Columnar Apple Tree Progress Report. 7.14.19

Columnar Apple NorthPole, Transplanted Fall 2017.  7.14.19

New Columnar Apple Golden Treat.  7.14.19

 Here are some of the columnar apple trees.  As I age and become less able, I think they will be a great way to have home grown apples, easy to care for, prune, and harvest fruit.  They are also easy to grow in a fenced in bed, for protection from deer.

Some day I'll summarize my findings and experiences with columnar apple trees.  I've grown NorthPole for nearly 20 years.  Northpole is descended from excellent parents, one being MacIntosh, and has great flavor for fresh eating, pies, and apple sauce.  It's no novelty.  The main problem is it seems to bear in alternate years, if apples are not properly thinned each year.

The 2 NorthPole apple trees in my fenced bed are my own grafts, from unknown ("dwarf" or "semidwarf") rootstock that I obtained from suckers off a tree that had been removed.  That's not a good way to know what is happening.  Those trees are growing well.  I transplanted one at a large size - more than 6 feet tall - in fall, 2017, and one at about the same size in fall 2018.  Both have a few apples.  I don't expect much one to two years after transplanting.  I also transplanted the Golden Sentinel, much larger tree and much smaller rootstock, last fall.  It has no apples but is growing very nicely.  This year I added to sapling size trees, Tasty Red and Golden Treat, which have settled in and are growing nicely.  They probably wont bear for a few years.

To make up for my random rootstock experimentation, this year I grafted NorthPole onto Bud-9 rootstocks.  I also grafted Golden Sentinel and Scarlet Sentinel, which as far as I can tell from a long time searching patent literature, have never been patented in the USA.  Ditto for NorthPole, which as far as I can tell is past its patent or was not patented in the USA.    I'm growing four of those in containers - one did not take, and died.  I also have three in the soil, near two other apple trees, protected by fencing.  Those are also growing nicely.

Columnar Apple "Golden Sentinel" Transplanted 10/2018.  7.14.19

The goal with trying Bud-9 is to see if I can make a reliably compact, early bearing, either container size or garden bed size columnar apple tree from these varieties.  Since the grafts took for 7 of these trees, I have enough to play with during the coming years.

I need to add photos of the other trees, including the 19 year old NorthPole on unknown rootstock - maybe not dwarfing? - which is a handsome tree, and which I now have ideas about keeping relatively compact and suitable for a suburban yard. 

Healing Whip and Tongue Graft, NorthPole apple on Bud-9 Dwarfing Rootstock.  7.14.19

Columnar Apple Trees Grafted to Bud-9 Dwarfing Rootstock.  7.14.19

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 7.14.19

Standing Amid the First Sweetcorn Crop.  7.14.19

Seedlings of Chinese Radish and Japanese Turnips, about 10 days after planting. 7.14.19

 Here I am amid the sweet corn.  This is the first crop, planted mid may.  They are growing nicely.  I've planted 5 blocks of sweetcorn, roughly 4 rows of 6 plants each with some variation, about every 2 or 3 weeks after this first batch. 

Seedlings of Purple Top Turnips, about 4 days after planting.  7.14.19

The purple top turnips and Chinese Radishes and Japanese Turnips all germinated very quickly.  The main challenge with planting mid summer, is keeping them watered.  So I water every day or every other day.

 Here I am next to the summer squash, zucchini, and sauce tomato crops.  For what it's worth, when out in the summer, I wear a white long sleeved shirt, that has been treated with a Rit  UV blocker for UV protection, and a straw hat.  It's not fashionable, but this helps with healthy skin.

Dayliies. 11 Jul 19

Seedling Daylily.  About 3 years old.  7.14.19

Daylily 7.14.19

I have not been watering or doing anything good for most of these daylilies.  I like them, but have not had the time.  Some are doing well regardless.\

Some more of the seedling daylilies have been blooming.  I'm very happy about the top one pictured.  This is a hybrid of the "Vigaro" NOID daylily, with Chicago Apache.  I like the deep color and ruffles.  I will keep it.  I want to name it something like "Tyranosaurus Rex Blood".  Maybe.  I'm not fond of the one labeled "Soon to be compost" and not sure about the lavender one.

I have lost the labels from some of the others.  If I find them, I hope to addend this blog entry with the accurate names.

Ugly Daylily Seedling, 3 years old.  About to become "compost".

Lavender Daylily Seedling, 3 years old.  7.14.19

Daylily "Ice Carnival". 7.14.19

NOID Daylily (labeled "Vigoro"). 7.14.19

Historic Daylily.  7.14.19

Daylily.  7.14.19

Some Early Fruits and Vegetables. 7.14.19

Here are some zucchinis and supper squashes that I harvested today.  They are doing the usual highly vigorous zucchini thing.  Also some salad cucumbers, and a couple of banana peppers.

Today I also harvested my first fig, a Carni fig, and harvested a few more Methley plums.  Those are the first plums of the year.  There are a few Illinois Everbearing mulberries waiting to pick.

Nepenthes (Tropical carnivorous pitcher plants) Growing Outdoors. 7.14.19

Nepenthes Deroose Alata.  7.14.19

 Here are some of the Nepenthes so far this summer.  I had moved them out of the sunroom because, on hot days, I couldn't get the heat under 120 to 130F.  As a result, a few of the pitchers were scorched.  I moved them to the front deck,, which gets mostly Western sun, and some are under the overhang and get no direct sun but lots of bright light.

I water them daily with rain water, adding 1/8 tsp general purpose Miracle Grow  per quart watering can.  I let the water drain through the bottom.   The benefit of that treatment can be seen in the Deroose Alata, which has had that treatment since late winter in the sunroom. All of the visible pitchers and leaves visible in this photo grew under this regimen.

A few are not pictured.  If the light is good tomorrow, I may add them here.

Except for Nepenthes Deroose Alata,  all were added in early June (I think).  They are all starting to grow and most are starting to produce pitchers under my growing conditions.   It will take a while to see the mature appearance.

All were from growcarnivorousplants.com

Nepenthes X Falcon.  7.14.19

Nepenthes Dyeriana.  7.14.19

L to Right, N. X Whisper, N. campanuplata X lowii, N. Ruby Alice.

L to R, N. maxima X aristochoides, N. Peter Damato, N. albomarginata Black.

Those Overwintered Geraniums. 11 Jul 19

 These are a few of the geraniums  overwinter  each year.  I think they are around 5 to 7 years old.  There is not much to it.  In October, I move the containers out of the rains, under the eaves so they dry out as much as possible in a sunny location.  Then I move them to garage or basement, leave them  dry for the winter.  I Spring,Icleanthe, up, remove dead leaves, do some pruning, water, and in a month they are up growing and blooming again.  Bigger, more lush, more flowers, than any plant you can buy, and the cost is zero.

Planting Summer Seeds. Radishes and Turnips. Jul 8, 2019

Japanese Turnip and Chinese Radish Seeds.  Jul 8, 2019

Today I planted experimental rows of radishes and turnips, in the location where I dug two rows of potatoes.  Not a lot, about 3 foot rows for each.  It might be too early - late summer might have them growing mostly in cooler fall weather.  I can plant more later.

I love turnips, and these East Asian types of radishes can be very good for fresh eating or roasting.

I plant potatoes in trenches, starting at about a foot derp and filling in soil as they grow.  Digging them, I insert the shovel under where I expect to find spuds.  By the time the taters are dug up, the soil has been mixed and softened more than a foot deep.  I think that's ideal for these root crops.

Given summer dryness, the soil dryness extended the depth of the trenches.  Watering is needed.

There are as many potatoes still growing, as I dug already.  There are plans for those rows too Western - type turnips and radishes, maybe sone cabbages, and I want to move a row of daylilies there for easier care.

Edit:  by 7/14, all of the seeds are germinated and growing vigorously.  They germinated in about one week.

Home Made Daylily Hybrid. Jul 7, 2019

Home Made Daylily Hybrid.  Jul 7, 2019

This is the first bloom on this new hybrid.  I did not keep track.  I think it was an unnamed ochre colored daylily, crossed with Chicago-something, a red flower.  Some of my home made hybrids are ugly.  I like this one very much.

First Potato Harvest. Jul 7, 2019

Kennebeck Potatoes.  7.7.19

Kennebeck Potatoes.  7.7.19

 Some of the potato tops are dying off. so I  dug them up.  Nice crop for Kennebec and Red Norland so far.  Ready to make potato salad.

The first of the Russets didn't look like much.  There may be some in the rows yet to harvest.

Red Norland Potatoes.  7.7.19

Edit:

I made potato salad using Kennebecs.  I didn't it, too dry.  I have using the daily for baked potatoes.  For that purpose, they are truly delicious.  I puncture multiple times with a fork, brush with olive oil, back on a piece of aluminum foil at 400 F for 30 min, turn, bake another 30 min.

Tansy Ragwort and Cinnebar Moth Larvae. 7.3.19

Tansy Ragwort and Cinnebar Moth Larvae.  7.3.19

Very cool to look at.  I try to keep ahead of weeds, especially the toxic and invasive Tansy Ragwort.  However, sometimes I miss them at the edge of the property, until I see them bloom.

This time, I see the cinnebar moth caterpillars having a feast on tansy ragwort flower heads.

I will leave the plants in place until the caterpillars are done, then pull the plants out.

Squash, Potato, and Sweet CornZucchini Plants. 6.21.19

Potato Plants.  6.21.19

Most of the kitchen garden is looking pretty good.   I dug a couple of potato plants today, ones that had dried up looking leaves.  The vast majority are not ready yet. The summer squashes and zucchinis have early flower buds.  The sweet corn is irregular, with some large and some small plants, but the large ones are looking robust.

Zucchini Plants.  6.21.19

Sweet Corn Plants.  6.21.19

Tomato Plants. 6.21.19

Tomato Plants for Slicing Tomatoes.  6.21.19

All of the tomato plants are blooming, and have stout, green, robust vines and leaves.  Most of the slicing tomatoes are tied up as single cordons.

Tomato Plants for Sauce Tomatoes.  6.21.19

Chestnut Tree in Bloom. 6.21.19

This one is Maraval.  Last year, this tree was the first to bear, having two chestnut clusters last year.  This year, there are about 10 female flowers.  Hard to say because they are so small and so high on the tree.

Precose Migoule also has a couple of female flowers, and lots of male flowers.

The very small Marigoule is vinally growing nicely, and has a few catkins of male flowers.

The Marissard seedling has no flowers.  Nice looking tree, but no flowers.  It's probably a mistake to buy a seedling, even if it's named.

The plan was to have them close enough together to pollinate each other.  But with the small size of the trees, and the small numbers of male flowers on the trees that just started making them, I have tried to hand pollinate using catkins of the other tree.  Unfortunately, doing so I broke off one of the two potentially bearing branches of the Precose Migoule.  That was going to need pruning anyway, but a few curse words were said.

Cowlitz Peaches. Progress Report. 6.21.19

Cowlitz Peaches.  6.21.19

The big test will be in the ripening, but so far the Cowlitz Peach Tree is looking great.   There are about 20 peaches, maybe 25.  A few have been mauled by critters or birds.  It's not in an ideal spot, probably too much shade.

However, this might be one of my best peach yields in a long time. 

I'm guessing they'll ripen some time in July, maybe August.

Cowlitz Peach Tree.  6.21.19

Pawpaw Seedlings. 6.20.19

Pawpaw Seedlings.  6.20.19

Pawpaw seedlings are starting to emerge.  I think it's about 3 months after I planted the stratified seeds in these containers.  At first they were in the warm sunroom.   In May I moved them out to a shady area.

Pawpaw seedlings require shade.  They die in full sun, according to what i have read.

Each of these four pots has about 6 planted seeds.  I stratified them in wet paper towel, in ziplock bags, in the fridge, from September to April.

Growing pawpaws from seeds is a long term proposition.  Most likely, if they do survive and bear fruit, and if I survive that long, it will be around 6 to 8 years before we see anything.

Meanwhile, with the recent heat spell, only one of my four pawpaw trees is looking good.  The others have smaller, paler leaves.  I don't know if they will survive.  All of the tiny fruits fell off.

Yamamoto Dendrobiums. 6.7.19

 These are a few of the Yamamoto Dendrobiums that I bought last year.  They don't get a lot of attention.  I thought they might bloom in winter, but now is good too.  If I remember, I'll check the tags and add the names later.

Sweetcorn Progress Report. 6.1.19

 The first batches of sweet corn look  OK.  I gave them a watering with fish emulsion.

I'm not sue the second batch will germinate.  It's only bern a week, so there is still a chance.  I thought I saw a couple of seedlings but those might be weeds.

Today I planted the third batch and thinned the first batch to a foot apart.  I planted this year's order of "Delectable" from Territorial Seeds.

They should do well here.

Tomato Progress Report. 6.1.19

Tomato Bed 6.1.19

I wondered if I would have the fenced area ready for tomatoes on time.  It was close, but I think they are doing great.

Closest to camera are slicing tomatoes, including Better Boy, Brandy Boy, Cherokee Purple, Sunny Boy, and an early and a late type.  Then there are 12 sauce tomatoes, Ranger.

I think I will do Missouri pruning this year.  Last year I over-did the garden and couldn't keep up.  This year I'm growing a bit less, so I think I can do it.

The paths are boards from the sides of my old raised beds.  They were not wasted.

Apple Grafting Progress Report. 5.27.19

Columnar Apple Grafts on Bud-9 Rootstock.  5.27.19

Some of the new fruit grafts were quite stressed by recent hot weather.  They were not ready for it.

These grafts are columnar apple trees on dwarfing rootstock Bud-9. They had the advantage of being bench grafts, growing in containers.  I moved them to the shade when it became hot.  I wondered if a couple would make it.  They are looking good.  There is some slug damage, so I gave them some slug bait. I think all of the grafts have healed together, and actual growth is commencing.

Iris of the day: "Overjoyed." And Others. 5.27.19

Tall Bearded Iris "Overjoyed".  5.27.19

This is the last of the irises to begin blooming.  Many still have many buds remaining to open.

This iris, "Overjoyed" has nice form, ruffled flowers with a nice shade of yellow in the falls and near-white in the standards.  It's a very modern look and they came through the rainy season like a champ. This is also nice for a rhizome that I planted late summer / early fall, yet grew vigorously an give a great bloom.

The others have been posted before.  In the dead of winter, I'll look at these photos many times to recall this season and anticipate next year.

Tall Bearded Iris "Edith Wolford".  5.27.19

Tall Bearded Iris "Gay Parasol" 5.27.19

Bearded Iris Experimental Garden Bed.  5.27.19