What's Happening Today - 2019 Edition

Yeah,. My grafted figs are getting tall and getting crowed by the window. I can’t wait until Spring with no late Frost get here.

Tony

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The big lug doggie spends the night in my screen porch, trying to get in the front door and throwing around my area rugs and a full bag of vermiculite! Now, vermiculite doesn’t help in mating doggies, silly boy :smiley: He’s a sweetie but kind of a royal terror when in love.

We went to town today for some errands, and on the way home we stopped at the local Rural King. It was about 30 degrees out with a biting wind, and they had their trees out, including a bunch of fruit trees.

There was quite a variety of trees, most were potted in 5 gal containers, but they also had some bare root versions, which looked a lot like the ones for sale at Tractor Supply. The big potted ones were about $30 for apples, peaches and pears, and abt $35 for cherries. The apples were the usual varieties, like Red and Yel Del, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Gala, etc. The cherries were Stella, Bing and Montmerency.

What really surprised me was that they had potted Carmine Jewel and Juliet tart cherries. The plants looked pretty big, about 2ft tall and bushy. The CJ were $30 and the Juliet were $32. I don’t think I have ever seen these sold at a place like this. It was funny as they called the Juliets a sweet cherry, although the scientific name on the label betrayed that.

I didn’t get any trees, just some veggie seeds and some fert for my berry plants. But those CJ were tempting…

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Bob, I was at Rural King today also, noticed the trees out but didn’t walk because of the distance and bitter cold. I did talk with the Manager at the door and was told they changed their Nursery Supplier this year for better quality and the stores would be fully stocked with plants by Mar 23rd. I don’t remember the Nursery name, but I believe it was in TN and both grew and wholesaled their fruit trees and brambles. Was also told that at stores just speak with the manager and if you don’t find what you want they will do a special order as long as the amount is over $100. I have 2 RKs here, and they excel at keeping watered and in good condition, unusual for Box Stores around here. My only problem at RK was buying 2 raspberries last Spring, the tags were for reds, they ended up being yellows, 1 with very nice flavor and the 2nd a very crumbly texture, I believe now they might be Anne and Fall Gold, I’ve seen comments here about Anne being small and crumbly.

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SpiceZee showing off yesterday afternoon. Beautiful tree. If I could just keep the thrips off them, the fruit would be a lot prettier too.

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Thanks Greg. They sure had a lot of trees out, that was for sure, although it was the usual apple varieties. They also had a line of peaches that had the name “Super Sweet”, with some varieties I’d never heard of.

Regarding the yellow raspberries, from what I’ve read on here, Fall Gold is the yellow rasp that is small and crumbly, and Anne is the bigger yellow variety. I have both, but only Anne fruited for me last year, and it wasn’t crumbly. It had a very good flavor, kind of like apricot. I only planted FG last year so it didn’t fruit any.

They had a few berries indoors, but not a big selection. They had a few different blueberries that I was interested in, but didn’t see a price for them.

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I second Bob’s assessment of Anne and Fall Gold. Been growing both since 2012. Even though Fall Gold is a bit crumbly, its delicious and the favorite of most kids.

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Spice zee is certainly a showy bloomer.

My fall gold is so crumbly the berries are largely inedible. If I even look at them funny they start falling to the ground. Lol. Shame though as I enjoy their flavor as much or better than and other raspberry I grow. If they were as durable as Anne they would dominate my berry patch.

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One of the most memorable movies from my childhood.

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Had my first harvest of the season today – a Violet Sparkle pepper off a two inch tall plant. It didn’t taste very good, but it was enjoyed.

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If you can ripen anything indoors in the winter in New Engliand, I call it a success. My Ghost pepper flowered but no fruit set even with help from us with a paint brush.

Well, the peppers and tomatoes are under the same lights as figs, which somehow always seem to attract fungus gnats. So maybe that’s what did the pollinating.

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We don’t have gnats this year but some kind of scales is killing my pepper plants.

Fyi, all peppers are self pollinating.

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Thanks. Then, I assume my house is too dry and the plants do not get enough sun light and/or heat.

Frankentree! Love it!

It was 28°f here last 2 nights , but my protected Meyer lemons didn’t know it. They are in full bloom, and the honeybees are very appreciative.

TFN

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I bet that smells amazing.

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Oh, it does. When I built that green room/house on the east side of the house, I incorporated a window that is in one of the back rooms. Even when closed, it still perfumes the whole house…wonderful…

TFN

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Got some Scion wood from Maple Valley Orchards today. They had a nice approach to packaging that I hadn’t seen before.

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