Pollinating Pawpaw Flowers. 5.1.19

Pawpaw Flowers.  5.1.19

Sunflower Pawpaw Tree in Bloom.  5.1.19

 Of my pawpaw trees, only NC-1 and Sunflower look ready to bear a crop of fruit this year, which they also did last year.  They are in early bloom, which stretches out for a week or two.

This time I noticed, the flowers don't open all the way when they are receptive to pollen.  It's difficult to get a pollen loaded paint brush into them.  When the pollen ripens, and the stigma is no longer receptive, then they are easier to access.

I will get a smaller paint brush for flowers today.

These trees are small enough that I have to get onto my knees to pollinate the lower flowers.  Maybe my neighbors, driving past, think "he's praying to those trees!". 

NC-1 Pawpaw Tree in Bloom.  5.1.19

Yellow Jacket Traps in Fig Trees. 5.1.19

Yellow Jacket Trap.  5.1.19

 Up until now, there was only one, male, yellow jacket in the traps that I set up a month or more ago in the fig trees.  Today I noticed several, and at least two of those are queens.

Last year I lost the entire fig crop to yellow jackets.  That was the first time that ever happened.  It was disappointing, so this year I'm being as pro-active as I can be.  Plus, yellow jackets are aggressive and vicious, and I worry about someone with an allergy being stung.

So far, so good.  I refreshed the traps with new bait.  It's cheaper to just buy the bait, when you already have the traps.

Since each queen is a potential colony with hundreds, maybe thousands, of yellow jackets, by catching them now, the numbers should be greatly reduced later.  I'm not looking to eliminate every yellow jacket, just to have a decent fig crop and avoid stings for myself, other people, and my dog.

Interestingly, there were queens appearing from time to time in the house through out the winter.  I don't know where they were living, or how they entered the house.  In the firewood?  Around electrical fixtures or plumbing?  I never discovered the source.  They seem to be gone now.  I also dispatched the ones that I found in the house, using a fly swatter, at the time that I found them.  I had a trap in the sunroom, but none ever got into the trap.

Yellow Jacket Trap.  51.19

Cowlitz Peach Progress Report and Comparison. 5.1.19

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.19

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.19

 Here is where things are so far this year on my peach and peach leaf curl (PLC) journey.

"Cowlitz Peach" (my designation for a seedling from Oregon Curl Free) has two or three spots of leaf curl.  Nothing significant.  Given the time of year, I doubt it will extend beyond that.

The tree has roughly 2 dozen peaches.  I stopped counting there.  They are widely spaced and minimal or no thinning will be needed.

This tree is in the chicken yard.  It is not adjacent to other peach trees that have extensive leaf curl.  On the other hand, those peaches with extensive leaf curl were planted no where near any peach trees so it must be spores borne on the air.

Over the past 2 decades, I think I've spent at least $200 on peach trees, and had few peaches to show for it.  Most had extensive PLC and eventually died of the disease.

Baby Cowlitz Peaches.  5.1.10

Cowlitz Peach Tree.  5.1.19

 Currently, in my orchard are Charlotte (7 years old), Salish Summer (It was "Q-1-8" when I bought it), Frost, and Kreibich Nectarine.  All are sold in the catalogs as PLC Resistant or PLC tolerant.  Of these, Charlotte has been tolerant of PLC but has never done much.  It usually gets a dose of PLC, blooms, looks ratty, then recovers and has a few small peaches.  This year looks about the same so far.  PLC much worse than "Cowlitz" peach.  Salish Summer had a little leaf curl last year and had some dieback.  I'm not sure if it's just making a late start this year, or if it's declining.  Frost and Kreibich were planted in Spring 2018.  They are still getting established.  Kreibich had PLC almost right out of the box.  Frost had less, but still notable.  We'll see how it does.

At the moment, Cowlitz looks pretty good.  Garden experiments can lead a lot of directions, and are not scientific, so who knows?  But  even if I get one crop of peaches this year, and they are small but decent flavor, I'll be very, very happy. 

Charlotte "PLC Resistant" Peach showing PLC.  5.1.19

Charlotte Peach Tree.  5.1.19

Frost PLC Resistant Peach.  5.1.19

Kreibich PLC Resistant Nectarine.  5.1.19

Salish Summer PLC Resistant Peach.  5.1.19

Iris germanica. First iris this Spring. 4.29.19

Iris germanica.  4.29.19

This is the first of the irises to bloom this year.  Most skipped a couple of years because I gave up on them. Then I developed new enthusiasm and have been giving them more attention.

Most of the labels were lost when I moved the clumps from raised beds to the edge of the woodlot. I am pretty sire this is Iris germanica.  The only other blue to purple irises that I have in this size range, historic irises, are Eleanor Roosevelt (more purple and more uniformly colored) and Monsignor (the falls are very dark center with more pale edges, usually with distinctive veins in the falls).   Caprice is more of a pinkish lavender and has distinctive grape fragrance.  These have a more typical, although faint, iris fragrance.

This is among the healthiest clumps growing at the edge of the woodlot.

I will relabel them.  If I new evidence suggests a different ID, I can change it.

Meanwhile, this is a very nice part of Spring.

Sweet Potato Starts. 4.28.19

Sweet Potato Starts, Molojai Purple.  4.28.19

Sweet Potato Starts, Pumpkin Yam.  4.28.19

The sweet potato starts recovered nicely from being shipped.  The plan will be to set them outside when it's reliably warmer, probably in large containers.  The labeling might be reversed on these two varieties.  Someone got into them and chewed up the labels.