TLC For Fig Tree. Yellow Jacket Mitigation For Figs. 3 Apr 24.

First the yellow jackets.  They can destroy a fig crop overnight, and often do, if I don't bate and trap.  They send out scouts, who return to the nest with news of a feast.  Figs have to ripen on the trees - it's the only way to have sweet, flavorful figs.  Just when beginning to ripen, they find the figs and destroy them, eating from the inside out,  They are also vicious, and hazardous to be around.

I'm hoping that by beginning now, I can mitigate this year's yellow jacket invasion.  According to Oregon State Extension, Spring elimination of queens can greatly limit the population,

Today, I disassembled and cleaned the yellow jacket traps in the fig grove where I pruned and cleaned up yesterday.

The trees are coming out of dormancy.  Looking at my older blog posts, now is about the usual time.  Breba figs that overwintered are starting to grow, and tip growth is beginning.  Shown are White Sicilian, Carini, Petite negri, Lattarula, and LSU Tiger in that order.    (I should add, there has bern a lot of discussion on line about the true identity of figs that look identical to this variety, and that have the same leaves and growth habit.  There seem to be more fig hobbyists who consider it Violette de Bordeaux.  Also, the original seller is calling it that.  Going forward, that may be my name for it as well. )

Now some   TLC for that little, 2-Year old, Hardy Chicago tree in the same row.   The perennial grasses take over close to the trunk.  I imagine for such a tiny tree, that's inhibitory for growth.  I cleared what I could, then added a couple layers of cardboard.  It will decompose in a year or so.  Meanwhile, it will kill the grasses under it and maintain soil moisture.

The cardboard can catch wind like sails.  A good covering of tree chips will weigh down the cardboard.

I need to touch up a bit.  Some ground maintenance is needed, but basically that's it for a few months in this fig row.

This yellow jacket bait is good for 4 weeks, so does need replacement around 1 May.

Planting Caladium Tubers. 3 Apr 24.

 On a whim, I bought some caladium tubers.  They might be too tropical to grow nicely here.  I enjoy a challenge. 

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I decided to pre-plant in four inch pots.  If / when they grow, I can up-pot them.

Reading about them, I think they will benefit from being started on a warming mat.

Pruning Genetic Dwarf Peach Tree / Bushes. 2 April 24.

 Some years ago, I built a removable shelter for the genetic dwarf peach trees, to prevent Peach Leaf Curl disease.  If rain can be prevented from washing fungal spores into the buds from Nov through May, there is basically no leaf curl.  If not protected, the leaf curl can severely damage or destroy the crop, and destroy the tree.

Some varieties are tolerant to or resist the disease, but most do not.

Genetic dwarf peaches can be protected and it works wonderfully.   Regular peach trees grow too big to protect.  There are sprays, but why do I want to spray poisons on my peaches?

The larger of my two, Garden Gold, is beginning to outgrow its shelter.  Also, last year it made too many peaches, which was too much to manage and broke some branches.  So I pruned it today,

This is the Garden Gold peach tree after pruning today.

Now the branches are all at least a foot from the plastic shelter top and sides.

The much smaller one is El Dorado peach.  I don't know why it's smaller.  I think I need to built the shelter a bit taller this year.  It bloomed earlier and is done blooming.  I can tell yet if it set fruit.  Today,  mostly I cut off dead branches, which were a lot.  I also opened up the center a bit.

Last fall, I used HVAC tape to hold hold-down strings for the plastic cover.  They worked until they didn't.  I think most of the branches were rain-protected well enough.  Here are some that were sticking out and exposed to rain.

I cut those off.    It will be a while before I know for certain about the rest of the tree.

I call these "tree" because peach trees are trees.  Size-wise, they are smaller than a Forsythia or Lilac bush, and a lot of rose bushes.  So which is it?

Pruning Asian Pear Trees For Access and Deer Avoidance.2 April 24.

With the Asian Pears in full bloom, I can see which branches are bearing and which are purely new vegetative growth that needs shortening.   The last two years have been major reshaping for these trees.  Here is the after photo, taken today.

The tree on the right came with the place, unknown variety.   I planted the one on the left in about 2012.   Both have multiple varieties of grafts.  Oddly, my best European pears cone from a branch that I grafted to this Asian pear tree.

Before photos.

Deer voraciously eat pear leaves, ruining the crop for those branches.  It's not enough to prune so that branches, now, are above favored browsing height - about six or seven feet.  As new growth, and especially fruit, form, and willowy branches droop to favored dear height.  Then they rip and pull and tear off those branches.  In addition, branches with heavy fruit set sometimes break under the weight of the fruit.

I can't use a ladder, so I need for fruit bearing branches to be within reach.  I shorten the branches so they don't droop too far. Also, for thinning fruit, about 75% or more need to be removed for earlier, sweeter, bigger, more disease free fruits.  If I can't reach them, I can't thin them.

I also cut out anything that is becoming tall and out of reach, remove crossing branches, and clear out some of the inside branches for an open center.

My guess is that today I removed about 50% or more of the blooming branches and about 90% of the nonbearing vegetative shoots from last year's growth. 

If every cluster that remains, produces one fruit, about four inches apart, it will mean more than we can eat, can, and give away.

Fig Tree Pruning. 2 Apr 24.

 This is my main row of fig trees, and my oldest ones (except two*) here in Battle Ground.    Last year, I removed two that had never been productive and were in the way of mowing and blackberry removal.   I waited until now to prune, because figs seem more susceptible to severe freezing if pruned in the Fall (my observation and not always). 

Here's the row of trees, viewed from East to West.  This is after pruning.

My pruning strategy is:

Remove anything dead of course.

If branches are touching one another, choose one to remove.  The wind makes them rub and destroys bark.

Try to open up the center for air and light.

If branches are in the way of mowing and blackberry removal, remove them.

For the most part, I want bearing branch ends to be about six to ten feet off the ground.  If a branch is really tall, either remove it or cut off at about five or six feet tall, so it will make new branches at a better height.

The distinction between breba (early summer bearing on overwintered last year's growth)  main crop (fall bearing, on this year's new growth) doesn't always work for me.   I understand it is dependent on the variety, but I think climate and growth conditions can affect which crops happen for some varieties.  I decided it's more important to keep my trees manageable, and I always get a lot of figs.   I cut about half of the branch ends back to five or six feet tall or so, and leave half as they are.  If at a good height, I might shorten taller branches to about six feet.  I like to leave some last year's growth when I can, just shorten to a few buds.

That said, Hardy Chicago is always a Main Crop fig for me, but the earliest of my trees.  Lattarula does both pretty prolifically.  As climate changes, the tree behavior may change too.

This is a Hardy Chicago that I bought at a big box store, two years ago.  I haven't been able to keep it well weeded all year,  It's growing.  It was only a few inches tall.  I will do a wide cardboard / tree chip mulch this year for this young tree.

I have a Hardy Chicago fig tree, but in a non-ideal location (fir tree and  Leyland Cypress shade and probably root competition).  Also, I was curious about whether a store tree, which I'm guessing was grown via tissue culture, will be hardier or more prolific, or not, compared to my older cutting- grown tree.  Tissue culture is promoted as removing harmful fig mosaic viruses, so imparting more vigor.  But sometimes, it seems to cause some genetic changes.

LSU Tiger fig.  About 13 years old.  It has had good years and less good.  It's a good fig from Louisiana.

Lattarula (also called White Marseilles and other names).  I't grew from a cutting from the tree I had in Vancouver.  Very productive, very reliable, very vigorous, good size juicy sweet figs.  It makes breba and main crop, reliably, for me.

Petite negri.  I bought from a catalog in 2001.  It was sold as a dwarf tree.  Over the years, it has been re-identified as other names, including Petite aubique and others.   In 2017 , I dug up the tree and moved it from Vancouver to Battle Ground .  It's really a wonderful tasting fig, rich and flavorful,  Also hardly ever produces any.  It's interesting, after moving it the tree produced new growth from underground, and the top gradually died off.  Not vigorous, probably 1/3 the size of an unpruned Latarrula.

Carini Fig.  This was via a cutting exchange about 12 years ago.  The sender described it as a variety he obtained from a family member who brought it from Sicily, a place called Carini if I remember correctly.  It's a good fig and nothing seems to bother the tree.   Last year it wasn't that productive but I was not able to keep up with things at the time si maybe I missed it.  They are a good size fig with a red tinge.

White Sicilian.  This was included with other cuttings as a gift.  I wasn't sure I wanted it, but I grew it.  It turned out to be precocious, makes a fair number of figs for such a small tree, and they are sweet tasty figs.

Here's that Petite negri fig tree when I moved it in Nov 2017.  It  doesn't seem much bigger now than it was then.  More sprawly now, and the original trunk is 95% gone.

My oldest fig trees are either the Petite Negri, or the Brunswick that I started from a locally obtained cutting in about 2002.  I also moved that tree to Battle Ground in about 2012 or so.  It did the same thing as the Petite Negri - grew suckers that became replacement trunks, as the original trunk mostly gradually died off during the next ten years.  I think it stresses the tree to be moved like I did to them.

New Top Tier Added To Final Espalier Trellis. 1 Apr 24.

 I added the top bamboo tier to the Honeycrisp / Gala Apple espalier trellis.  Then I tied down the top level arms (Gala).

I like Hobeycrisp a lot.  It's not very vigorous, but the apples are excellent.   Gala is a favorite for pies but also fresh.  So far, the Gala top graft has been very vigorous.

Now all it needs is maintenance, and occasional puttering and pampering.  This is much mire accessible compared to "normal" shaped trees and the space requirement is minimal - it's all within about 2 feet from the fence.

New Silas Marner David Austin Rose Update. 1 April 24.

 This rose bush is in my vegetable and fruit garden, so I didn't catch it when updating on the othets.

It's making a good start.  It's only 1 April, ant it's only been planted since 19 March, so only 13 days.

What we can say at this point, is that these roses are all viable and vigorous.

Daylilies Recovering From Dry Storage. 1 Apr 24.

 These are the daylily plants that I had in dry storage in the garage.  They had produced new growth that was weak and pale.  I thought survival would be tenuous.  I planted them and have them in heavy shade, North of the house.  The purpose of the shade is to not burn the delicate leaves and ket them recover.  

Here they are now.

Here they were 6 days ago, 24 March.

The leaves are definitely starting to grow and they are greener.  Still a ways to go  but I feel encouraged.

For reference, these are the original plants, again.

It's only a week.  I bet in two more weeks they can start moving towards the sun.

Phalaenopsis Orchid Rebloom. 31 Mar 24

 This Phalaenopsis or hid was a gift in September.  It has never been without a flower.

As the original blooms started to fall off, it grew two new blooming stems from that stalk.  They are still blooming.  Now it's growing another one.

I just water it when I remember, an drain off any that pours through the inner pot.  Once in a while I give it the same houseplant fertilizer as everything else. 

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Flowers in Vegetable Garden. Bulbs and Climbing Roses. 31 Mar 24.

 These are all in containers.  They overwintered in place.

The big bunch of red tulips have been there a couple of years.  They get no care at all, beyond weed removal and some mulch.  And removing dead tops in Summer.  The container height works for accessibility.  It's the same size as a half whiskey barrel.

The other red tulips share a container with strawberry plants.  The only care they get is for the strawberries.  Those started to bear last year.  We'll see this year.

Yesterday I tied up the climbing roses that flank the gate.  Originally, I was going to build or buy a trellis, and have them meet over the gate.  So far I have not done that.

This variety is Tropical Lightening.  It's a beautiful rose and strong scent.  Growth is vigorous.  This will be its second year.  For the time being, I've tied it to a tall post.

This is a red climbing rose.  I grew it from a cutting, I think 3 years ago.  I don't know the name.  There was one flower last year.  With so much growth, I bet there will be a lot this year.  I tied it vertically to the espalier trellis post, to prevent sprawling and drooping. It must be over ten feet tall now.

I also pruned skinny or non vigorous looking growth from both rose plants.  

Potato Soup With Egyptian Walking Onion Scallions. 31 Mar 24.

 Potato soup gets eaten a lot here.  The Egyptian Walking Onions are a nice addition from the garden.

I don't use an actual recipe.  My mother made this often.  It's simple.   About 2 cups of peeled, sliced red, white, or yellow potatoes.  One medium onion, diced.  One tbsp margarine.  Two big cloves of garlic, crushed.  One teaspoon onion powder.   One tsp salt.   1/2 cup of milk.  Enough water to cover and then an inch deeper.  Finely chopped scallion, one per bowl.  Pepper.

I sauté the onion in the margarine until clear, in a large pan.  Add about a cup of water, the potatoes, salt, milk, garlic, onion powder, then enough water to cover about an inch above the potatoes.  Bring to boil.  Simmer 15 minutes.

After cooking, I add the pepper to taste, and one finely sliced scallion.  The scallion will be tender (green parts) and tender-crunchy (white parts).

I use an induction burner set on power lever 5 for the sauté and cooking.  It has a self-limited power boost to get up to temperature.  Once the soup is lightly boiling, I reduce to a simmer, power level 2, for 15 min.

To reheat, it depends on how much soup there is.  Usually power level 3 or 4.

Lycoris In Containers. 31 Mar 24.

 I've never been successful growing Lycoris here.  Last fall I bought sone bulbs and planted in containers.  I stored those in the garage.  About a week ago, I saw they were growing.  I set them outside and started watering them.  Here they are now.

I don't really know what to expect.  I guess, so far, so good.  They might benefit from some fertilizer, maybe mix bone meal into the top inch of the soil.

Tomato Seedling Update. 31 Mar 24.

 Two days ago, when I checked the tomato seedlings in the morning, there was no growth.  In the evening, they had all germinated.  The hybrids were too leggy.  The dwarf open-pollinated ones were fine.

I put them under the LEDs.  I think they will all be fine with sone TLC.

Pepper Seedling Update. 31 Mar 24.

 The peppers are looking pretty good. I wonder if it's too cool to have peppers outside even during the day (mostly 60s F) but I think the sunshine and fresh air are good for them

They've been getting the same Liquid Schulz house plant food as other plants.  I'm considering switching to a higher nitrogen but diluted Miracle Grow to boost them some more.  I usually use 1/4 teaspoon per 2 quart watering can.  My water is rain water, so salts are not an issue.

Eucalyptus Seedling Update. 31 Mar 24.

 I'm impressed that the Eucalyptus seedlings are easier than I expected.

First, the Silver Dollar" Eucalyptus cinerea, which were the second ones I planted.

These are all in their 4" pots now, in regular potting soil.  They are on the "plantmobile ", inside at night and outside during day.  I topped three for bushiness.  I might see if one or two will survive outside and grow into trees, so did not top those.

Second, the lemon bush Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus citriodora (AKA Corymbia citriodora).   These are a mixed situation.

The ones in 4" pots look pretty good.  I topped them a while back, and branches are forming.

The ones in the silicone six-packs don't look so great.

The leaf spots & leaves dying appeared shortly after transplanting them.  I don't know why.  Soil, light, temperature was the same.  Maybe it's because I divided some of those, so they had more root trauma.  Some seem to be growing again, so I'll keep taking care of them as I already am.

Espalier Apple Care And re-Grafting. 31 Mar 24

 I finished regrafting the Redlove Espaliers with replacement varieties that I know I like, and I know perform here.  Mainly Jonagold and Akane, a Japanese heirloom with Jonathan and other ancestry.

I tried matching scion / stock diameters but some were not in good places.  For a couple, I used a side graft.  For that, the scion is cut as a wedge, same as a wedge graft.  Then a slice is made into the cambium of a much larger branch, making sort of an ear.  The scion wedge is inserted and then wrapped as usual for tightness / cambium bond, and protection from dehydration.

Sorry about the bad photo.

I think this has as good a chance to take as any other.  The main things are timing, sap is flowing in under stock to feed callous / cambium growth and fusing, the scion is dormant so some fusing happens before it starts growing, warm weather for good growth but not too warm, and a good clean cut with as much cambium contact, firmly held together.  And protection from dehydration.

Farmers and gardeners have been grafting for thousands of years.  Such as, ancient Rome, ancient China.  It's a doable garden art.

I grafted the Redlove Odyssey with Akane.  I was aggressive at shortening growth, leaving shorter spurs and removing wayward branches.

 

The top tier is "Freedom" apple, which I'm leaving in place.  When (if) the grafts take and start making vigorous growth, I will cut off most of the long arms (or at least vigorous growth on those) of the tiers to foster most growth on the new grafts. 

It's not all loss. The top tier of Redlove Era is the ancient heirloom Blue Pearmain, which looks to bloom and bear for the first time this year.  The top tier of Redlove Odysso is Freedom, ditto.  Plus there are the two espaliers that are not red flesh apples.

Lower half HoneyCrisp, top half Gala (not pictured) and lower half Zestar, top half Rubinette.

I pruned those too, removing wayward growth and shortening spurs - especially if they don't have flower buds.  The Gala will have one more tier, on top.  I bent tall growing branches into position while they are suppple, and added bamboo extensions to the trellis posts.  Next it'll need a horizontal arm.

Mini Rose Update. 31 Mar 24.

 The rose I identified as "Sunmaid Kordana") - yellow mini-rose impresses me.  Here's the first flower bud.

They are all thriving.  This is the first time I've ever been able to grow them beyond the "new" stage. Currently, they are spending all of their days outside in full sun.  Admittedly a fair amount of that is rainy.  Temp ranging 50s to 60s.  Sometimes I bring them in at night.

Of the reds, here is the first ("Bi-Mart Rescue Rose" ).   I tentatively identified it as "Danika Kordana" but I'm not certain.  It seems to be more compact and redder growth.  Same treatment right now.  Also thriving.  It's worked hard and endured quite a lot.  Now it's time to recover and thrive.

Both are getting Schulz liquid house plant fertilizer with most waterings.  It's designed to be dilute so can be used each time, sort of like "fertigation".

The other, redder, red is still in its original soil.  I'm waiting for the blooms to fade, which is starting now.    I went through the patent list on the container.  The only one among those, that is a rich red, is named "Daniela".  It's complicated and there's probably no way to know for certain.  (such as, I also thought the yellow one might be "Aloha".)

These are meant to be sold as commodities.  Like, if you buy a red grocery store potato, it could be Red Pontiac" or " Red Norland" or "Red Something Else".  It's just sold as red.  I think, similar for these roses.

Here is the Kordana website.  It looks like it's intended for vendors, not gardeners.  Not much info, only a few of their many varieties.  It's interesting to read.  

Making Bone Meal. 31 Mar 24.

 I made another batch of bone meal.  It's easy but takes a little effort.  And some bones.

Even though I am vegetarian, I make all of Rufus's dog food.  The main source of meat is chicken thigh or legs, both of which are high-taurine which some dogs require to prevent heart disease.

I slow cook the thighs and legs overnight.  The meat just slips off the bones easily.  This is probably easier than other bones.

Bird bones are light and more fragile than mammal bones.  This would not work for cow or pig or sheep.

The bones need to be thoroughly dry.  During the summer, I dry them in the sun room, which becomes very hot.  Sometimes I use the oven after baking something, and it is cooling off.  The temp doesn't matter.  I don't leave them sit around damp.  They would become moldy or attract creatures.  If it's a while before they can be dried, they can be frozen in a freezer bag. This time, I was also making chicken heart jerky.  I cut the hearts lengthwise, and dry in food dehydrator 145 F for 12-hours.  Rufus likes them and they are 100% meat.  At the same time, I spread the chicken bones on one of the trays and they dried just fine.

Then I pick a nice afternoon to sit on the deck with an audiobook and a granite mortar and pestle to smash and grind the bones into bone meal.

It's difficult to find a good analysis of trace chemical composition specifically of chicken bone, on line.  Also, analyses may be for bone without marrow.  Bone meal in general is an excellent source of calcium and phosphorus.  I saw some suggestions they also contain magnesium in trace amounts.  The brown color is from the marrow, which I imagine contains iron and protein (nitrogen) and some fat.   The N-P-K is about 3-15-0 (Wikipedia) and calcium is about 12%.   

As for use, bone meal needs to be mixed with soil, not on top.  It breaks down over about four months, so now is a good time.   It's best used in acid soil (Pacific NW, west of the Cascades for example).  In Steve Solomon's book about gardening in the NW, he states the rains leach calcium from the soil, so soils here benefit from nitrogen supplement (no reference, just my memory).  

Various sources recommend about a quarter cup of bone meal mixed with the soil when planting rose bushes.  I did that.  Also in garden bed preparation, I add about a cup per bed (40 square feet) or 1/4 cup per 4 foot row then mix in before planting.