Transplanting Dwarf Apple Trees, Progress Reports. 10.1.18

Minidwarf Liberty Apple, 2 Years After Transplanting.  10.1.18

These were dwarf trees that did not perform well in their established locations, so I decided to transplant them.  The trees were about 13 years old, but possibly older  The Liberty on M27 was still a small bush, about 5 feet tall.  I think the Jonagold was also on M27 but because of its vigor, had grown to about 8 feet tall.  In their original location, they had competition from a massive old Cherry tree, and were shaded on their south and west sides.

I decided there was not a lot to lose.  I transplanted these trees on 12.3.16.   I pruned branches that were too low.  They were given generous waterings for their first summer, and watered about once weekly, or every other week, for their second summer.

I'm very happy with the result.  Now they are in full sun, and have no lawn or large tree competition.  Both trees produced like crazy this year.  The Liberty put on about a foot of height, and the Jonagold filled in new branches where they had been sparse.

Dwarf Jonagold Apple Tree, 2 Years After Transplanting.  10.1.18

This is the best production that I have had from either tree.  I am happy that I moved them.  More importantly, this shows that dwart apple trees, even once that are more than 10 years old, can survive transplanting and be planted in a new location with good results.

Now I have two columnar trees that need moving.  Rainy season will begin soon, and the area is prepared, so as soon as their apples have been picked, they will be ready to move.

Apple Tree Made from Root Stock Sucker with Grafted Columnar Apple Scion. 10.1.18

Columnar Apple Tree 10.1.19

This post is a follow up on a columnar apple tree, that I created by grafting a columnar apple tree scion to suckers that arose from a semidwarf apple tree that I removed several years prior.  The suckers were from below the graft, so I knew they were from rootstock.

I think I grafted those in 2015.  Last year, I wanted to move the resulted tree to Battleground.  So I dug out the rootstock, and cut it from the original trunk.  That was last year in October.

This Spring, the tree bloomed.  Since it did not have much root mass, I removed most of the flowers but allowed a couple of apples to ripen.  I also watered it about once a week this summer.

Here is the tree.  It is looking good.  I think it will take off and grow better next year.  There were some additional suckers that I cut off.

The tree when dug from the original location is shown below, from post 10.1.17.

Columnar Apple Tree Grafted onto Rootstock Sucker.  10.1.17

Tweaking The Fig Freezer Jam Recipe. 9.27.18

Fig Freezer Jam.  9.27.18

I tweaked the fig freezer jam recipe a little, to make it a little less firm.  I meant to make it less sweet, too, but miscalculated.

This is 1/2 of the box recipe.  The box recipe makes too much for me.  Measuring out the contents of the pectin packet, I used the scale to portion out 1/2 of the packet.  That is a little more than 2 tablespoons.

This recipe used 6 cups of figs that I had rinsed, cut off the stems, and cut into half.  Most were Hardy Chicago but a few were LSU Tiger.


Fig Jam Recipe:

6 cups of fresh figs, cut off stems and cut in half.
1/4 cup lemon juice.
1 cup water.
1/2 packet of Sure Jel pectin for low or no sugar added recipes.
1 3/4 cups sugar.

Transfer the figs into food processor, along with the lemon juice.  Pulse to chop roughly.  I like having chunks of figs in my jam.  I had to process in 2 batches.

Transfer the chopped figs into large sauce pan.  Heat on low to medium heat with occasional stirring, to bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, make a slurry with the pectin in the water.  I poured in a little water, stirred thoroughly, the gradually added more of the water while stirring to keep it even.  Then in large bowl, microwave a minute, stir, microwave another minute, stir, to dissolve all of the pectin.

Pour the dissolved pectin into the hot fig mixture.  Stir, continue heating until it reaches a rolling boil.

Transfer into clean labeled pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space at the top.  Add the cap, then let cool overnight.

These gelled very nicely, a little less firm than the last batch.  These are not sterile canned, so I store in the freezer until using, or for shorter time - a few weeks -  in the fridge.

I think the cooking helps break down the fig structure a little, but it's not cooking long enough to destroy nutrients and flavor.

Easy Apple Sauce from Fallen Apples, Using Slow Cooker. 9.27.18

 I'm not that big of an apple sauce fan.  Rarely eat it.  Looking for something to do with extra fallen apples of all varieties, I found some apple sauce recipes.  This could not be easier.

About 8 medium apples.
1 cup water
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon.

Peel the apples, cut into half.  Slice pieces of apple from the core.  Less than 1 inch thick will cook faster than thicker pieces.  I pour the water and lemon juice into the slow cooker, then as I slice apples, throw the apple slices into the lemon water.

When the cooker is fairly full, about 8 or 10 apples, depending on size and how much is lost from bruises or insect damage, sprinkle on the cinnamon and salt, stir to coat the slices with lemon water.  Cook on "High" setting for 3 or 4 hours, until apples are soft.  Use potato masher to mash the apple sauce.  This is very easy.  Pour into quart jar and allow to cool.  Better after refrigerating. 

I also portioned some into ziplock freezer bags, and froze for use later.

 By using fresh apples, no sugar added, and slow cooking, the flavor comes out excellent.

Sweet Corn. 9.27.18

These are from the last batch of sweet corn, planted in June.  Trinity.  I'm surprised to be eating fresh sweet corn from the kitchen garden in late Sept.  I think of it as a summer crop.  There are a few more ears to go.  Trinity is my favorite variety, it tolerates the cooler Spring here and produces until now.   Delicious bicolor sweet corn.

Daffodil Planting. 9.27.18

Bi-Mart had inexpensive packages of daffodils.  I planted these in rows.

I'm less enthusiastic about daffodils in the front borders.  They are messy far longer than they look nice.  Still, they start growing so early, they give me hope for Spring.  Then the flowers are so cheerful.

So this time, they are in rows at the ends of the vegetable garden.  I can still appreciate them.  When the dry off, I can dig them up and store to plant elsewhere, or leave them in place. 

Squash Harvest. 9.25.18

I harvested the squashes.  This is plenty for us.  The largest is "Pink Banana Squash" which I love for the flavor and amount produced.  The small pumpkins are "Winter Luxury Pumpkin".  The butternut squashes turned out small.  In my garden, they don't do as well.  The others were volunteers, likely crosses of summer squash or zucchini, with pumpkins.

Fig Jam. 9.20.18

 Despite the challenges of yellow jackets, and then ants, I harvested a bowl of figs yesterday.  For ants, I usually wrap a 6 inch section of trunk with plastic wrap, then apply Tanglefoot over it to prevent them from climbing.  But had not done that until last week.  Their numbers are greatly reduced now, and there are figs without ants to harvest.

I usually dry extra figs for later use in breads or hot cereal, but this time wanted to make jam.  I make freezer jam, because I have not learned canning.  I also think that canning cooks longer, and I don't know the effect of that on the nutrition.

However, there is cooking with this jam before freezing.  That breaks down the structure of the figs so they mix better with the pectin solution.

I used Sure-Jell, the one for less or no sugar.  The fig recipe still called for what seemed to me like a lot of sugar.  I followed the recipe because it cautions that using less sugar can result in the pectin not jelling.

It's pretty easy.  I used about 4 1/2 cups of figs.  Washed, cut into half, then used food processor to cut them into a chunky mixture.  I didn't puree, because I like chunks of figs in the jam.  That yielded 2 1/2 cups, which is what the recipe called for.

Then placed into sauce pan.  Mixed pectin with water as the recipe in the box described, added the sugar and lemon juice, and brought to a rolling boil while stirring.  Then portioned into  pint size jars, let cool, and froze. 

This actually jelled almost too well.  I might have been able to use less sugar.

The recipe was:

2 1/2 cups chopped figs.
1 cup water.
1 pkg pectin

 1/4 cup lemon juice (3 small lemons)
3 1/2 cups sugar.

I  mixed the pectin with 1 cup cold water to disperse, and heated in microwave for a minute.  Stirred, then stirred into the pan of figs. Added the sugar, then lemon juice.  Brought to rolling boil, frequently stirring.  Then immediately ladle into clean pint jars, apply lids, then let cool before freezing.  The lid is not tightened until it is frozen.

The appearance is nice, reddish jelly.  It was very good stirred into yogurt.

I think next, I'll try the Pomona pectin, which I read does not require sugar, or as much.

Echinacea From Seeds. 9.17.18

Echinacea Seedlings.  9.17.18

This is the row of Echinacea seedlings.  Not hybrids - these are the wild type, native "Purple Coneflower".  I planted them mid summer, about July 15 (so 2 months ago) in full sun, in a historically hot summer.  I watered the row every day.  Most of the summer planted flowers did not grow, but these came through.  They are all sizes.  Maybe that reflects the diversity of seeds that are from a wild type, as opposed to a cultivar.  I think they will bloom nicely next year.  Deer resistant, drought resistant, nice flowers, pollinators like them, and growing from seeds is not too hard, if one is patient.

A Little Optimism. 9.17.18

Planting things in late summer or fall, takes a little optimism.  It means, maybe I'll be around next year to appreciate the results, and the world will still be here, and there will not be any disasters to blow it all to smithereens.  It means I'm willing to take some little effort, to make next Spring, and beyond, a little nicer.

So today I bought a hybrid Echinacea - this one is "Aloha", and is interesting because of the yellow color.  I'm becoming more enthusiastic about Echinacea because, so far, deer and rabbits don't seem to eat them, slugs seem to leave them alone, and they don't mind the hot dry summer.  I read they would not like wet winters, but so far mine have survived that.

The irises were sold as rebloomers for the Pacific Northwest.  We'll see.  The varieties are "I'm Back", "Come Again", and "Corn husker".  Reblooming irises generally bloom during the rainy season, in my yard, so the flowers look like wet sopping tissue paper, not worth it.  We'll see what happens with these.  Again, there is some optimism, because in previous years, I had problems with bacterial and fungal rot for bearded irises.  This year, the survivors looked good, so I'm trying again.  They are my favorite May flower.

In that box are 2 garlic heads, sold in the store as "Heritage California Softneck" garlic.  I will plant it next month, along with cloved from heads that I grew this year, and an order from Territorial Seeds for other types.  These will be fenced in, because deer and/or rabbits eat them all off in my yard.   I tried fencing covers for individual rows, but as soon as the leaves grew through the fencing, they were eaten off.  Again, it takes some optimism - planting garlic in the fall, means a harvest the following July.

There are some daffodils in there too.  I planted them in a row, like a kitchen garden crop.