Chicken Fortress Progress

This view looks into the chicken fortress. I've built a shelf for the nesting boxes. The nesting boxes are old plastic recycle bins. So I'm recycling, or repurposing, the recycle bin. That idea was from a website about what to use for nesting boxes. The dowel work is re-purposed from odds and ends from the garage. The wire cage material is from an old chicken cage kit that's been sitting around for a decade. About half of the wood is reused. Next, the door, window doors, and some doors for access to the egg nests, then straw and it's ready for the hens.

Moving a Small Mulberry Tree

Now it's fall. It's chilly.  It's raining every day. Good time to move some more trees, I think. Better than summer, when I moved other trees. This time it's an Illinois Everbearing Mulberry. I originally planted it March, 2010. So it's had 2 summers to grow. I decided it will be hard to keep the growth controlled. The exposure was north of a privacy fence. The neighbor to the south has a massive uncontrolled apple tree, also competing. At the Battleground place, it will have full sun to the East, South, and West. So maybe more mulberries. They are very tasty. One of the most delicious fruits I grow.
 

"Mulberry Tree Wrap" in an old vinyl tablecloth for travel. No pics digging it up. It's the usual, dig a trench, then try to dig deeply under the tree. It was difficult to dig under the tree. Despite the rain, the ground under the tree was dry and hard.

This is my one chance to inspect the roots. Impressive root system. The roots look thicker than the trunk. They were not very deep. Maybe 18 inches, at the most.

Here we are, planted and mulched with about 3 inches of leaf compost mulch. I did line the hole with chicken wire, to annoy and frustrate the mole.  The mole had a tunnel at exactly this spot, so I think the tree was a sitting duck.

I read on another website that mulberries are a tree "not" to plant, due to the berry production. The main concern is that birds eat the berries. Then the birds defecate, the purple poop stains cars. The berries also stain sidewalks. There are no sidewalks here, and no place to park a car near the tree.  Cars are few and far between.  My plan was to keep the tree small, and cover with bird net. I may still do that. I could have cut it down, and bought a new bare-root tree to plant in Spring. Then I would lose two years of progress. By moving it, I may lose some progress, but not much.

I pruned about 1 to 2 feet of new branch growth.  That will make up for root loss.  I don't think I lost a lot of roots.  Probably less than 20%.  Maybe less than 10%.  That compares to commercially grown trees, which I read lose 85% of their roots when moved.

There is also concern about spread of mulberry trees via seeds in bird poop.  I don't think that's an issue here.

Ginkgo biloba seed preparation

It's pretty easy.

They've been in the baggies for a few days. I imagine that if I wanted to wait longer, I would need to refrigerate or keep them cool outside.

It's easy. The seeds mush out. Knife is optional. I did not wear gloves. For the sensitive, gloves are a good idea. Separate the seed from the pulp. Placed the seeds in a bowl of water. The pulp went into the compost. This was under a kitchen hood that vents outside. Working outside is a good option too. Otherwise loved ones will complain about the odor.

Rinsed under running water. Dried on paper towel. Once dry overnight, I'll keep in the fridge until planting.

Home Orchard Society

Went to the meeting today. It was a great experience. I felt like I was among kindred spirits. Lots of fruit to view and taste.

Zillions of Apple varieties. All so much better than grocery apples.

These are the biggest. I don't need apples this big. They are fun to look at.

Grapes. Home grown grapes are fit for kings. People don't know what they are missing. Tasting many, I'm still convinced that grapes with seeds are superior to seedless grapes. Those tart tasteless things that pass for grapes in the grocery store should have a different name. They are not even close.

Chinese Haw / Shan zha. I didn't get a change to taste them. First time I've seen one. Second time might be on my own tree. Two years? Three?

Medlars/ I didn't get to taste these either. Another time. Later, other attendees told me they taste like spiced apple sauce.

Charlie

My best buddy. Snoring. He twitches in his sleep, once in a while. Just being there, he makes the studies, and take-home work, go better.

Oncidium hybrid

Orchid started blooming. Oncidium hybrid.

More Gingko photos

This week collected ginkgo seeds. Surprised and oddly excited to discover that several of the trees I thought were male, are really female. Maybe the last time I looked they had not reached tree puberty yet. This changes my hypothesis about this long row of trees. More than half were female. So they must be seedling raised, not grafts. Good.  There must be 10 female gingko trees in this treeway.

There's nothing about the tree's anatomy that tells us she's female.  Only the presence of the seeds below the tree, gives it away.

Another female ginkgo tree in the same treeway.

Ginkgo branches, laden with seed.  In my earlier days, I called these "fruit".  The look like fruit, are fleshy like fruit, and contain an inner seed like fruit.  But botanically, the derivation of the flesh is a different part of the seed bearing structure, so the fleshy part is the outer layer of the seed.  Confusing.

Pleased the camera took some nice pics this time.

Ginkgo fruit scattered on the ground.    Even with so many, I don't smell the butyric acid that bothers many people.  Unless I pick them up, and smell my fingers.  Then it's there.

Finches

Through the glass of the home office window. The little point-and-shoot camera lacks the crystalline clarity of the Nikon super duper SXYZ camera. For that matter, so does the glass. Its OK. The birds don't mind. Carpodacus mexicanus.

Tale of Two Ginkgos

These 2 trees are the same age, grown from seed from the same parent. They were started from seed collected by my Dad, about 13 years ago.

This tree was planted in the ground about 11 years ago.  This is my back yard.  The tree first spent about 2 years of growing in a flower pot. I'm guessing about 20 or 25 feet tall.  It's a beautiful tree.  I'm proud of it.  This area of yard is the dogs' "restroom".  They pee and poop here daily.  The poop gets cleaned up, mostly, although some is missed.  It gets watered weekly or every other week, to rinse the grass and ground to prevent odor.  The watering, and the nitrogen from the dog urine and feces, have resulted in rapid strong growth.

This photo is taken today.  The leaves remain dark green.

The trunk is too big for my hand to reach around.

The leaves have the typical bilobar appearance for ginkgo.  As a younger tree, the leaves were larger and had a deeper cleft.

This tree is the same age, from the same source at the same time. It was kept in a container for one additional year, and planted in the front yard. It gets watered occasionally, but not nearly as often as the tree in the back yard. Like that tree, it's basically in the full sun.  No "doggie special treats."   It's much smaller than the first tree.  About 10 feet tall, so less than half as tall.

This photo is also taken today.  The leaves are already bright yellow.

I can easily grasp this trunk.  No where near the diameter as its twin.

The leaves are similar size and morphology.  Beautiful leaves.
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I think the entire difference in growth and leaf senescence is due to the doggie fertilizer and watering.      There has been no chemical fertilizer and no other difference that I can see.

Transplanted Trees

The Almaden Duke Cherry did perk up a lot. That's what a week of cool weather and rain can do. The leaves are not yet yellowing for fall. A few are damaged, but overall it took the transplanting well. With little root damage, and little loss of leaf, I think it's OK to let it bear cherries next Spring. If it chooses to do so. It will be nice to get our own fruit the first Spring here.

The Sal's Fig I moved the first week of ownership, last July. TLC and watering every week resulted in a healthy move despite the midSummer timing. These are its first figs, ever. They are very tasty. I think better than Hardy Chicago or Petite Negri. That might be my imagination.

That little Maple I moved last week. There is some sunburn of the leaves. That would not have happened if I'd waited a week, but they are about to fall off anyway. It's ready to settle in for winter.