And Grafting Starts

It was such a nice day to work in the garden. Temperatures were in the mid to high 70s and I could here the bees buzzing around the flowers that were blooming in the backyard.

Inca Plum Blooms

Some of the fruit trees, specifically the Plums trees, were starting to flower and bud, so it was time to start grafting. I took the scions out of the refrigerator and inventory of what I got.

2016 Scions

I collected the Plums, Plucots, Pluots, Apricot, Cherry and Avocado scions… found my grafting knife and grafting tape… got my camera and started grafting.

I did a total of 11 grafts including:
– Asian Plums: Elephant Heart and Black Splendor
– Apricot: Canadian White
– Plumcot: Apex
– Pluot: Prosser and Dapple Dandy (Dinosaur Egg)
– Cherry: Coral
– Avocado: Mexiola

Pruning and Dead Grafts…

I wanted to start grafting some European Pears today, but there were many dead and or broken limbs, so I want through and did some pruning. It started to get dark, so I will continue pruning tomorrow.

I also went through the fruit trees and tried to cut off and remove tags from the dead grafts:
– Peach ‘Sierra Blanca’ (Graft 2008-07)
– E.Pear ‘Winter Nellis’ (Graft 2009-15)
– E.Pear ‘Warren’ (Graft 2010-19)
– E.Plum ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ (Graft 2011-09)
– Apple ‘Belle de Boskoop’ (Graft 2011-21)
– Nectarine ‘Heavenly White’ (Graft 2012-12)
– Nectarine ‘Stanwick’ (Graft 2012-14)
– Peach ‘Hakuto’ (Graft 2012-15)

Busy Gardening Day…

It was a busy gardening day. I started by planting a few Green Onions bottoms with the others I planted last week.

Planting Green Onion Bottoms

I start grafting onto our two Asian Plum trees:
Bubblegum Plum (which I’m really interested in tasting, so I grafted it in two locations)
Plum ‘Golden Nectar’
Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’

People Watcher

This bird kept watching me as I was grafting scions onto our Plum tree. I thought it would fly away if I moved, but even after I walked around and climbed the ladder, it just stayed there. It eventually flew away.

I wanted to graft some Cherry scions, but I couldn’t find any good sites to graft onto… So I left it, and I’ll check our Cherry tree later.

Planting Swiss Chard, Beets and Mesclun

I had some plant that have been in cell packs since the fall, and they are still alive, so I planted the Swiss Chard into 5 gallon fabric pot and Beets ‘Chioggia’ into a large Daiso pot. I had two leftover Flat Leaf Parsley which I planted into a 3 inch pot for now, until i find a permanent place for them in the garden. Hopefully, these plants will grow big despite being left in their cell packs.

I also did a bunch of seed sowing. I sowed all of the Zesty Salad Mesclun Mix into a medium Daiso pot. I don’t think these grew well in the past and I just wanted to get rid of the seeds.

Sowing Spring Greens/Flowers

I planted the rest into cell packs:
Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearls’
Agrostemma ‘Milas’
Bok Choy ‘Fun Jen’
Bok Choy ‘Purple Choy’
Kohlrabi ‘Early White Vienna’
Bok Choy ‘Summer Boy’

Kiwi Leafing Out

A couple of the Kiwi plants have started to leaf out. I was worried that they died in the winter at their new location, but they seem to have pulled through. They was a couple dead/dried out branches which I trimmed. The rest of the blue bin where they were was empty, so I decided to plant a row of Super Sugar Snap Peas.

Sowing Sugar Snap Peas

Afterwards, I did a major trim of the European Plum tree in back of our storage. There were tons of dead limbs and limbs that sagged down. I tried to clear the bottom so we had walking space and just get rid of too much of the mass. I think it looks better now and hopoefully will grow better. Unfortunately, the Kirke Blue Plum that I grafted to it dried up.

Asian Plum & Cherry Graft Progress… and Garlic Planting…

I was going to start grafting onto our Plum tree, but our neighbor decided to take down part of our shared fence (without telling us) and fix it up…

Plum 'Inca' Graft Progress

So I decided not to graft and just take inventory of the Plum and Cherry grafts that survived. Some grafts didn’t make it, but several seems to have survived:

– Plum ‘Golden Nectar’ (Graft 2012-01)
– Plum ‘El Dorado’ (Graft 2013-03)
– Plum ‘Inca’ (Graft 2011-01)
– Plum ‘Sierra’ (Graft 2011-03)
– Plum ‘Elephant Heart’ (Graft 2009-04) Folia
– Plumcot ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2012-02) Folia
– Pluot ‘Flavor Supreme’ (Graft 2010-04) Folia
– Cherry ‘Merton Premier’ (Graft 2010-01) Folia
– Cherry ‘Burbank’ (Graft 2011-08)
– Cherry ‘Lapins’ (Graft 2009-02) Folia

Sprouting Garlic

The Garlic Folia we harvested last year (but haven’t used) are starting to sprout.

Sowing Garlic Bulbs

I split them apart and planted each bulb into a cell pack. Once they grow a little more and root out, I’ll plant them in the garden.

First Batch of Grafts…

I did my first batch of grafts this year onto the Asian Plum (near storage) Folia that has already started to set buds. They include:

Asian Plum ‘Golden Nectar’
Plumcot ‘Burbank’ Folia
Asian Plum ‘El Dorado’
Apricot ‘Canadian White’

Plumcot 'Burbank' Graft

Can Peachcot Scions be Grafted to an Asian Plum?

I got a Peachcot scion from a recent CRFG Scion Exchange and was wondering if it can be grafted onto an Asian Plum. I’ve had success grafting an Apricot scion to our Asian Plums, but I know Peaches can’t be grafted to an Asian Plum1.

Anyone know if Peachcot scions can be grafted to an Asian Plum?
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1 Grafting Dormant Deciduous Fruit Scions by Idell Weydemeyer, Golden Gate CRFG