• The website will remain up for a few months before a new website will replace it.  More will be posted on that later. If you subscribe to our newsletter you will get more information as I get ready to launch it. If you do not, I would recommend you sign up now as there is much to be excited about in this new incarnation of tree crops.
• If you are a customer and have placed orders recently we will still make corrections to problems experienced during shipping or other issues throughout the next two weeks.  Before the office is closed permanently I recommend you email us as soon as possible.  Shortly, there will be no way to contact customer service.
• You will still have access to your account for a while. If you use that for a record, I recommend you download to a PDF or other suitable file so you can print it out as a record of what you have planted. Your information is safe with us, we will not sell or distribute it.

On the farm: I will still manage to work at my farm sell the fruit I grow to processors  and build a germplasm repository of edible plants. As a result, I plan to make this available to others in some manner or form. But of course it will not be another nursery. That is over now.  But I will continue with my research with plants and I will be publishing my finds to continue to share with others.

Thank you for letting us share you with you the discoveries of nature often overlooked as sources of unique flavors and nutrition as well as ornament.

If you have questions or comments direct them to customerservice@oikostreecrops.com or us the link in the front of the website under contact. Enjoy.      Ken Asmus

paper pots and deep plastic pots are are up to 3 ft. tall.  They are also two years old. The hardy orange are one year old plants which vary in size from 3  to 6 inches tall and are also grown in plastic tree pots.  All of these are shippable now and are still dormant. When checking out if you need a specific ship time let us know in the comment field.

Offer expires May 1st, 2021.

This year we offer one year seedlings  that are grown in plastic tree pots. Plants are easy to transplant this way.  They develop a long thick tap root much like a hickory as they get older.  Fruiting spurs develop on small trees which protects them against browsing. Eventually they form a small tree  type structure reaching 15 ft. in height after 20 years. If you are in a zone 6 hardiness then this plant will easily grow in your location.  Our seedlings hit a minus 10 F this year with no damage to the foliage or stems.

Use Code: ORAN10  for a 10 percent discount on hardy oranges. Exp. 5-1-21.

Click here to see our full inventory of hardy oranges.

Use coupon code: 30Seeds  when checking out.

This year we were surprised how many new plantings came into production for the first time. Here are a few:

Apricot Seeds of non hybrid apricots are really a challenge to get. This year we found a good source. Close to 100 percent sound seeds.

Wild Beans and Tepary Beans  There was a good crop in 2020. HIGHLY vigorous vine beans, one perennial, one annual. Really fantastic vines great for covering fences and arbors with dense luxurious foliage high in nitrogen and a harvestable dried bean crop.

Sloe Plum  From the variety Ocean Blue this seed selection are from plants with no black knot. Seeds are impossible to get. We grow our own.

Jerusalem Artichoke Seed  This  year we have used the cultivar Shiawassee found in central Michigan just south of Saginaw along a small stream.  This seed produces uniform seedlings and may be the first true to type from seed sunchoke.  65 percent cut test on the seeds which is normal for sunchoke. 

Wild Apple  and Timber Apples  Selected apple trees from our plantings. The timber form apple is the first of its kind making a highly vigorous seedling with a tall upright straight trunk form. Grows like an oak not an apple.

Perennial Potato Seeds Even more fruitful than before. We are using a majority of fruiting potato plants that can be grown from true seed. True seed is actual seed of the potato produced by fertile flowers which set a green apple shaped fruit. A single handful of seed  can produce 65,000 thousand potato plants. Its a small seed with a lot of power.

Flat rate shipping on seeds: $4.20    If you order seeds along with other plants, seeds are immediately shipped so you can apply dormancy to seeds that require a cold period.

Use discount code: 30Seeds for a 30 percent discount on seeds. Exp. May 1st,2021.

Seeds are shipped immediately when you place an order including any partial orders. This allows you time to germinate them and apply dormancy.

Once the ground has thawed or the snow has left we start to dig tubers and field plants. We begin packing and shipping to the warmest areas of the country  first. This includes all potted plants too.  Your whole order is shipped at once except usually the seeds are shipped earlier.  If you need a particular time for your order to arrive, make sure to mention this when you check out and add it in the comment field.

Pick up orders can be done this year by placing an order online and mentioning pick up in the comment field. Someone will contact you for an appointment. A refund will be issued for your shipping. We do not have a garden center for shopping. We request you wear a mask while on the premises. Your order will be outside in front of our barn ready to go with your name on it.

Just a personal note from Ken Asmus, owner of Oikos Tree Crops.

“Despite what is happening in the gardening industry with stock shortages, etc. Oikos Tree Crops still has good supplies. Some of our most popular items have sold out early because of high demand last fall but many new plants that we produced prior to the pandemic became available as they were finished in production just in time.  I had a major shortage of employees at the farm last year which made production of many plants impossible. But because we had prepared new crops in 2019 this extra effort was successful. These are many of the new plants we have available now.

The weather was mild this winter and there was no winter damage on even the most sensitive plants like bamboo and citrus. Even into January, I made some plantings of apricots and plums this year. I have not done that in a while. Very little pruning was done at my farm this year as the snow was quite high and difficult to walk through. That is really the only reason I have not started to dig yet as the ground appears not to be frozen at all.  The snow was a great insulator this year and you can see everything looks absolutely vibrant. I think it is going to be a glorious spring for many reasons. Certainly all of us that have found some solace in gardening but is it enough if you cannot share it to others freely without fear.  I think about this a lot.”

• ALL  Groundnuts are available now and can be shipped anytime during winter if you want them. More images and descriptions will be added as time permits along with new inventory. Note: groundnuts do not freeze like potatoes. For storage put them in fridge should you wish to plant when it warms up.
• Sunchoke varieties The following Jerusalem artichokes can ship now and throughout winter if you want them.  Russian hybrid, Manitoba, Leningrad,  The other sunchokes will begin shipping again in mid March.
• Chinese Mountain Yam  – Available in aerial bulbils you can purchase a 10 pack or an ounce. These are resistant to freezing as well and can ship in winter. We will harvest the in ground roots again in March.
• Wild Beans  – For those who wish to get a jump on the thicket bean, try our seed packets of 10 or 35 seed packets. The roots will be available again in March.
• Perennial Perpetual Diversity Potato – This year we offer a seed packet of 20 seeds. This particular selection is now more diploid than ever which means most plants will produce fruit making it more possible to have a disease free planting every year without the issues of virus. Very good crop this year.
• Shiawassee Sunchoke Seed–Every now and then we get lucky and the heads are full of seeds.  Shiawassee also tends to be very fertile most years. The seedlings are very similar to the parent with little variation.  Very good crop this year with a 65 percent cut test which is good for a sunchoke so we made the packets bigger for the same price. Not a particularly easy crop to harvest in time as the yellow warblers love them so we bagged them using shopping bags which made the planting look very mysterious.

We will continue to update the website and notify you of our new plants in newsletters and on our blog. Thank you all for your patience this year. Stay healthy.

Whew.

Most of the sunchokes will end harvest around November 15th. The groundnuts can ship throughout winter. No potatoes can ship after November 15th,  Fall of 2020 has proven to be a warm fall and this year we are going later than normal.  If you have an all container order, it can ship much later into December and sometimes in January. The field stock usually discontinues after December 1st. All or part seed orders are shipped immediately no matter whether if it is one packet or many.

During this time we are running late in updating our website with new plants. The current inventory is accurate.  You might find it difficult to get through on our phone due to low staffing issues at our farm. If possible please use our email customerservice@oikostreecrops.com

WE ARE CURRENTLY SHIPPING ALL PLANTS AND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL ‘THE SNOW FLIES’.

The farm is closed for pick up orders this year but spring of 2021 will likely have pick ups again outside in front of the barn assuming we have a full staff of people filling orders again. 

COMMON QUESTIONS :

• Q. Are you open and taking orders? 
• Yes. We are still open and taking orders. We are answering emails daily.
• Q. When will I get my order?
• All orders are shipped ASAP which means we ship most orders within 2-3 days after you place your order barring weather issues. We will notify you from the back of the store for specific shipping times.
• Q.  Can I add to an existing order or combine orders?   
• Yes and no. We cannot combine orders unless they are done within a day or two of each other and/or we haven’t shipped the first order. If you place two orders next to each other, we will try to combine the orders and refund your shipping.
• Q. Can I  pick up my order at the farm? 
• Spring of 2021 will likely have pick up at the farm again outside depending on staffing issues and of course the public health issues at the time.
• Q. It says ‘Out of stock’. Are you getting more in?
• Depends on the plant, but it is possible during December when we finish inventory more will be added. Otherwise it will be out of stock for an unknown period of time due to our propagation cycles.
• Cut off time for placing a spring order of 2021 is May 24th.

Most of the plants I grow have little commercial value in terms of what is usable in mainstream agriculture. Many plants have possibilities on a larger scale but what farmer would take a chance on an unknown crop plant? Plants are like ideas in many ways. Infinite possibilities present themselves yet which direction is the most practical to follow. Sticking with the status quo is a lot easier and safer financially. I think this highlights why there was such a gap of potential new crops and what is produced by farmers today. Here are a few stories from some of the crops that I grow that may shed light on this.

The Potato

One of my interns showed his professor from a major land grant college one of my potatoes. He described to the professor the winter hardiness aspect to it as well as the useful features that might be of benefit to potato growers including its perennial and diploid nature. His professor listened closely and then described the reality of the potato industry. “You see “he said as he held up my potato like a slide rule, “It has no value. The potato industry does not need this.” This concerned me for a while until it hit me right upside my potato head. He was right. For 99.999 percent of existing potato farming, it has no value. It is useless. It has no functional value in today’s potato growing world. That may seem cruel but it is the harsh reality of potato farming. A diploid potato that fruits and set seeds is the opposite of what all potatoes are like today which often require constant tuber regeneration from clean stock plants. My brainstorm was to have all potatoes genetically different like a wild population. This means you would harvest the berries and store the seeds as well as leaving a portion of the crop in the field to over winter. The potato field then could be seeded with rye, Austrian peas and other legumes so the potato field now becomes somewhat perpetual in a living mulch system. This would be much like that organic Iowa corn farmer did with a no till system. Am I crazy or is that a good idea? I can’t tell.

Slide rule of the potato world? ; “Ecos Purple.”

The Peach

A couple of summers ago an intern I hired worked for a peach researcher at a state-run experiment station. He mentioned that he was working for me and that I had a population of peaches immune to different fungal and insect issues. Peaches require a lot of spray and you must spray pre-emptively; without the spray your peaches will have the complexion of a bran muffin. His boss explained, “For us, it is not something we do. We are more focused on testing new chemical controls.” They had just received over a quarter million dollars for testing a new fungicide on brown rot. Like many fruit tree varieties, you can’t test them all and the public doesn’t know what a tree ripened peach tastes like anyway. If you were a farmer and grew them organically without a lot of inputs, your place would become the holy shrine of peaches. Maybe my dinky peach experiment would be a good idea as a starting place to develop all organic and easy to grow peaches. And what if all the peaches in the field were genetically different in some way. Could we get rid of grafting the rather short-lived peach tree and grow them from pits instead? I hear they are a lot longer lived this way. I think it’s a good idea anyway. Mention this to my neighbor who is a peach farmer and I have worthless peach seedlings not the new Paul Friday peaches. Don’t worry I will convert him! Everyone loves a proselytizer. As I show up with my peaches from pits doctrine everyone will scatter. I just might stop at Paul Friday’s house. Knock knock. Anyone home? Here comes the peach pit guy.

Apricot and Corn Share A Commonality

Prior to Covid, I continually tried to get various politicians to visit my farm. Many pass through here on their way to big ag. The few that I know seem to be good listeners. It must be exhausting and a rather thankless job. Who would do this work? Like agriculture it seems impossible and there are crop failures with ideas for many unknown reasons. We have few ‘Chauncey Gardners’ I fear. (Peter Sellers fans may know this reference.) I thought if I l showed them some of my research on tree crops, I could make a breakthrough in consciousness in some way. What I really wanted them to see was my 60-day field corn Alberta Clipper. Here is why: In 2018 many of Michigan’s fields were flooded in the spring to such an extent no one could plant in them until June and even that was iffy. There were a lot of stuck tractors. The fields had to go fallow. The solution for this was crop insurance and federal government help for such emergencies. My ‘good idea’ was why not have a corn insurance policy based on a short season corn like the Alberta Clipper. This 60 day corn as well as are other varieties like Darwin John would allow at least some yields to be generated from that land. The open pollinated yields from the Alberta Clipper corn are not like the modern-day hybrids. But I did improve it dramatically compared to when I first got the seed from a Canadian research scientist. He had developed many short season crops as a kind of a back up to canola-the most northern annual crop. They too told him his 30-60-day soybeans, sunflowers and corn have “little marketable value at this time.” Having a diversity of potential oil crops sounds like a good idea to me. But the focus is canola and a lot of it. They shelved his research. What did he want from me? Briana Apricot was a starting point. “Ken, I am going to try to develop a super nutritional northern apricot. This fruit crop will grow and thrive in the cold winters in the northern provinces of Canada which will then produce an additional oil crop from the seeds”. Prunus sibirica and its hybrids can grow into zone 2 no problem. Apparently other researchers have done this in other parts of the world making bio-diesel from the oil rich seeds. He seemed elated he found me. We talked a long time on the phone. He was going long. Put a pot of coffee on as they say. He had a crazy apricot idea about clothing the canola fields of northern Canada with a woody perennial fruit and oil crop. I thought about that for a minute. Now that’s a good idea and it has value. He converted me but it was easy. I was already a member of the choir.

By Ken Asmus

Our Newsletter on the Thimbleberry

The thimbleberry represents at least two species of raspberries both of which produce a thimble like fruit in a whorl on the end of a 5 ft.  tall thornless cane. Thimbleberries are well known and  wild harvested by those in the know especially in northern Michigan. Here is a way to grow them and make them part of your landscape and diet even if you do not have a cottage up north.

Our Newsletter on Wild Strawberries

They taste good, they’re small and they make a good groundcover. Every year we attempt to uncultivate the wild strawberry by raising many seedlings and then selecting for yields not size. Our strawberries are the opposite of commercial berries and are meant to be used as an edible groundcover that spread vigorously even in shade. We offer different seed selections including two new ones Port Huron and the northern European form Northern Star.