My Dad's Ginkgo biloba tree at 20 years of age. 10.21.18

Male Ginkgo biloba, grown from seed,, at 20 years old.  10.21.18

 This tree has grown into a magnificent specimen.  There is more risk planting a seedling ginkgo tree in town, because people don't like the stinky seed coats and cut them down.  That's a shame.  fortunately, this tree has proven itself to be a male, based on my observation of the flower catkins over the past few years.

Some day, we expect to sell the old place.  Anticipating that, a few years ago I cut grafting scion from lower twigs of this tree, and grafted them to rootstocks grown from locally collected seeds.  Of those, 2 took but only one survived planting.  I'll sho that later.  That tree has taken hold and is now about 5 feet tall.   Along way to go before it is this magestic, but a hopeful development.

I'll intend to post photos of the other ginkgo trees later.  This is the best of the lot.  My dad collected the seeds in his neighborhood in Quincy, Illinois, and gave me the seeds.  I sprouted those in flowerpots and when I moved to Vancouver, WA, three of those seedlings moved with me.  One of the others is at our country place in Battle Ground, WA, and the other did not survive transplanting there.

Same tree at about 8 years old. 

Persimmon Fall Color and Fruits. 10.1.18

Yates Persimmon.  10..21.18

Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  10.21.18

 Here are some of the persimmon trees, showing fall color.  The Yates American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits have already ripened, and have been eaten.  Despite small size, their flavor is the best I have ever eaten.  The crop was small this year, about a dozen fruits.  The tree is still young.  For size, those are 5 foot tall fence posts. 

The second is Nikita's Gift Persimmon, a Ukranian hybrid of D. virginiana and D. kaki.  The fruits are beginning to ripen, but not quite ready yet.  There is a fairly  large crop this year.  I did not water this tree at all this summer, a long, hot, dry summer.  Therefore, the fruits are smaller but I imagine the flavors will be more concentrated.

Saijo Japanese (Asian) Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) always looks droopy in my yard.  The fruits are good, and should ripen in the next month.  It also did not receive any water this summer.

Not pictured yet, the other American Persimmon Tree,  Prairie Star.  That tree got off to a difficult start in previous years, due to rabbits and/or deer eating it off multiple times.  However, the tree finally recovered, and is now a tall, about 9 foot, whip.  If all goes well, expect the first fruits in 2 more years.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon, with fruits.  10.21.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  1021.18

Home Fermented Hot Sauces. 10.18.18

Materials for Korean Hot Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

 A few weeks ago, I made a bath of hot sauce from Thai red peppers.  The stuff is awesome!  I've been looking for more red Thai peppers, but can't find them.  At the local Asian market, I did find some green Korean peppers.

I used the recipe found at this website, with a few changes.

First, it was more like 2 cups of the sliced Korean peppers.  When I made the Thai pepper sauce, separately, I didn't slice them before chopping.  Those were also about 2 cups.

 Second, when the brine was cooled back to room temperature, I added 1 tablespoon of fresh whey from last night's batch of yogurt, as an inoculum.

Briefly-

This was
2 cups of either Korean peppers cut into rings, or 2 cups of cleaned, destemmed, Thai peppers.
1/2 tablespoon of fine sea salt (I used Himalayan)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup of nonchlorniated water (mine was from our well, which is purified)
1 tablespoon of fresh whey (fresh fermented sauerkraut juice would work just as well).

First, Added the salt to the water, and heated in microwave for 1 minute, until very hot.  Then I let that cool
Then, I chopped the garlic cloves.

 Then I chopped the peppers, using a small food processor.  I packed those into a pint jar, after mixing with the minced garlic.

Finally, I added the whey to the cooled brine (salt water), poured to cover the peppers, and capped with a cartouche (a circle cut from wax paper, to hold chopped peppers below the brine level), then a glass weight (to hold down the cartouche), then covered with brine to 1/4 inch from the top, then the silicone airlock / nipple and the lid ring.

I did the same, separately, with the thai peppers.

After these ferment a few days, I'll run them through the food processor a little more, not to puree but to make sure they are chopped somewhat finer than they are.

I covered these with Aluminum foil to keep out the light and preserve color, and placed them in a casserole dish, for overflow, in the basement for a cool fermentation.

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Thai Pepper Fermented Hot Sauce.  10.18.18

Pawpaw Fruits and Fall Color. 10.17.18

"Allegheny" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

 The pawpaw trees are slow growers, but they have nice yellow fall color.  The "Sunflower" pawpaws are ripening now.  Very tasty.

"NC-1" Pawpaw.  10.17.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.17.18

Bearded Iris rhizome "Blatant" 10.16.18

Today I was at Portland Nursery.  I didn't see much that interested me, but did not want to leave empty handed.  This bearded iris caught my eye.  It's a rebloomer, described as very fragrant.  This will be a test.  It's very late to plant bearded iris rhizomes, these looked very dried out, and they are not all that large.  I think it's unlikely there will be bloom in Spring, but as a reblooming variety, maybe it will bloom later next year.  Rebloomers are considered more vigorous and faster growing than traditional bearded iris, so it's possible.

Pawpaw Ripening Experiment. 10.16.18

"Sunflower" Pawpaws.  10.16.18

This is my pawpaw ripening experiment.  I cut the smaller one from the tree last week.  I placed it into a sealed container with a banana.  The banana gives off ethylene gas, which ripens some fruits.  I don't know if that is known for pawpaws.  I had it containerized

The larger one was tree ripened.  It fell off the tree one day earlier.

The result:
The banana-ripened one was a little firmer.  The seeds and flesh separated more easily.  The tree ripened one was more mushy.  As for flavor, the banana ripened one was a little less sweet, compared to the tree ripened one, and maybe the flavor was a little less tropical.  They were both delicious.

These were the variety "Sunflower".

Conclusion:  Artificial ripening of pawpaws may be an option.  Much better experiments related to timing of picking fruit, variety, and timing of artificial ripening, would be more revealing.  For me, if there is a surplus next year (a big "if"), I might try this again.

First Taste of Maraval hybrid (European X Japanese) Chestnut. 10.16.18

 There was one other burr on the fledgling chestnut tree.  This notified me of its ripeness, by falling off.

Those needles really are sharp like needles!

So with a grand yield of 4 chestnuts, we made an X cut in the flat sides, roasted them at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, and ate them.

With peaches, plums, apples, and cherries, I look at the first year of bearing as just enough for a taste, and I'm happy with that.  The next year, most of my fruit trees have made about five to ten times what they did the first year.

If that's the case with these chestnuts, that will be a nice crop next year.  If not, then I'm happy these trees are growing to become nice shade trees

Carnivorous Plant Update. 10.15.18

These are the carnivorous plants that I posted on this Spring.  They were looking much better in June, pictured here.  I think that means they are soon going into dormancy.  Since they grew quite a lot this year, I think some of them will bloom next year.

This is my first time growing them, so it's hard to know what to expect.  . 

Sarracenia purpurea (NoID).  10.15.18

Several have sword-shaped leaves lacking pitchers, called "phyllodia."  Those leaves are able to provide nutrition during the winter, when insects are not available.

Sarracenia oreophyla.  10.15.18

Sarracenia flava X mitchelliana hybrid 10.15.18

I kept these in casserole dishes that I had bought at Goodwill.  They might look better in something else.  I will look around.  I generally tried to keep an inch of water in each dish.  On occasion, not many times, they evaporated dry.  However, the growth medium did not dry out.

In mid summer, I transplanted the two largest plants (S. oreophyla and S. "Extreme Green"), using sphagnum moss / perlite 50:50 as the growth medium.  I would have used peat moss, but could not find any that did not contain additives.  When I transplanted those, I added 5 pearls of Osmocote as fertilizer.  This is not original with me, but rather came from some web forums.  Regrettably, I did not write down the source.

Not pictured, the Venus Flytrap grew nicely.

The Drosera also grew nicely.  There were also volunteer Drosera in other plants.

Overall this is a fun experiment.  It's been about 6 months since I read the guidebook so I want to do that again now.  Like many orchids, these plants are not difficult to grow, but they do have their own particular needs and I am new to growing them.  The book is The Ultimate Carnivorous Plant Guide by Jacob Farin.

Sundew.  10.15.18

I may post more about these later.  This update is here because fall is coming fast, and I didn't want to miss this progress report.

It's possible that either the transplanting during hot summer, or the Osmocoat pellets, contributed to either some of the leaf burning, or production of  phyllodia, or both.

Edit 10.16.18:  I did read through the Carnivorous Plant Guide again.  IT takes a few times to absorb the information.  The drying leaves look typical for this time of year, so I'm not worried.  Repotting time will be in March.  I do think I should look for shallower trays, so the water level will be a little lower, especially for the smaller plants.

These are in a location that has full sun from late am through the rest of the day.  I don't think it's the 10 hours recommended.  Next year, I can move them to a different spot.  That will mean some risk for deer damage, but it's worth a try.  I can move a couple there, to see what happens, before going all out.

Sarracenia "Extreme Green" and a NoID Venus Flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula)

X-mas Cactus (Schlumbergera). 10.15.18

Last winter, I bought these two "Christmas Cactus" plants to cheer up my office.  I think they are more correctly called "Thanksgiving Cactus" or better yet, Schlumbergera.   They bloommed very nicely.  During the summer, and into the cooler nights, they were outside, on the East side of the house, with morning sun and afternoon and evening shade.  I watered them when I remembered.  This is not organic, but I gave them Miracle-Grow for green plants, at 1/4 label recommended strength, until fall, then switched to the Miracle-Grow "Bloom Booster" at 1/4 strength.  Now they are in my South Facing office window.  Lots of buds.  They might actually be in bloom at Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile, there is the joy of anticipation and the pride of growing something that will bloom nicely, soon.

There are also a couple of Schlumbergera that are much older and larger.  They are beginning to set flower buds, but not as much.

Edit:  I can remember reading various schemes about putting these in the dark for a month to get them to bloom.  That's just not true.  I've grown them for years, and just let the change of seasons do it's thing.  They always bloom, every year, without putting them into a dark closet.  Maybe that's the climate or lattitude?  I don't know, and I don't worry about it.

Rufus. 10.15.19