It never got above freezing here. Sunny though, and giving lot’s of hardiness to my trees. Hold them off that much better, so I’m good with it.
I do too, and had to go to it to ID stuff more than once. It’s a good idea. I don’t keep many other records. I’m not a very organized person. Just where they are, and that’s about it for fruit trees. I remember the rootstocks, as I don’t have that many.Some other stuff I keep better records. I keep a journal on performance, trying to decide what to keep, and what to pull out.
Looks like you have a couple nice seats to watch it with and some company too. I cleared out some dead trees and vines yesterday. I’ve been packing my outdoor stove for home heat with the brush.
Just finished spraying most of the fruiting age pears with copper and dormant oil. They have rain in the forecast now so I wished I held off a bit. It needed done and I did not want to wait anymore . the blossoms have 1/2 inch of growth and are splitting from 1 bud into individual flowers. Copper burns if applied to late but dormant oil is bad if applied to early during low temperatures.
Snapped a quick pic of my Floridaprince peach tree as I was driving up my driveway, kindly given to me by my neighbor (who is also an incredible gardener in his own right). This cultivar is even ahead of my Desert Delight nectarine. First to flower, first to leaf out, and is ripe with my MR and RL cherries. This is a very nice, sweet peach. To me, it has a real, old-fashioned “peach” taste. Going to have to try to net this tree, because I battle all sorts of critters and birds for the fruit. I have fruit from the size of large peas to almost ping pong balls:
That’s how this cultivar behaves out here in S. California, Matt. Every year it’s been this far ahead. My Desert Delight necatarine’s fruit is just now forming, to about pea sized. Amazing how early this peach is, even for us here in mild S. California.
Ironically our weather was very mild and warm this weekend. I spend several ours each day grafting. All apricots, A. Plums, pluots, a few pears and apples were grafted.
It is odd that you didn’t get N analysis with your tests. Mehlich 3 is a phosphate and micronutrient test protocol (See this link). There are several different types of those methods depending on the soil pH and composition (Mehlich3, Bray, Olsen) that are very widely used in ag soil testing.
This makes sense to my moderate knowledge of soil science. Usually base cations (Ca, K, Mg) will be leached from the tops of the hills from rain (pure rain is pH ~ 5.2) and move down with the water. When those cations are removed the pH drops, which is why you add ag lime or dolomite- CaCO3 or CaMg(CO3)2 - to raise the pH and base status. Typically the valleys will have the highest amount of base cations and the higher pH, with a gradient moving of decreasing soil pH as you go up the hill.
Thanks, Drew for the explanation of why the pH goes up as you go farther down the hill. The plot with the highest pH, is the lowest on the hill, and has higher P, K and Ca than all the others.
But, my wife says that plot has been used for years for growing veggies, and may have an accumulation of nutrients from fertilizing. How long do they stay in the soil? I’m curious as to why the P levels are many times higher there than all the other’s.
We grew beans there three years ago, which add N to the soil, but grew tomatoes and taters the next two years.
We don’t have a lot of surface run-off from any of our plots, but we have porous limestone water veins underneath, so maybe it’s leaching down deep into the soil, and then down the hill?
Nitrogen doesn’t tend to stick around in soils very long, unless it is incorporated into organic matter. Mineral N in the form of ammonium (NH4+) sticks to clay minerals in the soil, but it is relatively quickly (months/years) transformed to nitrate (NO3-) by microbes. Nitrate is highly mobile with water and doesn’t stick to much. For veggies, I think following the rec’s would be fine.
Phosphate is much more “sticky” than mineral N, and really likes to stick to clay minerals and iron minerals in the soil. Its ability to “stick” is enhanced by acidic pH’s. Acidic, highly weathered soils that are bright red from iron minerals often have problems with P availability (tropic soils).
Yeah, usually the movement is through soil water or groundwater. But side slope and foot-of-the-hill positions also tend to (over a long time) accumulate the richer topsoil from up slope, which could also explain the better soil down low.
Thanks, you seem to know quite a bit about this stuff. Did you go to U-Iowa for this? I saw you wearing a Hawkeye shirt in the member’s photo thread. But, guess I shouldn’t presume, maybe yer just a fan of the school.
So yer saying that P is more likely to stay in the soil than N, because of its nature? So, maybe the high P levels are residuals from past amending. My wife said that they would dump wood ash out there, so that might something to do with the high levels of P and K.
The other low plot has a pretty high zinc level. It used to be a horse pasture, so maybe the horse (& any other animal) manure leaves behind a high level of zinc?
I’m a huge fan of the way you created your raised beds with old logs- mostly because I love the simplicity and affordability of it. But I’m wondering if you have any that are a few years old, and if so, have the mounds held up? Seems like during heavy rains the dirt would tend to wash out of the unconnected corners or under the logs and so on. My fear is that I’d end up with exposed roots sitting on top of the ground. Have you had any of these long enough to tell if that is the case? Thanks, Matt. Good looking set-up, BTW.
I went ous did some pruning that I should have done two weeks ago. I couldn’t hardly keep my hat on. Did you get any wind up that way @Olpea or @clarkinks
