I repotted a couple of Nepenthes. The sunroom is too hot for them and they dry out way too fast. That led to the demise of the larger ones. For these, I had some heavier pots so they don't fall over any more. Also a more moisture retentive soil. We'll see how they do. Also, I repotted two small zygocactus, and took a bunch of cuttings from the oldest, largest one. That's the top left one. The flower is a nice salmon color. I've never seen another one like that.
We got some chicken feed at BiMart. Went early, so store would be near empty. Everyone was socially distant and wore masks.
They had some of the multiplier onions that I tried a couple of years ago but lost to weeds. It would be interesting if these are potato onions. Not that I need more. But I bought a package. Actually, three of them were bad, moldy, so who knows.
Two or Three weeks ago I planted seeds in the raised beds, spinach, radishes, lettuce. It's been chilly since then with a couple of frosts. Today I noticed the spinach, radishes, and lettuce are all germinating.
Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson, home saved.
Spinach. I forget the variety.
Radishes, mixed varieties. Some of the seeds were 4 years old.
I enjoy making new grafts, a lot. It still feels like magic, taking a stick (scion) from one tree and adding it to a rootstock or shoot of another tree, and having it grow and become one with it's understock and make fruits. So I look forward to when the weather and season are right. I plan ahead, collect scion wood and refrigerate it over the late winter, and order from sources such as Burnt Ridge or Fedco. This year I ordered a couple unnecessarily. I was over enthused. Blame the pandemic. Even so, all of the grafts are done now.
Apples -
I started converting the Jonathan multigraft back to mostly Jonathan. Some of the older grafts were not appealing for me (Keepsake and Granite Beauty) so why keep them? I got to test them out, which is good, and they didn't pass. Porter, on the same multigraft tree, is very good. I want to keep it, but it is too vigorous on a Jonathan, so I started the process of cutting that back. I have a minitree started for Porter which probably won't bear for a few years.
So I pruned off Keepsake entirely. Granite Beauty had a graftable small shoot that I grafted with scion from Jonathan, then removed the rest of that branch. Granite Beauty was also too vigorous for that Jonathan. I also pruned back about 1/3 of the Porter, and grafted two small lower shoots of that with Jonathan scion. If they take, I hope there is still some good structure and I can get the tree mostly converted to Jonathan. It will be interesting to see what happens. My scion in the fridge was a little mildewed, so I cut new scion from the Jonathan, seeking stems that had buds that had not started to open yet.
That leaves Priscilla, the rest of Porter, and a large branch of Airlie Red Flesh on that tree. I want them to bear this year, then reevaluate for whether to leave any of those on or go 100% to one variety in the next year or two. Priscilla is OK, is disease resistant, and bears well, same vigor as the Jonathan, but doesn't seem too special.
I'm not that crazy about the Airlie Red Flesh now. It's a decent apple but tends to get scab. I also have a branch of that on another tree, so that might be enough. They seem to keep - I had some this week, so at least few kept in the garage to March and that was better than the famous super-keeper, GoldRush.
Pears - I grafted "Dana Hovey" onto a branch of "Rescue Pear". Fedco describes Dana Hovey as "Small... rich golden-yellow russeted pear. Possibly the best eating of all winter pears. Keeps extremely well." That tree needs some pruning and shaping. Pear grafts usually take very well. I thought a winter pear seemed like a good idea. Usually a lot of the summer pears spoil on the tree.
I had some rootstock left over from last year, Geneva-222 that had a graft of Fuji Beni Shogun that didn't take. I think the Geneva wood was too thick and hard at the time for a whip-and-tongue. It was still alive so I cleaned it up and put on a new graft with William's Pride. This time, a cleft graft. The William's Pride scion was skinny, so we'll see. I don't know what I'll do with it if it takes. There are usually some trees that die or I give up on them, so there will be a replacement ready.
I also added grafts to two of the Chestnut trees. One goes on the "Marissard Seedling". I planted that tree about 4 or 5 years ago before I understood that a chestnut seedling may not bear for many years, compared to a grafted tree, and that it may not make pollen (that variety), and that there is no assurance that it will even make nuts. That tree is upwind of the 3 other chestnut trees, so I want it to make pollen if nothing else. Last year I grafted the four lower branches with Precose Migoule, Marigoule, and Marivale. That way, if one or two are not compatible, there are still the other(s). Those all seemed to take. This year I added Primato. Primato is reported as early ripening, which would be good here in WA State. The branches are so high, I stood on the bed of the pickup truck to graft it. That scion was more than pencil thick, and hard. I don't know if it will take. I also bought scion of the variety "Bisalta #3". I added that to the Easternmost tree, the Precose Migoule. I thought it might be useful some time in the future to take over the tree if that one continues to have nuts that are (a) quite a bit smaller and (b) fall from the husk, allowing animals to eat them. If nothing else, two of the four chestnut trees now have potential pollen producing branches within the tree, so wind direction and insects are less of an issue.
That's all of my Spring Grafting for the year. Apples, Pear, Cherry, Chestnuts. Mostly some whip-and-tongue but also a couple of cleft grafts.
Around five years ago, I moved this Jonagold dwarf tree from my old yard to the current yard. In it's orivinal spot, it didn't get much sun. It developed a large area of sunburn, which I wondered might be fatal. But it wasn't. I didn't do anything to cover the wound. It is almost completely healed now.
I've never done this before. I read that if you want a latent bud to grow, you should cut a notch through the bark above the bud. The top of the tree sends auxin hormone to buds that keep them from growing. Cutting the notch interrups the flow of auxin, allowing growth. At least, that's what the books say.
I want this Akane apple tree to have lower branches, so I can lower the top. So I did an experiment and notched about these two buds. We will see.
I was reading that for miniature trees, one year old whips should be cut back to knee height -about 2 feet. That way, they will branch near the ground, forming a bush. It's a difficult cut to make for a baby tree, but if that's what's needed, then it should be done. So I did. All of them.
It seems like just about perfect time for grafting apples. We are probably done with hard frosts, the understocks have not started blooming yet but budes are starting to swell in some.varieties. Now three of the espaliers have grafts for new tops - so now the Zestar will have top tiers of Rubinette, Calypso will have top ties of Otterson, and Honeycrisp will have top tiers of Gala. I chose Gala because it's a good variety that I know I like, Rubinette is a great variety, very delicious, that's grows well for me but isn't available in stores, and Otterson is supposedly the darkest red apple grown - possibly smaller and less vigorous than others, so it seemed like a nice top for Calypso, which I suspect will also be less vigorous.
I also grafted Duchess of Oldenberg onto Milo GIbson. I might want to discontinue the Milo if the apples are no more special than last year, in which case I will have a new top of it from the graft of Duchess.
Lastly, I had a graft of a red flesh apple on Geneva 222 rootstock last year, but I don't want it. So I top grafted that one with Opalescent, a historic apple that I like and have a small graft of on a multigraft tree, but it isn't getting much of a chance. I'm not sure where this tree will go if it does well, but there are choices.
I also started putting on some new labels, that have the probable harvest dates.
Here are most of the grafts so far. All except the Otterson are whip and tongue. The Otterson was too small so I did a cleft graft for that one.
Today I planted out the rest of the onion seedlings. I started these seedlings in January. Onions will survive a little frost or chilly weather. Planting them out now will get them established before the warm weather starts. My seed starting book gives a date of March 20th so we are almost there. It has been very nice outside, in the 60s today. Lows in 40s.
I needed some extra space, so some went into an area that I was not planning to plant this year. But that's OK. That brick circle also contains some rescued garlic, a rescued sprouted onion (for potential seeds), and other alliums. A kind of hodge podge.
I planted a row of the onion seedlings in what has turned out to the the onion / shallot / rescued garlic raised bed. This year I can compare Spanish onions with NY Hybrid and with onion sets that I planted in January?. The main reason to hope the Spanish onions are good, is that they are non hybrid and I can use them to save seeds.
This is the garlic raised bed. Most of those on the left were ones that I saved last year. They look mush larger and sturdier than the ones on the right, which had sprouted on the old rows or raised bed. I think those are German or Spanish Garlic. Not bad, but the Music Garlic has larger cloves and I think they have more flavor. Hard to see here, but there is a row of garlic bulbils for next year, growing nicely. A second row is less vigorous. I don't know why.
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.
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.
