Peach Leaf Curl Prevention. Mid Nov, 2023.

 Delayed posting.  This is the genetic dwarf peaches - more peach bush than peach tree.  The crops are very rewarding, and the peaches are delicious.  They get peach leaf curl very badly, unless protected from rain.

I left the protective cage in place all year, just removing the plastic cover in late Spring.  This time, instead of tying the plastic down at the corners, I used duct tape to reinforce the sides of the sheet, with a loop of string every foot or so.

Without rain on the nodes, there is no leaf curl disease.  I'll prune off the exposed branches in Spring, and shorten the branches once I can observe the flower buds.

Shelling Green Bean Pods For Seeds. 6 Dec 2023.

 Last month  I salvaged the last of the green bean pods to save seeds.  The pods were mildewed.  I let them dry out in a paper bag.  The timing doesn't seem important as long as they are crispy dry.   Now I shelled them, got a couple hundred seeds.

I think they'll grow just fine.  

It doesn't take a lot of plants, to get a lot of bean seeds.  Just let a few go to full ripening.  With around 5 beans per pod, it only takes 20 pods to get 100 seeds.  Maybe four or five plants.  My experience is, they germinate faster than purchased seeds.  That may relate to age and storage conditions, or maturity of the seeds when collected.

I stored these in a paper envelope in the pantry.

Based on my labeling, the variety is contender.

The plan will be to plant these earlier than I usually do, both for an earlier crop and for earlier seed saving that won't result in mildewed pods due to fall rains.

Overwintering Geraniums. 6 Dec 2023.

 It's so easy to overwinter geraniums, I'm surprised more people don't do that.  Especially if grown in containers, all that's needed is to let them dry out and move into a cool, lighted place.  

I meant to let these dry out in the sunroom, but they continued blooming.  They give some needed cheer, and not much care is needed, so I let them continue.

I can just move them outside again in Spring.  They'll be much bigger than buying a new plant, and with a lot more flowers.

I do have a couple of geraniums in the garage, that I let dry out.

The sunroom now.

Schlumbergera Update. Seeds. 6 Dec 2023.

 The Schlumberas have been winding down, but still nice.

The first to bloom has a developing fruit.  I've been pollinating a few flowers for fun.  The fruits take a long time to ripen.  I'll just leave them alone as the plants over-Summer.

I also collected seeds from one that fruited TWO years ago.  The fruit was a bit wrinkly but still moist and soft.  I washed the seeds into a teacup.

Most of the seeds sank in the water, which I guess is a good sign.  I rinsed a second time, carefully pouring off the water, then planted the minuscule seeds on the surface of moist seed starting medium, gently pressing them onto the medium.

From what I read, they might germinate in a few weeks. I'm keeping them covered but in the light.

I saw this one at Winco and bought it.  The color was more purple under the store lights.

Reblooming a Poinsettia. 6 Dec 2023.

 In a reversal of overwintering flowers, I over-summered this poinsettia.  Basically, I treated it like any other container plant during the summer, watering and some fertilizer.  In the fall, I moved it into the sunroom.  I avoided letting it get any artificial light, just what the sun provided.  It rebloomed nicely, nice and red.

This is my first try at reblooming a Poinsettia.  Here are my observations.

1.  The original soil might be fine for greenhouse growth and transport, but has really lousy water retention and once dry, can't be re-wetted easily.  Once I repotted the plant into a "normal" potting soil, removing most of the old peat.   It did much better and was much easier to keep watered after repotting.

2.  The stems are quite brittle and break easily.  They need support or protection.

3.  The flower was smaller than for the purchased plant.  I still like it anyway, very pretty.

We'll see if I can keep it another year.  I'd like to prune it back a bit to make it bushier.

Meanwhile, I bought a new one at Winco.

We'll see how that over-summers too.  It's kind of fun doing that.