Fig Cuttings. 1.17.15

Celeste Fig Cuttings.  1.11.15

Celeste Fig Cutting.  1.11.15

Celeste Fig Cutting.  1.11.15

 This is a progress note on fig cuttings.

I started the Celeste and LSU Gold, about the first of Jan.  The photos for those were taken on about 1.11.15.

The Lattarula I started a few days later.

This is how I like to start fig trees.  It is more involved than necessary.  This approach appeals to me, because I like to observe every little growth along the way.  I think they grow faster this way.  I think I get a head start of a year in growth, overall, by starting them now.  Some fig hobbyists complain about gnats and mold.  I have never had those problems with this method.  On the other hand, I have also stuck many fig sticks into the garden soil, and had them take and grow, with no effort or coddling at all. 

1.  I like to start with fig sticks a little thicker than a pencil, and about that long.  Smaller or thicker will work, but this size seems to have the most vigor.  Thicker cuttings may not have buds for top growth.  Thinner cuttings may not have the stored carbohydrates to nourish root growth prior to leaf growth.

2.  I cut off the top.  They can grow with the apical bud, but my observations lead me to think, the apical bud is a little inhibitory on root initiation.  So I cut the top.  It's my habit to cut the top at an angle, and the bottom flat across.  Most hobbyists do that, so it's easy to tell the top from the bottom.

3.  I like to clean the cuttings  by scrubbing lightly, with a plastic vegetable brush, with some dish detergent, in running water.  That removes most of the likely mold and mildew spores.

4.  I use a sharp knife to make a vertical incision through the bark, into the wood, on the lower end of the cutting.  The incision exposes the cambium layer, which is sort of stem cell tissue for root formation.  I've grown many cuttings without incising them, but I find the roots often form from that tissue, faster than from the sides of the stem.  They also sometimes form from the cambium at the cut base, and lenticels along the sides of the cutting..

5.  I use dip-and-grow rooting hormone, at a 5:1 dilution, for a few seconds.  Again, this is not necessary.  I did not use rooting hormone for my first few years of starting figs.  Many writers state it is not necessary.  But, the cuttings I dip, root faster than the ones I don't dip.

6.  I wrap the cutting in wet paper towel.  The paper towels are almost-dripping wet or barely dripping wet.

7.  Then into plastic bags.  I blow in a little air, and close with a zip tie.

8.  I use a seed starting mat.  Other options for warming are top of refridgerator, or other warm place.  On the other hand, I've left cuttings on a bookshelf and they grew.  Just takes a bit longer.

8.  Every couple of days, I open the bag, inspect the cuttings, rinse under running water.  If any mildew is forming on the paper towel, I discard it and replace with new, wet paper towel. 

LSU Gold Fig Cutting.  1.11.15

9.  When roots begin to grow, about 1/4 inch to 1 inch long, I carefully plant them in a flower pot or plastic container, in wettened seed starting medium.  I put them into plastic bag again, and back onto the seed starting mat.

10.  Once the leaves are bigger than a quarter, I usually take them out of the bags.  By that point, they can usually get by without the humid bag.

For cuttings in the garden, I just stick the fig sticks into the ground, preferably in a somewhat sheltered spot.  I had some that i thought were dead, and used them as row markers for vegetable seeds, and they grew.   The first year plants were very small, but in the second year they took off and grew nicely.

This year, I'm not starting many.  They are mainly for gifts.  I forgot to incise and dip the Lattarula cuttings, so they are growing without that boost.  Lattarula is usually so vigorous, it should do fine with no special effort.

Lattarula Fig Cutting.  1.17.15

Wrapped Fig Cutting.  1.17.15

Fig Cuttings in Bags.  1.17.15

Yamamoto Dendrobium Hybrid. 1.8.15

Yamamoto Dendrobium nobile hybrid.  1.8.15

This was unlabeled when I bought it, years ago.  Probably more than 5 years.  I think the variety is "Fancy Angel, Lycee".  Blooms intermittently, reliably, very nice.  I usually just water, sometimes some MG - Tomato at 1/4 tsp per gallon.

New Vision. 1.6.14

The big pupil should get back to normal in a vew days.  Behind it, not visible, is a new lens.   Now I can see to read, look at photos, graft, pollinate, type, write,look at bees and bugs,  and do a lot of other things that work better with 2 working eyes.  The right one was like looking through wax paper. 

Science and technology can be wonderful, sometimes.

Que in Pharrell Williams, "Happy".

More on Bagging Fruits for Protection. 1.1.15

This is my momentary obsession for gardening.  It will pass.  Something to read and learn during winter.  Meanwhile, some references.

oisat.org describes how to make fruit bags from newspapers.  I can see that working in dry climates, or summer fruit in dry summer areas, such as here.  "works well with melon, bitter gourd, mango, guava, star fruit, and banana" "...prevents insect pests, especially fruit flies, from finding and damaging the fruits. The bag provides physical protection from mechanical injuries (scars and scratches) and prevents female flies' laying activities, latex burns, and fungal spots on the fruits. Although laborious, it is cheaper, safer, easier to do, and gives you a more reliable estimate of your projected harvest."  They use  double layers of the newspapers and sew or stable them to make the bag.

Detailed discussion for various fruits, on Hawaiifruit.net.    They used manufactured bags of various types from Japan.   It's interesting, they note " For hundreds of years throughout most of Asia, farmers have been covering fruit with paper either to protect their appearance or to increase the time the fruit would be on the tree thus making it sweeter." and "This practice first came to Hawaii with the early Japanese immigrants and in the 1920’s Ohau farmers employed school children to wrap figs."  They describe their experiment showing of the first 100 bagged figs, 94 were harvested undamaged.  Six were damaged, thought due to rats.  Of 100 unbagged fruits, 86 were damaged beyond recognition by birds.  Because of the bird damage, insect damage was not possible to assess.  

The Hawaii article discussed multiple varieties of fruit.  The only ones I can grow from their list, are figs.

From rfcarchives.org.au, "In Japan where the average orchard is only two to three acres, bagging is an important cultural operation for fruits such as loquat, persimmon and nashi fruit (Asian pear). ...  bagging is undertaken to reduce the number of pesticide applications and to improve fruit appearance.. provides a major defence against fruit piercing moths ...makes po ssible the production of fruit of a very attractive blemish-free fruit with considerable eye appeal."  Some of the bags in Japan are impregnate with pesticide, something I won't do.  The article goes on to state bag are used for mangos in the Philippines.  Among the types of bags, newsprint was one type that worked well to dramatically reduce insect damage.  Plastic bags did not work well in their work with mangos.  On the same website, one writer used nylon bags made from old curtains, with successful protection of the fruit (1983).   

This article on pears, did not describe insect damage, but rather lack of negative changes in pears due to bagging.  "

Preharvest bagging of pear fruit (Pyrus communis L. ‘Doyenne du Comice') with micro‐perforated polyethylene bags c. 30 days after full bloom did not affect fruit size and weight, density, maturity, and flesh content of N, P, K, Ca, and Mg. Bagged fruit had a greener and lighter skin colour than non‐bagged fruit, whereas the development of blush on the sunny side was not different between treatments"

Apparently, bagging can also be beneficial for persimmons.  

What interests me here is that, in so many years of gardening, I haven't read about bagging fruits.  I'm sure the method will not benefit all fruits, in all climates, but it looks like it's worth testing for apples and a number of other fruits.  It's surprising the method has been around so long, and so widespread, and yet is not part of the general gardening knowledge here.

Edit:  Adding more articles.  In Sicily, in the province of Enna, peaches are bagged in parchment paper bags.    The resultant peaches are called "Pesca Settembrina".   A farmer came up with the bagging method in the 1960s to save peaches from the Mediterranian Fruit Fly.    Also "The pulp firmer and more acidic, due to the slow maturation, make it particularly suitable for the preparation of jams; are excellent in combination with the white meat which give it a special taste."... " The remedy comes a few years later: the parchment paper bag in which the fruits are wrapped 120-150 days before fully ripe peaches protects from pests, from the weather and avoid the excessive use of fertilizers from industrial sources."

Learnings. What went well, what didn't. What I obsessed over. 2014. 12.30.14

Transplant Methley Plum.  Jan 2014

 This is Jan to June.  It turned out to be too much to review the whole year.

Transplanted Methley plum tree in January.  It did fine, but no plums this year.  January is a good time to transplant around here, if the roots are good and the weather is mild.

Lilacs are really easy to propagate by digging up suckers, pruning them off, and replanting.  All survived.  Again, dug them in January.  All of the starts grew moderately and developed good root systems.

Covering the raised beds with plastic increased the temp, allowing for cold season vegetables to grow in February.

Embossable labels work better than any other type of label.

Pepper plants started about Jan were the first to bear.  They do not have to be started that early, but it was nice to get early peppers.

Whip and tongue grafting is easy and awesome.  That was the end of Feb.  All of the pears, and all of the apples, took.  Few or none of the lilacs took.  Lilacs are more challenging to graft.  I still don't have a foolproof method for them.

It was easy to dig up and transplant daffodils and Hyacinthoides right after they  started to grow in March.  All survived and bloomed.  It was a great way to have some instant spring blooming bulbs, not planted the fall before.  Not really instant but seemed that way.  Waiting until the foliage dies is probably better, but there is so much going on then, I forget.

The indoor plant growing light was easy, cheap, and worked very well.  I have it set up again for this winter's seedlings. 

Learnings for the little orchard:  Deer were the most destructive and frustrating challenge.  They ate cherry trees, to the point of almost killing the trees.  I already had the plum trees fenced, so they were OK.  They ate a few peach branches, not a lot.  Similar for persimmons. Something - maybe a rabbit - ate off one pawpaw sapling, so all got caged.  As of now, all cherries are caged, all pears, apples, plums, pawpaws, persimmons.  Two trees died - Satsuma plum and Korean Dogwood.  I think that's because I did not get the roots unwound from the containers.  Another thought, is voles, but on the tree autopsy I did not see eaten roots.  Lesson learned - get those root systems spread out.  I already knew that but did not practice it in those cases.  Hollywood plum was very easy to start from cuttings - all grew.  Shiro plum did not grow at all from cuttings.  With hand cross-pollinating, the Asian pears had heavy yields, really productive, for the first time ever.  By grafting pollinating varieties within each pear tree, I hope the pollinating is easier in the future.  But I really didn't mind doing it.  Enjoyable.  I have almost every tree in a fencing circle to reduce or prevent deer browsing next year.  Lesson learned - install the fencing at the time the trees are planted, even before planting.  Then it is done, and you don't wind up saying "I wish I did that".

Lilac Propagation via Suckers.  Jan 2014

Covered Bed.  Feb 2014

Pepper plants, 2.1.14

Asian Pear - Whip and Tongue Graft.  2.25.14

Apple.  Whip and Tongue Graft.  2.25.14

Bulb transplants.  3.2.14

Plant light project.  3.2.14

 For me, the best way to grow 4:00's / Mirabilis jalapa, was to soak seeds for 24 hours, pre- germinate seeds on moist paper  towel, in zipper sandwich bags, on heating mat, then plant into seedling cups.  They did really well that way.  4:00's were great fun and I will grow them again this year, from seeds saved in 2014.  They do stop blooming in Sept, but that's OK. They also grew faster, bloomed sooner, and stopped blooming sooner, in containers.

The bearded irises were very frustrating.  Big, very frustrating, losses from bacterial rot.  Almost every plant had at least some rot.  A few were completely killed.  May have been due to too much nitrogen the fall/winter before.  Lesson learned.  No nitrogen boost this time around.  Also no ground covers, although weeds are challenging for bearded iris.  We'll see if they do better this time around.

Lilacs did great this year.  It's nice to have several types.   Now I have starts from 5 colors, at the Battleground place.  Bud grafting was about 30% successful on lilacs.  Maybe - we'll see if they grow.

Bud grafting is also awesome.  Some of the early bud grafted plums grew rapidly.  The later ones, healed but I will not know if they grow, until Spring.  All of the plum bud grafts look like they took.  About 75% of the cherries look good.  Not sure about the peaches, and the lilacs may have a few.

The buddleias were a mixed bag.  The "Cobbler" varieties - Peach Cobbler and Blueberry Cobbler - grew huge.  That was OK in that location, they will be a bit of a windbreak.  The flower heads are also huge.  They start blooming from the bottom, and work to the top.  That means, most of the time half of the flower is brown and dead, before the rest is done blooming.  The result is an ugly bush.  The "Miss" varieties  - Miss Molly and Miss Ruby - those have smaller flowers, and less of the half dead/half blooming issue.  They are more compact.  Neither the Cobbler varieties, nor the Miss varieties, attracted honeybees, but they were good for bumblebees.  The Honeycomb variety was newer, I'm not sure about that.  The Blue Mist variety stayed more compact, the flower heads were small and much less of the half-dead aspect, looked very nice and the honeybees liked it.

Peecycling was the big lesson this year.  Excellent source of nitrogen.  Our water bill decreased due to not flushing it down the drain.  Tomatoes were the most productive ever.  Peppers did excellent.  Lindens grew their most lush ever.   Negatives, leaves on some buddleias, and laburnum, were curled.  I used moderately on the Bearded Irises, and that may have been the issue with the bacterial rot.  Possibly too much on those.  I would not use on pear trees - they grow too fast, and lush growth is susceptible to fire blight.  Sourwood also had a touch of fireblight, but recovered and grew nicely. I think this concept is mostly a "guy thing".  We have been saving all of the at-home pee for the garden, and it was very lush in 2014, the best ever.

Plant light project.  3.2.14

Orchard.  4.6.14

4:00 seedling.  4.6.14

The persimmons and pawpaws did respond to the nitrogen boost.  I would not do that for mature trees, but it might be good for getting them larger, faster.

I still have a lot to learn about growing okra in this cool maritime climate.  The container okras did much better than last year's in-ground okra.  The varieties, "Burgundy" and "Baby Bubba" did best.  They are hard to grow in sunroom due to attracting aphids.  It helps to soak seeds over night, and pre-sprout on moist paper towel / zipper sandwich bag / on seed sprouting warming mat.  Contrary to info on many websites, okra is easy to start in containers.  You just have to be careful to slide them out of the container without damaging roots, when transplanting.  More to learn, but so far, so good.

This as a lot of learnings in 6 months.  Most of it went well.  I tend to forget the unsuccessful things.  The uncertainties to carry over to next year, mainly working on other herbivore control fencing, seeing if bearded irises will be free of bacterial rot, getting more okra in containers.   I plan to move more bulbs in March after they start growing, as I did last year.  Good to know that works.  Lilac starts are now in their permanent locations.   Much more grafting this year, based on last year's learnings. 

Historic lilac bed.  There were some good flowers despite a bacterial rot epidemic.

It' nice having multiple varieties of lilacs.  The different colors make for a beautiful bouquet.

This was my first try for camassia.  Very nice!

Pepper bed worked out really nice.  The cover kept them growing before the weather warmed up.  Covering also prevented herbivory.

Potato "wells" were OK, not great.  Not sure if I will do that this year.

Freeze killed figs grew back from the roots.

Okra was OK in containers.  Not lush like southern grown okra, but there was enough for some soups.

Peecycling was a big new lesson.  We got excellent results.

This plum bud graft took and grew rapidly.

Four O'Clocks were a new experiment.   They were great!

Buddleia Miss Ruby was good.  Compact and a nice bloomer.