I never did tell you guys what happened to my Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) germination attempt did I? Well here are the results 4 alive (or 5 if you count the one that's alive only to the root) saplings. There were many other seedlings at the start, and I would've likely had more if I had kept the media moist just a few weeks more, though in the end these are the remaining toughies. I did the taboo of growing them indoors all summer long, though ironically that might've been what kept them going (the window they were growing at is very hot and sunny while the summer outside was cold, and I was able to better supervise them indoors rather than if they had been out in the erratic weather outside). Unlike my red oak saplings that croaked from being planted too early as well as from the droughty year, these Osage Oranges have thrived so far and have been quite forgiving of the occasional dry-out in their containers.
With the growing season coming to a close I have prepared them as my test babies for future tree-growing and raising endeavours: on Friday they were potted up in big deep black flowerpots on that I had in storage, and have bamboo stakes put in with them to hold them straight (well not yet... since I have yet to get something to gently tie them up to said stakes), and then were given a good drink (possibly their last). At the moment they are on the sheltered Front Porch on the farm to harden them off for the cold weather as they share space with tropicals that have yet to be brought indoors. After a week the saplings will be brought further away from the porch to harden them off just a bit more, afterwhich they will be buried into the vegetable garden (up to the flowerpot edges in depth they will be buried) in which they will be forgotten till spring.
While I still have no place to permanently grow such thorny/beastly trees-to-be, they will be helpful guinea pigs for the meantime for the sake of future tree cultivations of less forgiving species.
Photographed September 19th 2014
