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It rained


Dirtyhip

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...I can still remember how happy it used to make me, when I got in a great number of transplants, and then they got rained in by a good, steady rain.  

I had to settle here yesterday with finally finishing up work on one section of the sprinkler system, then transplanting some Siberian irises that were getting shaded out in their original location, then running the sprinklers on that section for an hour and a half.  Not nearly as satisfying as having the forces of nature smiling down on my efforts. :unhappy:

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11 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...I can still remember how happy it used to make me, when I got in a great number of transplants, and then they got rained in by a good, steady rain.  

I had to settle here yesterday with finally finishing up work on one section of the sprinkler system, then transplanting some Siberian irises that were getting shaded out in their original location, then running the sprinklers on that section for an hour and a half.  Not nearly as satisfying as having the forces of nature smiling down on my efforts. :unhappy:

I get it.  The Trail Boss is going to put a couple of those ugly water cubes at the end of the house.  This way we might be able to catch some of the runoff.  We also want to capture the weekly purge fromour water softener.  It is a saltless setup, so it shouldn't hurt the plants.  It will likely just be high in minerals.

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1 minute ago, Dirtyhip said:

I am going to plant some bareroot fruit trees.  @Page Turner  Hope they will not be a gigantic fail.  I'm thinking italian plum, and apple trees.  I need to learn how to properly care for the apples.  Have not had good luck in the past.  They get sick.

...apple trees are a learning experience, but of all the fruit trees, they are probably the most bombproof.  You need to spend some time figuring out what varieties do well in your locale (ask the county ag agent or find someone nearby who grows apples.)  And you need to spend the summer working on your deer strategy. Deer will not allow a small apple tree to grow bigger, no matter how much you might wish they would.

Apples leaves taste to deer like blueberry loaf cake tastes to @Randomguy.  I've found  deer climbing up on their front legs on mature apple trees, just trying to get higher up on the tree to browse.  Once you have the trees tall enough, without fencing they will neatly prune your trees up from the ground about 5 feet, like mammalian Roomba's.  Otherwise, most of the popular modern varieties are pretty disease resistant. Where I am, I have to spray for codling moth a few times every year. But you time that using IPM and degree days, so it's not as bad as it seems.  And the stuff I use is pretty mild.

Up in the foothills, I was more isolated, and the summer was shorter, so the codling moth were there, but not in such large numbers.

But forget about fruit trees until you have figured out the way to deal with the plague of hooved locusts that surround you in the form of deer.

 

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Just now, Page Turner said:

...apple trees are a learning experience, but of all the fruit trees, they are probably the most bombproof.  You need to spend some time figuring out what varieties do well in your locale (ask the county ag agent or find someone nearby who grows apples.)  And you need to spend the summer working on your deer strategy. Deer will not allow a small apple tree to grow bigger, no matter how much you might wish they would.

Apples leaves taste to deer like blueberry loaf cake tastes to @Randomguy.  I've found  deer climbing up on their front legs on mature apple trees, just trying to get higher up on the tree to browse.  Once you have the trees tall enough, without fencing they will neatly prune your trees up from the ground about 5 feet, like mammalian Roomba's.  Otherwise, most of the popular modern varieties are pretty disease resistant. Where I am, I have to spray for codling moth a few times every year. But you time that using IPM and degree days, so it's not as bad as it seems.  And the stuff I use is pretty mild.

Up in the foothills, I was more isolated, and the summer was shorter, so the codling moth were there, but not in such large numbers.

But forget about fruit trees until you have figured out the way to deal with the plague of hooved locusts that surround you in the form of deer.

 

I put them in jail for the first 5 years.  It doesn't look so pretty with the chicken wire, but it works.  The baby trees I have planted so far seem to be doing really well.  Except my poor walnut, which was completely my fault.  We shouldn't have moved it after the first planting.  Bah!

 

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1 minute ago, Dirtyhip said:

I put them in jail for the first 5 years.  It doesn't look so pretty with the chicken wire, but it works.  The baby trees I have planted so far seem to be doing really well.  Except my poor walnut, which was completely my fault.  We shouldn't have moved it after the first planting.  Bah!

 

...I grow dwarf rootstock trees here, because the deer stay down near the river and don't roam the neighborhood.  Up in the foothills, it was pretty much the standard or semi dwarf rootstocks.  So you have to deal with more time on the ladder to grow apples when you share the space with deer.  They are relentless. Ordering bare root trees in the fall bare root season allows you access to a much wider list of varieties. Consider your pollination requirements...some of the varieties will self pollinate, but none of them bear as heavily unless your trees are cross pollinating each other.

Also, most people who haven't laid out an orchard before make mistakes in layout. A standard or even a semi-dwarf apple tree takes up a lot of lateral space.

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1 minute ago, Page Turner said:

...I grow dwarf rootstock trees here, because the deer stay down near the river and don't roam the neighborhood.  Up in the foothills, it was pretty much the standard or semi dwarf rootstocks.  So you have to deal with more time on the ladder to grow apples when you share the space with deer.  They are relentless. Ordering bare root trees in the fall bare root season allows you access to a much wider list of varieties. Consider your pollination requirements...some of the varieties will self pollinate, but none of them bear as heavily unless your trees are cross pollinating each other.

Also, most people who haven't laid out an orchard before make mistakes in layout. A standard or even a semi-dwarf apple tree takes up a lot of lateral space.

Space is a non-issue.  The ladder thing is concerning though.  My cages are like 4 t-posts with chicken wire around them.  It will at least let the trees root and get strong.  I am slightly excited about creating some mason bee nests around the property.  You can buy little houses for them and they are solitary bees that do not sting.  How cute.    I will invest a few hundred in these critters along with massive wildflower plantings to bring the butterflies.  Maybe I could use my trucy with the gate down to pick the apples up higher, and let them get the low stuff, and girdle the trunk to prevent racking.

All of this could fail, but at least I am enjoying myself. 

Brecks cart has about $700 in it right now.  Dawn you, Man.  ;):foryou:  The Dawn Narcissus does seem lovely.

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5 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

Space is a non-issue.  The ladder thing is concerning though.  My cages are like 4 t-posts with chicken wire around them.  It will at least let the trees root and get strong.  I am slightly excited about creating some mason bee nests around the property.  You can buy little houses for them and they are solitary bees that do not sting.  How cute.    I will invest a few hundred in these critters along with massive wildflower plantings to bring the butterflies.  Maybe I could use my trucy with the gate down to pick the apples up higher, and let them get the low stuff, and girdle the trunk to prevent racking.

All of this could fail, but at least I am enjoying myself. 

Brecks cart has about $700 in it right now.  Dawn you, Man.  ;):foryou:  The Dawn Narcissus does seem lovely.

...you should not be buying spring bulbs from Brecks right now.  Wait until the end of summer, early fall to order.  That source for Golden Dawn that used to be Bill Welch's farm will doubtless be selling them again, later in the year, even if their main business is cut flowers for florists and farmers markets.  But they are insanely busy right now, cutting and bunching the flowers to sell.

 

For some reason, my old place in Pine Grove, CA used to have a boatload off mason bees.  Not my doing, they were there when I got there, and still there when I left, busily making holes in any abandoned outbuildings they could find.

Fruit trees involve ladders. It's part of the territory, so if you have any reservations about ladders, and are unwilling to fence an area so you can grow on dwarf rootstocks, grow something else. Between the pruning every year, the spraying for codling moth, and the harvesting, I'm up on the ladder a lot.

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18 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...you should not be buying spring bulbs from Brecks right now.  Wait until the end of summer, early fall to order.  That source for Golden Dawn that used to be Bill Welch's farm will doubtless be selling them again, later in the year, even if their main business is cut flowers for florists and farmers markets.  But they are insanely busy right now, cutting and bunching the flowers to sell.

 

For some reason, my old place in Pine Grove, CA used to have a boatload off mason bees.  Not my doing, they were there when I got there, and still there when I left, busily making holes in any abandoned outbuildings they could find.

Fruit trees involve ladders. It's part of the territory, so if you have any reservations about ladders, and are unwilling to fence an area so you can grow on dwarf rootstocks, grow something else. Between the pruning every year, the spraying for codling moth, and the harvesting, I'm up on the ladder a lot.

It's just in the cart.  Like a placemark to remember the bulbs you mentioned.

I like the story of your mason bees.  :D

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It's dry here for a change and in the low 50's.

But I was feeling a little under the weather today, stayed home and watched idiot American reporters on CNN asking Ukrainians for their troop dispositions, battle plans, and how the weapons from USA and Germany are being transported into Ukraine.

I was supposed to walk 3 miles with Jake today in a beautiful park that has a demonstration farm: sheep, cows, chickens, goats, etc.  So, feeling better as the day went on, I assume I'm not coming down with something and that great walk will happen tomorrow or Saturday

Jake doesn't stare at them like he does at the horses in another park where the path cuts through an equestrian center.  He does watch the white tail deer in the woods and has learned to spot them before I do, but we haven't seen any this winter.  I wonder if they caught omicron like the white tails on Staten Island, NY.  He used to try to chase them, but they don't phase him now.

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4 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

It's just in the cart.  Like a placemark to remember the bulbs you mentioned.

I like the story of your mason bees.  :D

...before I forget, there's an Oregon Daffodil Society, that seems to be centered around this Facebook page.

Like most of the flower show societies, they got knocked down for the count by the Covid pandemic.  But if you can message the person who answers those inquiries, they can probably hook you up with someone closer to you, who can tell you what naturalizes well in your location, and possibly some local bulb growers.  Oregon used to be a big deal in the daffodil growing and showing world, with a couple of the top US breeders located there.

 

Elise Havens comes to mind, as one of the more famous breeders of new introductions, but I know her husband passed away some years back.  I haven't really kept up with that world. 

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