Carnivorous Plant Update. 6.12.2021

These aare the hardy, perennial carnivores, pitcher plants and a Venus flytrap. They live in 50:50 mix of perlite and peat moss, with the pots in about an inch of water all of the time. I change the water daily or every other day to eliminate mosquitoes. This has worked nicely for several years, and grown out of two sets of repotting. So Imrepotted them yesterday. This is the most the pitcher plants (Sarracenia) have bloomed. Very lovely and unique flowers.

The plant in the top photo was a seedling that germinated in a container of Nepenthes.   I potted it up on its own, now three years old.  The others are all commercial hybrids (Sarracenia NW).  
 

Raspberry Update. 6.12.2021

Today I tied holographic flash tape to the raspberry plants and their fencing. The idea is to confuse birds that might want raspberries. This worked very well last year for the cherries and blue berriees. Some of the tapes are recovered from last year. Those are very flimsy, and were easy to use twist ties to fasten on. The new roll is stiffer. I cut approx 9 inch to 1 foot lengths. punched a hole in one end using a paper punch, and tied on with strips of cloth cut from an old t shirt. The flash tape flaps and twists in the wind. The holographic reflectors catch and concentrate light, which is brilliant. I imagine for the birds it's like shining lasers and disorienting so, so far, they avoid it.

Sweetcorn Update. 6.12.2021

There was a lot of rain for the past couple of days. Before that I set up a lawn sprinkler to water the sweetcorn seedlings. I set out shallow plastric trays to measure, for an inch of artificial rain per watering, or just measure real rain. Today I fertilized and cultivated. The fertilizer was lawn nitrogen fertilizer, a couple of tablespoons per row. It's not organic but I have to compromise right now. This soil does not need mineral mix or organic matter in most organic feeds. Fish emulsion or Milorganite would work as well, but I don't want to buy anything right now. I fertilized the plantings that are a bit over a month old, not the just-germinated rows. 

Back bed (larger plants) is Trinity, planted in early May.  Front is the variety that I planted a week or so ago.

Back section is Early Sunglow, I forget the fron one - Delectable?  Planted late May.

Repotting Pawpaw Seedlings. 6.8.2021

These are seedlings from the only pawpaw crop I've had so far, which was 2018. I stratified them and planted into containers of potting soil, resulting in small trees 2019. Tiny trees, about 4 inches. They need shade and deer protection, and were easily forgotten and deer ate the tops last year anyway. I decided to forget about it and compost them, but just left them there alone. No watering, no TLC, no nothing. Well, they grew again this Spring. So today I repotted into good potting soil and more root room. There was minimal root trauma so I decided not to worry about that and gave them some fertilizer. I moved them to my shrub and tree mininursery where they will get more attention this year. We will see what happens :-) These are all hybrids of Nc-1 as fruit parent, "Sunflower" as pollen parent.

Sometimes I try something just to see what happens. This is one of those cases. However, since Nc-1 and Sunflower both fruited that year. I thought their offspring might have a chance too.

Orchids Cleaned Up, Keikis Planted, and All In Their Summer Home. 6.8.2021

In addition to the very large cymbidium that I just posted about, I divided, cleaned up, and repotted a smaller cymbidium that also overcrowded its container. These went into commercial orchid bark. I also pruned the dendrobium orchids. They had some keikis which I cut off and potted as if they were established plants. They dont require much fussing over. I cut off most of the old leafless canes. I repotted one, and another got pruned but not repotted. I gave them all a good soaking and then a 1/4 strength dose of Miracle Gro for Tomatoes. That is lower nitrogen and higher potassium than regular Miracle Gro, which I guess will help root growth without overdoing top growth too much. Now they are in the orchid summer home, same as the Cymbidiums. Lots of sun and they are next to the water source. If past experience is any indication, they should grow vigorously and be ready to bloom mid winter, when most wanted.

I hope deer dont eat them. I've had them here before with no dining issues.