Apple protectors for birds and bugs. 5.15.2020

While thinning apples, I noticed some had been partially eaten by birds. I also read on a gardening website about people anxiously awaiting their Redlove apples, only to have them eaten by birds who apparently mistook them for cherries.

This year will be the first chance to taste my Redlove Calypso and Redlove Era apples, with only 2 or three of each per tree.  I'd rather be the one to taste them, not some stupid birds.

Last year I bought some organza gift bags, to see if individually bagging apples on the trees would prevent some insect damage.   Some people claim that doesn't prevent bird damage.  So, I sewed holographic scare tape to a couple of organza bags, and cut flaps so when the birds are looking at the bags and thinking "that stupid guy thinks those bags will keep us out", they will be distracted by the flashing moving lights.  Last year, the scare tape helped a lot with blueberries and cherries.

Organza bag / scare tape on a Redlove Era tiny apple.  5.15.2020

First Rhubarb Harvest. 5.15.2020

Today I harvested some rhubarb.  I was going to make a pie, but it was kind of a "COVID-19" and too much other bad news day, so I didn't.  Tomorrow.

I don't know the variety.  It was here when we bought the place, 8 years ago.  I'd like to divide it and plant in a nicer spot.  The stems are juicy and pink inside, an it makes a nice pink rhubarb pie.

Might make a good freezer jam, too.

More Bearded Iris Blossoms. 5.14.2020

Here is the white orphaned irise today.  It's nice.  Unlike "Immortality", it doesn't look like wet tissue paper after a rain. 

Here is what that iris rhizome looked like 5.21.2020 after I cleaned it up, after pulling it out of the brush pile.  It's amazing that it bloomed in almost exactly one year.  Irises are rugged.  That blossom was probably from the largest of these rhizome pieces.

Here is a view of the iris garden today.

"Immortality".  It actually does not look like wet tissue paper this time.  5.14.2020

Honorabile or Sans Souci, which may be the same thing.  5.14.2020

"Spiced Custard"  5.14.2020

"Red Dirt Road".  5.14.2020

"Edith Wolford".  5.14.2020

Some Efforts to Warm The Soil a Little. 5.14.2020

Soil temp is running about 58 to 60 this am.  I found some "Wall-o-water"-type cover   systems that I bought last year at Bi-mart but never used.  A long time ago, I used these to give tomatoes a head start. 

Since I have two "Bodaceous" and two "Better Boy" plants, I set up a water cover for one each of those.  There was one to spare, so I set that up on the "Early Girl Bush" tomato.

Today it's been raining all day.  After about 8 hours, the soil temp is only 62 in these units, but give them some sun and I imagine they will warm up better

After a week or two, we can see if the covered tomato plants are bigger than the uncovered ones of the same type.

For the raised bed with peppers, I added "Quonset hut" made from fencing, and topped that with clear polyethylene painter's dropcloth.  The Quonset looks like this, which is on some tomatoes.  An additional package of the polyethylene painter's dropcloth should come today via Amazon, in which case those tomatoes will also get a warming cover.

Here is the set-up on the peppers, in a raised bed.  Also, in front of that raised bed is a planted row of Lima bean seeds that I soaked last night.  I'm sure they also need some warmth.

Vegetable Garden Update. 5.13.2020

I planted some bean seeds, Landreth Bush Bean, shown.  These are some of my newest seeds, actually packaged for this year.  I'll soak the Limas overnight and plant tomorrow.

I think some of the other bush beans I planted two days ago have started to germinate.  I saw a couple of beans sticking above the soil.  It could be that rain washed the soil away, but I'm hopeful.  That was the Dragon's Tongue bush bean.

I think the soil temp is OK for about everything now  Today was overcast and drizzly, with soil temp 68 F in the afternoon.

Soil Temperature today, 5.13.2020

I cleared most of the rest of one of the messiest raised beds.  My inclination has always been to garden organically, but now I don't feel like I have that luxury.  Still, I'm not using pesticides, just Osmocote and a little Miracle Grow here and there.  For these, I treated the soil with Osmocote at the instruction amount.  This is not the Jalapeno bed, with two slicing cucumber plants at the back.  I raised all of these from seeds, planting last month.  For peppers, it might have been smarter to start in Feb or March, but I wasn't up to it then.  They are small, but I think they will do OK as the weather heats up.

Jalapeno Pepper Plants in a Raised Bed.  5.13.2020

I wondered if it was too cool a couple of weeks ago for planting pumpkins and squashes in the vegetable garden.  I did cover them at night for two weeks.  Since I stopped covering them a few days ago, they are really taking off.  I'm most interested in the Pink Banana Squashes, for nostalgic reasons.  It's growing nicely.  Those French Pumpkins are good too.  There may not be enough room for all of these, depends on whether the vines grow faster than the potatoes grow to clear out that area for spread.  It might work out OK.

Galeux d'Esynes Pumpkin.  5.13.2020

Pink Banana Squash.  5.13.2020

Orphaned Bearded Irises, First Bloom. 5.13.2020

These grew from rhizomes found while walking Rufus.  The white one was in the power company easement where a lot of people walk their dogs, and some dump yard waste, which is probably illegal.  The others were from a curbside "Free Irises" box, just rhizomes.  The sign said "purple and yellow" but that doesn't quite seem accurate.  One is not quite open, looks similar to Shah Jehan.  The last is the variety "Sunny Disposition", which I thought had died and I three the rhizomes into the woodlot, discovering growing rhizomes a year or two later and planting to see what would grow.  At the time, the only yellow that I had was "Sunny Disposition", and this looks exactly like it, so that clinches the ID.

Unknown White Iris from Walking Rufus.  5.12.2020

Unknown Irises From Walking Rufus.  5.13.2020

Iris Sunny Disposition.  5.13.2020

Seeds Planted, 5.11.2020

I planted these seeds during the past two days.  All are at least a year old, and some beans are at least 5 years old.

I pre-soaked the Roma II but not the others.

Soil temp was in the 70s.  Ambient temperature was in the 80s.

Last night it rained and is in the 50s.  I think most should be OK.  Certainly, the radishes don't mind some chill.  Beans can require a warmer situation.

I added label packing or "use by" dates for future reference.

More Bearded Iris Blossoms. 5.11.2020

Bearded irises are my favorite flower.  Here are some more photos, taken today 5.11.2020

This was a "free rhizome" from the curbside while walking Rufus.

I pollinated "Immortality" with "Spiced Custard" and this is what grew.  I call it "Golden Caterpillar Climbing the Snowy Mountain to the Temple".  :-)

"Repeat Performance"

"Zin City"

Not an iris!  I planted this Itoh Peony from Home Depot a few months ago.  It's nice to have a sample flower now.  "Scarlet Heaven", I think.  5.11.2020

Another photo of  curbside rhizome, I think is "Blue Shimmer"  5.11.2020

Growing Oak Trees from Acorns. Oak Seedlings. 5.11.2020

Last fall / winter I collected acorns while out walking Rufus, or when at the clinic at Salmon creek.  Those were majestic white oak trees, and some handsome red oaks.  I stratified the acorns by planting in large flower pots, multiple acorns per flower pot.  I covered them with chicken wire and a weight, to keep squirrels out.

Here are two of the containers now.  I don't know what I'll do with all of the oak trees.  I think I should keep at least three of the white oak and two of the red.  They can fill in spots in my orchard, where fruit trees have died.  Most fruit trees live a decade or two at most, so these oaks will be there long after the fruit trees are gone.  And long after I am gone.  They are all looking nice.

From what I read, white oaks grow one to two feet per year, and red oaks about twice as fast.  I'll never live long enough to see these become massive trees.  They are planted for a future generation.  As deciduous trees, I think they should be less susceptible to the fires that have begun to sweep areas of the Pacific Northwest.  Oaks develop deep roots, so are drought tolerant.  They sequester lots of carbon.

Grafting Update. 5.11.2020

Most of the apple trees that I grafted this winter are here, on north side of a raised bed.  5.11.2020

 This year I wanted to create a mini-orchard of apple trees, grafted onto miniaturizing rootstocks.  The resultant apples will be normal size and flavor, just on miniature trees.  I can manage those trees without a ladder.  In general, when full size they will be 5 to 7 feet tall. Some apple cultivars are quite vigorous.  For those, I grafted onto the very dwarfing "Bud-9" rootstock.  For apple cultivars with a little less vigor, I used "Geneva 222" rootstock, which is still quite dwarfing but not as much so as Bud-9.

These trees will be in containers until this winter.  I can give them more TLC this way, and move them into shade if the summer is too hot.

I also did some more iffy experiments, grafting pear onto related species that might result in miniaturization.  I don't have experience with that, although you can find it on some websites.  I grafted pear onto aronia, serviceberry, and Chinese and Black hawthornes.  Also onto Winter Banana, which is an apple variety that supposedly is compatible with pear, so I grafted the Winter Banana onto either Bid-9 or onto an established apple tree, Winecrisp.  So far, it looks like the pear on Winter Banana on Winecrisp is taking, but maybe not too enthusiastic.  Ditto for the pear on Winter Banana on Bud-9, even less enthusiasm, and Pear on Chinese Haw.  The others don't appear to have taken.

To keep some Winter Banana, I grafted that onto a Jonagold Tree.  I thought the description sounded interesting.  I also grafted Winter Banana onto some Bud-9.  By the way, Bud-9 is short for "Budagovsky 9" which is a cold hardy Russian origin rootstock.  Winter Banana is an apple, not a banana, but somewhere along the line, someone thought it was yellow like a banana, or something.

This is a whip & tongue graft of "Winter Banana" apple onto a Jonagold tree.  5.11.2020

This is a graft onto a Winecrisp apple tree.  I grafted a "Winter Banana" interstock, with a pear scion.  5.11.2020

I also grafted all three of the chestnut cultivars onto the tree that I bought a few years ago, that was a seedling of Marissard.  Buying the Marissard seedling was a mistake.  Seedlings are unpredictable, may never bear, and if this tree is like its parent, might be pollen sterile.  Also seedling chestnut trees can take 10 years to bear, while grafted cultivars might bear in two or three years.   But it's too big to give up on, and who knows?  Maybe it will have decent chestnuts some day.

I decided to graft onto this tree, scion from my other three young, grafted cultivars.  Two of those trees have already produced first and even second year chestnuts, and the third has made male flowers with pollen.  The challenge is, I read that chestnut grafts often don't take on other chestnut rootstocks.  I used scion that I collected from Marivale, Marigoule, and Precose Magoule.  I had to climb on a ladder to graft these.  It looks to me like all took.  There can be delayed incompatibility, but so far, so good.  They are even producing male flowers.  The photos below show three of the grafts.  These were all whip & tongue grafts, wrapped / bandaged with 3/4" strips cut from zipper lock freezer bags and the exposed scion wrapped less tightly, with parafilm.

In the long run, it might be best to order some scion of other types to graft on other branches, and remove most of the top from this tree, other than the grafts.  We'll see what it does this year.

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020

Chestnut Graft.  5.11.2020