I've managed to have good luck this season here at Struan Farm growing seedling heritage damson trees from stones. So far. I won't tempt fate by being too cocky! Both the "Mapiu" and "Grandpa Anselmi" damsons, hooray. The Mapiu damsons have been grown from fruit from an original settler tree/homestead site, while Grandpa Anselmi, an immigrant from Italy, used to make grappa with the fruit from his!
As I use ripe fruit in autumn I pop the stones into ziplock bags with handfuls of compost, and pop those into the garage fridge. (Note: You can't do this with fruit that has been cooked or frozen, it must be fresh.) Once the stones open and start to sprout in the fridge (this takes anywhere from 6-10 weeks) I put them in soil in small pots in the glasshouse to nurture along.
This past week I repotted everyone to give them more room to grow. I also managed to get one heritage seedling plum tree growing with fruit I picked at Mrs. White's house along the main road, from a huge old tree. It's been christened "May's Plum," and I hope it hangs in. It's a dark skinned plum with golden fruit that John especially enjoyed, so it would be good to have it in our ever expanding orchard.
These will come out of the glasshouse once it's a bit warmer, and looked after carefully over summer especially. Next winter when these are larger I'll plant a few of each in an orchard area (somewhere!) here at Struan Farm. The others will be given away via the Piopio Heritage Fruit Tree Project. We need to make sure older varieties of fruit trees in our area continue to be propagated, grow and thrive. And if some of the history is known and can be passed along that's special too.
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