Tart Cherry Pie Filling. Canned vs. Frozen. Canned Sweet Cherries. 6.20.2021

I made pie fillings using tart cherries (North Star) and also canned another batch of sweet cherries (RNier and a red variety). I'm still learning the details of canning. I will be careful about inspecting them before eating them. The canned cherries are fairly routine. However, I know there is some leakage before they seal, so a bit of juice exits, and a bit of boiling water enters the jars before they seal. The airspace varies a bit. I think they are Ok but will check quality before eating the canbed fruits. I follow the canner instructions closely. The cherries - sweet on the left, tart on the right.

The canned sweet cherries.

As for pie fillings, I made enough for one pie by canning the filling. Those have to be cooked before they are canned (hot fill method). Unfortunately, they lose their form while cooking, so the end result doesn't look a lot like cherries.

Today I made fillings for two cherry pies, and froze them. I think that was a lot less work, and the cherries hold their shape much better. The ingredients are exactly the same as if I make a fresh pie, except I leave out the butter which I add when baking the pie. I noticed the 1/8 tsp salt. No idea why that is there, and I don't do it. I might change to a clear starch next time instead of flour. I think the flour is a family tradition but I'm not certain.

Another Forsythia Cutting Update. 6.20.2021

Today I noticed more roots emerging from a container of forsythia cuttings. I started these directly in potting soil, with little plastic bags covering them to act as humidity / ICU tents. So I set it outside. It's in the 80s today, but it survived. That, and the most recent water-rooted one were a bit droopy after sun heated their black sided containers at the end of the day, so I brought them back indoors and set the remaining two, which were not droopy, back into the shade.

Meanwhile, the fourth (of five) cutting in water has started to grow roots. In the past, I understood that potting medium rooting was superior to water rooting for most cuttings. That may be true, but so far the water rooted forsythia cuttings have done significantly better than the ones in potting medium, and with less effort.

Dwarf Tomato Progress Notes. 6.18.2021

Most of the dwarf tomatoes ar roughly 20 inches tall now. Extreme Bush:

Red Tanunda Dwarf

Alpatieva 905A:

BrandyFred:

Dwarf Champion and Dwarf CC McGee are similar size. Dwarf Johnson Cherry and Clare Valley Pink are only about a foot tall. Alpatieva 905A has the largest tomato set, so far. Extreme Dwarf also has a small tomato. All are blooming profusely.

Rufus Likes his Rawhide Treat. 6.18.2021

Montmorency and NorthStar Pie Cherries Almost Ready. 6.18.2021

It looks like NorthStar might be a little earlier and redder. Both make delicious cherry pies. Montmorency:

NorhStar Cherry:

The scare tale seemd to work very well last year - minimal stealing by the birds. I hope that means the same this year.

Tipping Fig Shoots for Better Production, 6.18.2021

When fig shoots have 4 to 6 leaves, tipping the shoot can stimulate earlier fig producton. It's simple, just be t the tip until it snaps. Removing the growth point stops apical dominance, and baby figs soon appear after the tip is snappeed off. Before:

After:

Today I tipped Brunswick, Adriatic, and Champagne fig trees. I did Celeste a few days ago. Some others are not far enough along yet.

Canning Fruit From the Garden. 6.18.2021

 I did some practice canning to see if I could do it.  First I made grape jelly, using purchased grape juice.  That worked nicely and it tastes very good. 

I eat some jelly every day, so these should be use up during the next few months.

We had some pears from Costco, which I was concerned would spoil before we ate them all. I used those to make some canned pears. They came out delicious.

The n we harvested many pounds of sweet cherries. I mace jam and canned cherries too. Im concerned about the aira e in some so will eat those first. Very delicious. They sealed well, so I think they are ok for a while.

We had some fresh local strawberries and rhubarb from the garden. I made jam.

That came out very good too. Im using lower sugar pectin when possible. SomI think I'll be ready when plums and peaches are ripe. The main question is reliably getting a good seal. Some jars did seal, so I froze them (strawberry jam).

Forsythia Cutting Update. 6.12.2021

 I potted up the second cutting that was grown in a jar of water.  Those roots were about an inch long, and there were several.  It will need TLC for a couple of weeks.  The first still needs shade.  It wilts slightly if left outside for more than a half day.  I set it on the deck in the morning, which does not get direct sunlight then.  One more forsythia cutting in water is sending out roots. 

I don't know about the ones in potting soil.  One made a root that came through the bottom of the pot.  I sat it outside for a few hours and it wilted, badly.  So back to the plastic bag mini greenhouse.  It might survive. 

So far it seems the water jar method is better than the potting soil method.  Also, the thinner stem cuttings are rooting but the thicker ones are not, at least yet.

Left to right, forsythia cuttings still in water, freshly potted cutting in humidity tent, prior potted cutting - see last post, I think about two weeks.

Forsythia cuttings started in potting soil, still in their humidity tent.

"True Potato Seed" "Clancy" Potato Update. 6.12.2021

 The Clancy potato plants are smaller compared to the conventional, seed-potato potato plants that were planted later (Algonquin, Russet, Kennebec, Envol) but are mostly sturdy, healthy looking plants and most are blooming.  The flower colors vary from purple, to lavender, to pink, to almost white.  At the end of one row of Clancy are two Algonquin plants, larger with white flowers and yellow stamens.

I think I'll let them bloom and see if any seeds develop.  I don't think I'll go to much effort, such as hand pollinating.  Just to see what happens.

Flowers on a "Clancy" potato plant.

The two rows of "Clancy" and two plants of "Algonquin" at the right, front.

"Blooming Algonquin" Potato Plant

Dwarf Tomato Update. 6.12.2021

The dwarf tomatoes continue to grow and look healthy and lush, but short statured. Most are blooming profusely, and there are a few tomatoes set now - BrandyFred, Extreme Dwarf, and Alpatieva 905a.

I'll have to edit in the variety names later.  It's next to impossible on my tablet.  However, the top one is "Extreme Bush" grown in a container in potting soil. The first one is Extreme Bush, on the deck, in regular potting soil.

Dwarf CC Mcgee, from the "Dwarf Tomato Project", a potato leaf type. The leaves were chlorotic but have completely recovered and it is growing nicely. Planted in the ground in the tomato bed.

BrandyFred tomato, from the "Dwarf Tomato Project", also potato leafed type.  Planted in container in a soil / compost / cactus soil mix.

I'm not sure, the labels disappeared from a couple.  I think this is "Clare Valley Pink" from the Dwarf Tomato Project.  Planted in the ground in the tomato bed.

Developing fruit on "Alpatieva 905A" grown in container in potting soil. Developing fruit on Extreme Bush, same plant posted earlier.

Plant of Alpatieva 905A, same one as developing fruit photo posted earlier.  In potting soil in container.

Another I'm not certain of.  I think this is "Dwarf Johnson Cherry" from the Dwarf Tomato Project.  That's the only cherry variety I'm growing from the project, so if it's a cherry, that's what it is for certain.

None of these dwarf tomatoes have even a third the size of regular height tomatoes, and they seem to be bloming and developing fruit as early or even before most of them.

Carnivorous Plant Update. 6.12.2021

These aare the hardy, perennial carnivores, pitcher plants and a Venus flytrap. They live in 50:50 mix of perlite and peat moss, with the pots in about an inch of water all of the time. I change the water daily or every other day to eliminate mosquitoes. This has worked nicely for several years, and grown out of two sets of repotting. So Imrepotted them yesterday. This is the most the pitcher plants (Sarracenia) have bloomed. Very lovely and unique flowers.

The plant in the top photo was a seedling that germinated in a container of Nepenthes.   I potted it up on its own, now three years old.  The others are all commercial hybrids (Sarracenia NW).  
 

Raspberry Update. 6.12.2021

Today I tied holographic flash tape to the raspberry plants and their fencing. The idea is to confuse birds that might want raspberries. This worked very well last year for the cherries and blue berriees. Some of the tapes are recovered from last year. Those are very flimsy, and were easy to use twist ties to fasten on. The new roll is stiffer. I cut approx 9 inch to 1 foot lengths. punched a hole in one end using a paper punch, and tied on with strips of cloth cut from an old t shirt. The flash tape flaps and twists in the wind. The holographic reflectors catch and concentrate light, which is brilliant. I imagine for the birds it's like shining lasers and disorienting so, so far, they avoid it.

Sweetcorn Update. 6.12.2021

There was a lot of rain for the past couple of days. Before that I set up a lawn sprinkler to water the sweetcorn seedlings. I set out shallow plastric trays to measure, for an inch of artificial rain per watering, or just measure real rain. Today I fertilized and cultivated. The fertilizer was lawn nitrogen fertilizer, a couple of tablespoons per row. It's not organic but I have to compromise right now. This soil does not need mineral mix or organic matter in most organic feeds. Fish emulsion or Milorganite would work as well, but I don't want to buy anything right now. I fertilized the plantings that are a bit over a month old, not the just-germinated rows. 

Back bed (larger plants) is Trinity, planted in early May.  Front is the variety that I planted a week or so ago.

Back section is Early Sunglow, I forget the fron one - Delectable?  Planted late May.

Repotting Pawpaw Seedlings. 6.8.2021

These are seedlings from the only pawpaw crop I've had so far, which was 2018. I stratified them and planted into containers of potting soil, resulting in small trees 2019. Tiny trees, about 4 inches. They need shade and deer protection, and were easily forgotten and deer ate the tops last year anyway. I decided to forget about it and compost them, but just left them there alone. No watering, no TLC, no nothing. Well, they grew again this Spring. So today I repotted into good potting soil and more root room. There was minimal root trauma so I decided not to worry about that and gave them some fertilizer. I moved them to my shrub and tree mininursery where they will get more attention this year. We will see what happens :-) These are all hybrids of Nc-1 as fruit parent, "Sunflower" as pollen parent.

Sometimes I try something just to see what happens. This is one of those cases. However, since Nc-1 and Sunflower both fruited that year. I thought their offspring might have a chance too.

Orchids Cleaned Up, Keikis Planted, and All In Their Summer Home. 6.8.2021

In addition to the very large cymbidium that I just posted about, I divided, cleaned up, and repotted a smaller cymbidium that also overcrowded its container. These went into commercial orchid bark. I also pruned the dendrobium orchids. They had some keikis which I cut off and potted as if they were established plants. They dont require much fussing over. I cut off most of the old leafless canes. I repotted one, and another got pruned but not repotted. I gave them all a good soaking and then a 1/4 strength dose of Miracle Gro for Tomatoes. That is lower nitrogen and higher potassium than regular Miracle Gro, which I guess will help root growth without overdoing top growth too much. Now they are in the orchid summer home, same as the Cymbidiums. Lots of sun and they are next to the water source. If past experience is any indication, they should grow vigorously and be ready to bloom mid winter, when most wanted.

I hope deer dont eat them. I've had them here before with no dining issues.