Yesterday I received the final piece for my hot callus pipe build, and the day before my sharpening stones, thermostat and heat mat arrived for grafting /seed starting respectively. I am going to get it all in motion today. Come on pawpaw seedlings, time to wake up!
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Loquat tree fruiting for the first time (2 years in the ground). I didn’t know they flower staggered from late fall to end of winter. I have fruits in all stages (not ripening yet) and last of the flowers at the same time now. I grafted many varieties last year, but the fruits/flowers are from the base variety - Big Jim. Experimenting with thinning on half of the clusters
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It looks like the “What’s happening today” thread is still going strong!
Bragging… I started the original thread years ago.
Anyway, I have a new website. It was designed to be an outlet for our craft hobby but it has an Orchard section as well. Please check out the whole website and let me know what you think. At least the Orchard tab. Thanks!
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Transplanted yellow skinned dragon fruit from soil deprived closed clear container to an appropriately filled plant starting large cottage cheese container.
from to
what’s left is in the small container to continue sprouting the smaller seedling and remaining seed.
Starting snap peas in containers gives me a 3 week head start and triple the germination rate.
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Nice site! Love the woodwork! Beautiful! One of my sons is a custom wood worker, he makes mostly cabinets, but has made tables/desks too. I have tried to get him into crafting as well. We’ll see. 
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I shot a few videos for my upcoming YouTube channel today, and received my seed order from Baker Creek! I am very excited for all of the cool stuff we ordered to try new crops this year!
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Mexican Sour Gherkins are great. They come back each year for me.
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I am planning to pickle them and possibly try a few in some taco dishes. Very excited about discovering them!
Nasturtiums are nice. Leaves or flowers, both good salad material. I have orange ones that often volunteer and come back from seed. Outdoors.
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My grandma used to grow them and include the flowers in her pimento cheese. I’m going to continue the tradition and use them in salads too!
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I picked up some of the pink okra - really interested in seeing this one.
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What a beautiful day here in Virginia 7A (or should that be 7B or even 8A these days). Time for the leeks and onions to get some nice sunshine while Ziggy monitors for squirrels.
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Pawpaw flower buds swelling in earnest here!
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Your plants look great. Ziggy looks really enthused being put on squirrel duty! 
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Love Ziggy!
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I just picked up some mulch hay from a local farmer and got to talking about fruit trees with him. He has a VERY old looking orchard that I believe he said his grandfather planted (this was not a young farmer). I asked him if I could have some scions from the large green apple he raved about, and he happily let me take some wood. I also got a scion of the sweet red apple he likes. I’ll probably start a “name this apple” thread once I (hopefully) get a couple grafts to take and produce in a couple years. Maybe they are rare ones!
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Super. Try and identify them before creating ‘new names’. And if you get several to take, maybe reward the farmer with a young tree? And ask if you can taste some when he has ripe ones?
Or, if it doesn’t interest you, maybe find some of the fruit explorer types who would be interested in the adventure of ID-ing his old trees.?
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Oh I already told him I plan to send some grafted trees his way once I get to that point. I’ll cross the ID stage when we get there. I’m hoping the collective knowledge on this forum will help, and if not at least point me in the right direction to where I can find out!
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when i scrolled down to read the post i only saw the top half of the picture. And thought you scored some 3-4 year old tree’s.
But then it hit me, that scion wood made me smile. generous farmer!
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Yes he is very kind. If I’ve rescued a rare heirloom I’ll be sure to share too!
Edit: If anyone is interested in a few sticks to graft, please message me! I am not confident in my skills as I’ve only done one King David bench graft so far
Second edit: He also has an old pear that he said one year produced fruit that filled a quart size jar with one fruit when they canned it. The tree has since produced “normal” size fruit. They are apparently rock hard until after the first frost of the year, and then become softer. It was a bit farther down the property and the tree is apparently ~40 feet tall, so I didn’t want to make a production of it but does this sound like something I should try to pursue? He said all of his other pears (different cultivars) recently died from some disease and this is the only one he has left.
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