Tweets From the Garden…

  • 1:39pm Plum (near storage) is getting close to opening its flower buds #
  • 2:06pm Yellow Jasmine and Yellox Oxalis have started blooming in our back yard. #
  • 2:11pm I took my stone fruit scions (peach, plum, nectarine, cherry, etc.) out of the refridgerator to come out of "winter" mode… #
  • 3:01pm Just received some seed swaps in the mail:
    Emerald Giant Pepper,
    Black from Tula Tomato and
    Golden Marconi Pepper. #

Scion Exchange + Berkeley Nurseries + Sorry Pole…

  • 10:13 The CRFG is having a Scion Exchange today from 12-3pm in Berkeley. Learn grafting and exchange cuttings. j.mp/6ab9OI #
  • 17:10 I bumped into a pole at PetSmart, said sorry, then started cracking up… #
  • 18:14 Back home from the CRFG Scion Exchange, Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, Westbrae Nursery and Cactus Jungle… What a plantastic day!!! :) #

Upcoming Scion Exchange…

The Golden Gate Chapter of the CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) is holding another Scion Exchange next weekend. I’m glad I checked when it is this year, otherwise I may have missed it.

2010 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange

Saturday, January 16, 2010 – 12 noon to 3:00 PM

Malcolm X Elementary School (Two blocks from Ashby BART station)
1731 Prince Street
Berkeley, CA

Here are some photos from previous years I attended:

My Scion Acquistions  Looking Over the Apple Scions

More information from CRFG website.
More information from Upcoming website.
Other 2010 Scion Exchanges from CRFG website.

Seeds + Scions

I sowed a three types of flower seeds today:

Meadow Foam
Calendula ‘Pacific Beauty’
Zinger Calendula from treebreeze (Thank you!)

Calendula Seeds

I took some of the scions that I got from the scion exchange that I wasn’t going to graft and stuck them in soil. I hope that they take root so I’ll have new plants.

Potted Scions

Some of the scions include: Grapes, Kiwi Fruits, Figs, Autumn Olive, Elaeagnus macrophylla, Edible Dogwood and Jujube

Sprouting Kiwi Question?

The Hayward Kiwi branches that I got from the California Rare Fruit Grower’s 2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange back in January have sprouted quite a bit and I’m not sure what to do with them. Should I:

1. Plant the whole branch in soil?
2. Cut the new (green) growth and root the cutting, then plant that?
3. Something else?

These branches (one male and one female) are sitting in water on my shelf under grow lights.

Kiwi 'Hayward' New Growth   Kiwi 'Hayward' Roots

One more photo of the whole branch

More Seedlings…

Yesterday, I added an extension to the shelves in my room. The shelves I have are part of the IVAR storage system from Ikea. I’ve had them in my old apartment, and had to scale it down when I moved back home (I have a smaller room here). Luckily, I saved the extra side unit and shelves, and expanded my current setup. Now it looks huge, but at least I have room to setup my new grow lights.

Which reminds me… The ‘Brandywine OTV’ and ‘Great White’ Tomatoes have sprouted. I think the ‘William Guiness’ Columbine is sprouting too, but I can’t quite tell if it is or if it’s moldy. I also noticed that some pine nuts that I found and planted are emerging. Yeay!

And to top it off, the White Genoa Fig and Arguta Kiwi scions that I placed in cup of water are starting to bud.

Scions + Grafting + 2 New Bulbs/Tubers…

Today I had a great gardening-related day.

I drove over to San Francisco for the California Rare Fruit Grower’s 2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange.

When I first went in, I was so overwhelmed by the number of bags of scions (cuttings). This was my first time at any gardening function like this and I didn’t know quite what to do… so I told the woman at the door that I’ve never been to anything like this and I asked what do people here.

She explained that you basically go through the tables of bags filled with scions and if you see something you like, take 1 or 2. Then take some tape and label your scion with the name that was on the bag. They had so many varieties of different fruit trees, like apples, pears, asian pears, peaches, asian and european plums, nectarines, pluots, figs, pomegranate, kiwi, grapes, mulberries, persimmons and more.

Their were many group members who were happy to answer your questions. One of they said that even if I didn’t know how to graft trees, there were some scions that can be rooted like the figs, kiwis and pomegranate. At 1pm the had a grafting demonstration, which was very informative. There’s nothing like actually seeing someone do it up close.

I made a flickr set ( link ) with some photos from the event. Clicking many of the photos below will link you there.

In total I got about 25 varieties of fruit scions:

A list of the varieties of scions I got

2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange

I just learned about the 2006 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange/Grafting Workshop from laurenandray‘s post on the gardening community.

That’s today!!!… I so want to go since I’ve always wanted to learn how to graft. It’s in San Francisco, which is about 45 minutes to a hour away (with traffic)… so I’m going to get myself to bed and try not to sleep in. Hopefully, I’ll make it.

Sounds like fun!… and I’ll see other gardenin’ folks :) Can you tell I’m excited?