Applestar’s 2019 Garden

[applestar]

Today is my gardening rest-day, but I’m on groundHOG watch at an upstairs window this morning. I suspect it raided my garden two days ago, and it came back THREE TIMES yesterday

First time was within a one hour timeframe between when I finished gardening, came back inside and had breakfast. I had left a “surprise” over the wire fence surrounding the Brussels sprouts, where the beast had climbed to much on the leaves and upper stem (good thing I had already topped them and harvested the tender topmost leaves). The rock and rusty piece plant label wire had dropped — not sure but hope they hit it on its head! And the baker trays were askew or fallen.

I went out and “reset” those surprises and added a few more to other areas it had raided the day before. Then went upstairs with a cuppa, maybe a bathroom break, then wandered over to the window, and it was attacking the chicken wire fence surrounding the Kitchen Garden, trying to get at another planting of cabbages and Brussels sprouts. These are already pretty sorry looking from the moths and butterfly caterpillar predation, but no way I’m going to let the groundHOG have them when I haven’t decided what to do with them yet! I shook my water bottle/pebble rattle and banged on the window frame, and it ran off.

- I’m beginning to think it is watching and attacks as soon as the gardener/farmer goes inside, knowing no one will be coming back out for a while.

I checked frequently yesterday afternoon, and caught it one more time, halfway across the backyard, on its way to the Kichen Garden and the Patio.

This time, in addition to rattling at it from the window, I went downstairs and opened the door, and rattled with a rock in a big juice bottle which makes a deeper booming sound that should carry further and hopefully echo/bounce around the trees and structures.

...Sunrise was at 6:08am — no sign yet, but I think they tend to raid in the heat of the day...

[applestar]

The groundHOG was here while I had been caught up in making some tomato sauce. My “surprise” had been sprung and the basket trays were on the ground — one pot shard was inside the Brussels sprouts cage on the SIP mix surface, and the other one was broken on the brick patio outside the cage. But I can’t find the egg sized rock. Maybe it fell directly on the beast and got flung away

I put a bigger pot shard on top of the “surprise” in place of the rock, this time.

[applestar]

Set out more “surprises” for the groundHOG this morning.

I’m finally harvesting ripe peppers! Doux Long d’Antibes turned fully yellow. This is an extra sweet variety.

...in the same large pot in the Patio Kitchen Garden, there is a Pale Rider F6 — cream/white ripens to red — and a three year old Pasilla Bajio — very dark green ripens to dark chocolate. Purple leaves are Purple Petra Basil.

[applestar]

Made 3 pints of waterbath’d, hot packed tomatoes and 1 and 1/2 pints of polish dill pickles.

I realize that’s not much compared to those of you who regularly stock your pantries with jars of the garden’s bounty, but this is about my speed.

[applestar]

Main tomatoes used for hot pack waterbath jars

- Cow’s Tit (HBR-Right) — 4.7 oz. Shoulders and upper 1/3 or so would not catch up to the blossom end as the fruits ripened. Waited as long as I could. ...less bright red flesh inside than the VGC volunteer Very good umami flavor, dry/paste and stingy with seeds.
- VGC front right volunteer piriform with jointed pedicel (Canestrino della Garfagnana or Charlie Chaplin — less pleated than VGC back right... looks similar to VGA volunteer — 8.1 oz. Intense red and intense sweet/umami flavor. Very good.
- Pennheart (HBR) — 4.1 oz. — this was a bit watery but did have good flavor profile.



— also used the Shimofuri plant VG.SIP-FL fruits which were bland and less flavorful when eaten fresh, as well as a few others.

... harvested more today


— Cow’s Tit (HBR-L) would not subscribe to its nomenclature and presented with longer narrower horn-shaped fruits — they look more like red peppers

...first NOT Opalka ripened. They are very productive but wrong size/shape fruits. Don’t they look kind of like San Marzano? May be mislabeled seed packet.
...have to weigh and measure that NOT Homer Fike’s Yellow Oxheart — it might be the biggest tomato this season.

[applestar]

It rained yesterday, and although only 1/4-1/2 inch depending on local weather underground stations, a good number of susceptible cherry tomatoes split.




FINALLY! A developing cob/silk on one of the Pink and Purple Mexican corn

[applestar]

Spiral Garden Melons update — 7 are now hanging in slings, and one on the ground somewhat protected with a wire hanging basket — I pre-germinated mixed seeds of these new varieties (and some old seeds) and planted what sprouted.

Baker Creek -
- Collective Farm Woman Melon
- Ha'ogen Melon
- Jubilee Watermelon
- Kajari Melon

Fedco
- Montreal Market



- watermelons are likely Jubilee
- 2 small green and white striped melons must be Kajari (there’s another one growing in VGC)
- even toned, smooth round one is probably Collective Farm Woman
- Not sure how to tell the difference between Ha’ogen and Montreal Market.... I think Ha’ogen is not netted and Montreal Market is netted? So maybe the one under the wire hanging basket is Ha’ogen?

...anyone grow these varieties before? Can you tell?

[applestar]

Melon under the hanging wire basket — there are fissures starting to form, and, in the past, I have noted they spread and turn into netting on cantaloupe-type melons... Stem attachment looks tight so far.

[TomatoNut95]

Beautiful melon! Wish I could grow them.

[applestar]

It’s a struggle to grow them here primarily because it doesn’t get hot enough and it doesn’t rain enough in the critical beginning/fruiting growth period, 2ndarily I think because I don’t feed them enough.

I’ve finally improved my methods to manage maybe 1/2 dozen FRUITS each year now. But they are still not reaching their potential sizes, let alone numbers. So far, Korean melon has been the only variety that I could say I’ve succeeded in growing... but this year, I didn’t plant any ... except one volunteer happened to grow and give me two fruits (they are supposed to be able to produce 8-12 fruits per vine.)


...I think I’ve tentatively identified this year’s fruits — I labeled the same photo collage from before... (there are maybe another 4-6 baby fruits on the vines, but it’s doubtful that they will grow to maturity,)

[applestar]

OK... WHAT pest pulls off all pepper fruits - ripe to tiny green - from the plants without disturbing the leaves?
— With the leaves not eaten, and delicate harvesting job, it couldn’t have been the groundHOG.

I found my Aji Dulce Amarillo completely stripped of all fruits ripe to tiny green — they were mostly undamaged whole — some claw scratches and maybe a fang mark or two, except for 3 fruits that had a bite taken from them. The fruits were strewn around — some bobbing in the gravel bog where I’m growing some pepper plants in sub-irrigated containers. DK Snacker was also stripped of fruits and as far as I know, mostly uneaten — I don’t know how many fruits were on the plant.

Neither are hot peppers but Aji Dulce Amarillo has that distinctive very strong floral aroma. Does DK Snacker also have an aroma?


...I ended up picking these Pale Rider and Doux Long d’Antibes “green” — I’d rather eat them unripe than let them be raided. (Their plants were somewhat stressed and slow going, so this will probably help them set more fruits anyway)
...Bolivian Rainbow (Purple unripe fruits) was completely untouched

[applestar]

...starting to think about Fall Garden now — with 70’s high and low 60’s low today-Wed, then 80’s/60’s for another 5 days at least, plus the 1.5 inches of overnight rain saturating the ground, I tried sowing

- Emerald Archer peas, Chanteney Red Core carrots (old seeds, though so germination is iffy to begin with), and Anuenue lettuce in the VG.SIP following the determinate variegated tomatoes
- Super Sugar Snaps peas and Swiss Chard along the back of SFH following the corn and interplanting with the still producing edamame

- on Monday, I already Sowed Takane Ruby buckwheat and carrots in two of the SFH beds following Luther Hill and Applestar’s #sweet# Medley corn (which as I reported did not do well due to weather, European corn earworms, and raccoons). Buckwheat are already up.
- Third bed that had Latte bicolor corn has been taken over by this squash — a C.pepo that I think is Ronde de Nice and should have been picked as a 3-4 inch summer squash. Since I missed the harvest window, I’m just going to let this single fruit completely ripen into a pumpkin for fall decoration and seed harvesting.

[applestar]

BIL had harvested these beautiful Homerfiker’s Yellow Oxheart as well as Pineapple Pig (ivory colored striped beefsteak) grown in his garden from plants I gave him, and sent me a photo on August 15.

I had two plants of Homerfiker’s growing, but first to fruit developed large beefsteak shaped fruits that were obviously NOT Homerfiker’s Yellow Oxheart. Largest of the NOT fruits which actually ripened “brown” -correct color was not captured in the photo- is shown in the collage below (approx. 5 in. across, 13.6 oz). It was gorgeous, perfect, meaty multi-locule beefsteak, but the flavor profile was weak even at this full ripe stage (especially since it was being compared to a suspected Neve’s Azorian Red). I saved seeds anyway and will try growing it again in the future since I don’t know what this is — it could have been a seed mix up, mislabeled, or an accidental bee-cross.

I was disappointed and asked BIL to save me seeds from his. BUT! I was thrilled to realize that my plant #2 has loaded up with large green oxhearts. Hopefully, these will develop into correct type for the variety.



I had to ask BIL to save seeds from the Pineapple Pig as well — none of my THREE plants are not growing well . He had never saved tomato seeds before, but he said the WHITE fruits surprised him with delicious flavor and was enthusiastic about saving the seeds so I could give him plants to grow again next year.

[applestar]

First of Monomakh’s Hat from a heavy truss of large fruits, growing in KG.SIP#1. It’s a shorter plant. Supposed to be indeterminate but last time I grew it, it croaked after producing 2 heavy trusses of large fruits and one smaller sized truss of fruits.



...

I had to pick these two Kajari melons on 8/19 because the vines they were growing on had died and dried up. The one on the left was a little more developed than the one on the right, and on 8/24, it had changed color and developed a strong fragrance in the among the other fruits (peaches and pears) ripening in an open paper bag lined with pressed pulp beverage carrier and paper towel.


Since it also had a soft spot due to incomplete pollination, I cut it up on Saturday. It smelled wonderful, but had no real sugars to speak of. I ended up sprinkling the cut pieces with vanilla sugar and serving in a syrup with ripe peaches and peach juice.

I doubt that the dark green striped fruit will ripen, but hopefully another, most developed one out in the VGC will give us a taste of what this melon should be like, and there are a couple more babies on the Spiral Garden trellis that may still manage to grow to full maturity.

[applestar]

The Pink and Purple Mexican — I have to crane my neck to see if anything is going on up there

First cob I spotted is starting to silk. There was a 2nd cob developing on Sunday, but I almost didn’t recognize it because it looks more like a sucker shoot

[applestar]

Here’ is the damaged (probably) Montreal Market melon I had to harvest two days ago.

— I cut away the one large and 2 small decayed spots with clean knife, hit the spots with, and covered with vodka soaked paper towel and a cling wrap, then put it in this “fruit ripening station” — a heavy paper bag with paper towel- lined pressed pulp beverage carrier on the bottom, which sits on an ottoman in front of an oscillating fan.

I was not really going to count on it ripening off the vine and did NOT expect it to turn yellow in just two days. Now, according to Annapolis Seeds description, it is over-ripe.....

Montreal Melon - Annapolis Seeds
https://www.annapolisseeds.com/Montreal-Melon-p/419.htm

I put it in the refrigerator when I noticed around 3pm. We’ll eat it after dinner.

[applestar]

Emerald Archer peas have come up very nicely here in the VG.SIP, along with some lettuce:



...over in the Sunflower House, Takane Ruby buckwheat, carrots, Swiss chard, and Super Sugar Snaps are up, although the pea germination was spotty.

I’m thinking of sowing barley in the section of HaybaleRow Row where the fingering potatoes have been harvested....

[TomatoNut95]

Carrots? You've already started carrots? I wonder if I should start mine, but it's been too hot.

[applestar]

Don’t forget I will see first frost around mid-late October and hard FREEZE by December. The ground freezes too deep here for any carrot to overwinter in edible state, although the winter damage doesn’t kill them and they can grow and bloom in their biennial year from what is left of the roots.

[SQWIB]

looking good as usual, did you get those critters in check?
I was going to try Kajari Melons in place of cantaloupe next year, whats your opinion on the Kajari compared to a cantaloupe?
I grew some Cantaloupe this year and it had a great texture and that distinct cantaloupe taste but was not sweet at all. My second one was a tad better.

[applestar]

Hey, I commented in your garden thread about the powdery mildew and defoliation/chlorophyll energy factory sabotage robbing the sugar content potential from the melon fruits. Because of this realization, my strategy of cutting off the offending infected leaves is not working either. After spraying, the water-soaked/spotted leaves were burned I think due to pre-existing blemish/wounded leaf surface not being able to withstand the fungicidal mixture. I cut them all off, then traced out the vines and pruned the excess, already leafless vines that would have been pruned off anyway according to the melon pruning guide I’m going to try to follow next year.

I’ll get back to you on Kajari. It’s as susceptible to powdery mildew as the rest. The vines are dying before the one melon fruit they bore appear to be ripe, and/or they actually slip but seem to be due to moldy stem attachment. I have the fruits in the fridge but haven’t tasted any since the first one.

I think Ha’ogen and Collective Farm Woman might be showing better resistance. I may have to add a resistant hybrid next year for proper comparison.

[applestar]

Recent harvest from 8/25 ~ 9/5





...we’re really enjoying the Chicago Hardy figs. I topped all of the branches at about 6 feet this year, instead of letting them grow to heights that I can;t harvest easily anyway. And they seem to be ripening better. Last year, I lost at least a dozen fruits that refused to ripen before frost.

I was hoping to see some White Marseilles figs but they are growing very slowly. I see evidence of what imafan26 mentioned before — these must have been rooted from lateral branches — they keep growing masses of sideways-growing branches. I think I will selectively prune to limit the number of branches and see if they will attempt to produce fruits next year. Petit Nigra figs in containers have small fruits on them that have turned darker, but have not started to increase in size and finish the ripening process. I fertilized them in case they needed a boost.

[applestar]

Ate the Jubilee watermelon today — it was less red than it should have been and not as sweet as I had hoped although it was sweet. It was still good to eat, but I need to be able to grow about 1/2 dozen at once so I can harvest them without worrying so much about getting it wrong. That will be my challenge next year.
.
.
.


- This Ha’ogen looked ripe from the window yesterday — I needed to tug a little more firmly than I expected, but it did “slip” — and blasted me with gorgeous melon aroma as soon as the stem came off. Hopefully this will not be a dud like others so far. The opening in the net bag was too small to slip it out — I had to cut it wider.

- I also harvested the runty Collective Farm Woman since it’s vine had dried up. There is another one that is slightly smaller than this Ha’ogen on the trellis to be picked another day.

- I had to harvest the first to ripen butternut squash — there was a bore-hole and clear frass/squash gel. I’ll cut it open and examine/process it in a little bit. This perfectly round hole makes me think the culprit might be a pickle/melon worm.

- apples, figs, grapes, raspberries

- one of the volunteer antho fruited tomato plant is definitely producing fruits that are almost completely “black" ... I’ll save seeds from this line separately.

[applestar]

Although most of the NE side garden do not get any direct sun during the colder months, I decided to set up and plant some fall-winter-spring crops here. At least I can keep an eye on this area from the upstairs window.... VG garden beds are on the other side of the garage, and -typical of these cookie cutter development houses- there are limited observation vantage — on that side, only windows are the two from the family room that don’t afford much of a view.


So far, I’ve have started Takane Ruby Buckwheat (May or may not be able to mature by frost), carrots, Swiss Chard, Super Sugarsnap peas; and today, dry-sowedseeds for barley, onions, broccoli, kohlrabi, spinach, turnips, radish, more Swiss chard....


...I’m gathering all of my pvc and metal hoops, and hopefully will be able to set up some season extending protection for them as needed (but not necessary for at least another week+ = 80’s/60’s )

[applestar]

I ended up not having the time to deal with that butternut squash with a bore hole in it, so I put it in the meat bin of the refrigerator on the side that doesn’t freeze (we have the drawer set so the side with freezer vent will semi-freeze). I finally got the chance to use it for supper today, and it turned out to be immature — the seeds and seed hulls were soft. I followed the bore hole which dead-ended after about 1 inch, but didn’t find the culprit. Either it was tiny and I mangled it when I accidentally cut across the hole at one point, or it got cold in the meat bin and it crawled out of the squash — I might find it in there somewhere.

What’s great about nominally "winter" squash is that they are actually good to eat at any stage — I think “summer” squash are probably just varieties that won’t achieve eating quality as mature squash. And when immature, you can eat them whole, rind and seeds and all, especially if you don’t use any questionable chemicals (I never eat the rind on store-bought squash — always peel them or when baking/roasting halved/cut up, thoroughly scrub the rind with veg wash/soap first)

I cut this one in disks, then each disk in quarters, immature seeds and all, and fried them in oil/fat left from making lamb burgers in the skillet. Seasoned with Japanese S&B curry powder and garam masala from an Indian grocery store, minced slice of freshly harvested ginger, and sea salt, then cooked until caramelized on the surface and cooked through (they were starting to melt) so yummy. I actually spooned some of the now super flavorful fat over the steamed rice for extra guilty burst of goodness.

[digitS']

Do you mean that winter squash is not a vegetable grown during the winter, AppleStar?

Hey, I understand that it isn't just children who may believe this .

You cutting the squash in discs made me think of this (as a first time spaghetti squash grower). Should spaghetti squash be cut in discs before baking or steaming so as to have "noodles" of maximum length?

Are the strands actually spirals from stem to blossom end of the squash rather than running lengthwise?

Steve

[TomatoNut95]

Winter squashes grow on plants that are more vining, and summer squashes grow on bushier plants, am I right?

[imafan26]

Winter squash from what I understand is a squash with a hard skin that can be stored for winter use. It differs from summer squash that have soft edible skins that will not store long off the vine.

Zucchini and crookneck squash are summer squashes. Most summer squashes are c. pepo species.

Hubbard, butternut, and acorn squash are all winter squashes. They have tough hard skins and the flesh usually needs to be cooked to make it tender.

Japanese pumpkin or kabocha is classified as a winter squash but it does have an edible skin. However, it is not an easy squash to cut up. Upo, luffa, and gourds are usually eaten in their immature stages before the skins harden up.

Most winter squashes take about 100 days to mature and they are usually grown in summer not winter.

[applestar]

All true, but most of the above said winter squashes are tender when immature. I haven’t grown Hubbard, but can attest to most others. Especially C.pepo and C.maxima which are vulnerable to SVB and I’ve had to harvest in varying stages of immaturity, but also C.moschata varieties most of which tend to need long growing season, forcing harvest at immature stage due to imminent frost.

Regular zucchini and summer squash are taken down by SVB’s after only a week or two of harvest and not really worth the amount of space they take up, especially when cucurbita are in a smaller bed rotation.

If kitazawa seeds has it in stock when I’m ready to order, I’m going to try growing this next year — it’s a hybrid, but only source I’ve found so far. I’ll keep looking for an OP variety.

https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_510-188.html
Meot Jaeng I Ae Hybrid
Cucurbita moschata (Duschesne) Poiret

Korean summer squash

[applestar]

DigitS’ — about cutting spaghetti squash into disks, that’s what the guy did in the video I posted here.

I hadn’t heard of doing that before, and thought it was pretty clever. They almost look like the way egg noodles are sold.

[applestar]

- Another failure watermelon — it has a bad blossom end rot. I cut off the end — it was only just starting to turn pink inside and barely sweet. But the cucurbita-loving kitty loved it, and I will add this to my batches of pickled watermelon/melon and/or chutney.


- small harvest dribbling in from the new kitchen garden Raspberry, last of the grapes, and the superstar fruits this time of the year — Chicago Hardy figs and Prok persimmons, as well as the small “white” Coyote cherry tomatoes and surprising effort by the suspected Helsing Junction Blue antho cherries, Also surging with the cooler weather are the small pink cherries grown from seeds from plant that originally came up between the patio bricks. I’m calling this one Coyote Rosa Bébé since they look, ripen, and taste like Coyote and have metallic sheen like my Wild Rosa.

- Piled in the front are cabbage side shoots, which keep being targeted by the groundHOG raiding the garden, so I’ve given up on getting them to form tiny heads and will harvest them as tender greens.

- tiny pile of dried bean pods are (probably) last of Adzuki beans. I’m sold on growing them as companions to tomatoes — both with determinate varieties that finish up and can be removed just as the Adzuki’s start getting some height to them since they grow on sturdy upright “bush” form plants to about 30 inches, and with underplanting cherry tomatoes that out-grow them and fruit above/overhead on the trellis (their lower leaves get cut off any way). Some of the other shorter and slower-growing varieties get buried and have too much fungal issues due to lack of air circulation, so it’s been a bit of a trial-and-error.

[TomatoNut95]

Looks good to me!

[applestar]

Maybe yesterday’s 1 inch plus rain triggered it, but more persimmons were suddenly ready. I had to make a new design persimmon picker with an empty 2L soda bottle and an 8 foot bamboo pole for the fruits on high branches. The clear plastic is an improvement on my last year’s quart soup cup and wire picker, which made it difficult to aim for the correct fruit and maneuver the ‘dull’ wire. The plastic’s sharp edge easily releases the fruit from the stem — though it did slice into one particularly ripe fruit that was hiding between two branches.

- Persimmons fall off with a slight tug when they are ripe — this also means you HAVE to harvest them before they fall off on their own, BUT they cause dry mouth if picked too early. I found three on the ground, then two more later.

- Also when I tested as an after thought, the big apple which was the only fruit that the Arkansas Black espalier set this spring cam right off.

- I’m not sure if this is the right color stage to harvest - it does turn completely yellow eventually - but this Collective Farm Woman melon’s vine looked dead and the stem had dried up so I had to pick it.



- I pruned all the cucumber vines at +1 leaf above the developing fruit, and they seem to be responding.

- My 2nd kind of fig — Petite Nigra in the containers — have started to ripen. These are Zone 8 and need to be overwintered in the garage, but ripen much sweeter than the Chicago Hardy.

- Myoga — Japanese Ginger — flower buds have started to emerge. These have distinctive aroma and flavor — I had some with my dinner as condiment (minced + mayo).

[applestar]

Today’s high only reached 70°F. I wish I could have don’t more, but I was only able to work in the garden from about 7am to 2:30pm when my body cried ENOUGH! (the weakling ) By the time I got inside, my muscles were spasming. According to the Health app, I walked 1.6 miles with 3,996 steps today while carrying the iPhone around in the garden.

- But I did tackle the weeds in the unused half of the inner spiral and raked/hoed most of the elongated weeds that were struggling out from the edge of the black landscape mulch.

- The removed weeds were either piled up and trampled into the path/swale or tossed into the compost bin.

- I raked in some Dolomitic lime, dusting of borax, and bagged Espoma chicken manure before putting the black mulch back. I was considering sowing something here, but maybe I’ll just covercrop the area with crimson clover... or not.... The Spiral Garden will be in corn rotation next year, so it might be best to leave the beds fallow to allow early spring start with peas and/or broadbeans.



- I’ve been distributing the semi/finished compost. I’ll move the bin next year so I can grow a circular block of corn in the middle of the Spiral Garden, in addition to the double spiral.

[Taiji]

Persimmons, that would be an interesting fruit to try. I'm not familiar with them at all! They look delicious though.

[applestar]

You could grow the larger fruited Japanese cultivars in Arizona. In Michigan you’ll need to stick to freeze hardy American native cultivars like Prok, larger Meader selections, or a hybrid with Russian variety called Nikita’s Gift. I really like Prok because it sweetens when ripe without frost/freezing first.

It’s delicious, like eating jam. The skin is thin and tender/edible, too.

Oh! Another plus for Prok is that it is self-fertile and doesn’t need Male/female tree pair or another tree.

[applestar]

With fruits that are best ripened “on the tree/vine” and that need to be picked on the day they are ripe — like Persimmons, berries, figs, etc. — you do have to go out and harvest every day for best results.

...I got more today. There was one on the ground. I harvested from the garden side, first, then from the front yard. There was one that looked ready, but was in an impossible spot to get from the front. I was going to convince myself that it can wait another day, but decided to try one more time from the garden side. While trying to maneuver my picker, the top of the pole nudged it and ... yep it fell on the FRONT YARD SIDE of the fence.

- the smaller trees with big leaves are my PawPaws. They have been blooming since 3 years ago but have not set fruits. Not sure if this is because they are siblings (and need another genetic pollen donor) or because they just aren’t mature enough.

Once they start to bear fruits, the combo of the yellow fruits with the orange persimmons should look wonderful. I cut back the Elderberry a little for easier access to the persimmons (I’m going to use the trimmings to mulch the PawPaws with) ... but I’ll continue to encourage elderberries to grow here as part of my little Front Yard Fence Row “orchard”. There is an apple and pear espaliers on the garden side of the fence, and I’m going to plant a pair of beach plums, too.



...when I was about to call it quits, I happened to walk back to the Shiitake logs and realized I had missed a couple of shiitakes that must have popped up after the last big rain. I had been peering towards them without physically walking closer when watering my container trees — I thought I had been keeping watch. Though past prime, luckily these can still be eaten and aren’t ruined.

[applestar]

In my typical random fashion, another big project I tackled today was to prune and clean up the neglected little nectarine tree. This tree might be on its last legs — it is covered with gummosis. Even so, every spring, it presents a spectacular flower show, but then becomes loaded with fruits that never get chance to ripen due to Brown Rot.

- In my defense, I bought this when I was just learning about fruit trees in general, and I wouldn’t get this particular variety/cultivar now that I know better. I was researching Brown Rot resistant cultivars recently, and may end up buying a new tree, but I can’t plant it here, so I might as well try to give this tree the best care possible, especially since it’s in the front yard and could be considered an ornamental.

- I started by pruning it though this might not be the best time (yeah having said what I said just now). I removed a good 1/3 of the tree so I stopped even though I still see some more extraneous wood that need to be cut.

- Afterwards, as hopefully preventive against infection, I thoroughly sprayed the entire remaining tree with a solution of baking soda, liquid soap, borax, Epsom salts, hydrogen peroxide and 90% rubbing alcohol.

- I collected all of the mummified fruits and burned them as part of my on-going bio-char/ash-as-fertilizer experiment. (I know this isn’t bio-char — I realized I have to take baby steps and practice with open fire first.)



- Having gained a little more confidence from today’s tiny bon-fire in the chicken waterer tray, I’m going to drag the copper fire pit out to this spot and try to burn all of the diseased wood later. I piled them away from any stone fruit in an out of the way spot for now.... though if keeping those make me too nervous, I will bundle them up for municipal pick up.
- As you might be able to see, only thing that didn’t burn in my little bonfire was a little knob of “green” nectarine wood. So those branches will have to season for a while first. Do they burn even when green if you put them in those drum cans of hot fire?

...I made my little fire in the future STARDOME site (a.k.a. Sunflower & House) which stood untended all season — It’s currently green and lush (wet) with expendable weeds and in an open space with no overhead trees, and it doesn’t matter if the weeds get scorched a little or affected from the possible ash+water=lye. The entire circle needs to be eventually leveled out and the fence removed, so it will be helpful to start puttering around in here.

[SQWIB]

It absolutely is Biochar, well it's actually char, once it's charged it's Biochar. That's my definition anyhow.
The purist would argue differently.

Green will burn if it gets hot enough, trust me I just did this yesterday.

[applestar]

Thanks @SQWIB