renovation & topworking project**.

Beautiful pawpaws and 'Prok' American persimmons harvested at a buddies farm outside of Ann Arbor. 9/27/16 — Beautiful pawpaws and ‘Prok’ American persimmons harvested at a buddies farm outside of Ann Arbor, MI. 9/27/16

Every fall hoshigaki is made throughout much of Asia as a way to dry and preserve the delcious Asian persimmon fruit. Something I've been fascinated with as I explore traditional fruit preserving & processing techniques. Will have more trials and posts to come. This is fruitsciutto folks! — Every fall hoshigaki is made throughout much of Asia as a way to dry and preserve the delicious Asian persimmon fruit (*Diospyros kaki*). It’s something I’ve been fascinated with as I explore traditional fruit preserving & processing techniques. These hoshigaki I’m making with store bought ‘Hachiya’, astringent persimmons and, contrary to tradition — ‘Fuyu’ persimmons. More trials and thoughts to come including using *D.virginiana* and hybrids. This is the real deal folks, we’re talking **fruitsciutto**!

'Yongi' Asian pear 9/16/16 — ‘Yongi’ Asian pear. 9/16/16

'Korean Giant' Asian pear with notable curculio damage — ‘Korean Giant’ Asian pear with notable curculio damage.

screen-shot-2016-11-07-at-6-16-05-pm — Brilliant golden ginkgo leaves. The fall colors around here this year have been the best in years. **Lee Reich’s most recent post** talks about autumn color chemistry amongst other things like our beloved **Diospyros** AKA *‘fruit of the gods*‘, as mentioned above!

Stunning crimson foliage on this young 'Seckel' pear. — Stunning crimson foliage on this young ‘Seckel’ pear.

Spotlight on Hardy Kiwi & How to Prune

Cluster of hardy kiwis, photo taken 10/16/13

Hardy kiwi is a fruit that I’m just starting to become more acquainted with over the past few years— thanks to my generous/nutty friends and colleagues who kindly share their space and knowledge. Not to go on a tangent, but really its folks like Mike Levine, Ken Asmus, Marc Boone, and so many others who have made this path of fruit exploration so much more accessible for me as a young orchardist, and for that I’m very thankful. Anyways…Actinidia! Actinidia is the genus for kiwi, the fuzzy kiwi that we all know so well is A. deliciosa, but unknown to most are A. arguta and A. kolomkita, two kiwi species that are reportedly hardy to -25F. Hardy kiwi fruit however is approximately grape size and entirely fuzzless, unlike the supermarket kiwis most people know. So you can just pop ’em in your mouth whole, and their flavor is truly exquisite; many people, including myself, claim they have much better aromatics, sweetness, and overall flavor than the fuzzy kiwi. Out of all the uncommon fruits, like pawpaw, black currant, and jujube, to name a few— hardy kiwi seems like one that really has the potential to catch on and to be sought after by the likes of many, not just foody fruitnuts with crazy palates. One company, Kiwi Korners, has been successfully growing hardy kiwi as a commercial crop for some time now. None of my kiwi vines are producing yet, as they can take 5-10 years to come into bearing. DON’T WAIT, plant your kiwi vines today. Another reason I’m so adamant about hardy kiwi is how late they ripen in the season when not much else is available; from a resiliency and season extension standpoint this is prime. One minor challenge with kiwi vines in cold climates is their tender leaf buds want to unfurl very early and they’ll often get zapped by late spring frosts. This doesn’t kill the plant but it certainly sets it back for that season.

A well managed vine with high productivity.

All In The Pruning…

This unproductive kiwi vine grew up trees and as a tangled mass on the surrounding shrubbery. — This untrained/unproductive kiwi vine grew up trees and as a tangled mass on surrounding shrubbery.

Kiwis grow on vines, similar to grape vines. From my research and explorations thus far, it seems that the key to growing a productive hardy kiwi vine is all about proper training and pruning. Generally speaking, vining plants inherently want to just grow, grow, grow, and focus most of their energy into vegetative growth rather than flower and fruit development; so as caretakers of the vines there are certain ways we can coax the vines into instead thinking fruit, fruit, fruit. Its called spur pruning. Kiwi vines need annual pruning to develop small fruiting branches known as spurs. In my travels I’ve seen many large healthy looking kiwi vines, but often times their productivity is very low. Now I realize that these plants weren’t managed under a careful annual pruning regime. I am no expert in this field, or vineyard as it were, but I do know people that are so I’ll use this time to plug their expertise.

Kiwi vine trained to a single trunk with two cordons growing outward in either direction.

Hardy kiwi grows on the front of the home-studio at the Whole Systems Design Research Farm in Vermont.

djgrapehoe — For largescale production a sturdy T-trellis is the most common system, photo courtesy of www.kiwiberry.com

Mike Levine of Nature and Nurture, LLC has been growing hardy kiwi for several years in SE Michigan and he is one of the few people I know around here with such a successful system. Hats off to Mike for what he’s doing…

Another person who is perhaps one of the most experienced kiwi geeks in North America is Michael McConkey of Edible Landscaping in Afton, Virginia. Here Michael talks about summer spur pruning of kiwi vines…

Lee Reich is one of the upmost authorities on uncommon fruits and has a lot to say about hardy kiwi. Check out his book Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden to find more on hardy kiwi.

1229990_580053385365949_158160917_n — Halved kiwis prior to dehydration, photo courtesy Whole Systems Design

If you’re going to plant hardy kiwi(which everyone in the north should ASAP) it seems very worthwhile to take the time to train the vine to develop a single trunk system, and then manage the cordons each years to maximize their fruiting potential. I am so excited for the day that my vines come into production. There is oodles of information available on the web about hardy kiwi and the purpose of this post was to primarily talk about the training and pruning techniques necessary for growing productive vines. Visit the nursery links page to find sources for hardy kiwi plants. I’ll be busy dreaming of jars and jars full of kiwi raisins stored away for winter snacking…until next time!!

Fall Closure, Garden Update, & New Podcast

Winter is coming and you can feel it in the air. While Hurricane Sandy was wreaking havoc on the east coast Michigan got hit with serious winds, heavy rain, and some hail. That storm swooped away the remaining tree leaves bringing a conclusion to the beautiful display of fall colors. Now the bareness is kicking in. I’ve been struggling to find time to write amongst the busyness of closing down the gardens and getting everything ready for winter. You have to make hay when the sun shines- soon enough we’ll be snowed in.

A LOT has been going on, though. Many renovations have been made in the garden/orchard as well as some new plantings. My company has been doing well this fall and we’ve hosted some exciting workshops and secured some enthusiastic new clients that are ready to take on and transform their own landscapes. The elections have just passed, thankfully, and obviously everybody has their different views on voting…but we can all use this time as a reminder that perhaps the most effective way to vote and cast your voice is with your everyday actions. ‘Vote with your dollar’ is a powerful saying. We all have an opportunity to be the change we wish to see. Make positive changes in your own community, small or large.

Thats a wrap for my political rant; this is after all a website about fruit and orcharding, not politics. I vote for apples. Speaking of apples, I just finished the latest episode of the The Fruit Nut Podcast with Michael Phillips, the author of The Apple Grower and The Holistic Orchard. It was a great conversation and Michael shared so much valuable information. We talked about holistic fruit tree care, community orchards, and more. CLICK HERE to listen to the interview. Unfortunately the past three episodes have been recorded with a low quality microphone so the audio on my end breaks up a lot and doesn’t sound that great. HOWEVER, I am investing in a new recording system to produce much cleaner audio. Look forward to episode 4 with Lee Reich.