Starting Seeds. 4/11/17

 Started seeds today.  This is later than I usually do.  I'm not sure there is an advantage to the really early start, especially for semi-tropicals like tomatoes.  They sit in the cold ground, sulk, and sometimes never have the vigor that later starts have.  This year I was not as enthusiastic in March, so here we are.  A lot of the packets are old.  I don't know about those 10-year old Celebrity tomato seeds.  That was my mom's favorite type.  No loss if they don't grow.

I usually try some reliable well established varieties that I know will do well, and some experiments.  The experiments are tomatoes, San Marzano (Roma type), Beaver Lodge and Glacier (early Northwest types), Longkeeper (one to keep for ripening past the normal potato season), Black Vermisssage, and Atomic. 

I also bought some Tomatillo Amaryllo, which might not be suitable for our cool and fairly short summer, but you never know.

My favorite tomato is Better Boy.  My favorite cherry tomato is SuperSweet 100. 


I had 2 types of collar green seeds, so I'll grow both and see how they do.    The collards from last year survived the winter, and the spring leaves are excellent to add to salads.  No holes from cabbage moths, they are crisp and mild.

Next to find the pepper seeds. 

Baby Chickens

Training Ginkgo Trees as Large Bonsai. 4.9.17

Ginkgo Tree in Chengdu, China.  10/2013

Ginkgo Trees in Chengdu, China.  10/2013

In 2013, we went to China and visited historic places including some palaces and monasteries.  These Ginkgo biloba specimens were trained like bonsai trees, but in-ground and larger.  Probably quite old.

We wanted to reproduce a similar idea in our garden, using ginkgo trees that I grew from seeds.  They are about 10 years old, planted in a mixed shrub and perennial bed.  Today, I began training them as the start of making our own bonsai-type trees.  I selected branches at level of the tree.  I  pruned then long stems from each branch leaving 1-3 buds per spur.  Then I tied the branches to poles - mainly prunings from buddleia and plum - and lowered the pole-tied branches to a horizontal position, tying them to bricks.  Some, I turned to a chosen lateral orientation, as well as lowering them vertically, so they would be somewhat distributed around the trunk.

It turned out, this relatively young ginkgo wood is rather pliable, more so than willow, I think.  It bends a bit like lead.  None of them broke, despite some severe bending at very different angles from what they started with.

Ginkgo Tree Before Training.  4.9.17

First Stage of Training Ginkgo Tree.  4.9.17

I think this was a good time to start, with buds beginning to swell for Spring growth, but no actual growth yet.  The sap is running, which may have made the branches more pliable.  Even branches as thick as my thumb bent readily, although I was careful and bent them slowly.

The plan is to allow growth along each branch, maybe to 3 or 4 nodes, then pinch the apex of each spur so that they branch more tightly. 

I don't expect to make trees as majestic looking as the ones we saw in China.  That might take decades, which I don't expect to have.  But we might have something interesting in a couple of years.

Near the tops of the trees, I did leave young growth to extend longer with plan to bend to horizontal positions next year.  The maximum planned height is about 7 or 8 feet tall.

Fruit Bloom Diary. 4.9.17

White Toka with Pink Hollywood Graft.  4.9.17

 Here is my fruit tree bloom diary as of today. 

Completed Blooming and Petals Fallen.
Crimson Pointe Plum.

Past Peak but Many Blossoms Present.
Sweet Treat hybrid plum (pluerry).
Nadia hybrid plum (Asian plum x cherry).
Hollywood (Asian plum).

Late Peak.
Methley (Asian Plum).
Unknown Asian Plum.

Peak.
Hanska (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
Toka (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
Ember (Hybrid American x Asian Plum).
LaCrescent (Hybrid American x Asian Plum) .
Shiro (Asian Plum)

Rare blossoms open, most not open yet.
Possibly, Green Gage Plum - small green euro plum.

Toka Plum.  4.9.17

Vandalay Cherry.

Hanska Plum.  4.9.17

Hamese Asian Pear.
Hosui Asian Pear.

Most of the pears are not open yet.
None of the apples are open so far.
Most of the sweet cherries are not open yet.
None of the pie cherries are close to opening.
Pawpaws have swelling buds but not close to open flowers yet.

I've read mixed reports on pollination among the American X Asian plum hybrids.  Most state that Hanska and Ember are poor pollinators for the others, while Toka is a good pollinator.  I'm not sure about LaCrescent.  I have not read about the effectiveness of Asian plums with these, such as Shiro which had the same bloom time for me, or Hollywood and Methley, which seem to overlap but not perfectly.

When I originally obtained the American X Asian hybrid plum grafts, one of my goals was to see if they bloomed later than Asian plums, and therefore less risk for damage by late frost.  That hypothesis was correct.  Since this is the first year for massive bloom, I don't know yet if they will actually provide fruit here, or what those fruits will be like.

Sweet Treat and Nadia are new interspecific hybrids, and their pollination requirements are not well known, especially in this area.  With early overlap by Crimson Pointe, mid overlap by Hollywood, Methley, and the unknown Asian Plum, and late overlap by Shiro, the bloom times are covered.  Whether any of those will be genetically compatible pollinators, I hope we learn soon.  I won't know specifically which ones, but I might learn if we have those needs covered.

LaCrescent Plum.  4.9.17

 So far my wild plum hasn't even made buds.  I don't know if it is skipping a year, or if it is just going to be a lot later.  If so, and no fruit, it might be a candidate for removal. 

Sweet Treat Pluerry.  4.9.17

Possibly Green Gage Plum.  4.9.17

Planting Two Grafted Chestnut Saplings. 4.4.17

Grafted Chestnut Saplings.  4.4.17

The two grafted chestnut trees from Raintree arrived yesterday, so I planted them.  The smaller one doesn't look like much.  The larger one is OK although the pruning was kind of harsh.  I guess that is needed for shipping.  The varieties are Maraval and Marigoule, Euro/Japanese hybrids.  They have deer fencing, and I will add the vole barrier tomorrow.

It's always amazing to me that bare root trees can survive, take off and grow.  I hope these do the same.

This completes the various things I wanted to do with the huge area of blackberries that I spent a year clearing.  Now there are 3 chestnut trees planted, and a dawn redwood.  The forest edge has perennials that I salvaged / rescued from the old yard, and the Hawthorn trees have grafts of Chinese Haw, Quince, and Asian pears, for fun/.  The back is planted with a row of Cypress, for privacy, reduce invasion from wild blackberries, and to prevent erosion.