Fruit Tree Shipment. Raintree Nursery. Apples, Jujube, Peach. 1.30.14

 The order from Raintree Nursery came today.  I've ordered from them many times.  As always, very well packaged.  The packing is shredded used paper, so environmentally friendly.  Compostable.  Based on this and other experiences, Raintree is AAA in my book.

The trees are very nice size.  I'm very impressed.  A little taller than the box, so bent over a little.  Not injured, straighten up nicely out of the box.

The miltigraft apple is Rubinette, Queen Cox, and Pristine.  Each branch is labeled.  All are listed as disease resistant.  In this climate, disease resistant is important.

When I get them to Battleground, I'll plant them and addend this post.

The Jujube looks many-times larger than the ones I bough 18 months ago at One Green World.  Those barely grew last year, so are still only about a foot.  This will need a pollenizer, but it's a start.

Now anxious to get out and plant.  Later today.  Good day for planting, overcast, cool, not pouring rain.  Yet.

The peach is Q-1-8.  Again, bought for reported disease resistance.  So frustrating to lose peaches to leaf curl.

Packaged Fruit Trees.

I take photos of the roots and newly planted trees, so there is reference I can look back too.  It helps me remember what I've done.

Q-1-8 is listed as peach-leaf-curl resistant, tested at the Washington State testing station at Mount Vernon "A sweet and flavorful semi-freestone, white fleshed peach. Great for fresh eating. Ripens early August. Showy blossoms. Self fertile".  Most peaches are self fertile.  Not that they would say one is not sweet or flavorful  :-)

Of the Apples, all 3 sound interesting.

Apple Roots

3-way Multigraft Apple

Q-1-8 Peach Roots

Q-1-8 Peach

Progress Report. Fig Cuttings. Origins of Fig Varieties. 1.29.14

Carini fig cuttings showing roots.

 One Dominick fig cutting wilted.  It is in plastic bag.  There is a vulnerable stage for wilting, leaves about 1 inch diameter.  I don't know why that is.  A humidity bag can sometimes serve as a small intensive care unit and bring it back to health.

Two Dominicks are growing fast.  The 4th is slowly making progress.

One Carini cutting has sufficient roots to go into seed-starting medium in a juice can.  The cutting with leaves does not have enough roots so stays in paper towel.

Sicilian White fig cutting showing roots.

The 'rescue' Carini is growing fast.  Surprised me.

One Sicilian White has roots, a small leaf shoot, and an bee-bee sized fig.  I removed the fig.  Draws energy the cutting can't produce without good roots and big leaves.  This one is now in seed-starting medium in a juice can.

The others are barely showing root callous.  The are back into paper towel/plastic bag.  I'm glad I cut off the ragged ends.  I think that debridement stopped mold / prevented further mold growth.  They look clean and healthy.

MacOol might  not make it.  Neither is promising.

Hardy Chicago and Lattarula have root callous.  There seem to be several plateaus.
1 - Incubation before initial root callous forms.
2 - Callous sits there for a while, then roots form.  Then they usually grow quickly.
3 - After planting the rooted cutting into seed starting medium, there is a pause or very slow growth of the first leaves.  They putter along until about one inch diameter.
4 - After the first leaves reach that threshold, they subsequent leaves usually grow quickly.  At that point, the cutting is out of the neonatal care unit and able to do well as a little plant, drawing nutrition from its own leaves and roots.

It's just coincidence there are several in my orchard that originate from Sicily.   Must be a bit of a tribute to the Sicilian immigrants who nurtured them for generations.  If Sicilian White grows, that adds to Hardy Chicago, Sal's, and Carini as originating from Sicilian immigrant families. 

Second largest group, if the survive, is Louisiana figs.  Smith (possibly Croatian), hybrid offspring of Celeste, Champagne and TIger.

French named varieties, White Marseilles (Lattarula), Petite negri (Petite aubique).

American hybrids, Champaigne, TIger, Desert King (King).

Old, hundreds of years old, American varieties, White Marseilles (Grown by Thomas Jefferson, also called Lemon, Lattarula, and other names), Brunswick (also called Magnolia, Dalmation, Kennedy, and other names).

I don't know the origin of Atreano, assuming it survives.

Dominick is Italian.  I don't know if it is Sicilian or from the mainland.

Some of the origin information comes from Ray Given's old website from Georgia, now maintained on the Figs4fun database.  Ethnic (Italian and Greek, mainly), Dark Figs,  Light Figs.

Also from Ira Condit's vast classic monograph,  which while historic contains substantial information about individual varieties - hundreds? -  and which ones have multiple names.

Sauerkraut. 1.29.14

I need to do some fine tuning but so far looking good.

This time they are topped with a water-filled plastic bag, to keep the shredded cabbage under the fluid level.  The lids are loose to allow for gas escape.

Might still be too salty.  Next time cut back by 1/3.

Using a mandolin made for much finer kraut (green).  But the risk of sliced knuckles is very very high.  Try food processor or get a better mandolin.  This one has a handle to hold the vegetable to be sliced, but kraut is too floppy.  It would work better with a tomato. 

Home fermentation must count as a type of gardening.  I am growing beneficial bacteria.

January Gardening. Winter Seed Planting. 1.28.14

Winter Garden Bed

Planted, watered, covered, clipped.

I'm off this week for vacation.  A chance to give in to fatigue and just let it go, sleep like the dead, rest.

I uncovered the one bed that I had ready for winter gardening.  At the far end are small (less than 1 inch tall) onion plants.  Those are from Waking Onion topsets I planted ?1 month ago?.  Some were pulled out of the ground.  I don't know by what.  A couple have been chewed off.

I prepped the soil with a garden rake.  A few minutes effort.  The soil is not fluffy, but not hard either.  Not soggy, really pretty nice.

I planted seed for turnips, radishes, chinese cabbage, mesclun, spinach.  And more perennial onion sets, small.  I found those in the garage.

Spread around a dried blood - hot pepper concoction from Fred Meyer.  That was on sale.  Should deter some pests - rabbits, deer.  It was a small creature that ate the onions, I maybe a vole or slug.  If I remember, tomorrow I'll get mouse traps and spread slug bait.

Lightly covered the seeds and sets.  Watered them in.   The idea of the row cover is to let water in, but restrict air movement.  I don't know if it works.  Might change to polyethylene sheet, and accept that I have to water it myself.

The seeds were old.  1 to 4 years.  Mesclun was 4 years old.  If they don't grow, not a  big loss.  Should either plant or discard them, so I planted them.

The clips are clothes pins from Fred Meyer too.  They were about $1.99 for 25.  Compared to maybe $6 for a few purpose-made row cover clips.  I think they work better.  Wood clothes pins don't work.  They rot and fall apart.

January Gardening. Puttering. Potato Barrel. 1.26.14

Potato Barrel

Garlic in January

A little puttering, then there is a zxqt-load of homework to complete.  This week staycation.  Mostly rest.  So exhausted....

The potato barrel is an evolving concept.  Several years, I've grown potatoes in large containers, filling as the potato plant grows.  Then empty out the container and it is filled with a surprising number of potatoes.  Home grown potatoes are much better than store bought.

Link to potatoes in container March 2010.   May 2011.  No photos of harvest.  Method.  Another take on the method, Mother Earth News.  Also container Gardening for Food.

Last year I started some,  but a late frost killed them.  I was sick, and there was no chance to do it over.

I've been trying to come up with a better idea.  The sides of the barrel get too hot.  Plastic containers, even hotter.  I have a couple dozen /13 circle tree edging rings.  I was using them for irises.  The irises are now in raised beds, so the rings are free.

They stack nicely.  They should disassemble nicely.  They link together.  I don't think they will fall apart until I want  to take them apart.  The stone (concrete?) will heat on warm days, transferring heat into the soil.  Bot not as exposed and temperature sensitive as plastic.  The volume is more than the 1/2 barrels I was using.  They are free.  I think I bought them for $2 a section a few years ago.  Maybe a sale.  If that cheap, they cost less than a purpose-sold potato barrel or 1/2 wine barrel at the big box store.

I will add screening to the bottom to restrict mole tunneling.

The garlic perks up when frost thaws.  Looking great.