Puttering. Pollenizing. Phenology. 3.23.14

Didn't do much.  Mostly did homework.

Noted one of the bearded irises has a rot disease.  Didn't want to look too close at the others.  Pacific NW rainy chilly weather.

Planted a 2nd batch of Four O'clocks seeds.  The first batch has not germinated yet. I don't know how fast they are.  First batch is at the battleground house.  Coming home tonight, I forgot and left them outside.  I don't know what the chilly nights will do.  The first batch was from a Baker Creek packet.  The batch I planted today was from a Burpee packet.  Soaked for several hours, with a few changes of water.  Soaking softens hard seed coat and for some plants removes natural germination inhibitors from the seed.  Placed the containers on a seed starting heating mat.

Pollinated using paintbrush, plums, peaches, apricots.

Bloom order so far.

1.  Prunus cerasifera "Crimson spire".  About 2 weeks, now dropping petals.
2.  Hybrid plum "Methley".  About 2 weeks, now dropping petals.
3.  Peach "Oregon Curl-Free".  About one week.
4.  Peach "Charlotte".  About one week.
3.  Hybrid plum "Satsuma".  A few days.
4.  Unknown Asian plum variety.  Started yesterday.
5.  Apricot trees, grown from seeds.  Started yesterday.

At the Vancouver place, Shiro and Hollywood plums, genetic dwarf peaches, and peach-plum hybrid Trilite are in full bloom.  Vancouver is a little warmer, maybe a week ahead of Battleground.

Toka plum is on the verge of blooming.  The new peach tree, Q-1-8, is yet to show signs of life.  The peach, Indian Free, may have one or two flowers.  I think the others must have been freeze killed.  There are leaves sprouting so I know it's alive.

The sweet cherry and Duke cherry buds are much bigger, compared to the tart cherry buds.
The gage plum buds are rounding up.  The Stanley plum buds don't look like flower buds, but neither did those of the unknown Asian plum.

These bloom times correspond to what is blooming now:  Jetfire daffodil, Dutch Master daffodil, dandelions' first flowers, Anemone blanda, some unknown narcissus varieties.

Other phenology, the lilac buds are size of mouse paws, like tiny clusters of grapes.  The earliest of the pear flower bud clusters are apparent, but probably a few weeks from opening.  Sourwood buds are barely visible.  Linden buds are swelling.

from this, I'm thinking Crimson spire and Methley can pollinate each other and maybe Satsuma.  The unknown plum and Toka can likely pollinate each other.  There is some overlap between those and Satsuma.  I don't know if plums, peaches, apricots can help one another when it comes to pollenizing - there are some artificial hybrids, but that may be very rare.  Maybe.

Raintree gives Shiro blooming before Hollywood, but in my yard Hollywood was a few days ahead of Shiro.  It does give Methley as the first, also my experience.  They don't mention prunus cerasifera, which is sold as an ornamental.  It's not just the climate.  Rootstock may also be a factor.  They also list Hollywood as self fertile, and Shiro as partially self fertile.

In one old research paper, mixed pollen from diverse prunus species was more effective at producing pollination than that from a pure pollenizer, even if the chromosome number was different.  Here is the table from their paper:

Pollen mixture	Number of hybrids of type:			Total
	Sand cherry x myr. plum	Sand cherry x blackthorn	Sand cherry x dom. plum
Myrobalan plum + blackthorn	71	8	-	79
Myrobalan plum + dom. plum	37	-	1	38
Blackthorn + dom. plum	-	2	0	2
Myrobalan plum + blackthorn + dom. plum	2	63	1	66

Low Tunnel, Raised Bed. Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 3.22.14

Chinese Chives in low tunnel raised bed.  3.22.14

 The low tunnel raised beds have a soil temp today of 60F, while the outside temp was down to 30.  When I open the tunnels, warm moist air exits.

The Chinese chives were renovated by digging them out of a half barrel this winter.  These are quite a bit ahead of the ones without low tunnel.

The turnips were planted mid winter.  These greens are fresh and tender.  The flavor is similar to spinach, but with a mild peppery taste.   I thinned turnips so there would be more room for the remainder.

Turnip Greens 3.22.14

Garlic and Red Portugal Pepper in low tunnel raised  bed.  3.22.14

I ran out of room for all of the indoor peppers.  Even with the new CFL light, which will be needed for tomato seedlings.  Given the warm soil temp in the raised bed, I planted a Red Portugal pepper into the bed.  If it looks OK in a week I can add more  I have extras of Red Portugal so if it doesn't make it, that's OK.

The garlic in this low tunnel is behind the rest of the garlic.  These were dug late from missed harvest that resprouted.  They were not big sturdy garlic cloves.  I thought the tunnel would give them a head start.  Looks like that did not pan out.  They are still OK.

Home Made CFL Plant Light Fixture. 3.22.14

Parts for Home Made Plant Light Fixture

These are the parts for the home made plant light fixture.  There are videos on youtube by several authors.  I don't know which one originated it.  The video I watched was praxxus55712, very well explained.

6X24 round pipe	3.98
1/4 inch diameter, 12 inch long threaded bar price for 2	2.02
23 watt CFL price for 2	8.28
wing nut 1/4" price for 4	1.21
hex nut 1/4" price for 5	0.97
bedroom light fixture	7.98
extension cord 8'	6.97
Sum	31.41

I forgot washers.  I bought those and 2 eye bolts for hanging the fixture.  That's about $2 more.  I could have used a cord I had lying around.  That would reduce the cost by $7.  If I shopped around I might have found a cheaper light fixture too.

Holes drilled in pipe, inside nuts and washers screwed onto threaded rods

So far very easy.  Looking at the original, maybe I should have found longer rods.  These should be OK.

Drilling the holes for the threaded rods and assembling them took about 10 minutes.

The I pondered for a week how to assemble the unit with the bedroom light kit.  The reflector is curved.  The light kit rests on a flat surface.  I finally decided to assemble it as-is.  The center of the reflector flattened to accommodate  the bedroom light kit, which is fine.

I added eye hooks at the end to hang the unit from my plant stand.

THe CFL lights are100-watt equivalent, 23-watt CFL bulbs.  Estimated energy cost per year is $2.77.   Lumens 1,600 per bulb.  These are bright-white.  I don't know if it matters, bright-white vs. daylight.  Anything I use seems to work OK.

One issue I got wrong.  I've been trying to figure out what type of bulb, daylight, bright white, soft white.  I bought bright white.  Searching around artificial light growing sites, I should have bought daylight.  2700k - bright white - is good for flowering - probably why my peppers are flowering.  6,500k - daylight - are better for growing.  From the linked site " for example with tomatoes you would want to use a 6500k bulb until your ready to start the flowering stage of your tomato plants".

I may add aluminum foil to the ends to reflect light back into the unit.

Assembled CFL Grow Light

Assembled CFL Grow Light

CFL Grow Light

Planting a Jonared dwarf apple from Starks. 3.19.14

Starks Packaging

The tree arrived with no damage at all

 This is the last anticipated addition to the little orchard.  I may add scion for variety. This is enough trees to keep me busy for a long time.

The rationale for buying a Jonared was mainly nostalgia.   Jonanared is a sport of Jonathan, so considered genetically almost identical, except for the redder coloration of Jonared apples.  From the website Orangepippin.com, Jonared originated in Peshastin, WA in 1934.  From the same website, Jonathan is a seedling of Esopus Spitzenberg, introduced 1864.  It is diploid, and partially self fertile.

My parents grew a Jonathan or derivative in their yard.  They planted it the year I was born.  The apples are smaller than most grocery apples, crisp, with a fresh sweet tart flavor.  I remember they were considered pie apples, but now I would consider them fresh eating apples.

Flowering is mid season, harvest is late season.  Jonared does not have enhanced disease resistance properties.

The central trunk and roots appear healthy.  Nice root mass.

Planted, watered in, staked, mulched.

The Starks packaging was very good.  The tree did not have any damage in shipment.  It was a nice size tree, with an excellent root mass.  Better than many bare root trees I have planted.

The pruning was different from my others.  Each of the branches was shortened to 4 to 8 inches long.   The pruning cuts were angles such that when planted, they were horizontal.  I cut just slightly shorter, so rain will not stay in the pruning cuts.

This tree went into the same row as the multigrafts and the Karmijn Sonnevelt minidwarf.  The rootstock was not described.  The tree is described as dwarf.

I added a small amount of lime to the soil and mixed it in beforfe planting.  I added a small amount of epson salts - magnesium sulfate - to the water when I watered it in.  I mulched with leaf compost, staked, and caged against deer.

It is raining.  The tree will settle in quickly.  No apples this year.  It looks robust and healthy, so many next year or the year after.

It would be interesting to cross Jonathan with one of the columnar MacIntosh descendents, select columnar seedlings, and see what happens.

Bearded Iris Beds. Progress Report. 3/16/14

Iris bed #1.  

Iris bed #2

Now the irises are growing fast.  Each day they are larger and more sturdy.  I wonder which ones will bloom, and how much.

It might have been a mistake to soak them with neem oil.  The leaves, that were present at the time, look scorched.   On the other hand, there have been frosts since then too.

Otherwise growth is fast.  All survived the winter.  None rotted out.

The additional flowers make the beds more cheerful, before the irises are anywhere near blooming.  The daffodils are Jetfire.  Other varieties lag behind some more.  The first hyacinths, pink ones, are also starting to bloom.