Thinking about a Sun Room. 1.11.14

Front Of House

Front Of House

This is the West-facing side of the house.  To the right is South, to the left is North.  The squarish window with 4 panes opens from the dining room.  I think that would be a good place for a sun room.  Replace that window with a patio door or french door.  The sunroom could be about 100 to 150 square feet.  Big enough for plants all around, for starting tomatoes and peppers, okra, figs....  flowers...  and overwintering cacti and orchids.    Maybe even overwinter a large chili pepper plant.  There might be room for the Meyer Lemon - currently bearing - and kumquat.  Wow - I just filled up the sunroom, and it's not even designed yet.

I was thinking greenhouse, but sunroom might contribute to solar heating in winter.  Or might not be efficient, but would be more protected than a greenhouse, and I could sit in the sunroom and ponder, putter, and stew.

There's a home remodeling show in portland in 2 weeks.  It would take my mind off the impending scan....

Plant Propagation Day. Lilacs, Nandina, Plums, Quince, Forsythia. 1.11.14

Lilac Sucker

Shovel Placement for Lilac Sucker

 More plant propagation.  I found suckers on 2 more lilac bushes.  So I removed those for propagation.

The method with the shovel, is to stand it vertically close to the parent shrub, between the parent and the sucker.  Make a rapid, firm slice into the soil.  Sometimes it takes more than one try.  That severs the connection, but leaves most of the sucker's roots intact.

I make the same type of slices around the sucker / baby bush, then slice under it.

Much of the root mass is probably from the old bush, and not connected to the baby bush.  That root matrix hold the soil together.  Removing it could damage the roots of the new bush, so I left the soil / root matrix in place.  It would be nice to see how many roots the baby bush has, but not required.  I'm sure there are some.

I also took prunings from Hollywood Plum, Shiro Plum, Pussy Willow - un known variety, Flowering Quince.  After removing side branches, I have a bundle of each to experiment with as hardwood cuttings.

Hardwood Cuttings and Lilac Starts

 It's a cloudy drizzly rainy day, so not much risk of drying out.

Then I wandered around the yard, looking for other starts.  I found two Nandina suckers - Heavenly Bamboo.  Pretty bush, bright red berries.  So I removed those.  Same method as lilac.  The suckers did not have much by way of roots, so I pruned the tops to avoid dehydrating the plants until the roots take.  Haven't done this with Nandina before.

Then planted the sucker / baby shrubs in vegetable raised bed.  They will have a few months to grow more roots, before top grown begins.

I treated the hardwood cuttings in a similar manner to the fig cutting prep - make an incision in the lower end, to expose cambium.  Dip in Dip-and-grow 1:5 dilution for 10 seconds.  Then used trowel to make slice into soil.

Lilac Starts and Nandina Starts

Quince Starts

Inserted the cuttings, firmed soil into place.

I don't know if there is even a remote chance for those plums and the quince to take root.  Nothing lost if they don't.

I also took a few forsythia prunings.  Those were inserted in soil without wounding or dip-and-grow.  Mainly because I didn't have any dip-and-grow remaining.  Should be OK.  Forsythia grows easily.

The pussy willows can just be stuck into the grown about 1 foot deep.  Ning did that last year when I was sick, and about 90% took root and grew.  Deer then ate some.  Others should take off and grow this year.  We'll have a hedge of pussy willow.

Carini Fig Cuttings. 1.11.14

Carini Fig Start

Carini Fig Cuttings, showing supplies

 The top photo is the start I removed from the Carini fig tree after the big freeze.  This was a small underground branch.  I haven't decided if it will grow or not.  Worth trying.  So far it has made no increase in size, appearing to be in suspended inanimation.

I think fresh cuttings are much more likely to succeed.  This time I won't make the same mistake twice.  One will go into garage for the winter.

Method-

1.  Wash the cuttings.
2.  Make incision about 2 cm long, shallow, with sharp knife, near base of cutting.  The incision exposes cambium, which is the "stem cell" layer that callouses and forms baby roots.  Not required, but looking at the effectiveness of root growth at incision, it helps a lot.
3.  Dip in Dip-and-grow at 1:5 dilution for 5 seconds.
4.  Wrap in paper towel, moistened with house-plant-food at 7 drops per gallon - the directions for house plants state 7 drops per quart.  That is for growing plants in soil.  I want just a trace.
5.  Place in plastic bag.  I like to blow in a little air.  Twist and clip.
6.  Now it goes onto seed starting mat, with a plastic container between the cutting bag and the mat.
7. Every 2 or 3 days, I open the bags, inspect, rinse the cuttings in plain water..  If there is a start of mold or mildew, I send the paper towel to compost and replace with a new moist paper towel.

Carini Fig Cuttings, ready to incubate.

8  When roots are about 1/2 to 1 inch long, I pot them up in seed starting medium.

Figs can be grown form cuttings stuck into the garden soil and ignored for a year.  This method gets me results much faster.  I can see the baby roots form, very rewarding.  I can trouble shoot problems, like mold.  There are no insects or gnats.  The head start gives me a year or more of growth, ahead of starting in the garden.

I really like this Carini.  If the outside tree is freeze-killed, one of these will replace it.  If not, one goes into container, and the others to give to people who would  like a really nice  fig start.

Dominick Fig Cuttings. 1.11.14

Opening the Package - Will there be roots?

It's fun starting fig cuttings this time of year.   These are "Dominick's Fig", an Italian family - heritage fig via a generous member of the fig forum.

I could see there were leaves.  It's more important to grow roots at this stage.  If there are leaves and no roots, it's more challenging to keep them alive while awaiting roots.

Dominic Fig Cuttings

Dominick's Roots

Awesome!  Two have lots of roots.  The other two are a little further behind but still looking good.

I cleaned up some of last year's plant-starter juice cans.  Nice size, plant slides out easily for replanting, and theyn are free - recycled - reused.  The height / volume are good for transitioning fig cuttings from the paper towel to seed starting medium.

Gently remove paper towel.  If roots are stuck to paper towel, I just cut the paper towel and leave it on the root to disintegrate in the growth medium.  Doesn't hurt anything.

Then watered in, and return to the plant starting set-up among seedling and other fig cuttings in bags.

Today I also started Carini fig cuttings from another generous fig forum member, and Sicilian White, from another generous fig forum member.

Plant Nursery.

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Ning's Chickens. 1.7.14