Planting Caladium Tubers. 3 Apr 24.

 On a whim, I bought some caladium tubers.  They might be too tropical to grow nicely here.  I enjoy a challenge. 

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I decided to pre-plant in four inch pots.  If / when they grow, I can up-pot them.

Reading about them, I think they will benefit from being started on a warming mat.

Pruning Genetic Dwarf Peach Tree / Bushes. 2 April 24.

 Some years ago, I built a removable shelter for the genetic dwarf peach trees, to prevent Peach Leaf Curl disease.  If rain can be prevented from washing fungal spores into the buds from Nov through May, there is basically no leaf curl.  If not protected, the leaf curl can severely damage or destroy the crop, and destroy the tree.

Some varieties are tolerant to or resist the disease, but most do not.

Genetic dwarf peaches can be protected and it works wonderfully.   Regular peach trees grow too big to protect.  There are sprays, but why do I want to spray poisons on my peaches?

The larger of my two, Garden Gold, is beginning to outgrow its shelter.  Also, last year it made too many peaches, which was too much to manage and broke some branches.  So I pruned it today,

This is the Garden Gold peach tree after pruning today.

Now the branches are all at least a foot from the plastic shelter top and sides.

The much smaller one is El Dorado peach.  I don't know why it's smaller.  I think I need to built the shelter a bit taller this year.  It bloomed earlier and is done blooming.  I can tell yet if it set fruit.  Today,  mostly I cut off dead branches, which were a lot.  I also opened up the center a bit.

Last fall, I used HVAC tape to hold hold-down strings for the plastic cover.  They worked until they didn't.  I think most of the branches were rain-protected well enough.  Here are some that were sticking out and exposed to rain.

I cut those off.    It will be a while before I know for certain about the rest of the tree.

I call these "tree" because peach trees are trees.  Size-wise, they are smaller than a Forsythia or Lilac bush, and a lot of rose bushes.  So which is it?

Pruning Asian Pear Trees For Access and Deer Avoidance.2 April 24.

With the Asian Pears in full bloom, I can see which branches are bearing and which are purely new vegetative growth that needs shortening.   The last two years have been major reshaping for these trees.  Here is the after photo, taken today.

The tree on the right came with the place, unknown variety.   I planted the one on the left in about 2012.   Both have multiple varieties of grafts.  Oddly, my best European pears cone from a branch that I grafted to this Asian pear tree.

Before photos.

Deer voraciously eat pear leaves, ruining the crop for those branches.  It's not enough to prune so that branches, now, are above favored browsing height - about six or seven feet.  As new growth, and especially fruit, form, and willowy branches droop to favored dear height.  Then they rip and pull and tear off those branches.  In addition, branches with heavy fruit set sometimes break under the weight of the fruit.

I can't use a ladder, so I need for fruit bearing branches to be within reach.  I shorten the branches so they don't droop too far. Also, for thinning fruit, about 75% or more need to be removed for earlier, sweeter, bigger, more disease free fruits.  If I can't reach them, I can't thin them.

I also cut out anything that is becoming tall and out of reach, remove crossing branches, and clear out some of the inside branches for an open center.

My guess is that today I removed about 50% or more of the blooming branches and about 90% of the nonbearing vegetative shoots from last year's growth. 

If every cluster that remains, produces one fruit, about four inches apart, it will mean more than we can eat, can, and give away.

Fig Tree Pruning. 2 Apr 24.

 This is my main row of fig trees, and my oldest ones (except two*) here in Battle Ground.    Last year, I removed two that had never been productive and were in the way of mowing and blackberry removal.   I waited until now to prune, because figs seem more susceptible to severe freezing if pruned in the Fall (my observation and not always). 

Here's the row of trees, viewed from East to West.  This is after pruning.

My pruning strategy is:

Remove anything dead of course.

If branches are touching one another, choose one to remove.  The wind makes them rub and destroys bark.

Try to open up the center for air and light.

If branches are in the way of mowing and blackberry removal, remove them.

For the most part, I want bearing branch ends to be about six to ten feet off the ground.  If a branch is really tall, either remove it or cut off at about five or six feet tall, so it will make new branches at a better height.

The distinction between breba (early summer bearing on overwintered last year's growth)  main crop (fall bearing, on this year's new growth) doesn't always work for me.   I understand it is dependent on the variety, but I think climate and growth conditions can affect which crops happen for some varieties.  I decided it's more important to keep my trees manageable, and I always get a lot of figs.   I cut about half of the branch ends back to five or six feet tall or so, and leave half as they are.  If at a good height, I might shorten taller branches to about six feet.  I like to leave some last year's growth when I can, just shorten to a few buds.

That said, Hardy Chicago is always a Main Crop fig for me, but the earliest of my trees.  Lattarula does both pretty prolifically.  As climate changes, the tree behavior may change too.

This is a Hardy Chicago that I bought at a big box store, two years ago.  I haven't been able to keep it well weeded all year,  It's growing.  It was only a few inches tall.  I will do a wide cardboard / tree chip mulch this year for this young tree.

I have a Hardy Chicago fig tree, but in a non-ideal location (fir tree and  Leyland Cypress shade and probably root competition).  Also, I was curious about whether a store tree, which I'm guessing was grown via tissue culture, will be hardier or more prolific, or not, compared to my older cutting- grown tree.  Tissue culture is promoted as removing harmful fig mosaic viruses, so imparting more vigor.  But sometimes, it seems to cause some genetic changes.

LSU Tiger fig.  About 13 years old.  It has had good years and less good.  It's a good fig from Louisiana.

Lattarula (also called White Marseilles and other names).  I't grew from a cutting from the tree I had in Vancouver.  Very productive, very reliable, very vigorous, good size juicy sweet figs.  It makes breba and main crop, reliably, for me.

Petite negri.  I bought from a catalog in 2001.  It was sold as a dwarf tree.  Over the years, it has been re-identified as other names, including Petite aubique and others.   In 2017 , I dug up the tree and moved it from Vancouver to Battle Ground .  It's really a wonderful tasting fig, rich and flavorful,  Also hardly ever produces any.  It's interesting, after moving it the tree produced new growth from underground, and the top gradually died off.  Not vigorous, probably 1/3 the size of an unpruned Latarrula.

Carini Fig.  This was via a cutting exchange about 12 years ago.  The sender described it as a variety he obtained from a family member who brought it from Sicily, a place called Carini if I remember correctly.  It's a good fig and nothing seems to bother the tree.   Last year it wasn't that productive but I was not able to keep up with things at the time si maybe I missed it.  They are a good size fig with a red tinge.

White Sicilian.  This was included with other cuttings as a gift.  I wasn't sure I wanted it, but I grew it.  It turned out to be precocious, makes a fair number of figs for such a small tree, and they are sweet tasty figs.

Here's that Petite negri fig tree when I moved it in Nov 2017.  It  doesn't seem much bigger now than it was then.  More sprawly now, and the original trunk is 95% gone.

My oldest fig trees are either the Petite Negri, or the Brunswick that I started from a locally obtained cutting in about 2002.  I also moved that tree to Battle Ground in about 2012 or so.  It did the same thing as the Petite Negri - grew suckers that became replacement trunks, as the original trunk mostly gradually died off during the next ten years.  I think it stresses the tree to be moved like I did to them.

New Top Tier Added To Final Espalier Trellis. 1 Apr 24.

 I added the top bamboo tier to the Honeycrisp / Gala Apple espalier trellis.  Then I tied down the top level arms (Gala).

I like Hobeycrisp a lot.  It's not very vigorous, but the apples are excellent.   Gala is a favorite for pies but also fresh.  So far, the Gala top graft has been very vigorous.

Now all it needs is maintenance, and occasional puttering and pampering.  This is much mire accessible compared to "normal" shaped trees and the space requirement is minimal - it's all within about 2 feet from the fence.