Persimmons. 10.30.2020

 This year Yates American Persimmon was early.  Nikita's Gift hybrid American / Asian Persimmon and Saijo Asian Persimmon are not yet ripe.  The Prairie Star has fruits for the first time.  They are small and I have not tasted them yet.

 

Nikita's Gift.  The best performer, most productive, better flavor than pure Asian and much bigger than pure American.

Prairie Star.  This is the first crop.   I'm interested to see how they taste.  Small fruits.  Maybe that's the effect of this being the first crop.

Close up of Prairie Star.

Close up of Nikita's Gift, and a Prairie Star in my hand.

Just Nikita's Gift because they are so pretty.

Saijo.  They never seem to produce well for me, but more than nothing anyway.

Progress Report on Plant Stand Restoration. 10.30.2020

 This is the plant stand that was falling apart.  I took it apart, made a new shelf for it, and cleaned up the metal.  Except for the tabletop surface, which will be waterproof driftwood - look  flooring, I'm making it an "antique bronze".  That will blend in with the other furniture and tie together the new parts and old parts.

Unfortunately I ran out of paint, ha ha.  More is on order.  It doesn't show in these photos, but there are microscopic shiny bronze metallic flecks in the paint that glisten in the sun.

It will be a little while before the paint comes.  I ordered it online so I don't have to be around possibly infectious crazy people at the home improvement store.  That slows things down but what's the hurry?

Some Historic Apple Cultivars. 10.26.2020

 I decided to review some of the historic apple cultivars in my collection.   By Historic, I loosely mean anything at least 100 years old, although some are a bit newer.  The basis is finding images of them in the USDA Pomological Website (required attribution statement:  U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705).  Of these, only Macoun is 20th century, having been introduced in 1923.  I think Macoun is also the only one of these that was part of a research program, the others having been discoveries by apple farmers over the centuries.  As before, I edited the images for size and clarity, but kept original annotations.  In some cases, if the info is not on the image, I added the artist and date.

 Jonathan.  This is a nostalgia apple for me, having been one of two apple trees that I grew up with in my parents' back yard, in Southwestern Illinois.  The history of Jonathan is a but murky, either originating from cider mill seeds in Connecticut in 1796, or as a seedling of Esopus Spitzenberg in New York in 1826.  When I taste these apples, I still think of them as the classic apple that I remember from so long ago.  It's interesting to think that I'm tasting something that is, as much as possible, unchanged from before the time that my paternal ancestors emigrated from a Germany that wasn't even Germany yet, in the later 19th century.  Of course, there is genetic drift, effect of modern training of tastes, and terroir (effect of local soils, weather, environment on flavor), but that Jonathan flavor is still there.

Duchess of Oldenburg.  I'm interesting to see how this one turns out.  Recent post, different image from the USDA Pomological Watercolors website.

Porter.  I've only had one harvest from Porter.  This was in the first group of grafts that I did from Fedco Scion, in about 2013.  This yellow apple has a delightful, fruity flavor.  According to New England Orchards, Porter originated in Shelburne Massachussets in about 1800; was described as one of the best of yellow fall apples, but ripened over too wide a range of time, and was too tender to ship   According to Tom Burford's Apples of North America, Porter was "one of the great pie making apples of America, and was endorsed as such in early editions of the Fannie Farmer Cookbooks".  I added Porter as a cultivar for my mini orchard using a graft from my previous multigraft, because the flavor is one of the nicest on that tree.  Porter is described as moderately disease resistant, which is important.  Porter ripens in Late Summer.  Porter is also named "Yellow Summer Pearmain", and is the only tree in my orchard with that "Pearmain" designation.  It's not clear what "pearmain" means, although it might designate some pear-like qualities.

 

 Black Oxford.  I added Black Oxford to the mini orchard last winter and have not had a chance to taste it.  Tom Burford in Apples of North America describes Black Oxford as originating around 1790, on the "farm of a nail maker named Valentine, in Paris, Maine".  Burford states that Black Oxford is moderately resistant to the major apple diseases.   Fedco states that "Black Oxford is almost black, and is useful for late ciders and pies....Best eating late December to March, but we’ve eaten them in July and they were still quite firm and tasty. They get sweeter and sweeter as the months go by. Good cooking until early summer."  I think my mini orchard is a bit dominated by earlier ripening apples, so this seemed like an interesting choice.  This was once a popular apple in Maine.  

. 
Gravenstein.  I think this is one of the very best apple cultivars.  Gravenstein was originally either a Danish apple, or was a gift to the Duke of Gravenstein in Denmark from Italy, in 1669.  Hard to imagine, this apple has been grown for 350 years.  How many people have enjoyed its flavor?  Rowan Jaobson describes Gravenstein in his Apples of Uncommon Character as crisp and cidery, and as the first great apple of the year.  Gravenstein has been a favorite in Sonoma County in California since immigrants from Crimea brought it there in 1812.  Gravenstein is the national apple of Denmark.  In my garden, this tree bears heavily, then skips a year, which makes the crop all the more anticipated.  I'm not sure whether I should just leave it as a semidwarf  tree in the front orchard, or have a graft of Gravenstein in the mini orchard as well.  I'm leaning towards the latter, since that is where my focus has moved.  Plus I can be more easily diligent about thinning fruit, which might help with the biennial bearing.

Macoun.  I haven't tried this one yet.  It's one season out from grafting on mini dwarf rootstock.  Macoun is an early effort (1923) by NY State Experiment Station to create a planned hybrid apple, McIntosh X Jersey Black.  It may have some disease and insect resistance. 

King David.  Discovered in an Arkansas fence row in the late 1800s.  Possibly a cross of Jonathan and Arkansas Black.  I like this apple, which I have on a two multigrafts.  I'm thinking about making it a more prominent member of my orchard by regrafting to replace another cultivar. 

Sutton Beauty is one of two cultivars that I grafted during grafting class at the Home Orchard Society class in about 2012.  It appears to be on a dwarf rootstock.  I multigrafted the tree, but might revert it to fewer varieties because this is such a good apple.  According to Burford's Apples of North America, this apple originated in Sutton, Massachussets in 1757.  This is an excellent mostly sweet, not much tartness at all, crisp, juicy, historic apple.  Each year I look forward to tasting some of these excellent apples.   This apple is described as moderately resistant to most apple diseases, other than fireblight.  On the same tree, I have Airlie Red Flesh, which gets quite a lot of scab, while Sutton Beauty does not have any blemishes.

 

NorthPole Apple Harvest. 10.26.2020

 I was too late to rescue most of the NorthPole apples, which is a bit disappointing because they are one of my favorites.  It would have been better to harvest them 2 or 3 weeks ago.  Even so, there is a nice box of apples.  I used organza bags to protect some of the apples from this columnar tree, which actually did work out nicely, protecting those apples while others deteriorated due to insect and bird bites and disease.

These are big, juicy sweet apples with a classic McIntosh flavor.   I think they are good in apple sauce and pies.

Apple Scion Order for 2021. 10.24.2020

I ordered Apple Scion, and a Pear Scion for next year.  None of these will be new trees.  I like trying them on multigrafts.  That way they bear sooner, I get a taste sooner, and I don't have to devote space, effort, and cost to entirely new trees.  I think I will retire a few less desirable branches and replace them with these.  Some may go onto the espaliers that I am growing.  I also changed my mind about a couple of the minigrafts, which I will overgraft with a couple or few of these.

Honeycrisp.  Everyone knows this one.  I have tried it before.  It is not easy.  It will go on one of the minidwarfs that I decided to overgraft.

 Gala.  A relatively modern apple (1934 if that is modern) with an excellent flavor originally from New Zealand.  Ripens in Winter and is a keeping apple.  Gala is a cross of Kidd's Orange Red and Golden Delicious.  Kidd's Orange Red is a cross of Cox's Orange Pippin and Delicious.  Cox is the classic English apple that gives some of its descendants a more tropical, aromatic flavor.  I don't know if that "Delicious" is "Red Delicious" - I read it is not "Golden Delicious", anyway. 

 Duchess of Oldenberg.  A historic apple, originally from Russia.  Ripens late Summer.

Otterson.  A smaller, tart, highly red flesh juice apple with some astringency.  This apple is for coloring apple juices red by increasing the anthocyanin content.  Ripens in Fall, per Fedco.  Probably late 20th century.

William's Pride.  Modern PRI disease resistant apple.  Ripens in early August.  (Fall, per Fedco).   Williams Pride has a complex lineage, with the only grandparent that I recognize as Jonathan.  Five generations back there is Rome and Malus floribunda 821, the source of its scab resistance.  The pollination event that created William's Pride was in 1973 at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL.  Described as a Summer dessert apple.

Opalescent.  Historic apple.  Ripens in Fall per Fedco.

Dana Hovey Pear - a winter pear.  This is my first knowledge of "winter pears".  Will it be easier to know when they are ripe?  An Experiment.

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Of these apples, only Opalescent and Duchess of Oldenburg are historic variety (more than 100 years old).  This is an image of Opalescent from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705 (attribution required by the web site)

I edited this image slightly to increase contrast and color resolution, and edited some of the margins to make the image more visible.  

According to Apples of North America, by Tom Burford, Opalescent originated in 1880 when George Hudson found the seedling while digging out stumps in Barry County, Michigan.  It stores well.  It has susceptibility to apple diseases.  I have a small branch of Opalescent on a dwarf multigraft.  I like the apple, nice sweet  flavor.    I decided to include this in my scion order because I'm not confident that if I take a cutting from my multigraft, that it will be the right one.  According to Trees of Antiquity, Opalescent was once widely grown in New England.

Duchess of Oldenberg, from the same USDA Pomological Website as above.  According to Fedco, Duchess of Oldenburg was imported in 1835 along with other Russian apples.  It was named for the sister of Czar Alexander, Catherine Pavlovna.  Described as scab resistant, which is good in my garden.  Considered one of the best for pies and sauce.  As quoted from Apples of New York in Trees of Antiquity, these apples "Kept up the hope of prairie orchardists in times of great discouragement".   According to Wikipedia, Duchess of Oldenburg dates to the era of 1750 - 1799.

 

 

More Apple Harvest. 10.24.2020

 Almost all of the apples are harvested.   Some are a little too late, and no longer full flavor.  I didn't get much of an early variety harvest this year, and missed some of the ones that did.  The thing about gardening is, each living thing has it's own time and season.  While there is flexibility, you have to read the signals that nature provides.

Anyway, there are still lots of apples.  This is from the columnar type, Scarlet Sentinel.  These are certainly not "Scarlet" apples, just a blush of red.  They may not be fully ripe yet.  They have a nice flavor, mildly sweet, not  much sourness.  Nice apples, no scab at all.  This tree had no care other than pruning lower branches out of deer range, and no watering  at a this year.

Mixed apples from the front yard.  The Greenish ones are GoldRush.  They are late ripening, known for keeping a long time.  The others are a mix of what remained, some Rubinette, Queen Cox, and a couple of others.  The basket is from the Jonathan / Jonared / Others apple tree.

This is a mixed box.  The scabby ones are Airlie Red Flesh.  The others are a mix of Baldwin, Opalescent, Sutton Beauty, and a few others.

Deer Fence. 10.16.2020

This year's new deer fence worked out wonderfully.  Other than the recent tragedy last week when I left the gate open for just a single night.  Just one night.  

Fortunately, that was after almost all of the veggies have been harvested for the year.  I hope the mini apple trees will survive and come back.  We'll see...  in April.

 This photo was in Nov, shortly after the fence was built. This year, having a good fenced garden was a life saver.  It gave a better crop of plants that in previous years didn't grow at all due to deer and, sometimes, rabbits.  It was far easier to manage that my previous make-shift fencing.  I was able to branch out and grow a few things that I wanted to try, and the animals always destroyed before, like beans and peas.  Even the supposedly deer-resistant plants, like onions and garlic, did better.

It was wonderful not having to think of my vegetable garden as a battleground against deer, and also rabbits.  It was the best, most diverse, most productive garden that I have ever had.

Space is at a premium.  Last winter I didn't have room elsewhere for potatoes, which don't need that protection.   Next year they'll go where I currently have sweetcorn and old raised beds. That will free up some additional space.  Also, I won't plant so many snow peas, which can spread too much for the amount that I want.  I might move some squash outside of the fence, although that can be a iffy prospect because deer like some varieties and leave others alone.  On the other hand, raised beds and fruit trees will take up more room than this year, so I need to plan carefully.

 

 

Red Oak Seedling at One Year Old. 10.24.2020

 Here is a red oak tree that I grew from an acorn.  It's one of the few that deer missed on their dinner night out in my garden.  Now it has brilliant red leaves.  Some of the others were a nice red too, but this one is incredible.  I fond a nice location for it and planted in the ground, with some fencing for protection.  Red oaks grow faster than while oaks, so it has potential to reach at least "tree size" during my lifetime

I imagine that the other deer marauding victims will recover and grow next year.  There are a couple that I would like to save.  I also noted that while the red oaks were de-leafed, the white oaks were left untouched.  Tougher, smaller leaves?  Or just not noticed?

Remodeling a Plant Stand. 10.15.2020

 This has been my plant stand for starting vegetable seeds, for about 20 years.  Most of it is metal, but the tabletop was particle board with some sort of plastic or contact paper to look like faux wood, sort of.

The metal parts are in fairly good shape.  They can be cleaned of with steel wool and given a couple of coats of Rust-oleum.  I'm leaning towards a bronze look, which matches other furniture in the sun room.

I found a plank a little more than twice as long as the table top, and a bit more than half as wide.  I cut two pieces, and edge glued them, along with three braces on the underside which I glued into place and "clamped" with drywall screws.  I also found some 1 x 2 trim in the shed and cut to make a trim all around.  After installing that, using wood glue and 1 1/2 inch nails, I have the general look that I want.

Since this will be a plant stand, I'd like for it to be a bit more water tolerant.  I might finish the top using vinyl plank flooring left over from a bedroom remodel.  I could paint the trim either the same bronze, or black.   I'm not sure yet.  The wood is nothing special at all, but I could do a dark stain and apply a few coats of polyurethane.

Plant stand before starting.  You can't tell, but that fake wood grain plastic coating just peeled off like badly sunburned skin.

 

It disassembled fairly easily.  This is one of those assemble-with-an-allen-wrench types of furniture.  That metal frame is nice and sturdy.  

I sat the cut pieces of wood on the bottom section to look at them for a while.

After gluing and fastening the two planks together, same for braces on underside, and installing edging.

There is still a front piece to install, but this is most of the construction.  I don't want to install the drawers again.  They are just ugly and useless.  The front piece will somewhat hide the lights that I want to install under the table top.   The new top is almost interesting enough to apply some sort of whitewash type finish, if there is something water-proof that I could use for a seal.  I still think I'm most likely to pain the trim black, or dark grey, and install vinyl flooring as the top surface.  It's just more practical for a plant starting station.

I like this enough so far, I might make a similar wide shelf for the lower part to start vegetable plants under LED plant lights.  The current shelf is narrow metal.  I'm sure there are more wood planks in the shed.  I guess I should finish this part before embellishing it with something more.

Now to wait for Amazon to deliver the wood fillers and Rust-oleum.  I'm not into going to Home Depot for a viral version of Russian Roulette just yet.

Deer Damage. 10.15.2020

 Yesterday when I was checking the shed, I forgot to close the garden gate.  That's the only time I forgot, all year.

With deer, it only takes once.  They completely defoliated every miniature apple tree, every espalier apple tree, and grabbed a few raspberry leaves too.

It's hard to take a photo of something that's not there.  In this case, leaves.  I'm beyond discouraged.  I suppose that this late in the year, that just means they will head into dormancy.  I hope they won't be set back much and won't try to regrow.  Dammit.

Installing Home-Made Shed Doors. 10.15.2020

 This project is almost done.  The shed needs some clean up and painting, and a garden tool rack.  The biggest job was getting myself in gear to make and install a new set of doors.

I posted earlier about how I made the doors.  I cut them from an available sheet of siding, with 1 x 4 lumber cut to make supporting framing and trim.  Then glued them on, with drywall screws, screwed in from the inside aspect while the glue was wet.  Grout and paint.  

The shed turned out to be leaning, which I can't fix.  I installed the doors level, which meant some creative door hanging.  It came out OK.   It's also not in great condition - it was sat on the bare ground who knows how many years ago.  There is dry rot.  Still, it's a shed, not a house.  Getting it working for a couple of years would be OK. 

Here is how it looks now, with the doors and trim installed and the trim grouted. 

That turned out pretty good.  I saved the 2 x 4 framing from the old door, to make a tool rack.  The rest is falling apart, so the boards go to the wood pile and the siding goes to the trash.

For comparison, here was the shed a few days ago.

If there's another warm sunny day, I can scrape and paint. Otherwise, that part will await Spring.

Yates American Persimmons. Early Harvest. 10.11.2020

 These persimmons are about a month early.  They were already falling off the tree.  Yates is an American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), so smaller than grocery store Asian persimmons (Diospyros kaki), but with a richer flavor, like apricots with spices and drenched in wildflower honey.  These were just that good.

This tree is fenced, which is good.  I'm sure the critters would have absconded with all of these, leaving me none.

Making New Shed Doors. 10.11.2020

 This shed was on the verge of demolition.  However, it's quite close to my garden and orchard.  It would be nice to store tools in it.  I would spend a lot less time and effort carrying tools across the road from the house.  That would make gardening more pleasant.  We already store straw and some kindling in it.  The door is huge, and very heavy.  It pulled the hinge screws out of the frame.  The door itself is 4 feet wide, 6 feet tall, and has its own frame made from 2 X 4s.  

I think that a scraping and repainting would preserve the shed for another several years, if not a decade.  It needs a new plywood floor.  I can do that.  The inside framing seems fine.  The siding is T1-11, which is bad, but it's a shed, not a house.  I can clean up or replace bad pieces, seal and paint them to last a few more years.

The main problem is that door. It's incredibly heavy, and re-installing it was a temporary measure.  It just pulled the screws out of the frame again.  I decided to make a new one but make two doors, half the width, and without that 2 X 4 framing.  So they will probably weigh about 1/3 to 1/4 as much.  I found a 4 X 8 foot sheet of siding, stored in another shed.  I cut it down to 4 X 6 foot , then cut that into two 2 X 6 foot sheets.  I bought some 1 X 4 boards from Lowes during my last trip there, to cut for framing / trim.

I've been kind of dreading doing this.  It's too many infrastructure projects this year.  However, once starting, it has gone quite fast and not really difficult.  The worst part was moving the big sheet of siding, and cutting it.

Here are the sheets of siding, with the cut 1 X  4 boards arranged like I wanted them.  I used these to add some strength, and help flatten the siding which had a slight, subtle warp.

I numbered the boards and their locations so I wouldn't mess them up when they are glued and screwed together.  One door got numbers, the other got letters.

I used outdoor grade wood glue, and drywall screws.  I screwed them through the back so they would be tight and make a good glue-bond and not show or be exposed to the elements.  Then I used outdoor, paintable caulk to seal all of the nooks and crannies and edges so water wont soak in.

This morning I painted the doors with some left over house paint.  I think there is enough for a second coat, plus paint the entire shed.  Then it will match the house.  It's a darker grey than it looks in the photo.

 

 

Next I need a good dry day to repair and paint the siding above the door, install the new framing, and install the doors.  That will be a good start at having a usable garden shed.

 

Here is the shed as it stands now.   It looks decrepit and shabby.  I think putting on new trim, scraping, applying new paint, and installing the new doors will help a lot.  As it is now, I just lean the old door against it's opening, which is unsafe and looks like something out of Fargo.

Kitchen Curtain for Halloween. Sewing Project. And a Face Mask. 10.6.2020

 I decided to do a little sewing project.  We didn't like the kitchen curtains.  It's just a valence - we don't want to obstruct the view of the back yard and Rufus.  I made these from a Halloween theme cotton fabric.  When Halloween season is done, I'm planning on a set for Thanksgiving.  It's a way to acknowledge and enjoy the holiday and season times, without going all out on buying stuff.

 These were fun to make.  I didn't have a pattern, so I reverse engineered them from an old set.  I don't think I made a lot of mistakes, but there were some learning points.  Next one should go even more smoothly.

I also made some coronavirus face masks using extra from the fabric.  It makes a nice Halloween theme face mask..

Rubinette Apple. 10.2.2020

 This was the first really good crop for Rubinette.  It fruited a little for the past three years, but not much and they were ruined.  I think they had San Jose Scale, which I treated last winter with dormant oil spray.  It worked.  I don't see effects of scale, at least not yet.

Rubinette has a reputation as the best tasting, or one of the best tasting, apples around.  I know, each year there seems to be a new "Best Tasting" apple.  This one really was excellent.  I would at least say it is among the best tasting apples in my orchard.  Truly delicious.  Decent crop this year, too.

Grenadine Apple. 10.2.2020

 These were the first of the Grenadine apples.   They have red flesh, as marketed.  They seem fairly scab susceptible, like Airlie Red Flesh.  Also similar to Airlie Red Flesh, the skin is mostly green, although some redness shows through as a muddy color.  The main difference is Grenadine is round and very tart.  Maybe leaving them on the tree longer will sweeten them up, but Wowza, this one was like a lemon drop!

This first photo compares Grenadine to Fuji Beni Shogun.  The Fugi was much sweeter.  I may have noted a little "Red Hawaiian Punch" flavor in the Grenadine.

Chestnuts. 10.2.2020

 These are the first of the chestnuts this year.  The Marivale and Precose Migoule both bore some nuts.  Marivale drops them in the husk.  Precose Migoule seems to drop the nuts before the husk, meaning that browsing deer or squirrels get them.  I knocked off the ones that I could, to let them finish in a bucket in a shed.

I'm keeping the nuts for a while in the fridge to see if there are more ripening that we can roast.

Cross Species Pear Graft Update. 9.29.2020

 Along with the apple grafts, I wanted to try some pear grafts.  Again, this was for making miniature trees.  However, I'm not aware of sources for miniaturizing pear trees. There are some less conventional ways.  Serviceberry, Hawthorn, and Aronia are pear relatives, although different species.  There is some info from the fruit growing hobby community that pear can grow with these as rootstocks.  Also, the apple variety "Winter Banana" will reportedly accept apple scion, so I wanted to try that too.

I grafted European pear onto Winter Banana on a Bud-9 rootstock, and also onto an existing apple tree branch.

I grafted European pear onto two varieties of Serviceberry, and onto a Chinese Hawthorn and onto a Black Hawthorn.

I grafted Asian pear onto Aronia.

Nothing took on the Serviceberry.  

The European pear did very well on Chinese Haw, growing about two feet.  Here is the graft, a little irregular but it looks OK.  That shoot is actually below the graft union, and is Hawthorn.

 The graft on Winter Banana on Bud-9 did not grow.  The graft on Black Hawthorn did not grow.

I lost track of the other two, because of location.  Now, I started Fall cleanup as well as picking apples, and discovered the Asian Pear on Aronia.  It didn't grow much, but then again (a) it took, and grew some and (b) it was buried in snowpeas and volunteer four o'clocks, and (c) it was not watered all summer long.

The European Pear on Winter Banana on an existing apple tree, did take and grew a little.  Again, not a lot.  I'm not sure what to do with this - I don't need a pear on an apple tree.  I might try cutting the graft at the Winter Banana and graft that, with the already healed pear graft, onto Geneva 222 or Bud 9.  Maybe the Pear/Apple graft needed more vigor to heal together, than the Bud-9 can provide but now that it did, it will grow.

Since these were sort of hidden and forgotten, I never got around to removing the graft binder ziplock strips.  That's most likely fine, but I'll do that today.