Backyard Orchard Culture: Progress Report.

Asian pears have set lots of fruits. I forget which variety this is, on the 3-graft asian pear tree.

Here is another variety on the same tree. Coming along nicely. These will need thinning, for larger, earlier fruit.

The Illinois Everbearing mulberry flower clusters. The leaves have some spots. I hope that's not a bad sign, just effects of 2 weeks of chill and rain.

Petite negri fig, lots of brebas.

Family tradition flower: Oriental poppy

This is only a family tradition flower because I remember my grandfather growing them from seeds, so I did as well. However, it's not an actual "heritage" or "heirloom" plant, because I bought the seeds. My father told me that he tried growing opium poppies, Papaver somniferum, without success. This was in a much different era from today, and it was legal to grow opium poppies. For that matter, it might still be legal to grow opium poppies, but I'll stick with the Papaver orientalis.

Last year, I moved these from a less suitable location. I was concerned, due to a reputation for difficult transplantation. They did indeed not prosper last year, but they survived. This year there are many flower buds on this plant, and a few on a second plant. The original location also now has 2 small poppy plants, from root fragments that were broken in the digging up process. Those are accidental root cuttings, or may have grown from seeds that fell from prior flowers. These were grown from seed, which is what makes them "heritage" for me (a family heritage of growing poppies from seed, not that the actual variety is heritage). These poppies grew for several years before blooming, but are now quite prolific and beautiful. These buds are growing fast. I expect full fledged poppies in a month. Even though Papaver orientalis is not a source of opium, it is a source of thebaine, which is used to make oxymorphone - the ingredient in the powerful narcotic, Opana. So far I have not seen people in the yard licking these plants. My suspicion is that, being ornamental varieties, the thebaine is in such a small amount that it would be useless for anyone to try. 'Hey - get out of my yard!"

Kitchen Garden Progress Notes - Container Gardening

The yellow wax bush beans that I planted a 2 weeks ago. There appears to be some slug damage, so I added Worry Free organic slug bait.

Egyptian Walking Onions, multiplier onion, loves this method of growth. I planted these Oct. 29th. We did not eat many scallions this year, so these will go mainly toward eating onions and starts for a larger number for this fall. I don't know why we didn't eat more scallions, I love eating them.

German Garlic from Southern Exposure, also planted Oct 29th. They are also flourishing in the tubs. There should be some great garlic this summer.

Tomatoes I planted in a tub last week. The temp today is 49 - probably too cool, although last week it was in the 70s. The tubs warm up faster, so may be OK. This tub has seedlings from mesclun that should be ready to pull out in a couple of weeks. The sticks are mulberry prunings, an attempt to see if they grow by the "stick it in the ground" method that I use for figs, grapes, and forsythia. And roses.

Backyard Orchard Culture: Progress Notes

Most of the fruit trees are near the end of blossoms. Some of the apples are midway through blooming, and a few blossoms straggle on, on the pears and cherries. Now some of the baby fruits are starting to show, giving me a hint of what to expect this year.

This is Almaden Duke cherry, planted last Spring, so just over a year after planting. Many of the buds took. The tree is about 3 1/2 feet tall. Since I want it to remain dwarfed, I'm going to let the fruits continue. Plus I want to see what they are like. Impressive, really impressive, to get fruit the 2nd year after planting, even if only a hand full or bowl full.

Hollywood plum. A few scattered fruit have taken. I thought it might not have any, due to frost while blooming. These are so good, I'll settle for having just a few.

The peaches that I planted in tubs late this winter. Starting to leaf out. I underplanted one with lettuce and one with cilantro, so as not to waste the soil and space.

Shiro plum. Judging from the number of tiny embryonic plums, I think there will be a bowl full or two. Like the Hollywood, I wondered if I would get any due to frost while blooming. Home-grown Shiro are so good, it's worth the wait and worth the trouble to get even a few.

Surefire Cherry - I'm guessing, about 4 years old now. I planted tart cherries largely because of late blooming, to miss those early frosts. This one is the latest of my many varieties, as far as blooming goes. They should set well, and we should get a pie or two. These have a wonderful flavor, different from the sweet cherries, and when very ripe can be eaten out of hand, sweet and tart at the same time, with red juice.

Fig Progress Notes

Most of the figs have a lot of brebas - little early figs resulting from overwintering buds. They have small tufts of leaves at the ends of branches.

I removed these Desert King saplings from the half-barrel that I had chili pepper plants in last year. I had stuck several King prunings into the growth medium late last winter and gave them no more care during the season than the other plants in the barrel had. Over the winter it looks like about 1/3 of the cuttings died of frost, but several remain. I repotted these two. The one on the left was very long, and I had pushed it in deeply. Most of the roots were at the lowest end of the cutting.

The Desert King fig tree has many many brebas now. I an reluctant to prune until after they ripen, mid to late summer.

Petite negri that I grew from a cutting and basically neglect. It has brebas as well. One of these days I want to find a permanent place in the ground for this tiny tree. It grows slowly - the parent took about 6 years to reach 6 foot tall.

The Sal's fig sapling that I haven't found a place to plant. Even though it was overwintered in an exposed setting, in container, it survived and has some brebas. It's only about a foot tall. It needs a place in the ground as well.