Bearded Irises Growing Nicely. 3.25.15

"Blatant" Bearded Irises, first growth.  3.29.19

Unlabeled Bearded Irises in Border.  3.24.19

 The bearded irises are growing very nicely.   Looking back through photos, they did better in the past than I gave them credit  for, but when I was ill I could not care for them, so they became almost too weed-filled to clean up.  Also in previous years I may have given them too much nitrogen, leading to soft rot and other diseases.

I'm cautiously optimistic, for that problem not a problem, or being much of one, this time.  I have not used fertilizers with much nitrogen - some minimal osmokote or similar labeled 5:10:10.  And during the winter, a light coating of the surrounding soil with wood ashes.  The bearded irises in the border along the woods did not get ashes or any other fertilizer.  That will gice some comparison.

Of the new ones, "Blatant" was planted last, late fall / early winter. I did not give it much of a chance, and doubt very much it will bloom this spring.  Still, nice to see both rhizomes survived and they hive nice thick looking leaves starting to grow.

Unlabeled Bearded Irises in Border.  3.24.19

"Blatant" is classified as a reblooner, meaning some will bloom i  summer or fall.  They are reportedly much more vigorous than once-yearly bloomers.  So I can anticipate good growth this year.  Other rebloomers I bought, "My Friend Jonathan" and "His Royal Highness" are very vigorous in my garden, while "I'm Back" and "Again and Again" are showing good vigor.  Those were planted a bit later than the others.

Anyway so fare I'm happy with almost all of them and their growth so far.  I'm optimistic that a lot of the new ones, and maybe most of the better looking plants of the "rescues" will bloom in May.

Main Bearded  Iris Bed.  3.24.15

Asian Plums are Blooming. 3.24.15

Crimson Sentry Plum.  3.24.19

Flavor Supreme Pluot.  3.24.19

Hollywood Plum (cutting grown).  3.24.29

Most of the Asian Plums are in almost full bloom. Pictured ate:

Crimson Sentry.  I need to check pn the name. Ornamental and fastigiate.  I like the flavor of the plums although there isn't much flesh and they are small.  It is usually first to bloom.  I like it as a potential pollinizer for early blooming plums.

Multigraft.  Branch in bloom is Hollywood..  3.24.19

Nadia Cherry Plum Hybrid.  3.24.19

Flavor Supreme (or Flavor King?).  Second year, blooming now.

Hollywood.  Full bloom.  A few years from growing from a cutting.

Methley and Shiro not open yet, not pictured.  Starting to bloom.

Seedling, grafted onto Hanska, was first.  I've been cutting blooming branches from Cromson Sentry and Hollywood and placing them among the branches for pollination.  This tree just got new grafts of Black Ice and Beauty plums.

 None of the Euro plums are blooming yet.

This Year's Orchard Additions & Changes. 3.19.19

During the winter, I ordered some new fruit trees, scion, and rootstocks.  Some varieties were lost in 2018 as well.  Plus I like to experiment.  Despite saying I want and need to slow down and have less to take care of, which is true, I still find it hard not to try new things.  These changes are already in place, with plantings spread out over the past 3 months and grafting spread out over e past 3 weeks.

 New trees.

Persimmons - Coffeecake (Nishimura Wase) and Chocolate (Maru).  These are planted at te opposite end of the property from my other persimmons  to redice pollination of those (Saijo, Nikita's Gift, Yates).

Shan  Xha (Chinese Haw, Da Mian  Qui)  Red Sun

Jujubes - Li and Winter Delight.

Apples - Redlove (TM) Era (R) Redflesh Apple, Columnar "Urban" Apples Tasty Red and Golden Treat.

Figs - I planted Lampeira Preta from my friend Ram. This tree is fenced and in my main fig row, should do great there.

Grafts onto Existing Trees

Plums - Beauty, Black Ice

Kiwi - Hayward Fuzzy (to pollinate female Kiwi)

Quince - I made a multigraft from the resurgent growth of my young quince tree that I ran over with a lawn mower by accident, in 2017, I think.  Smyrna, Aromatnaya, Crimea, Limon.

Apples - I added grafts of Prima, Honeycrisp, Bill's Redflesh, William's Pride.

Pear - Rajah Asian Pear.  This will replace the last major branch of Maxie Pear, which was hard and not flavorful.  There are still some spurs and small branches remaining in case it is better thisyear.

I grafted some scion from my Northpole onto purchased Bud-9.  Some of these might be container trees.

The new apple trees went into a protected bed, so other than more watering the first year, no extra care or protection needed.  The Jujubes went into one deer cage alreadynset up and mulched.  The persimmons got temporary small cages but I need to make larger cages.  Those come from fencing I just removed from another garden.  The new grafts won't need care beyond normal puttering, removing binding when appropriate, and pruning / tying that I do for the trees anyway.  The auince may need a larger cage, but wasn't much harassed by herbivores this year despite being taller than its existing short cage.

So despite a long list of changes now, during the off season, I dont think much extra care will be needed during the main grow seasons.

Trees that died - Sweet Treat Pluerry, American Plum grown from seed.  I think both died due to canker.

More Grafting. Making Small Dwarf Columnar Apple Trees. 3.18.19

I decided to try grafting Northpole apple onto a more dwarfing rootstock. I like this apple for fresh eating, pies, and apple sauce. However, my tree is too vigorous.  I don't know what rootstock it is on, but I'm guessing it isnt very dwarfing.

I supect that the tables describing how dwarfing a rootstock is, are not quite appropriate for columnar trees.  I think the dwarfing effect may reduce total scion biomass, which would mean smaller conventional varieties compared to columnar types, which are sort of 1 or 2-dimensional, almost, compared to conventional variety's 3-dimensional shape.  I decided to try Bud-9 which is among the more dwarfing types.

My existing Northpole needed some corrective pruning, I removed all of the vigorous shoots, leaving flowering spurs in place.  That was fairly drastic.  We'll see if the tree blooms and produces this year.

Meanwhile, I selected shoot tips to graft onto Bud-9 rootstock, which I boight mail order from Burnt Ridge nursery.  I used whip-and-tongue grafting method, with 1/2 inch strips cut from freezer bags as the binder, then parafilm to wrap the rest of the graft to reduce the risk of dehydration.  I planted these in potting soil in 1/2 gallon nursery pots and watered well.

Planting More Potatoes. 3.12.19

 I planted another row of potatoes.  I may not be allowing them to grow long enough stems while chitting, but I think they will be OK.  The other uncertainty is with timing.  I need to check the ground temperature.  However, this is actually later than last year so, again, I think it is OK.

This time I planted some Red Norland.  Good for potato salad , new potatoes, and potato soup. 

I also added some organic 5-10-10 to the bottom of the trench, and hoed it into the underlying soil using a narrow garden rake / hoe.  I have not fertilized potatoes in the past.  I did so this time, after reading that yield and size might be improved.

Last year, this bed contained zinnias and cosmos.  The previous year, it was sweetcorn and onions.  Before that, it was a large, impenetrable blackberry bramble of uncertain age.  So no potatoes have grown in this bed before, which is a good thing.

I like the trenches better than planting more shallowly and hilling up.  I think the hills dry out more quickly, and I don't want to water more than I need to.