If anyone in the Seattle area wants scionwood from @LarryGene’s famous feijoa, he graciously sent me a batch, and I’m sure I’ll have extras once I’m done grafting, so PM me if you can make it to the West Seattle “accidental island” to pick them up.
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…and USPS comes through again. I kept the swincher parcel just under one pound.
That was just 2 days in transit, even with an afternoon ship here. Priority Rate “Shoebox”
holds up to 16-inch long cuttings.
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Wishing you success. Dwarf crabapples would be a nice addition to small town lots. As a root stock, yes, if it would be generally compatible and not require staking.
I finally succeeded in grafting a “road apple” I found in the Sandi Mountains onto a McIntosh seedling about 4 years ago in Albuquerque. It is starting its second year in the ground here in Salem, and I’m hoping for flower buds this year. The wild apple had such a delicious, old-time flavor. I tried unsuccessfully to root cuttings of it. They would callus tremendously, but would not initiate roots.
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Me too!
I do not post in this group much since Vancouver Housing Authority began doing a LOT of odd changes, and tore out my garden and that of others to make everything uniformity and blah. I live north of the city in Hazel Dell.
I will say they failed. Strawberries I had (only a few!) went nuts after they spread the bark of the tree they chopped down as mulch. They sent thousands of runners, and they gave up.I will attempt to include a photo of last winter with all the strawberries.
I would really love to have some heirloom strawberries, since it is something I can grow here. If anybody gets a Marshall and has runners I would love even one.
Also if it uploads I am sharing other things I managed to get away with in the soil or can grow in my now container patio garden. This includes fennel, and the bulbs are about double the size now, pansies, lots of flower bulbs including multifloral grape hyacinths I saved from Watson Avenue 1930s home that was converted to a duplex, lettuce, peas starting to grow, and much more.
Although I grew up on a cattle farm on 159th street in Brush Prairie, my sunny patio is able to give me a little peace and foods in container gardens. I am interested in any other new varieties, ancient varieties, and unusual varieties to grow in planters.
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David, I can’t begin to imagine how devastating it must have been when they ripped out your garden.
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It was indeed the worst feeling. And then last year my mom’s cat, who loved that garden, died of a rare cancer. I gave her a very last stroll while nearly blind around the apartment, where she walked in the grass and licked some dirty water before I put her into my arms on the patio to be lethally injected. That pretty much made me ignore my container garden much of the rest of 2021.
The good news? I can still stay here. I got a full time job in November, can afford rent and such. I had been extremely scared of losing all I had. So I will just keep surviving.
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This is great news! Too many people end up living on the streets just because they can’t make rent. It’s a real shame they won’t allow the garden there, just doesn’t seem right to me.
Yeah, it is counter productive, and seems to me someone with a bias against the poor is doing some very odd changes here. The timing for the start of odd changes began immediately after Housing First Federal program began and the first seriously mentally ill people were placed into housing here off the streets. Mind you, none of them are still here. Yet things got progressively worse, especially after Covid. It was like we were lepers. No communication with the community members who lived here for years and considered it a home. Just a sudden saccharine sweet framing of the newest changes that would be punitive.
If they had just met with residents outdoors and had a community discussion, let us have some say in what changes would be like, that could have helped somewhat.
It is terrible and I do not want to go back into the details of it, but you can find more if you are interested just checking my 2020 posts in this group.
Wow, just noticed. My Flowering Plum is in full bloom. 
Spring has sprung.
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When will you graft? I’m trying to decide when to graft to the rootstock and scion wood I have, but since it never goes dormant I’m not sure. Also once grafted would you bring it inside or leave it out?
I grafted last week, but I’m in 8b (Seattle) and not expecting another hard freeze. I had good luck last year grafting around now, but I assume you’d have to do it quite a bit later in your growing zone. If you’re going to bring it inside then I assume you could also get started, though. Mine were field grafts on existing bushes.
I’m currently in Tacoma for the next year before I move. I’ll look at grafting now too, but I’d seen some other PNW members say since we have long cool springs you should wait longer here (at least for stone fruit). Didn’t know if the pineapple guava would be the same.
Since mine are currently outdoors in pots, should I graft and then bring them in to jump start the callous formation and union?
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I’m not sure, but it sounds like a good plan to me.
I did my first feijoa grafts around this time last year and most of those took. I did another round in early June and none of those took. There may have been other factors at play, but I figure why change what worked.
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Marshall doesn’t seem very common. Raintree nursery occasionally has it in stock. I wanted to order it once but they don’t ship Usps so the UPS shipping was astronomical (to AK) so I passed. It’s always free to dream!
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My mom doesn’t particularly like plants, but that doesn’t stop me from sending her a mini orchard every year. She gets about 3x the growing season that I get. I got her a red and white Nanking about two years ago. I’m surprised it’s blooming so early in the year.
Her “late blooming” honeyberries are blooming now too. I hope there are pollinators flying around. It seems kind of early to me. I wonder when an “early blooming” honeyberry would bloom in Oregon? Middle of Jan?
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jsteph00921:
Would you be willing to show a picture of your citrus enclosure? I have been wanting to make one of those for years, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
Thanks,
John s
PDX OR
I’ve been grafting hawthorns for a couple of weeks. Probably another one today.
I have been growing and harvesting feijoas every year for 20 years. Last year when it got up to 107, 108, and 116, I didn’t get any. I didn’t want to hand pollinate, like normal years.
John S
PDX OR
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My fiejoa bush in SE Portland had a normal production year in 2021.
(afternoon/evening shade, regular water, hand-pollination)
but the blooms were unaffected by the heat, unlike a fully exposed bush
a few blocks away that had all blossoms fried.
@LarryGene How do you clone a Fiejoa? Do you graft onto the rootstock of a seedling or air root a plant from the original?