2024 Year End Kiwiberry Summary (planting year)

 Kiwiberry growth habits/progress

The kiwiberries chosen for tracking were photographed as 2024 progressed through the first hard frost (and some through the loss of leaves).  These images are shared below.  In general, many of these plants show considerable transplant stress initially.  As the images show, there was a hard frost between 9/18/25 and 10/28/24, and the plants leaves were in the process of falling by the end of October.  Figures 5 & 9 also show that most defoliation had completed by early November.  The Optiz plant (Figure 8) had more leaves on it than the Fairchild plant (Figure 5) in November.  The Optiz plant would die back to the ground the following year and resprout, so perhaps some of this can be explained by failure to fully harden off.  I will attempt to take more pictures in the fall of 2026 to see if this is the case.

All plants are female unless noted otherwise.

Figure 1. Ken's Red, Plant KA-8

Figure 2. Clark (male), Plant KB-2

Figure 3. Geneva 3, Plant KB-5

Figure 4. Cheng Bai Mountain, Plant KB-7

Figure 5. Fairchild (male), Plant KC-4

Figure 6. Hardy Red, Plant KC-6

Figure 7. Anna, Plant KC-8

Figure 8. Optiz (male), Plant KD-2

Figure 9. Meader (male), Plant KD-7

As Figures 1-9 show, the fastest initial establishing plants seem to be Geneva 3, Cheng Bai Mountain and Anna (based on quickness to reach the top wire).  The fastest male establishing male was Clark with Fairchild as a bushy second fastest.  

Pest Pressure

No pest pressure was noted this growing year except from Japanese Beetles.  In the winter, the deer did not attempt to access the kiwi growing area, as can be seen by the lack of animal prints through the snow (my footprints are shown from a routine fence inspection).  Care was taken to stake the growing fabric well back from each vine to minimize cover and habitat for voles near the base of the vines.

Figure 10. Deer Control Documentation, Image taken on 1/28/25

Kiwi Stakes Update

 May Kiwiberry Trellising

On 5/30/25, all bamboo stakes were tied up to the trellis.  Two plants in rows KC and KD had completely fallen over.  Note: it would have been much better to get taller stakes that went all the way up to the trellis rather than to have to go through and tie these shorter stakes up.  

In order to tie them in such a way that they did not pull off the end of the stakes, I settled on a choke chain method using sisal baler twine from orchard valley supply.  This is illustrated for future reference below.

Figure 1. The top of the bamboo stake before tying with twine.

Figure 2. Start by cutting an appropriate length of twine and placing it in front of the stake with the shorter end off to the left. (I wrapped 6 inches over the top of the trellis and then pulled the twine down to my bellybutton before cutting).

Figure 3. Wrap the longer end of the twine around the stake 1-2 times.

Figure 4. Now wrap the shorter piece around the longer end 1-2 times  This is where the choke comes from.  When the longer piece pulls up, it tightens this wrapping.

Figure 5. Add a square knot to secure the choke, ideally this should be done below a "knob" in the bamboo stake.

Figure 6. Final twine image after the square knot is completed

Figure 7. The twine was tied to the middle wire of the trellis.  It was wrapped a few times around to keep it from sliding along the wire.

Figure 8. This is the same kiwiberry plant after working the vines up in a counterclockwise fashion along the stake and twine.

Figure 9. Kiwiberry planting after all twine was tied.

Note that Figure 9 shows that the bottom wire of the fence is disconnected.  An animal had entered the planting area and run North, pulling the bottom wire of the fence about 5' out on the north edge.  The bottom wire of the fence will be reconnected after replacement fence insulators are ordered.

Update from 2 days later - the twine is staying attached to the stakes, but the wind is pulling the bottom of the stakes out of the ground.  I definitely should have purchased longer stakes.  Also, it seems like some of the vines are not eager to reach up without firmer staking.  I will report on this more as they begin to reach the top wire.

Air Pruning Box Assembly and First Use

 Air Pruning Box Assembly

Pruning boxes were assembled starting with the treated 2x4 layer.  A Kreg pockethole jig was used for strength, rather than drilling into the endgrain of the wood as is shown in Figure 1.  Figures 2 and 3 show how one bottom box looked after adding some thicker gauge fencing + quarter in hardware cloth and the ripped 2x4s for holding it all together.  The staple gun was used to hold the wire mesh in place before the 2x4s were screwed in with 2" deck screws.

Figure 1. Assembling the bottom 2x4 layer.

Figure 2. Adding wire mesh and ripped 2x4s

Figure 3. Final assembled bottom box with full wire fencing support.

For strength comparison, the second box did not use a full section of wire fencing but only a couple strands of extra wire to help support the 1/4" hardware cloth in the center sections of the box as is shown in Figure 4 before final assembly.

Figure 4. Mid-assembly of box 2, with only 2 wires run under the 1/4" hardware cloth for support.

The 2x6 and 2x8 boxes were assembled as before with pockethole joinery (see Figure 5), but without the center support.  Some had to be redrilled a few times due to slight warping in the boards to prevent wobbling in the final box structure.

Figure 5. Adding pocket holes to the 2x6 and 2x8 boards.

Filling and Finalizing the Air Prune Beds

It took approximately 1 bucket of farm topsoil to fill the air prune boxes.  A single layer of pine wood shavings was placed over the 1/4" hardware cloth at the bottom to prevent soil from streaming out during watering.  Figure 6 shows the final assembled boxes.  Figure 7 shows the addition of the 1/4" hardware cloth sides to prevent browsing.  The addition of the sides is a 2-person job and made much easier with a staple gun used to hold the mesh in place until the final wood pieces can be added along the sides.  The stapling method has an additional advantage in that the front side of the boxes can be "opened" to facilitate filling the boxes.  A small piece of wire can be used to weave the door shut when not in use.

Figure 6. Final assembled boxes.

Figure 7. Adding 1/4" hardware cloth to prevent browsing.

Air Pruning Box Plans

 Sketchup Pruning Box Plans

These plans are based on the air prune box plans shared by Edible Acres on Youtube.  This design differs from theirs in 3 major ways:

1. These boxes are slightly longer 4' 2 1/2" rather than 4' to minimize wasted wood.  They are also slightly deeper.
2. The center support of the bottom layer of these boxes runs front-to-back down the middle, rather than side to side.  Also, we have 2x4s (rather than 2x2s) supporting the bottom layer for added strength.  We will add an additional layer of remesh or wire underneath the 1/4" hardware cloth to add extra support for all the weight of the soil and trees.
3. Edible Acres used black locust wood, which we do not have.  Instead, we made the bottom layer ground contact treated lumber (and we will report back if this has a notable adverse effect on the trees).  One layer will be 2x6 cedar and another will be 2x8 untreated whitewood/pine.  We will monitor how these hold up over the years.

Figure 1. Air pruning box with dimensions and wood selection

Figure 2. Side view with dimensions

Figure 3. Top View, metal mesh shown will be 1/4" hardware cloth

To make 2 2'x4' 2 1/2" air pruning beds, you will need the following materials:

• 2 12'x2x8 untreated pine boards
• 2 12'x2x6 cedar boards
• 2 12'x2x4 ground contact treated lumber
• 2 8'x2'4 ground contact treated lumber
• 2 13' sections of 24" wide 1/4" hardware cloth (for sidewalls)
• 2 4' sections of 24" wide 1/4" (for bottom)
• 2 4' long, 2' wide sections of remesh or stronger wire for bottom reinforcement (optional?)
• 2 5' long 3' wide 1/4" hardware cloth (for the tops)
• linseed oil and/or outdoor paint
• 2 1/2" or 3" deck screws
• furring strips or scrap lumber to hold down the wire cages on the top
• 
  

Cut list:

The purchased wood should be cut as is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Cut list for air pruning beds

More pictures to come during assembly.

Apple Grafting 1 - Spring 2025

 2025 Grafting and Planting Project 1

    In order to add pollenizer trees to the orchards on the West side of Ber-Nell Farm, we decided to fill in all of the holes where trees have had to be removed over the years (25 total).  These orchard have always had pollination difficulties since both of the varieties in the front 2.8 acres are triploid (meaning, infertile pollen). Figure 1 below shows the layout of the orchard and the proposed locations for the newly grafted trees.

Figure 1. West orchard replacement plan

    The numbers along the top and left hand side of the image indicate the type of tree in that orchard row (brown for golden supreme, yellow for golden delicious, and red for winesap) as well as the number of trees in that row.  For example, the red 21 immediately above the row that runs north-south on the easternmost edge of the orchard has 21 winesap trees.  Within the easternmost orchard block, where the rows run north-south instead of east-west, the missing tree locations are shown with lettered rectangles.  These correspond to newly grafted varieties as is shown in Table 1 along with other information about the variety.

Table 1. Diploid varieties to be added to the orchard block as pollination partners

    All information in the table came from the Cummin's Nursery website's information on that specific variety.  Varieties were chosen to give full coverage of the bloom season, but also for disease resistance and ability for the apples to store well.  I have never actually tasted any of these, but I look forward to trying each of them in the future.

    The trees were shipped on Monday 3/24/25 and arrived on Wednesday 3/26/25 late in the evening.  They were stored in the farmhouse garage overnight after adding a little water to the bag inside the box.  On Thursday morning 3/27/25, I retrieved the trees and set up my kitchen for grafting as is shown in Figures 2.  The rootstocks and scions after unboxing are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2. Grafting setup materials

Figure 3. G.890 rootstocks (left) and all bundled scionwood (right).

Table 2. Grafting notes and ID numbers of the form 25G## 25 indicates the year (2025).  G indicates that it is a graft.  The last 2 numbers are the specific ID for that graft (the order in which they were done).

    Table 2 lists all the grafts there were done onto G.890.  The notes got a little spotty in the middle, but a rating of 9 means I noted that the graft union seemed especially good.  A 3 is normal and a 1 is poor.  I also noted when the graft union was offset and whether the roots were especially large or small.  Figure 4 shows the omega grafting process, while Figures 5-9 show the process of completing a whip and tongue (W&T) graft.

Figure 4. Omega graft (left) before joining, and after joining (right top - no offset, right bottom - with offset)

Figure 5. #25G02, Pristine onto G.890, rootstock cut for W&T

Figure 6. #25G02, rootstock tongue cut, note the undesirable crack.  The square wood is for cut protection while making the tongue cut towards the body.

Figure 7. #25G02, both W&T cuts before joining

Figure 8. #25G02, W&T graft after joining but before binding

Figure 9. #25G02, full view of grafted rootstock after joining and binding

    Before grafting, plants were stored in a bucket of water.  After a group of the same scions was finished, they were carefully tied together with twine (see Figure 10).  Bundles were then moved to a wetted mixture of wood chips and potting soil (Figure 11).  The wood chips were purchased that day from Tractor Supply (see Figure 12), although it is probably better and certainly cheaper to use composted chips or sawdust.

Figure 10. View of completed and grouped grafts #25G01-04

Figure 11. View of storage method of grafts #25G-01-07 for the callousing process.  Left image is before bucket was filled to top of the root surface area, right is after.  Fill was wood chips alternating with topsoil.

Figure 12. Wood chips used to heel in roots

    Completed grafts 25G01-25 were placed outside overnight (it was in the mid 40s that night), but moved inside for the next several days as outdoor temperatures were to fluctuate down to the 20s at night and apple grafts callous over best between 50 and 70 degrees F.

Air Pruning Bed for Tree Propagation

Project PLANT MI (Propagate Local And Notable Trees in Michigan)

We will create seedling trees with good, local genetics.  To do this, we must establish a means to:

1. collect seeds from local, interesting parent material of species of interest with a common cataloging system for source material.
2. stratify seed to get it ready to germinate.
3. propagate seedlings with good root structure.
4. gather data on seedling progress periodically (yearly?) to keep track of plant progress.

Goal 3, propagation, can be achieved with an air pruning bed which prevents the formation of girdling, circling roots.  While the eventual goal will be to build a large air pruning bed for seed placement (like the one here), at present, the images below will outline an initial, stopgap air pruning bed I built in my compost bin (which was chosen because the 1/4" hardware cloth would prevent seed poaching by wildlife).

Figure 1. a) Empty nut storage bin.  b) Fully enclosed compost bin.

A nut storage bin (shown in Figure 1a) was placed on its side inside my 4x4 compost bin (shown in Figure 1b) to make an air gap for the propagation bed, as is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Placement of bin

The compost bin selected was full of leaf litter from the previous fall.  The space around the bin was filled in with pizza boxes (future composting material), pictured in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Adding "sides" to the air pruning bed.

After adding the sides to the air pruning bed, a layer of leaf litter was added on top of the hardware cloth to prevent the soil from falling through the 1/2" holes (Figure 3).  Then 3 buckets of sandy topsoil, 2 buckets of forest soil, and 2 bags of purchased topsoil were added to fill the space.  Finally, some initial stratified seed was added.  Final images are shown in Figures 4 and 5.  Figure 6 shows the approximate placement of the various seeds that were added.

Figure 4. Final Top Down Image of the Air Pruning Bed inside the 1/4" hardware cloth barrier.

Figure 5. Final Top Down Image of the Air Pruning Bed outside the 1/4" hardware cloth barrier.

Figure 6. Arrangement of Stratified Seeds in Air Pruning Bed.

All seeds came from the Fall 2024 MNFGA meeting.  The seeds from small paw paws were from the wild grown ones provided at the meeting for planting.  The seeds from large paw paws came from paw paws purchased at the meeting.  The chestnuts were freely shared at the meeting for planting (unknown if they were Chinese or European-Japanese).  The Jim Buartnuts were from a member who had harvested them in a previous year and brought them for seed or eating.  These are from Jim Sunnerville's Plainwell Buartnut Tree. 

This stopgap air pruning bed is a trial run for PLANT MI.  For future work, the source, location, and any other pertinent information should be known and recorded for each stratified seed, which will be assigned an ID number based on its source and year of harvest.  Additionally, notes would be taken on the stratification.  Once the seeds sprout, they would be given a new tree-ID number that would follow them as they grow.