Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

Transplanting Columnar Apple Trees. 10.6.18

Three year old tree, made from "North Pole" scion .  10.6.18

Last year, I transplanted a columnar apple tree that I had started on a sucker from a dwarf or semidwarf apple tree, which I had cut down some time before that.  Despite the lost of significant, if not most, of the roots, that tree survived the winter, bloomed, and I allowed a few apples to develop.  The growth was less than for an established tree, but there was actual new growth, and the tree appears to be becoming established.

Today, I moved the sibling of that tree, and another older, much larger, columnar apple tree.

Above tree, replanted.  10.6.18

 The first was a tree from the same scion source (North Pole Apple), and root stock, as the above tree.  However, I had transplanted this one when it was smaller, and it had enough time to establish that there were more than a dozen large apples that I collected today.  The location is inconvenient for deer fencing, so I decided to move it.    I tried to get all of the roots that I could.  I think this has a better root ball than the previous tree, so it should survive.

The second was a Golden Sentinel tree that I planted in 2012.  This tree is much taller and larger biomass.  Again, I tried to get the most roots that I could, but losses were significant for the amount of tree.  From what I've read, we should not attempt to prune back to "match" the roots, but leave as much top as we can.  I did remove about the top 3 feet, and some of the side branches.

Because the second tree is top heavy, I also planted 3 fence posts and tied the tree loosely to the posts.

Six Year Old "Golden Sentinel" Columnar Apple Tree.  10.6.18

Above Columnar Apple, Replanted.  10.6.18

After the leaves are lost, I intend to prune back the branches and spurs, to match the ideal columnar shape.  That will be in a month or two.

I'm optimistic these trees will survive, despite root loss.  I've moved several apple trees that were similar age and had similar losses, and all survived.  They will need generous watering next year.