Kitchen Garden. 5.21.17

Tomatoes.  5.21.17

Potatoes and Garlic.  5.21.17

Some life got in the way and I was delayed getting some of the gardening done.  Now, tomatoes are in their beds.  These are the plants I started about one month ago.  They made nice plants.  Also tomatillos and peppers.

The potatoes, onions, and garlic are doing nicely.

I gave up on potato onions, turned the soil over, and planted tomatoes in that bed.  Potato onions do not do well for me, even though I like the idea.

The first batch of sweet corn did not germinate well.  One row sort of germinated, and a couple of plants in a second row.  Might be old seeds or soil not warm enough, or birds ate them.  I planted more today, covered, and if they don't grow, I'll get new seeds.

The first batch of onions that I planted when I thought it was too early and chilly and wet, are way ahead of the later ones.

The peppers are in very-raised raised beds, 4 x 4 feet, made from used cement blocks.  These also have deer fencing.  The tomatoes are in raised beds that are protected from deer.  Animals don't seem to bother the potatoes and garlic, other than a little rabbit munching last fall.  Rabbits munched some of the onions at first, but now are leaving them alone.

Flowers blooming. 5.21.17

Iris but I forgot the name.

Red Peony

Snowball bush.  Gorgeous.  Viburnum "sterile".

One of the irises that survived in my iris bed.  "Gay Parasol".

Weigela.  I think it's "Wine and Roses" but I'm not sure.

Indian Runner Ducklings. 5.21.17

 I think they are about 3 weeks old now.  They grow very quickly.  They have lost their yellow color, and starting to fill in white and fawn color.  The hens ignore them, and vice versa.  One of the roosters asserted himself, but did not attack so I think they are OK.  First time floating, they do like the water.

Apple Blossoms. 5.7.17

I lost track of apple blossoms due to continuous rains.  I think the early ones may not have pollenized as well, due to rain, chill, and fewer pollinating insects.  The later ones might be better.

Completely done blooming:
Gravenstein
Pristine
Airlie (Arlie?) Red Flesh (same as Hidden Rose)
Golden Sentinel
Red Sentinel
North Pole.

At peak or a past peak:
Liberty
Jonagold
Sutton Beauty
Baldwin
JonaRed
Priscilla
Queen Cox

Early to mid peak bloom:
Rubinette
Prairie Fire Crab (purely ornamental, no usable fruit at all)
Chehalis
Goldrush

A couple of grafts have just one or two clusters of flowers, so probably not good to judge, but are blooming now:
Newtown Pippin
Porter
Akane

Of grafts from 2015, there are some blooming this season -
Priscilla
Porter - one or two clusters

Grafts from 2015 that have not bloomed yet-
Granite Beauty

Grafts from 2015 that did not thrive, looked sick, so I removed:
Redfield.

Grafts from 2016 that are blooming - this is fast!
Goldrush
Arlie Red Flesh - nice dark pink flowers.  Rubinette also has dark pink flowers.

Pollinating Pawpaw flowers. 5.7.17

 I've been hand pollinating the pawpaw flowers for two days.  One of the challenges with pawpaws, is they don't self pollinate, bees are not attracted to the flowers, and most if not all require pollen from a genetically different variety.  The flowers first are receptive to pollen with a glistening stigma, then the stigma becomes non-receptive and the anthers bear pollen.  My observation is the flower is open and potentially receptive, one or two days before the pollen is shed.  The flowers do not open on the same day, instead blooming over a couple of weeks.  So if the temperature is not right, or if there is rain, all opportunity is not lost.

My trees for these varieties ("Sunflower" and "NC-1") were planted in 2012.  This is the third year they have bloomed, and this year is clearly the most prolific.  I also planted the variety "Rebecca's Gold" in 2012, it was then eaten off by a rabbit or deer, recovered, and this year is the first year that tree has bloomed.

In addition, I planted the variety "Mango" in 2015.  It bloomed in 2016 but not this year.  I planted the variety "Allegheny" in 2016.  It is not blooming.

Pawpaws do not transplant well, so they are planted when very small, and it takes more years to bear, compared to most fruit trees.

I should add that I have yet to see a ripe pawpaw in my orchard.  Will this year finally be the first?  I have noted that on the first, and sometimes second, year that many fruit tree varieties bloom, they do not set fruit.  Pawpaws are not native to the cooler maritime Pacific NW, and may have more challenges here than hot humid mid continent summers.  However, there are usually some ripe pawpaws at the Home Orchard Society fruit show, so I know that some people get them to grow and bear.

I use a paint brush to collect the anthers and pollen from flowers with ripe pollen, letting them fall into a white cup, then use a paint brush to transfer to flowers of the other tree.  Sunflower started blooming 2 days before NC-1, so this has been one-way so far.  However, Sunflower is also sometimes described as one of the rare self-receptive varieties, so I pollinated those with that tree's own pollen to see what happens.