Bearded Irises. Bacterial Rot. New Order. 4.20.14

Iris Bed.  Bacterial Blight Takes a Toll.

The Last Shipment of Historic Iris Rhizomes.

That Package held a lot of rhizomes.

Disappointed.  All 3 beds of bearded iris are affected by bacterial blight.  Every plant.  A few have died, completely.  This follows another week of rain.  The photo doesn't look as bad as they do in reality.

The irises in the front border were not affected.  That must indicate, the TLC these got was detrimental.  I can't think of any other reason

Since every iris was affected, it's no use removing them and trying to isolate the diseased ones.  I'll continue weeding and pulling out dead fans.  Im guessing about 1/4 of the fans have rotted.  Maybe more.  Most of the leaves are at least a little affected.

Interesting timing for the order to arrive from Old House Gardens.  But they did.  I did not want to plant them on top of rotting iris rhizomes, so gave them a temporary place in what I planned to have as a vegetable bed.  After things dry out, if it looks like the disease rhizomes survive and come out of it, I'll plant them together again.

This is the first time this has happened..  It must be the combination of feeding them too well, plus the rainy chilly weather after a burst of growth.

Asian Pear Grafts and Pollination Effect. 4.20.14

Pollinated Asian Pears.  4.20.14

~6wk Mishirasu Graft.  4.20.14

 I am hopeful this will be the year of a bumper crop of Asian pears on the tree I pollinated by hand.  The petals have fallen.  So far the embryonic pears look viable.  If they continue to swell, in a few weeks they may need thinning.   Excellent.

The 6 week Asian pear grafts are flourishing.  I think I'll choose May 1 as the date to remove grafting tape.  Maybe.  Mishirasu and Shinseiki look as good as the stock's own growth.

The stock, Hosui, was planted in summer 2012.   It was on sale at

2013 Graft on Hosui, one year later.

Home Depot.   I noticed last year it was susceptible to fire blight.  The varieties that I grafted onto Hosui appear resistant.  Now that I know how to graft, I can continue to rework the Hosui into a tree with disease resistant varieties.  And leave a couple of Hosui branches so I can sample that variety, as long as it makes a comeback from fireblight.

This is great.  The tree is nearly established.  By reworking it, I can have a self pollinating, multivariety, disease resistant tree that I otherwise would have had to wait 2 or 3 or 4 years to bear.

~6wk Shinseiki Graft.  4.20.14

Lilacs. 4.20.14

Despite a rough winter that killed a lot of the lilac buds, we got some flowers.  I don't think much about lilacs, but when they bloom they are very nice.  The rest of the time, they make a nice calm green shrub, which is nice too.

Seedlings. Progress report. 4.19.14

Okra 4 months indoors from seed

Seedlings under lights.  Peppers, Mirabilis, and Okra

Seedlings under lights.  Okra and Mirabilis

Seedlings under lights.  Okra and Mirabilis

 Indoor seedlings are at a point where I don't have enough room.  Soon most will be outdoors.

The first of the okra plants continues to be a bit anemic, but now has the 2nd flower.  The first fell off.  I speculate it needed pollinating.  This time I used a q-tip as the bee.  This variety is the more compact growing "Baby Bubba".  I think outside it would be much much larger.

The figs are all outside now.  Next, the pepper plants.  Under lights, the current phase is the last of the peppers, the last of the four o'clocks (Mirabilis), and then new okras.  Easier to type, "Mirabilis".  All of the new okras are germinated, still at the cotyledon stage.   These are on the north side of the house.  They get potential east and west sun, if the sun is shining.  Day by day, they'll move closer to full sun.  Today is raining.

When the rest of the tomato seedlings germinate, there will be room for those, too.

The larger pepper seedlings are moved to the south window, or outside on the North side of the house.  That's the ones that are not in the poly low tunnel.

Pepper seedlings in South window.  Also a ginger plant.

The larger Mirabilis are also moving outside during the day.  Those and the peppers are inside for night, and outside for day.  The figs are outside now 24/7.

This is a nice start for this year.  Making up for losing 2013 for being ill. 

I think that ginger needs repotting.  I will look for a container now.

Outdoor plant starts.  Figs, Peppers, Mirabilis.

Asian Pear Grafts. 4.16.14

Cleft Graft Asian Pear, 1 year later

 The cleft grafted asian pears from last year are growing nicely.  The callous tissue is irregular in these grafts,  but that doesn't seem to affect the growth.  The new growth is vigorous and healthy appearing.  It's a vigorous as the growth of the stock variety.

Unfortunately I didn't tag with variety name.  Once they fruit I can figure it out.

All of the new Asian pear grafts have new growth.  Some as swelling green buds.  Some with new leaves and stems.

I've been reading up on when to remove the tape.  Leave on too long and stem is girdled.  Take off too soon and they might come apart.  Looks like I should remove in May, with about 2 months of growth.

Note for next year:  take only scion with no flower buds.  Blooming seems to set back the vegetative growth, significantly.

Cleft Graft Asian Pear, 1 year later

Whip/Tongue Mishirasu,  6 weeks later.