Monday, January 19, 2009

Creating Schlumbergera hybrids

Holiday Cactus. Obviously, I don't need more of them, but it's interesting trying to see if I can create hybrids and grow them from seed. I transferred pollen among the 3 colors that I had blooming at the time, red, pink, and white. According to various web sources, most are self-infertile, so hybridization is necessary in order to get fruit - and then seeds.

I wonder, what is the advantage to the species to be self-infertile? Some plants are self-fertile, and others are self-infertile. It seems like it would take a special mechanism to become self infertile. I suppose that 'enforced' genetic exchange might result in hardier plants due to mixing of genes, and also result in faster transfer of beneficial genes throughout a population.

Another possiblity is that since the modern varieties are all hybrids, the pollin-producing mechanism and the pollen-receiving mechanisms might originate from different, incompatible species, so another plant with matching mechanisms is needed from a different hybrid. Again, this is just a wild guess.

I pollinated these 2 or 3 weeks ago. Each was pollinated from another variety of a different color.


Here is a web posting about hybridizing and growing Schlumbergera from seeds.

Here is a posting on the gardenweb, with some individual challenges and successes.

It's interesting that the young fruit of the white-flowered variety is not pigmented, so is green.

And the pink variety is a bit more pigmented than the white one.


And the red-flowered variety has the darkest fruit pigmentation as well.

Now comes the long wait. According to some sources, it can take a year for the seed to mature, then 2-3 years to obtain flowering plants from seed. Faster than Clivias, which take a year for the seed to mature and up to 7 years to bloom. But patience is still needed. And luck.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

New Year's Tradition: Pruning the Grape Vines

I don't know how it started. Each year within a few days of New Year's day, I prune the grape vines. This year, new year's day was not possible, but yesterday was close enough. Pruning in Spring, after the sap starts to flow, leads to dripping of sap as it continues to run for a few days or week. That doesn't happen with mid-winter pruning. Plus, it's a nice chore to do for puttering meditation.

Most years I have gone with a combination of spur and cane methods, since I wasn't sure which was best. Last year they were quite productive, and it didn't seem to make much difference whether it was cane or spur pruning. I think that they may have over-grown the arbor, so this year, it's all spur pruning.

It's interesting how soon the trunks developed a gnarled, established look. I like that.

My approach with the spur pruning was to leave about 4-6 inches of growth from 2008, and remove the rest. That means that I removed about 95% of last year's growth. I left 2 to 4 buds in most cases. Most grapes seem to bloom from buds forming on last year's growth, and most from the first few buds on the cane. If I'm wrong about that, then this will not be a productive grape year. But I think that I'm right. We'll see.

This arbor has 3 vines: Interlaken (my favorite), Canadice (the most productive) and Venus (a nice change of pace).

I was more aggressive with Canadice, since it was too productive. That meant that the grapes were smaller, and there were too many. I left more of the Interlaken, since it is my favorite. Two vines would have been plenty on this arbor, but I wanted 3 varieties.

Over the gate, Price grape. Also very tasty, larger grapes in smaller bunches. Price has not been very productive so far. Squirrels eat the flower buds. In 2008 I added some screening, which deterred the squirrels somewhat. I'll have to do that this year as well.

Price was also pruned mainly as 2 to 4 bud spurs. Last year it was too unruly, so I was more aggressive this time.

The prunings were chopped into pieces about 3 to 4 inches long, and applied as a mulch around some shrubs. Last year, I did the same thing, but then applied compost on top of the grape vine mulch. That resulted in numerous small grapevines growing from the chopped pieces. This time, I'll leave the chopped vines on top so that I don't get unintended starts.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Climate Data December 2008

Click on graph for much easier reading.



This month had record cold and snow. My workplace was on 'inclement weather' mode for 3.5 days - the first time in decades. Snow here was about 18 inches deep, at its greatest. The coldest day was a record as well. Total precip (as rain, I gues, since snow would give a much higher #) was 3.4 inches.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Amazing Sex Life Of Figs

This is a link to the complex and confusing sex life of figs. It's an amazing story.

Sex determination and life cycle.


More About Fig Reproduction.

Who Reads Growing Greener?

Just for fun, here are the general locations of readers, from clustermaps. Current running total is 24,069 visits. Hello there! The map is clickable for more detail.



Click on the clustermap button for more detailed tally of which countries and how many per country.

More Snow! What is this - Buffalo? Snowing again today!

Worst blizzards that we have seen in this area, since 1960s. Well, I arrived here in the 80s so it's the worst that I have ever seen here. Workplace was in emergency mode last friday, and again mon through wed. I took the bus to work mon and tues, more hassle than I let people know, but I was not able to get the car out of the drive.

Front yard - The palm leaves are fully folded from snow. Which is better - leave it on (as insulation) or knock it off (to protect leaves from breakage). Nature decided for me - this happened while I was at work.

I've never seen it this deep in my yard before.

Ning is ambitious today, shoveliong the driveway.

It's snowing now as I type this! Back yard.

Better view of palm with snow covered leaves. We'll see how it looks this Spring!

Bamboo was flat to the ground, now springing back up again.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

It's snowing and snowing and snowing! Dark-eyed Junco

The city is near stand-still. Amazing, for this area. We found some bird seed to feed the hungry finches. Feeding the birds now helps the garden later.

I'm going out on a limb here, because they are not too clear. But I'll tentatively identify these as :Dark Eyed Junco". A photo can be found here. Dark-eyed juncos eat seeds in the winter, and insects in the summer, according to this site.




Saturday, December 20, 2008

Climate Data Nov 2008

Recent weather left me wondering about weather the fruit trees, especially the figs, have survived the same extremes in the past. It's time to save climate data for future comparisons. Here are the #s for November 2008. Click on the graph for better detail.

Precipitation: 5.36 inches, rain, ranging from 0 inches to 0.84 inches per day.
High for the month: 64 degrees, Nov 7.
Low for the month: 32 degrees, Nov 24.

Winter. Schlumbergera. Homework.



The rest of today will be a homework day. This is made tolerable by the cold & snow outside, and my furry companion and some bright flowers inside.

Back yard. Later I'll publish a summary of the temperatures if I get a chance. Currently 27F on my thermometer in the grape arbor. The "zone denial' banana never made it into the house this year. Looks like it's a bit late, huh? Or was this "denial" of my frustration with the fact that it has never looked good, and since I DID manage to bring in the cannas, maybe I just didn't want to admit that leaving the banana outside was a passive-aggressive way to deal with it. Looks like a nice container for the cannas, or maybe potting up a fig next year?

Maybe the rhodie leaves should have been treated with antidessicant. We'll see this spring whether they perk up again.


Outside for a picture of the "big snow" December 19 2008

Possibly a bit obsessed with the Schlumbergera, but they allow the illusion of tropical lushness indoors. This pink one was added this year.

Also this mix. I'm not crazy about the two together, so used a sharpie to label the stems "W" and "R". The goal will be to pot up the white separately.

Strange, I've been thinking of starting a pot with all of the colors mixed together. Meanwhile not happy with the one combination that I do have.

Since they are no trouble to over-summer, a couple more should not be a burden.

Charlie is keeping me company while doing homework. He makes it all tolerable.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Cold weather, indoor flowers, weatherizing, bulbs

Schlumbergera are blooming profusely. Most are from previous years, but the red/white mix and the pink are new this year. By growing several varieties (all store bought or cuttings, unnamed), bloom span has been almost 2 months (see Oct 25th photo). When they are at peak, I take them to work. Then they fall over in the car, which isn't good for the flower quality. I'll need to come up with a better way. They bring brightness indoors when outdoors is gloomy. Given my huge volume of homework this winter, this is one of the few bright spots.

Predicted temperatures have been is all over the place. This week may there may be a low down to 13 - each time that I looked it is different. Today is 32 and snowed, minimal. Due to concern about predicted lows, I sprayed the fig trees with "Wilt-Stop" which is derived from pine resin - probably the same as Wilt-Pruf. Not sure if it will help - but it helped me feel better. Since it was cloudy and there were occasional drizzles, I don't know if the process will work even if it would have during ideal spray conditions. This stuff is expensive. The concentrates give more for the buck, so it's what I bought. Made me think, maybe I should spray some in the summer too - this is supposed to reduce transpiration and reduce need for watering. May help with certain insects or black spot, not clear to me, and I understand that there are no cure-alls, just good gardening practices. The stuff has a nice 'piney' scent


While at the nursery getting wilt-stop, I saw some half-price narcissus, small varieties. Too late by most gardning standards, but I bought the 3 straggly packages and planted them in flower boxes. If they don't grow, it's OK. If they do, it will be nice to think that I 'saved' them.