History Symposium 2020 and Apple Tree Grafting

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting the Boulder Apple Tree History Symposium in conjunction with the HIST 2326 class and the Museum of Natural History at CU on Sunday, April 26, from 1-4PM at the Henderson Building Paleontology Hall. This symposium will focus on the history of apples in Boulder County and will feature round-table discussions facilitated by the students enrolled in HIST 2326 this semester. Please register early for this free event (registration capped at 100). Parking fees do apply.

Register for Symposium

Students grafting apple scion material onto root stock in 2017.

We sill have space available for our Grafting Day on Saturday, March 28, from 9-noon, at the 30th Street Greenhouse. Please register as space is limited!

Register for Grafting Day

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Grafting with the Boulder Apple Tree Project!

 

Irfan uses a safety jig made by Widespread Malus to safely prepare root stock for grafting.

Have you ever wanted to learn how to graft an apple tree? Now is your chance! Join us on Saturday, March 28, 2020, between 9am and noon, at the 30th Street Greenhouse (1380 30th St, Boulder, CO 80301). Parking is very limited so we are asking folks to pre-register for a specific one-hour window. We are looking forward to helping you preserve your much loved trees!

 We will provide the root stock and you will provide the scions (grafting material)! The cost of the first graft is $25 (includes root stock, pot, tag, and care instructions) and each additional graft is $15. If you would like to further support the Apple Tree Project and our efforts to fund the orchard we will have canvas bags available for purchase at $15 each.

 Now is the time to select your scion material! Michigan State University has an excellent guide for selecting scion material to use in grafting. There are also copious videos available on YouTube.

 Here is the short version of what you need to know: collect the dormant material of last year’s new growth. In the photo below you will notice two sets of new growth circled in yellow. These will typically be growing perpendicular to the main branch from which they are growing. Using clean shears clip a portion that is about the size of a pencil that has several buds present. To keep the scion from drying out, please dip the end in a bit of candle wax or wrap with waxy tape and then place in a plastic bag or container with a damp paper towel.

 Once you have registered, we will send you a confirmation email. Thank you for your continued support of the Boulder Apple Tree Project!

Register Here!  

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The branch growth circled in yellow make great candidates for scion material for grafting.

Help support the development of the Boulder Apple Tree Project Orchard

 

I feel so fortunate to be able to call Boulder and the Front Range my home. It is truly an amazing place – the people, communities, ecology. Yet, I am also shocked at times how fast this place is changing. Historic apple trees dot our neighborhoods, wildlands and parks. The Boulder Apple Tree Project is building ties among our history, community, and land via these amazing trees. 

 

February marks the third anniversary of the Apple Tree Project. We have accomplished so much in these years. We have recorded over 600 trees. We have analyzed the genetics of over 300 trees. We have found varieties that were commonly planted here in the late 1800s (like Ben Davis and Wealthy). We have found local varieties that were planted here in Boulder but possibly nowhere else. We have also stumbled upon wild seedlings, some of which might become a future Boulder variety able to withstand our harsh climate and with an amazing taste. We have involved over 50 students in our quest.

 

Building on this momentum, our next big step is to start preserving trees. The trees are reaching the ends of their lives. We lose some every year. So I write to you in hopes that you can help make our next step a reality. 

 

February and March is the time of year for grafting – taking twigs of trees we want to save and joining them to new young rootstock – essentially giving these trees a new life. We want to graft as many trees as we can to ensure their future vitality, but we are slowed because we don’t have a place to plant these trees once they are ready to be put in the ground.

 

Our dream is to be able to graft these special trees and plant them in community teaching orchards. Landscape architects at CU have designed the first one of these to be right in Boulder, off 30th street and the Boulder Creek Path, open to anyone that wants to walk under these great trees, eat their fruit, and learn their sorties. 

 

For this project to go forward, we are seeking funds for constructing the orchard, with the goal of ground breaking this summer.  By contributing to the project, you will become an instrumental partner with the Boulder Apple Tree Project in providing much needed community orchard that showcases history, food, and our special place.

 

Please consider joining with other individuals and community organizations to help us put this next step into full swing and reach our fundraising goal of $25,000 by March 30th, 2020.  You can donate online by following the link below or on the Boulder Apple Tree Project webpage. 

 

Warmly, 

 

Katharine Suding

The Boulder Apple Tree Project

University of Colorado Boulder

P.S. We have lots of upcoming exciting events, please see our web page on how to join in!

 

March 28, 2020 Learn How to Graft with the Boulder Apple Tree Project

April 25, 2020 Apple Tree Planting with the Growe Foundation

April 26, 2020 Boulder Apple Tree Project History Symposium

August 17, 2020 Apple Tree Project exhibit opening at the CU Museum of Natural History 

Donate to the Orchard  

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History Volunteer Informational Session This Saturday!

 

Pomological illustration.

Want to learn more about Boulder County’s history and meet like-minded apple folks? Volunteer for the History Team!

This Saturday, February 1st, we are holding our first volunteer informational session at the Louisville Public Library from 11 AM - 12:30 PM. We will be in the board room on the second floor. No RSVP needed, but please try to fill out this form before you come so we can learn more about your availability and interests.

Volunteer opportunities include conducting research in local archives, interviewing people in the county, organizing and hosting events, and more.

 

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Mapping new apple occurrences in 2019

 

Map of the apple trees visited in 2019 in Boulder County, over 80 new trees were documented.

Our second Apple Blitz was a great success this year! We had over 40 volunteers and tagged over 40 new trees on City of Boulder, City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, and Boulder County Open Space lands. 

We also revisited some trees from 2017-2018. Many of the trees that had been spotted in 2017 were no longer present, providing further motivation for us to document the old historic trees before they pass with old age! 

Half of the students in our Urban Ecology class chose to continue mapping about 80 more new tree locations and inspecting for symptoms of fire blight, a bacterial disease affecting trees in the Rose family. We found trees on public land as well as private residences with the help of our partner organization Community Fruit Rescue. 

Fruit production in Boulder County was overall quite a bit lower this year compared to last fall’s bumper crop. We saw a late freeze this spring that likely damaged many fruit tree blossoms. Our volunteers enjoyed tasting the unique apples we did find, and in some cases the bears had tasted them all before we got there! 

Read more about the 2018 Apple Blitz here. Join us next year, date TBA in September 2020, for our third annual Apple Blitz! 

Deidre Jaeger, Boulder Apple Tree Project Team member and instructor for EBIO 1250-12 Urban Ecology

Student experience feature: Mary Tubbs 

The Boulder Apple blitz was a good experience. I was a team leader and this took me out of my comfort zone in a good way. Our team first discussed our experience with the Apple Blitz and introduced one another to become familiar with one another. From there, we appointed a person to take down all the data. We all took turns measuring, sampling and collecting data.

The field sites were off the trail and we had a hard time locating some of the old trees on our list. All three of us used our phones to try and input the GPS locations to no success, but I assured them there were many new trees we could still add to the project.

We hope to have a better understanding of the historical cultivars in Boulder. It would be wonderful to locate some of the older cultivars that have been lost. We found some large older looking trees that we were able to tag. Hopefully those trees we tagged were a lost variety now found.

• Mary Tubbs, CU Boulder student in EBIO 1250-012 Urban Ecology CURE course and Apple Blitz team leader

A few other reflections from students who led tree mapping efforts in 2019 : 

 “The most rewarding part about surveying a tree on campus is the fact that it's a tree that you can probably encounter on a daily basis and observe when your walking to class. The most challenging part about surveying a mature tree on campus is the distraction of having a lot of people around you. It can also get crowded around the trees sometimes or there could be people sitting under it.”

“The most challenging part of last weeks surveys was dealing with the rain and mud. The most rewarding part was finding some cool on campus trees and making some interesting observations about them. Especially the quick surveys on similar trees and discovering how all 4 trees had different tasting fruit even though they were only a few feet apart. Our most interesting tree visit was at the Andrews arboretum. The tree was massive! There was a bush that was hallowed out with trash inside that looked like someone's home. Not to make light or diminish homelessness in Boulder, we just weren't expecting the tree to be in this environment.”

“The weather was a challenge that we encountered in surveying. Due to the rain, most surfaces were wet so it was difficult to find a place to cut apples for the dot sheet and set up for a fire blight test. Having the opportunity to tag three trees that were not on the list was very rewarding and made the experience feel more personal.”

“[A challenge was] getting stung by bees. Finishing a third of the trees we needed for the month was the most rewarding.”

“ The weather was blustery and rainy, but we both had warm jackets so it was not a big deal. It was fun to survey trees that I've walked past before. We visited a tree about two weeks ago that had very large, very delicious fruit. Since most of the trees we have surveyed up until that point had smaller, less edible fruit, this tree with good, organic fruit was very fun to survey.”

“The most rewarding part was being able to taste the apples and find out that they were surprisingly good! The most interesting tree I visited was definitely the one I went to during to my community fruit rescue! It had the biggest fruit I had seen and it was delicious too! It also seemed like it had been well taken care of because it was in really great shape.”

“The most challenging part of surveying a mature tree on campus was finding the trees, and some were already tagged by another group. The coordinates helped a lot to find the tree. The most rewarding part was getting to eat apples from the trees. The most memorable tree was the the West tree in the Ekeley building courtyard because it had the best tasting apples, and the first tree my partner and I tagged together.”

Next year our urban ecology class will continue to visit and revisit apple trees on public land and on private land via Community Fruit Rescue harvests. If you have an apple tree producing more fruit than you will need next fall, then get in touch with Community Fruit Rescue and consider giving permission for one of our student teams to study the biology of your tree!

 

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Apple blitz volunteer Roya Conocchioli tags a new historic apple tree as part of the 2019 Apple Blitz

Warmest Holiday wishes from the Boulder Apple Tree Project

 

Matt Talarico took a beautiful picture of graduate student Deidre Jaeger and a snacking apple in the spring 2019.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Sending you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with adventure, exploration, and discovery. We continue to be grateful for the support of our community through volunteering, tree reporting, and donations for our research efforts.

Warmest regards,

The Boulder Apple Tree Project Team

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