Oncidium progress report.

This is an Oncidium "Gower Ramsey" that I started from a backbulb in 2009. Neither it nor its parent has bloomed since then. Bummer. Plus, I gave away one of the other starts, and the 3rd I accidentally left outside and it froze. The parent is in the sun and got some sunburn, but is growing new sections. I repotted this start yesterday into a larger squat clay pot. I have moved it now to a south window. I think I will just give it bloom food now, low nitrogen.

This is an oncidium-type that I bought as a throw-away last year. After it bloomed, I potted it into a small clay pot and took it to work, where it was in a bright window. I gave it house-plant food as a weak solution roughly weekly. Then I brought it home this Spring, and moved it into a south bathroom window. It bloomed. I was surprised. It's cool! Strange, I thought this was a brown flower... Still, it's cool! Now it's starting a new growth, which is a little wrinkled due to missing some watering, but I think it will be OK.

Oncidium "Twinkle". I didn't think I would buy one of these, but I did. It's been blooming for about 4 months. This flower spike started after the earlier one finished. I potted it into what's become my usual small squat clay pot. It's in a south bathroom window. It's growing a number of new growths so I'm giving it growth food.

I tentatively identified this one as "Stefan Isler". It's been blooming for months. The first 2 spikes are gone, and these are starting to drop flowers. This Oncidium hybrid has been amazing. Really a start performer.

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.