Today I pruned the crap out of my very out of control apple tree in the front yard. Does anyone know if I can use any of the cuttings from it to start new trees?

Not really, because good fruit requires a tree with a specialized rootstock. It could be rooted, and produce apples, though they would be so small as to be disappointing.

Thanks. It will make a nice fire then

The usual way to propagate apples is by grafting. A google search should find info for you. It is possible to root apple cuttings, but not easy. If you want to propagate this particular tree, the cheapest way is to plant some seeds to grow seedling rootstocks, and then graft cuttings from your tree onto the seedlings in a couple of years. Again, searching on google should find some info for you.

Hello people!

A year and a half ago I moved into the Scottish Woods and am living in a teepee amongst gorgeous old trees!
I recently found some old tents in the skip of the local Boy Scouts and would like to use the canvas for my teepee. But I need to waterproof the canvas again, and thought it would be ideal to use an ancient technique using pine resin, beeswax, linseed oil and turpentine.

I have a question: Does anyone of you experts know how to get the resin out of the trees? I have cut some bark of some trees (Noble Fir and Western Hemlock) that are needing felled and am collecting the resin dripping out. But I don't really like damaging living trees and since this is a slow and low yield process, I would have to hurt a lot of trees.

Is there a technique to get the resin out of the bark or wood of felled trees?

(I hope resin is considered a fruit of trees aswell, otherwise I ended up in the wrong place)


Ludd (a newbie in the forum)

Maarten Luther (not Martin Luther, the famous black American) who is a famous church-father once said this:" If i knew the world would go down tomorrow, i would plant a appletree today"

planting trees is not religious but a sign for hope and faith in the future.
I have no garden, so to all of you; keep on planting!!
good luck

I'm afraid you've "stumped" me there. I'd assume that the sap would need to be flowing (unfelled tree) to be harvested.

..

I believe the traditional method for getting resin out of pine trees is to cut them down create a hot fire/area of coals and then place the trees on top and then cover the whole works with dirt. Turpentine should run out of the logs and can be captured and the pitch should basically bake out of the wood. to be collected.

Ofcourse! That makes sense, sweat it out! I'll try it and let you know if it works! I'm of to the woods again, so that answer might be a while since I am far away from civilisation with no access to the WWW.

Thanks Strider!
Ludd

For pine tar and pitch it was cooked out of the wood, for turpentine, it was collected from living trees, a little like maple sap, although I think that grooves were cut in the bark for the sap to drip from.
http://www.state.sc.us/forest/scindust.htm

Jim

I saw a tar pit in operation a few years ago, where old-timers volunteered for tourists coming by, in Sweden. Once a big business in that part of Sweden. They used an old circular tar pit, just like in WisJim's link, a concrete pit with a drain for the tar, the whole thing like a giant shallow funnel. They used stumps of old pine trees - nothing else would do it they said. Lots of big stumps with thick roots in all directions. It seemed to be a quite complicated thing. And difficult - the stumps had to "burn" very slowly, with no flames - a cover on top that easily could catch fire. You had to watch it 24 hrs a day for weeks. They were a team of proud retired men taking turns.

I would not undertake it alone without experience.

nocar

I've got some starts going right now. If they take I'll tell you how I did it.

Other news, I've got 52 bareroots on order to be delivered next month. About 5 each of the most common trees for my area.

truecougar, once they're planted, your biggest problems will be weed control and keeping 'em watered. Use plenty of mulch, and have on hand five-gallon buckets for carrying water to the trees during dry spells. Give each seedling two or three coffee cans of water per week and they should make it if they don't get sheared off by animals. Good luck with your project!

Thanks much for the advice, I'll keep it in mind as I go forward.

My small orchard, (13 peach, 2 pecan, 1 pear, 1 apple, and 3 lemon, with more to come), has been a joy and a great learning experience.

I always put fence around the small trees to protect them from armadillos, rabbits, etc. Deer? I have a bow. Perhaps shooting one will teach the deer to stay away! Too bad it's not deer hunting season when the fruit is ripening! Harvesting one deer could supply more calories than the fruit from one tree.

I want to learn how to graft the fruit trees, and I wonder if any readers here have that experience or can post a good link for that info. I haven't read through all the posts on this thread yet, perhaps this has already been addressed.

For example, can a fruit tree started from seed (or the pit) be used as the root stock for a scion (cutting) from a fruit-bearing tree to propagate another fruit bearing tree?

Please excuse my ignorance.