Topped off the Gala tree and sprayed copper on the last year’s new nect
No chance to do that stuff today, but if tomorrow warms up I’ll get the dormant oil spray in
Put some black plastic on the veg garden to help warm the soil
Apple tree is about to bud out. Jujubes and persimmons…still asleep?
Finished putting in drip lines for all the trees, tomatoes, and herbs. Absolutely worth the hassle of putting it together to avoid dragging a hose to every tree during the hot summer. I just need a timer now. Any suggestions?
3 Likes
I was thinking of doing the drip lines, but never have. Still dragging the hose around. I listen to garden podcasts and on one show they talked about timers. I wish i could remember what show it was? i heard it about a year ago. The only thing I remember was that mechanical was preferred by most. I think mostly because with digital models, you need more power and once batteries die or are replaced you have to reprogram machine. no flash memory i guess? The mechanical keep the settings.
Some of the digital ones are impressive like having the ability to tell if it’s raining and not turn on.
2 Likes
I think you’re talking about a small autonomous unit that can be put on an outdoor faucet. For a serious application, both the control unit (automatic, of course) and the valves are connected to the electric grid.
Are you using valves or just connect to an outdoor faucet? I have three control units that operate 10 drip lines each. These work just fine. I also have one line in a different location that’s just connected to an outdoor faucet. I didn’t find a good timer for this one, all that I tried were junk. BTW, in case we’re talking about the latter, don’t forget to include a backflow preventer valve and a good filter.
Yes, all i would have to connect to. Since trees, tomatoes and herbs were mentioned, it didn’t sound like a commercial or large operation.
Yes, why i wish i remember what program that was because they gave out some excellent info on what and where to get good equipment for small operations. I have to start saving some of these podcasts I listen to for reference.
I used to have one of those. It worked well. I would just set it for how many minutes I wanted the water on and then leave for work. I must still have it somewhere. I can’t use it anyways now that I figured out my well water is to high in ph to give my plants. I use three 55 gallon rain water barrels hooked to drip lines and gutter systems. Saves a lot of water but I have to manually feed the drips and the gutters work on float valves for the vegetables. The rain gutter grow systems are awesome!
1 Like
Just finished planting eight trees; four in a raised bed and four in 25 gal fabric pots. That brings my total to 22 trees.
Honey Blaze (2)
Zephyr
Emeraude
Arctic Star
Arctic Sweet
Tomcot
Spring Satin
Hopefully will eat from them in three years… 
10 Likes
Planted a grape for the first time ever. Can someone advise as to whether I should keep both green branches or prune one and let one grow tall?
1 Like
You need to decide first how you want it to grow, then built the trellis to fit that shape
I would keep both branches and train them in opposite directions, but there are plenty of alternatives
1 Like
I staked some black raspberrys today, they always kind of turn into a patch instead of a row but they did look better . I used my river cane that I started growing a couple of years ago. It made good stakes for the raspberrys , wish I had more. Made a couple of pear grafts and cleaned up the asparagus bed.
2 Likes
If the patch gets too big you can mow in between it and get rows back.
1 Like
Yes , if it does , I started it with one plant about four years ago. It is gaining
Reporting on the March 10th Grafting Workshop at Vintage Apples in Charlottesville, VA. (Happy to report that there were no riots in progress while we were there, by the way.) It’s hard for me to associate what went on there not long ago, with the place that I know - and where my daughter attended college. Anyways . . . the orchard was lovely, and so was the workshop facility.
I will post some shots of my grafts - and the orchard.
My husband and I both participated, and we each left with 2 (possibly successful?) grafted apple trees. The Vintage Apple people did a good job teaching and demonstrating. And then they offered a variety of grafting stock - lots of different apples to choose from. Only one rootstock. M111, which they use almost exclusively in their orchard.
I chose to graft Winesap and Roxbury Russet scions to my M111s and my husband chose Ashmead’s Kernel and one other, that I cannot recall. (He didn’t do such a hot job on that one! So, I re-grafted it with a Pippin scion, yesterday.)
I must have brought 5 different knives along to the workshop. One piece of junk ‘Zen’ grafting knife that I ordered on the web. And a bunch of other ‘Exacto-type’ tools - as well as a common retracting utility knife. I should have left them all at home - and just bought their $12 Fetco. It did a great job, and was easy for me to handle.
The Vintage Apple folks prefer ‘freezer tape’ for use in supporting their grafts. Easy enough.
Anyways - here are my first grafts. Looks like it will be a loooooong time before I see any apples! But, we’ll plant them and see what happens! Hope they ‘take’.
I’m not sure . . . but I think the shot above is of their apricot section. They mentioned it, but I was too busy making sure that I didn’t slice off a finger, to pay close attention! Luckily - they recommend the ‘cut away from you’ method. I was very relieved to hear that. And so were my fingers. (I don’t think there were any fatalities that day . . . and there were 26 people in attendance.)
17 Likes
@brownmola This is how I have mine trained. I wanted to bring it up high off the ground. I kept the main trunk (if you can call it that when it comes to grapes) and took out all the branches until it’s about 7 ft high. Canopy is up around 7ft high. It looks nice in the summer and makes enough grapes for us. This year I’ll finally spray immunox so we can eat few grapes.
5 Likes
Those grafts look good.
I always like to see how fruit trees are pruned. Thanks for posting the pics.
I had never seen anyone peeled or cut anything toward themselves until I came to the US. I still do not understand why some people sacrifice their own health and well being by doing that. It never makes sense to me 
I think a lot of people just don’t appreciate how dangerous the task they are doing is, and how bad the injury can be…
1 Like
You can train one into a main trunk, but do not cut off the other. Leave 3 nodes as a backup trunk if the trunk should not make it. I guess on occasion main trunks die. I have never seen it but have seen advice to leave a backup.
1 Like
So true! I did NOT intend to cut toward myself - no matter what they taught. I’ve seen people doing that so many times on YouTube Videos. Makes no sense to me! Those apple scions were tough! And it took a lot of controlled force for me to cut through and keep the surface ‘level’. No way I was cutting toward my hand!
@mamuang, I took those shots for the same reason you mentioned! I wanted to record how they pruned their apples!
Karen,
That’s why a grafting knife needs to be very sharp and single bevel so it could cut straight in one cut, not whittling (which I sometimes still do 
).
Apple scion is not as tough as persimmon scion. Keep practicing. A sharp knife will make cutting easier.
1 Like