Several months ago, I was walking around Utah State University campus, as I often do, looking for edible plants to eat or propagate, when I stumbled upon a strange plant. I got my phone out to take a picture and look it up and to my surprise, it was a pistachio tree! 6 months ago If you would have asked me where pistachio trees can grow, I would have said "not here!" I assumed they didn't go dormant and couldn't handle cold winters of northern Utah. I guess it helps to not assume. Today the pistachios were finally ready to pick and they are DELICIOUS. You can eat them fresh or roast them. I'll be cold stratifying a bunch of them this winter in hopes that a few will begin to grow in the spring. When they're ready, I'll graft a branch from the producing variety on campus onto my seedlings. This will ensure good fruit and earlier production. (3-5 years instead of 5-10) Wish me luck!

The days are getting shorter. You might be thinking it's time to clean up the garden and pack things away for the winter But you might be wrong. Well, you'll still need to do the regular winter prep stuff but, here are some other tasks you might want to do as well.👇 1. Collect and prepare seed for stratification. Most good varieties of fruit and nut trees don't grow true to seed but some are likely enough to produce good fruit that its worth a shot if you have some extra space. Here are some to try: Apples Pawpaw Persimmon Chestnut Hazelnut Heartnut (type of walnut) Pecan Mulberry Service Berry (a.k.a. June berry, Saskatoon) Seaberry 2. Mark trees before leaves fall. I don't know about you but I'm no master at identifying dormant plants. There a few plants around town or off the side of a road that I have plans to take cuttings from this fall but I first need to mark them before they lose their leaves so I can pick them out from amongst the other plants once they've gone dormant. 3. Collect Hardwood Cuttings After plants go dormant but before the ground freezes, Prepare and store cuttings to root in the early spring. Here are some plants to try it with. Currants Gooseberries Grapes Blueberries Mulberries Elderberries Seaberries Kiwi (hardy) Fig Pomegranate Quince Hazelnut 4. Order dormant trees and shrubs. You can't propagate a plant if you don't have access to it. If you don't know anyone with the plant you want and can't find it anywhere where you live, you're going to have to buy one. You could just go to the tree nursery and buy one for 1 or 2 hundred dollars. They could be cheaper if you catch them on sale. Or You could order bare root plants online for a fraction of the cost. Single plants are often $25 I've seen bundles of 10 high quality fruit trees for as little as $54 Anyway. If you love to grow things. The work doesn't need to stop after the growing season is over. Fall is full of activities you can do to help you grow more food with less work.

Let me put something out there that's mostly for my own sake. But maybe you can relate. It's something I don't think gets enough consideration. Growing trees in containers... Hear me out. There are lots of reasons you might want to do this. Maybe you're living in an apartment with nowhere to plant a tree. Or Maybe you own a home with a yard but you don't know how long you'll be staying and don't want to plant a tree that you won't see bear fruit. You tell yourself, "one day, when I have land, I'll finally plant the garden or food Forest of my dreams" Or in other words, "I'm going to put off building an essential skill so that when the 'one day' finally comes to implement the skill I won't have it" Well this post is to remind you (me) that YOU (I) DON'T HAVE TO WAIT to get started. Start something from seed. Root a cutting. Or just buy a tree from a nursery. Put it near a window or on your deck or patio. Learn to care for it. Practice grafting or layering with it and then when "one day" comes you'll be ready. AND you got to enjoy the wait.🙌 This fall I'm going to order some good bare-root dwarf rootstocks and then in late winter I'll start grafting some of my favorite varieties onto them.

Here are some tips to get all the trees you want for a fraction of the price.🌱👇 1. Start from Seeds 🌰 – Virtually free! Choose plants that grow relatively true to seed like: - Manchurian Apricots - Persimmon - Black walnuts - Paw Paw It takes patience, but it’s super cost-effective! 2. Start from Cuttings✂️ – Want more of what you have or know someone with a variety you want? Learn how to root cuttings and get clones for free! Stick with easy to root plants like: - mulberry - blackberry - elderberry - currants - figs 3. Buy Bare Root Trees 🌳 - get a bundle of 10 dormant trees for as little as $50 instead of One Tree in a pot for $100 or so. Even if you only want one tree a bare root one can cost you as little as $20 bucks. Here are some good sources for buying bare root plants: (start looking in the fall before they sell out!) - www.starkbros.com - www.raintreenursery.com - www.burntridgenursery.com - www.fedcoseeds.com/trees.htm 4. Invest in Some Good Root Stocks🍃- Root stocks such as M26 for apple or Quince C for pear can be kept small and shrubby so they don't take much space but then you can mound layer them every other year or so to get new root stocks to graft your favorite varieties onto!🤯 🙌Fruit trees don't have to break the bank👊 Which one of these tips are you most like to try? What other ideas do you have?