Thinning Apples and Pears. 5.5.19

Gravenstein Cluster After Thinning.  5.5.19

Gravenstein Apple Cluster Before Thinning.  5.5.19

Maxie Pear Cluster Before Thinning.  5.5.19

 Today I started thinning the earliest of the fruits to look like they set.  In this case, some of the Gravenstein apples and Maxie Asian Pears.  It looks like the Gravensteins set heavily so itwill take some time to thin them.

It's a little early but by the time I work my way through all of the clusters, it might be a little late.

Maxie Pear Cluster After Thinning.  5.5.19

Nadia Plum X Cherry Hybrid. 5.1.19

Developing Nadia Plum Cherry Hybrid Fruits.  5.1.19

Developing Nadia Fruits.  5.1.19

Fruits continue to develop on the Nadia Plum X Cherry hybrid tree.  I counted roughly two dozen fruits, then stopped.  I meant to graft potential pollinators onto the tree but forgot.  I can do that next year.

These fruits are up very high.  That's good for deer avoidance, more difficult for me.  I may need to prune the highest branches.

This is the first time that fruits have developed on this tree.  I'm interesting to see how they do.  Since the number of fruits is small, and the tree is well established, I think they will be large for that variety.

Sarracenias Waking Up. 5.1.19

Sarracenia "Extreme Green" flower bud.  5.1.19

Sarracenia "Tarnok" flower bud.  5.1.19

The two American hardy pitcher plants with flower buds, are gradually starting to grow.  It's warm enough now that I replenish the water basins daily.

This will be the first time I see them develop flowers in my own yard.

I think all of the others survived the winter.  Some are awakening faster than others.

Plant source - carnivorousplants.com

Pollinating Pawpaw Flowers. 5.1.19

Pawpaw Flowers.  5.1.19

Sunflower Pawpaw Tree in Bloom.  5.1.19

 Of my pawpaw trees, only NC-1 and Sunflower look ready to bear a crop of fruit this year, which they also did last year.  They are in early bloom, which stretches out for a week or two.

This time I noticed, the flowers don't open all the way when they are receptive to pollen.  It's difficult to get a pollen loaded paint brush into them.  When the pollen ripens, and the stigma is no longer receptive, then they are easier to access.

I will get a smaller paint brush for flowers today.

These trees are small enough that I have to get onto my knees to pollinate the lower flowers.  Maybe my neighbors, driving past, think "he's praying to those trees!". 

NC-1 Pawpaw Tree in Bloom.  5.1.19

Yellow Jacket Traps in Fig Trees. 5.1.19

Yellow Jacket Trap.  5.1.19

 Up until now, there was only one, male, yellow jacket in the traps that I set up a month or more ago in the fig trees.  Today I noticed several, and at least two of those are queens.

Last year I lost the entire fig crop to yellow jackets.  That was the first time that ever happened.  It was disappointing, so this year I'm being as pro-active as I can be.  Plus, yellow jackets are aggressive and vicious, and I worry about someone with an allergy being stung.

So far, so good.  I refreshed the traps with new bait.  It's cheaper to just buy the bait, when you already have the traps.

Since each queen is a potential colony with hundreds, maybe thousands, of yellow jackets, by catching them now, the numbers should be greatly reduced later.  I'm not looking to eliminate every yellow jacket, just to have a decent fig crop and avoid stings for myself, other people, and my dog.

Interestingly, there were queens appearing from time to time in the house through out the winter.  I don't know where they were living, or how they entered the house.  In the firewood?  Around electrical fixtures or plumbing?  I never discovered the source.  They seem to be gone now.  I also dispatched the ones that I found in the house, using a fly swatter, at the time that I found them.  I had a trap in the sunroom, but none ever got into the trap.

Yellow Jacket Trap.  51.19

Cowlitz Peach Progress Report and Comparison. 5.1.19

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.19

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.19

 Here is where things are so far this year on my peach and peach leaf curl (PLC) journey.

"Cowlitz Peach" (my designation for a seedling from Oregon Curl Free) has two or three spots of leaf curl.  Nothing significant.  Given the time of year, I doubt it will extend beyond that.

The tree has roughly 2 dozen peaches.  I stopped counting there.  They are widely spaced and minimal or no thinning will be needed.

This tree is in the chicken yard.  It is not adjacent to other peach trees that have extensive leaf curl.  On the other hand, those peaches with extensive leaf curl were planted no where near any peach trees so it must be spores borne on the air.

Over the past 2 decades, I think I've spent at least $200 on peach trees, and had few peaches to show for it.  Most had extensive PLC and eventually died of the disease.

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.10

Cowlitz Peach Tree.  5.1.19

 Currently, in my orchard are Charlotte (7 years old), Salish Summer (It was "Q-1-8" when I bought it), Frost, and Kreibich Nectarine.  All are sold in the catalogs as PLC Resistant or PLC tolerant.  Of these, Charlotte has been tolerant of PLC but has never done much.  It usually gets a dose of PLC, blooms, looks ratty, then recovers and has a few small peaches.  This year looks about the same so far.  PLC much worse than "Cowlitz" peach.  Salish Summer had a little leaf curl last year and had some dieback.  I'm not sure if it's just making a late start this year, or if it's declining.  Frost and Kreibich were planted in Spring 2018.  They are still getting established.  Kreibich had PLC almost right out of the box.  Frost had less, but still notable.  We'll see how it does.

At the moment, Cowlitz looks pretty good.  Garden experiments can lead a lot of directions, and are not scientific, so who knows?  But  even if I get one crop of peaches this year, and they are small but decent flavor, I'll be very, very happy. 

Charlotte "PLC Resistant" Peach showing PLC.  5.1.19

Charlotte Peach Tree.  5.1.19

Frost PLC Resistant Peach.  5.1.19

Kreibich PLC Resistant Nectarine.  5.1.19

Salish Summer PLC Resistant Peach.  5.1.19

Iris germanica. First iris this Spring. 4.29.19

Iris germanica.  4.29.19

This is the first of the irises to bloom this year.  Most skipped a couple of years because I gave up on them. Then I developed new enthusiasm and have been giving them more attention.

Most of the labels were lost when I moved the clumps from raised beds to the edge of the woodlot. I am pretty sire this is Iris germanica.  The only other blue to purple irises that I have in this size range, historic irises, are Eleanor Roosevelt (more purple and more uniformly colored) and Monsignor (the falls are very dark center with more pale edges, usually with distinctive veins in the falls).   Caprice is more of a pinkish lavender and has distinctive grape fragrance.  These have a more typical, although faint, iris fragrance.

This is among the healthiest clumps growing at the edge of the woodlot.

I will relabel them.  If I new evidence suggests a different ID, I can change it.

Meanwhile, this is a very nice part of Spring.

Sweet Potato Starts. 4.28.19

Sweet Potato Starts, Molojai Purple.  4.28.19

Sweet Potato Starts, Pumpkin Yam.  4.28.19

The sweet potato starts recovered nicely from being shipped.  The plan will be to set them outside when it's reliably warmer, probably in large containers.  The labeling might be reversed on these two varieties.  Someone got into them and chewed up the labels.

Dahlia Starts. 4.27.19

 Five of the dahlia tubers that I planted in  containers on April 1, have sprouted so far.  The other four look dead but I'm letting them take their time.

I commented when I planted them, they were not promising looking tubers.  So I'm happy to have 5 growing so far.

We bought three more at the county home improvement fair yesterday.
they were from a local grower, and we got to pick the tubers that we wanted.  Those were firn snd the tubers had eye buds.  I think they will grow.  Planted them in containers to pre-germinate, today.

Nepenthes, Growing Fast! 4.28.19

Nepenthes sanguinea

Nepenthes thorellii x aristollochioides

So far the tropical insect eating pitcher plants (Nepenthes) are growing very nicely.  The leaves are waxy and thick, like philodendrons or ficus.  I wondered if the would make pitchers in this location - bright sunroom, getting fairly warm - 80s during the day - but so far, so good.  Growth seems fast.

These are in full sun.  I'm watering daily, 1/8 teaspoon of general purpose miracle grow per 1/2 gallon of rain water.  I let the water run through the pot, catching it in a bucket under the hanging plants.  Environment is the same as my tomato and pepper and sweet potato starts.

Source of plants, growcarnivorousplants.com

Nepenthes x "St. Mercury"

Nepenthes x "Deroose alata"

Kiwi Graft. 4.27.19

Male Fuzzy Kiwi Graft And Possible Blooming Spur on Blake Kiwi.  4.27.19

This is fuzzy male kiwi graft is from Home Orchard Society.  The main shrub / vine is Blake Red Kiwi, a somewhat hardier version of fuzzy kiwi that is claimed to be at least partially self-fruitful, depending on whose website you beleive.  It has not bloomed yet but there appear to  be flower spurs so we will see.

Often, fruits that are partially self-fruitful will be larger or more productive if there is a male or other cultivar, depending on the species.  There isn't a lot of info out there on kiwis for the maritime Pacific Northwest, so anything I do is an experiment.

The grafted male is a green leaf variety, while the Blake has a red tinge.  Easy to tell apart.

Kiwis have a delicate stem with central pith.  The carpentry is a little challenging for making grafts, but it looks like they took.  They are whip-and-tongue, wrapped firmly and I matched the green cambium as best I could.  Also, I had a hard time telling which way was up on the grafts,  so I grafted two in one direction and two in the other direction.

This one was apparently right-side up, since it's growing so far.

I think that understock growth on this stem needs to be pruned, now, so it doesn't compete with the graft.

Lilacs and Camassia. 4.27.19

Lilacs that I moved to my country place a few years ago, from town. Deer sometimes munch on the lower branches but the flowers on top they are lovely and fragrant. Last photo is camassia, which do very well here and should, given that they are native.  Each bunch started as a single bulb, planted in fall.  Each year the clumps have more bulbs and more flowers than the year before.

Cowlitz Peach. A work in progress. 4.24.19

Possible peach formation.  4.24.19

This is the seedling peach tree, now roughly 4 years old, from Oregon Curl Free Peach.  For brevity, I tentatively labeled it "Cowlitz Peach" for its provenance in this area.

Most of the flowers are gone.  I thought that none had set fruit, but it looks like there may be some peaches on this tree.  Hard to say from the flower remnants, so it's still up in the air.

One thing I can say, is in its 4 years of life so far, there is no leaf curl at all.  It's still a work in progress, but this is a promising result so far.

Cowlitz Peach.  No leaf curl.  4.24.19

Prep for Tomato and Kitchen Garden. 4.23.19

Tomato and Kitchen Garden.  4.24.19

Yesterday, I installed fencing for the new tomato and kitchen garden.  It will open on the ends and sides, I just need to buy some latch hooks and install them, and some minor adjustments.  In the near end of the photo, there will be sauce tomatoes and slicing tomatoes, and at the far end, beans and other deer - attracting plants.  In the rotation, last year most of this was sweet corn.  At the far end were some potatoes that had overwintered.  The year before, this was squashes.

I'm not as able as I once was.  I didn't intend for as much grass to grow in this area after the corn was done, but it did.  Over the past month, I've turned it over.  I think it should be settled and clean enough, with a little more cultivating,  for tomatoes when I set them out in mid May.

More Apple Bloom Times. 4.24.19

Liberty Apple on M27 Rootstock.  4.24.19

Most of the apples are blooming now.  I think we are in early to mid blooming season.  Since these are all in bloom, there should be good pollination this year.  I'm not seeing many bees.  Maybe small pollinators can help, within the multigraft trees.

I have Jonagold on M27, a dwarf tree, and on a multigraft.  Last year, the Jonagold on M27 bore very heavily, and this year there are no flowers.  The Jonagold on the multigraft is blooming for the first time, so I should get some fruit on that one.

Golden Sentinel, which I like, is not blooming.  Nor surprising, I pruned it significantly when I moved it to this location on 10.6.18.  There was major root loss and major loss of tree.  I'm surprised it survived.  There is also significant deer damage to the trunk, from the prior location.  Still, this tree is a trooper, is growing, and maybe next year will be up to bearing again.

This is the first significant bloom for Winecrisp, and the first bloom for Milo Gibson, King David (not pictured).

I think there should be a good apple crop this year, with some interesting heritage varieties, new varieties, novel ones and mainstream.

Airlie Redflesh Blossom.  4.24.19

Northpole, 2nd leaf after moving.  4.24.19

Winecrisp Apple Blossom.  4.24.19

Jonagold Apple Blossom.  4.24.19

Baldwin Apple Blossom.  4.24.19

Not Blooming.  

Golden Sentinel, 

1st leaf after moving.  4.24.19

Sutton Beauty.  4.24.19

Baldwin Apple Blossom.  4.24.19

Milo Gibson Apple Blossom.  4.24.19

Jonagold Apple Blossom.  4.24.19