Dividing and Replanting Rhubarb Divisions. 3.17.2021

 There is a big rhubarb plant a the front of the house.  For all I know, it's 20 or 30 years old.  I think it would be happier if I divide it and fill in that area with new soil, so it isn't so crowded.  Plus, it's not necessarily the best location for a rhubarb plant.  I wanted the divisions in a new location, so they will be harvestible in a year or two.  This is the reddest, sweetest rhubarb I have had, and I don't know the name.

When I dug what I thought was one division, it fell apart into two.  So I planted them separately.  They seem to have pretty good roots.  I planted them in one of the apple mini orchards, where I think they will get enough light.  If they are in the way or don't thrive, I can move them this fall.

Grafting Apples and other Fruits. 3.14.2021

 Yesterday I grafted a few scion.  For the miniature trees, after reading about the old variety "Winter Banana" not being that good, I grafted Fuji Beni Shogun to replace it.  So now, that minitree will be Bud-9 rootstock, Winter Banana interstock, with the Fuji Beni Shogun as the top.  I also grafted Rubinette to make the third and, possibly fourth, tier of Zestar.   The Zestar is rather vigorous, so I think that will do well.  This puts the Rubinette into a location where I can pamper it.

I also grafted some wild black cherry onto the North Star pie cherry tree.  That got knocked over by a falling maple, but there are some graftable branches.  Last summer I tried budding that same black cherry onto that same pie cherry tree, and they didn't take.  But that was 2020 and that year sucked for countless reasons, so maybe it was just 2020 and not the grafts.  

I want to remove the Granite Beauty and, if there is a graftable stub, replace with Jonared which is the base tree for that.  I can also replace Keepsake and Priscilla, which are nothing special.  That will make that a mostly - Jonared tree.

I have been thinking about cutting back on varieties, and decreasing the number of multigrafts.   On the other hand, last winter before I decided that, I ordered some scion from Fedco.  Which came yesterday, so now I need to make some decisions.

So what do I do now?

Since ordering these, I actually replaced another tree with Honeycrisp, for Espalier.  So that scion is redundant.  I might stick it onto something else, if there is a space.

Otterson - reportedly the reddest of red flesh, but more for adding color to cider or sauce or pie, than eating.  Will not need a whole tree.  Add to something else.

Gala - I like Gala.  It's modern,  a very good variety.   I have two extra Bud-9 Rootstocks from last year.  I'll graft Gala onto one of those.

Opalescent - a very good heritage apple.  Use the other spare Bud-9 for this one.

William's Pride - replace something else with this modern, disease resistant variety.

Duchess of Oldenberg - replace Baldwin with Duchess.

Hovey is a winter pear - I can graft onto another pear tree.

So:  removing Winter Banana, Baldwin, Priscilla, Keepsake, Granite Beauty.  Converting Jonared + 4 into Jonared + 1 (Porter).  (Long term, when mini Porter is bearing, remove that from Jonared which will then be all Jonared).  Making 3 minitrees, one already done (Fuji Beni Shogun).  New upper tiers on two or three Espaliers. 

This is a lot of grafting.  We'll see how far I get.

Is There Something Wrong with the Seed Starting Mix? Ropotting Seedlings. 3.13.2021

 I've been noticing that the peppers and eggplants seem to be failing to thrive.   About a week ago, I repotted some of the larger ones into new potting soil, and they have grown quickly and more healthy looking.  So yesterday, I repotted all of the eggplants and most of the peppers.  I need to find more containers in order to repot more.

Pepper that I repotted about a week ago.

Eggplant that I repotted about a week ago.

Here are some that I repotted last night.  Note that the color is not true because the photo is taken with them under LEDs.  Here are some that I repotted last night.  Note that the color is not true because the photo is taken with them under LEDs.

Vegetable Seedlings 3.12.2021

 Most of the veggie seedlings are doing quite well.  When they are moved up from the tiny six-packs in seed starting medium, up to 4 inch pots with potting soil, they seem to get jump started.  So that is the next step, especially eggplants and peppers.

Individual six pack.  

Chinese Chives

Regular Chives.

Tomatoes and Basil.  Basil has been thinned.

Lettuce.  After thinning.

Potatoes, Clancey Hybrid.

Celery, after thinning.

Marigolds and Tomatoes from seeds I saved last fall.

Apple Seedings. 3.12.2021

 It's interesting comparing the seedlings.  All three are from the apple that resulted from Redlove™ Calypso™ X Golden Sentinel™.  (I think the nomenclature is seed parent X pollen parent.  In this case, Calypso™ was the seed parent).  

Seedling #1.  First to germinate.  Leaves with quite a lot of red coloration.  By far the tallest so far.

Seedling #2.  Second to germinate.  Almost as tall as Seedling #1.  Leaves mostly green but with red veins and stem.

Seedling #3.  Quite a bit behind the other two in germinating.  Almost as red as Seedling #1.  Interstems seem much shorter.  Is that because there is more sun now, compared to when Seedling #1 germinated?  Or, is that because Seedling #3 has naturally shorter internodes, as expected for a columnar growth habit?

It's interesting to speculate.  #1 might be taller because of a lighting issue when it started growing beyond the cotyledons.  Being later, #3 may not have had that problem.   In the future, for brevity, I'll refer to these as CalGo#1, CalGo#2, CalGo#3.  These have grown 4 internodes in their first month.  They will be pampered and coddled.  If they can do that for the next 6 months, they could be 24 internodes, which might be enough to know.  If they get some momentum and speed up, maybe they could get up to a graftable size by the end of the year. Wishful thinking.

I'd like to try some more crosses this year, mainly the Redlove™ Era™ X a columnar. Era™ because I think it's sweeter but has as red flesh as Calypso™.  Top choice for columnar would be North Pole, the largest apples, sweetest fruit so far among those in my yard, vs. TastyRed™ which has red skin, reportedly disease resistant, but I haven't tasted them yet.  Alternatively, aim for a sweeter red flesh using Jonagold, my sweetest apple (but is there a problem using a triploid?), Gravenstein (ditto), Beni Shogun Fuji (not doing that well for me and I haven't tasted one, but Fuji are quite sweet).  I probably can't grow them all out, but maybe make the crosses, first priority being red flesh X columnar, then whatever I want to try, see what takes and what grows.  This will depend on multiple things, such as weather, blooming times, and me.

Some Early Flowers. 3.12.2021

 Something is removing some of the older bulbs.  That's not all bad - then I can buy and plant more this fall.  Last year I bought via mail order, as a COVID precaution, so the selection was less.  Also, I was not up to planting so many last fall.  Still, there are a few blooming here and there.  Some of the hyacinths are a few years old, so maybe those are less appetizing to underground herbivores.

Helleboris do very well here.  I think that is, in part, because they are poisonous.  However, they tend to be droopy and their colors seem to say "I'm here to remind you of 1980".

Early Training for an Apple Espalier. 3.12.2021

 This is the Honeycrisp™ tree that my helper planted for me recently.  It was nice being able to compare the trees at the nursery (Tsugawa), so that I could find one to Espalier, with two potential lowest tier branches, two mid tier and one center to grow the third tier.  Or graft with something else.  This was the closest I could find in the semidwarf size, which I wanted to compensate for the lower vigor I think Honeycrisp™ has.

I used heavy, 7 foot (above ground) steel fence posts. Those are re-used from prior tree protection fences.  In a future year, if they turn out to not be sturdy enough, I can put in something sturdier.  Or brace against the deer fence.  A few days ago I tied bamboo, 9 foot lengths, for the horizontal parts of the trellis.  If I decide later to add a 4th tier, I will figure that out then.  The bamboo is harvested from my yard, Phyllostachys but I don't know the species.  They were sold 20 years ago as "Timber bamboo" but so are a variety of species.  This one grows about 25 feet tall, poles up to about 2 1/2 inches diameter.  Not "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" size.  More like "Crouching Chicken, Hidden Squirrel.   but it makes nice garden size bamboo poles, strong and durable.  I measured 9 foot lengths, so each arm of the tiers could be about 4 1/2 feet long.  If they get one apple about every 5 inches, that will be roughly 20 apples (max) per tier, 40 for two tiers, which is plenty for an apple that won't keep more than about a month in my pantry.  I may graft something else for the 3rd and potential 4th tiers.

Some of the branches were at about their limit for maturity, for bending to where I wanted them without breaking.  It takes a firm yet sensitive hand although my clumsy hands worked OK this time.  I tie the part proximal to the central trunk, before tying the more distal aspects.  The branches don't extend to the ends of the poles.  I will let the end buds grow to their maximum this year, which I hope will be 2 or three feet, then bend those down to complete the tiers.

Horizontal branches are more likely to bloom and bear fruit, compared to verticals.   Plus, they are amenable to summer pruning and puttering, for my senior accessible garden and puttering meditation refuge.  Summer pruning is ideal for maximizing apple production in a small space, as inspired by the in the early 20th century French pomologist, Louis Lorette.   The English translation of his book is copyright 1925.  The Lorette System of Pruning.

From the linked reference:
-Winter prune only for major framework.- Prune mid June when new shoots are nearly mature.
 -Wait until branches are pencil thickness to prune them.  Then leave the basil leaf tuft and cut two buds beyond that.  Those will become fruit spurs.
-In later growing seasons, every month remove any branches that are pencil thickness.

The Espalier that is furthest along is the Redlove™ Era™, this year in its third leaf.  So far, so good.

 

 

New Apple Tree. 03.08.2021

 Last year I accidentally bought two Redlove™ Odysso™ apple trees, because I am a space cadet.   One has found a new home, so there is a space there for a different tree.  Even though I have something else for that spot, I've been thinking about adding a Honeycrisp to train as Espalier.  Today we made a trip to Tsugawa Nursery (wearing masks, although it was outside), and I sorted through all of their Honeycrisp trees.  They had some on the highly dwarfing MM27 rootstock, but I think that is too dwarfing for Honeycrisp, having done it before (although M27, not MM27).  They also had some on a "semidwarf" rootstock, not labeled.  I opted for that.  I think that will work out OK, given that in my hands Honeycrisp is low vigor and I will be training the branches horizontally and summer pruning for Espalier.  I looked through the trees and found one that I think is a reasonable subject for Espalier.  

That's the big tree on the left.  Since no trip to Tsugawa can be made without getting more, there is a camellia, two Japanese maples for my helper, a hardy fuschia, and some pansies in the group.  Plus Tsugawa gives a Veteran's discount, so I want to support them.  My helper will plant the Honeycrisp in a day or two, when there is a chance to bare-root it, then I can do preliminary Espalier training.

More Potato Starts. 03.08.2021

 At Winco, there were some potato starts.  I just bought one box,  I have more coming from Fedco in Maine in a few weeks.  These are my most favorite of all potatoes, Kennebecs.  I sliced a couple in half to get more plants.  It's enough for a row.  I will let them dry and grow a little bigger in the sunroom for a week or two before planting.

Emerging Lettuce Seeds. 03.08.2021

 These started germinating quickly. Lettuce Black Seeded Simpson, planted a few days ago, no warming mat.  This is nice.  Of course, there are many more to follow.  It's interesting, they emerge so much larger than the seeds seem to suggest.