Planting Winter Seeds. 2.15.17

 I'm being adventurous and planting some winter-starting seeds for the kitchen garden beds.  The first batch, mesclun, arugula, radish blend, lettuce blend.  I used up old radish seeds by mixing them with the newer ones.  If the old ones don't grow, then the plants will be further apart which is good.  I usually overplant seeds.  If they do grow, that's fine, I'll just thin to the appropriate distance.

These seeds went into cement-block

raised beds that are warmer than surrounding ground-level soil.  A week ago, I scattered wood ashes on the soil and mixed thoroughly.  There have been some rains since then to dissolve the minerals.   A longer time would be better but this is what I have.

Last year I planted Fava beans and snow peas about now, and they were very healthy and vigorous and productive.  This time I'm planting them in a standard raised bed that had tomato plants last year.  That bed was given a dose of lime about 2 months ago. 

New Fruit Trees. 12.10.15

Home Orchard.  12.10.15

This week I added 2 new fruit trees to the home orchard.  I stopped by Tsugawa nursery on my way to Longview for an appointment.  They had some nice fruit trees, left over from the 2015 season.  Now leafless, with the year's root and stem growth completed.  I think these are bigger and have more roots, compared to the expected incoming stock or anything mail order.  They are varieties I was going to add, after considerable reviewing on the internet.
This winter is warm and wet.  I don't think there is any disadvantage to planting now.  If the ground was frozen, that would be an issue.  But it isnt.   I've planted in December before, and the trees settled in perfectly.

Maxie Pear Tree.  12.14.15

There may be a challenge finding s spot for each of the trees that I want to add.   The trees from Tsugawa were Honeycrisp on "semidwarf" rootstock, and Maxie hybrid pear on quince rootstock.  Maxie is a hybrid between Red Bartlett and Nijiseiki Asian pear.  It is described as having the juicy crispness of the Asian pear, with the Bartlet flavor.  With more ripening, it is reportedly more tender, like European pears, but can be eaten at the crisp stage.  Starks describes Maxie as resistant to pear scab, although the bigger problem here is fireblight.  Maxie was developed in New Zealand.   I expect to graft pollinating varieties / supplemental varieties onto each.  They both appear to have lots of viable flower buds on spurs.  This tree will not get nitrogen supplement, because rapid growth may be more susceptable to fireblight.

The Honeycrisp is next to another apple.  The Maxie is on its own, other pear trees are uphill and upwind.  It will need pollinizer scion.  I'm thinking Shinseiki, which is very vigorous.  Honeycrisp will get, maybe scion from 2 or 3 varieties of apples to make it into a multigraft tree.

Honeycrisp Apple Tree.  12.14.15

Neither had much winding roots.  They were potbound.  They should settle in without a hitch.  I did add hardware cloth vole-guard sleeves to both.  The apple got deer fencing, and so will the pear when I buy some this weekend.

Tsugawa offers a veteran's discount.  It's a nice gesture.  I appreciated that.