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Grafting apple trees with St. Lawrence Nurseries

It was a joy to partner with St. Lawrence Nursery (SLN) of Potsdam for the first time to offer an apple tree grafting workshop at the Extension Learning Farm. This year St. Lawrence Nurseries is celebrating its 100th anniversary of propagating and selling cold hardy fruit and nut trees.

During the workshop nursery owners, Conner and Alyssa Hardiman walked the eager participants through the “whip and tongue” grafting technique including photos from the nursery, a live demo, plenty of time to practice on twigs, and then the real thing!

Connor Hardiman demonstrates the "whip and tongue" grafting technique
Connor Hardiman demonstrates the “whip and tongue” grafting technique

Grafting is a propagation method that entails joining a scion (which becomes the fruiting part, or top of the tree) to a rootstock (which becomes the root of the tree). Grafting aligns the vascular tissue which allows the two parts to grow together and function as a single plant. While the rootstock influences the ultimate size and hardiness of the tree, the scion determines what kind of fruit the tree will yield.

Scion wood from St. Lawrence Nursery
This scion wood from St. Lawrence Nursery will form the fruiting portion of the apple tree.

Workshop participants left with five grafted trees of their own making. Each included the hardy rootstock Antonovka (originally from Russia) paired with the scion wood of their choice from the SLN orchard. Apple varieties on offer included Liberty, Rhuby, Atlas, Beacon, and MN-1734 (a russet cider apple). Read more Grafting apple trees with St. Lawrence Nurseries

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Seed to Supper Gardening Course Comes to a Close

On Saturday, graduates of St. Lawrence County’s first Seed to Supper gardening course gathered at the Learning Farm to receive their garden kits and to watch Master Gardener Ken Kogut demonstrate how to build a raised bed with a hoop cover.

Seed to Supper is a 6-week comprehensive beginning course focused on low-budget strategies and partnership building for new gardeners. The curriculum was adapted by Cornell Garden-Based Learning from resources created by the Oregon Food Bank and Oregon State University Extension.

Throughout the spring, 15 participants met weekly on Zoom to learn from St. Lawrence County Master Gardeners about planning, planting and maintaining a food garden as well as using its bounty. Despite the limitations of teaching the course online this year, the instructors were able to convey a wealth of information and to break up the lessons with demonstrations on growing microgreens, effective watering, and comparing soil types. Early on in the course, Master Gardeners consulted with participants on their garden maps, prompting responses like this one from Wajira: “Thank you so much everyone for your time. I made changes to my garden map based on your valuable advice. I have already seeded okra seeds inside near the window. I am so happy to tell you some of them have germinated!” Read more Seed to Supper Gardening Course Comes to a Close