Fig Propagation: Air Layering (Historical)

From Condit's monograph. The legend below states "The central fig tree shows a method of propagation known as marcottage or aerial layering, commonly used in some humid climates. Note bags in which roots are forming, also some roots on severed branches which are ready to plant. From Versuch der Universal Vermehrung Aller Baume by G. A. Agricola 1716."

This method has used for at least 300 years, then, to propagate fig trees. I haven't done it - cuttings usually work fine for me. Air layering might do the job faster or more reliably - worth keeping in mind.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Inchelium Garlic. Coffee grounds. Blog Maintenance.

The Inchelium garlic is at about the same stage as garlic plants last year. This variety is a Northwest native american heirloom. I had also planted German Red, which did very well last year. Most of the garlic that we have eaten for past few months has been from the garden, and we eat several heads of garlic per week.

Last night, I stopped by Starbucks & picked up 2 bags of coffee grounds for the tomato bed. The barrista asked if I wanted the garbage bag full too, so I got even more than hoped for. Somehow I feel embarrased to ask for them, but if not used, they would add to landfill waste, with a rich, organic soil enhancing material that is then lost to the environment, meanwhile soil amendments need to be bought to enhance the soil. I'm less and less enthusiastic about the packaged manures, since those animals are fed antibiotics, worsening the antibiotic-resistant bacteria situation. Coffee grounds are a great plant food. I usually scatter the coffee grounds across the surface of the soil, and dig them in. Some also go into the compost. The earthworms love them. Despite what a number of sites claim, they are not acidic - the acid goes onto the coffee, which we drink - the grounds are neutral. I figure that I've added a few hundred poiunds of coffee grounds to the "growing greener" yard over the past few years.

Labels are now added to the postings. it's fun to click on them & have all of the postings on a subject pop up on one web page. But, for some reason, the process of posting photos is more cumbersome since I updated to the new blogger. Win some, lose some.

Who is eating the Orchard Mason Bees?

Here are the mud-plugs carefully applied by orchard mason bees last summer. I noticed today that about 1/4 of them are poked out. Is it another insect? Birds?

Orchard Mason Bees are non-honey making bees that do not have the highly organized social structure of honey bees. They are efficient pollenizers of fruits (which is why I started playing with them). Honey bees are declining due to mites, and there is some thought that orchard mason bees will be needed in greater numbers to pollenate fruit trees.

There may be local bees anyway - they love the ornamental cherries. However, I bought a kit from Raintree Nursery (mail order), set it up, and even carefully left a bowl of mud near the 'bee house'. It was fun watching the enter and leave the little tunnels in the house. If only 1/5 of the tunnels remain intact, and those bees survive, it will be an increase over the original population.

Still, who is eating them?

These remain green, Midwinter

It's encouraging that there are still green plants in the yard. The opuntia and Rosemary have survived about 5 Winters so far, so must be OK in this climate.
The Eucalyptus cinerea may not be ideal for this climate, given its milder provenance in Australia and New Zealand. This is a 'global warming' tree - I'm trying it given that we've had some 'zone creep' and former rules may not apply any more. The hardiness zones have moved. Of course, when the hard freeze arrives in February, it might not look so good. It might be Eucalptus gunnii instead - I'm not sure about the labeling.

The Euphorbia remains green (or more correctly, red/green) as well. It's in a dry microclimate which receives almost no rain.

The arbor is pruned.

Grape arbor before tackling the pruning. Last year these were pruned primarily as canes, with a few spurs along the 'trunk'. Growth was rampant last year. Canadice and Interlaken bore fruit both from the spurs or canes, so either method should be OK.






This year, they are pruned mainly as spurs, with a few canes at the ends to cover the reaainder of the arbor. I may shorten them some more, since I suspect that I left too many buds. In the future, if these varieties can bear well from spurs, I think that spur pruning will be the way to go.

Each vine has 4 arms, informally arranged on the supports.

It was evening by the time that I finished. I'm happy to have this once-yearly job done.

Detail of spurs.

New Year's Day. Grape pruning.

This gateway arch was built 2 years ago from Home Depot scraps. It seemed like a good way to convert unusable yard space into productive garden space.

The detail above shows the pruned vines, each support holding a string to attach the vines. Last year the vine grew rampantly, and true to most recommendations, I removed the majority of last year's growth. One cane was left for each side of the archway, and a replacement spur is present for each cane.

It's difficult to see the vines given that they are about the same color as the fence. If I had not pruned it today, then I would be thinking about it until it's done. With last year as a guide, by mid summer the vines will be rampant, covering the gateway with a thick mop-top.

The Price grape had only a few grapes last year. Apparently the squirrels decided that this is really a rest stop on their fence-top I-5, with pre-blossom grape buds as the squirrel-equivalent of Chicken McNuggets. Once the vines actually grew, the squirrels left them alone. So, only a few grapes, and none from the top.

Not sure what squirrel-resistent devices to attempt this year. Maybe a sloping board covered with foil? Stretch out a slinky and attach to the fence top? Of course, if a squirrel WANTS it, it will GET it regardles of what I do.

The pruned ginkgo. Lower branches are removed, upper branches shorted to buds pointed in (hopefully) the best directions. A couple of upper branches, that looked like they would result in badly placed branches, were also removed. It's ready for a new year, come Spring.

One Year Ago. And Some Puttering Today

Here is a photo of Ning's Pond, Dec. 15, 2005. The fish are visible under the clear sheet of undisturbed ice.

Nice to have some perspective. This year, the pond has not frozen yet. I got out my "pre weblog" ie., paper-based-log, from the past 2 year (I suppose this would be a plog?) and reviewed some of the notes from about this time of year. One 12/21/05, I had pruned the roses, and spread coffee grounds around on the new tomato bed. I had reviewed the tomatoes from the year before, concluding that Lemon boy and better boy were the best in 2005 (production, size, and flavor, like we used to have in Quincy, Illinois), and the best gourmet-flavor was Brandwine; the worst were stupice and juliet, which I did not try again. Two weeks later I had pruned the grapes, and sprayed lime-sulfur on the peaches, apples, cherries, and roses.

Something to look forward to, by 1/20/06, the chinese chives were 4 inches tall, the hellebores were blooming, and the daffodils and tulips had broken through the soil surface and were 1-2 inches tall. That's only 3 weeks away.

By early January, I was also spreading compost on the raised beds.

For the most part, everything went well. I think that I was much too early, however, in pruning the roses, so they will be done much later this year (maybe early March).

As for today -

I did prune grapes ('Price' and 'Farmer's Market'), leaving the arbor grapes (Interlaken, Canadice, and Venus) for the next round. It's difficult to decide whether to prune by the "spur" or "cane" method, so last year I used a mixture of the two. These are in unconventional settings (Price is over a gate, and Farmer's Market is along a fence and growing up into an ornamental cherry) so the standard Kniffen method won't do. Basically, on each vine, 3-4 canes were kept, and a replacement spur for each cane, plus spurs on the trunks or older canes. I'll photograph the arbor grapes, when they are pruned, for record-keeping.

I also pruned the cordon - type apple (North Pole) to keep it columnar - shortening small branches back to spurs; the dwarf peaches to remove dead material and keep them open, and thin the new growth; similar for the back-yard cherries and pear.

The peaches have much evidence for disease - peeling bark and gelled sap, and dead twigs. Pruning them was the horticultural equivalent of debridement. I wonder if they will survive, let alone provide peaches this year? They look pretty good now that their 'surgery' is done, but only time will tell.

The ginkgos were lightly groomed (there isn't much there to prune yet). Just removal of twigs before they become branches in the 'wrong places'. I was careful to clean & sharpen the pruning shears before this (and between each of the fruit trees). The tallest one, in the back yard, did get 'limbed up' so that now the lowest branches are at about 4 feet. Just to find out if it can be done, some selected prunings were heeled-in, in a vegetable bed, to see if they will take root and grow next Spring.

Figs were also pruned - Vancouver, Petite negri, and Brown Turkey. The objective, here too, was to keep a compact, but open, bowl-shaped tree (similar to the peaches and cherries). Some prunings will be mailed to other gardeners, for cuttings.

A few lillies, galdiolus, crocosmia, and other dead stems were removed and chopped as well.

Nice day outside. It's a little dangerous leaving me in the yard with a pair of pruning shears - kind of like the saying. "Give a man a hammer, and he'll discover loose nails everywhere" - but I don't think that I overdid it. And I feel better now.

Opuntia (final). Meyer Lemon.

Part of the rationale for growing opuntias is to see if I can eat them. Initially, I hoped for some 'prickly pears'. Since there have been no blossoms, there have also been no fruits.

In addition to being a fruit, prickly pear cacti (opuntias) are also a vegetable. The pads, stripped of thorns, are rich in vitamins and fiber. Called nopales (or nopalitos when prepared), they are a traditional Mexican food. There are quite a few recipes for nopales.

I'm surprised that, with so much Mexican food available, and with the incorporation of Mexican food into the American lifestyle, that this vegetable is such a mystery to us. I did have some when in Mexico this fall, they seemed like a fairly routine vegetable. Maybe Americans are just not interested in having more vegetables.

OK, on to new topic - it looks like the Meyer Lemon has some lemons that are ready to pick. The plant itself is quite small. Gardenweb has many entries expressing frustration with this tree. It may not be amenable to 'out-of-zone' thriving, although some information is available on Winter care. This tree has survived the Winter so far in a sunny, cool room, and the three lemons look ripe. Considering the small size of the plant, 3 lemons is more than I expected this year. I'll post again when I know what the lemons taste like.

Meyer lemons were originally found by Frank Meyer (not Fred Meyer) growing as potted trees in Peking (now Beijing) in 1908. They are thought to be hybrids between a lemon and another citris such as an orange or mandarin.

More opuntias. Tomato order (so soon!). Flu bug.

This is one of the opuntias in the yard. It was a gift, a small plant in a small pot. I up-potted it into this container in 2004. Not enthusiastic about it, it was left outside winter 2004/5. It grew fast last year, so leaving it outside this winter again. Trying to keep it out of the rain, under the belief that cacti survive cold better if dry (that's what the books state).


A handsome specimen from a web site. Hopefully not copyrighted, given the age of the card.






Ordered the following tomato seeds from totallytomatoes.com. This site was reliable last year so using it again. Varieties:
Lemon Boy - my favorite yellow. Here it's been very productive, juicy big tomatoes with a 'light' tomatoey flavor.
Celebrity - did not grow last year but want to try again. Disease resistant, productive, real 'midwestern' type tomato flavor.
Better Boy - grew OK last year, better in 2005. Good production, big 'midwestern' flavor tomatoes.
Black from Tula - new to me. Last year Cherokee was so good (but not productive), I want to try another black variety.
Cherokee Purple - "purple" but also called "black". not very productive, but so good that I had to hide tomatoes to save them for myself (don't tell Ning).
Supersweet 100 - Ning's favorite. After trying all of the varieties of cherry tomatoes, this one was still the most flavorful and productive. Most of the others either didnt make many, or they didn't have much flavor. Or both.
Tiny Tim - a very dwarf variety, never tried before. 15 inches tall. Will use in border areas or containers to produce some early cherry tomatoes or have them in spots that are too small for larger varieties.

I've been achy and tired. Probably combination of a virus, year-end iniatives / increased load at work, and some short day affective disorder. Looking ahead to the tomatoes helped a little.

Opuntia

These drawings from the USDA web site, original text is: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. Illustrated flora of the northern states and Canada. I like these old drawings.

These are less likely to be damaged by cold and rain, compared to desert cacti. The two in the "GrowingGreener" yard are looking sad and have never bloomed, although they have survived the cold wet weather for several winters. I keep hoping for a 'prickly pear' to taste. Unknown varieties. If I can find a source, I would like to try an Opuntia fragilis (since it's native to WA) or an Opuntia microdasys, since it seems to remain small so I could bring it inside for the winter.

The images can be 'clicked' to render them more readable.