Yamamoto Dendrobiums progress report

These are most of the Yamamoto dendrobiums, out for the summer. I've been gradually moving them from the shaded part of the grape arbor to the full sun area. No sun burn to speak of. I've been watering them every couple of days. The weather is mostly overcast and warm but not hot. I've been giving them high nitrogen growth-food in a weak 1/4 strength solution. We still have rain water so I am not worried yet about salts.

This is the one that I identified as "Love Memory Fizz". I was surprised that it provided a few flowers in early summer. As I was taking the photo, I noted the fragrance. I did not recall it being fragrant. It has 3 new canes. They started slightly above the bark level so I added some fresh bark to the top to give the roots a place to grow. With some TLC and sunshine it should make a nice show next winter.

I stuck this cane section from "Yellow Song Canary" in bark medium this winter, just to see if it would grow. At this stage, the answer is "maybe". It will be slow. I like these little experiments.

The other keiki starts, one from "Love Memory Fizz" from July 2010 and the other from "Yellow Song Canary" this spring. Yesterday I potted them up a little into small, squat, clay pots. The heavier pots are less likely to fall over.

Cymbidium progress report.

These are the cymbidiums, out for the summer. I moved them from the shaded grape arbor to the full sun on the front deck. Not much sunburn. They are getting water every couple of days, with weak concentration of orchid growth food. Orchid growth food is high nitrogen, to help with leaf production.

Mulberry

This is the second season for this little "Illinois Everbearing" mulberry tree. I pruned it back this winter to develop low scaffold branches, then one branch developed rust so I removed that one too.

Despite that this is only the 2nd season for this tree, the new little branches have the beginnings of mulberries at each new leaf node. That's very cool. I think it will be easy to maintain this tree at a small "Backyard Orchard Culture" size with judicious pruning. It will be fun to eat some mulberries this year.

This tree has interesting leaves. I like that.

If they are good, mulberries will be a great backyard crop. Mulberries are too tender to transport to grocery stores, so the only way to get them is to grow your own. In that way, they are like figs, which can be transported only if picked so early they taste awful and turn people off from figs, or transported dried or newtonized.

Peaches and peach leaf curl.

Bummer. Leaf curl was a mess this year. As noted earlier, I didn't cover them for the winter. This is the result. Damn. I did try Copper dormant spray. I don't think it did any good at all.


I think the tree will survive. This one set a lot of fruit. Today I pruned to one fruit per little branch. New leaves should start filling in now that weather is warmer. If it kills the tree, I won't mind too much - dig it out and see if there is a more resistant variety.

During the 2 years when I stripped of leaves in November, bunbdled the branches, and covered with plastic bags, leaf curl was minimal, almost none. That is the lesson here.

No photo but the peach-plum hybrid, TriLite was no better. The plum genes did not make it resist leaf curl. It is also a mess.

Prevention of aphids and fig spoilage with Tanglefoot

Two major problems can be prevented if I am diligent now. When the figs start to ripen, ants enter the fruits. The originally sterile fig then develops infection with fungus and bacteria that the ant carries. This is the plant version of an STD. The figs spoil. If they don't spoil, the presence of the ants, inside the figs, adds an interesting sensation to the tongue when I bite into the fig. Crunchy, with a slight tang, not entirely bad. But odd.

Cherry trees develop debilitating cherry aphids in the summer, carried onto the leaves by ants. Without the ants, the aphids don't occur. I read that ants farm, using aphids as their "cows".

Both issues are prevented by a ring of Tanglefoot. Tanglefoot is a very very gooey sticky substance that, once applied, doesn't go away. Ants can't crawl across tanglefoot, and don't even try. It repels them. I place a collar of stretchy plastic on the bark first. I cut plastic baggies into strips, then tie around the tree. This makes a collar to appy tanglefoot. Without the collar, the tanglefoot would remain on the bark, and after a year is a sticky mess but has enough debris attached that ants can crawl over it. Each Spring I remove the old collars. Now is time to replace.

This is all that's needed. Strips of plastic, a disposable spoon, knife or fork, and the Tanglefoot. It's impossible to remove Tanglefoot from a nondisposable tool, so I use plastic.

Up close. This is a fig tree.

At a distance. The collar is not unsightly, it can barely be seen.

Aphids also infest apples, pears, and peaches via ant farming practices. They are next. When I do this ground level work then stand up, it makes me dizzy. I can do a half dozen at a time.

Any weeds or grass that can create "bridges" for the ants are pulled.