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.

Ungrafted Scions and Cloning/Rooting Fruit Trees Cuttings?

I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to work in the garden as much as I want to. I especially haven’t grafted as much as previous years and I still have a bunch of scions that I got earlier this year from the CRFG Scion Exchange. Some may be too late to graft like the Cherries, Plums, Peach and Nectarines because our trees have already bloomed. The Pears are blooming now and I think those may be a little late to graft, although still maybe possible. Apples are the only fruit trees that haven’t bloomed and I can still graft those soon.

I happened to see a YouTube video where someone showed how to clone a pear tree. I’ve never thought of rooting fruit tree cuttings like Peaches, Pears, Apples, etc… I don’t know why I never thought of this… so I think I will try to root the remaining scions I have left and see if they will take root and grow… and maybe I can use them next year for grafting.

Has anyone rooted Peaches, Nectarine, Plums, Apricots, Pears and Apples from cuttings?

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

Grafting 2011 Batch 3…

Our Peach is just starting to bloom and the Apples look like they will break dormancy soon, so I grafted the last batch of Peaches/Nectarines, Apples and a Persimmon.

Persimmon 'Chocolate' Graft

– Nectarine ‘Silver Lode’
– Peach ‘White Hale’
– Nectarine ‘White Rose’
– Peach ‘Lola Queen’
– Apple ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’
– Apple ‘Pink Pearl’
– Apple ‘Pink Parfait’
– Apple ‘Lady Williams’
– Apple ‘Pippin’
– Apple ‘Belle de Boskoop’
– Apple ‘Royal Gala’
– Persimmon ‘Chocolate’

Grafts 2011 Batch 2

Our Bing Cherry looked like it was about to open its buds, so I grafted some Cherry scions as wells as some Plums and Apricots.

– Apricot ‘Skaha’ scion grafted onto Plum (near sink)
– Cherry ‘Black Eagle’ scion grafted onto Bing Cherry
– Cherry ‘Burbank’ scion grafted onto Bing Cherry
– European Plum ‘Coe’s Golden Drop’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)
– European Plum ‘Baray’s Green Gage’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)
– European Plum ‘Old Green Gage’ grafted onto European Plum (near Vegetable Bed 1)

Grafting 2011 Batch 1

Our Japanese Plum (near the storage) is starting to bloom, so I started grafting some of the Japanese Plum and Apricot scion, which I believe are compatible to Japanese Plum.

– Graft 2011-01 Plum ‘Inca’ scion grafted onto Japanese Plum (near storage)
– Graft 2011-02 Plum ‘Inca’ scion grafted onto Japanese Plum (near storage)
– Graft 2011-03 Sierra Plum scion grafted onto Japanese Plum (near storage)
– Graft 2011-04 Sierra Plum scion grafted onto Japanese Plum (near storage)
– Graft 2011-05 Apricot ‘Large Early Montgamet’ scion grafted onto Apricot

Plum 'Inca' Graft

Apricot 'Large Early Montgamet' Graft

Garden Events 2011

I added some garden events into my calendar:

2011 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange
Saturday, January 22, 2011, 12-3 PM
First Baptist Church; 4555 Hilltop Drive; El Sobrante, CA
www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm

Sonoma County Orchid Society
“Waves of Orchids”, Spring Plant Show and Sale
Saturday-Sunday, February 5-6, 2011
Santa Rosa Veterans Building
www.sonomaorchids.com/springSale.html

The San Francisco Orchid Society
“Natural Wonders”, the 59th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition
March 3-6, 2011
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco CA
www.orchidsanfrancisco.org/poe.html

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
March 23-27, 2011
San Mateo Events Center
www.sfgardenshow.com

San Francisco Epiphyllum Society Show & Sale
May 28, 2011, 10am – 3pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
affiliates.cssainc.org/san-francisco-epiphyllum-society.html

San Francisco Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale
Saturday-Sunday, June 11-12, 2011, 9am – 5pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
affiliates.cssainc.org/cssa-affiliate-events.html