Was I surprised!

Will’s Gold

PI 651006

And it looks like there are two flower buds on PI 651006.  I have to find out whether I should pinch them off or not.

Six attempted grafts.  Six apparently successful grafts.  Beginner’s luck. Maybe. Probably.

More pictures ……..

But a single line in Michael Dirr’s The Reference Manual of Wood Plant Propagation suggested a possible propagation technique: This species suckers profusely; a good indication that it will regenerate from root pieces.  I’ve not seen any suckering on our plants but I figured it was worth a try. So I carefully uncovered roots on both the male and female plants and cut off two of the small roots from each, potted them up in Pro-Mix BX and waited. Eleven days later one of the male roots had a tiny bit of green.

By April 30, this little nub of a shoot was 1 ½” tall.

And that second male cutting was showing a trace of green.

Neither of the female cuttings are showing any green but they may yet surprise given the performance of the second male root.  And it’s not that important since we have 5 female plants and 2 male plants.  We now have 4 male plants which greatly reduces the impact of one of the male plants dying.  And we now have another propagation tool at our disposal.

Hmmm, what other of our trees and shrubs have I seen suckers on?   Hazelnut, mulberry, red maple, wild apples.  Perhaps any tree or shrub that can be stooled can also be propagated from root cuttings?  Stay tuned.

More pictures …

Slitting the bark

The host ready to receive the scion

Shaving the scion

Taping the graft

Looking at how sharp the knife was, I decided that it was a good idea to protect my thumb so I taped a piece of hard yoghurt container with duct tape. The inside piece of tape was reversed so that it wouldn’t stick to my thumb. It was slow going because I didn’t really know what I was doing.  I knew that I had to get as much contact between each piece of wood’s cambium layer but knowing what you are supposed to do is not the same thing as being able to do it.
One bark graft was enough. I decided to switch to a faster and easier technique – cleft grafting.

The cleft

The graft

Taped

Will's Gold Tagged

Tagged

By the time I was finished I had 8 grafts of PI 651006 – I cut each 16″ scion into 4 pieces, each with two or three buds on it – and 8 grafts of  Will’s Gold. Two of the Will’s Gold grafts are on rootstock and are potted up. All I need is one PI 651006 to take and then I have an endless supply. Hopefully, one of the potted up Will’s Gold grafts will take because I’d like to give it to Will when the family gets together this Thanksgiving.

I’ll know soon enough how successful my first grafting attempts have been because we are starting to have bud break on our established trees. The grafts will probably take a little longer to show bud break because of the shock they have gone through.

January 29, 2012

Last fall our bees benefited from  all the goldenrod and New England aster we have around them and harvested lots of pollen well into the fall.  But I was still concerned that they would have enough stores to take them through the winter.  It was a late, wet start to the summer and we had them start from scratch when we switched them from foundation to foundationless frames.  I put a peaked roof on the hive so that the snow would not build up too much. I put a strip of vapour barrier along the peak to keep water from leaking in.  Then I began to wonder if that was such a good idea.  Bees in a cluster produce condensation when they breath.  If that moisture doesn’t escape, it can kill them.  Perhaps that strip of vapour barrier along the peak of the hive would stop the moisture from escaping?

And the first indications were not good.

It’s not unusual to find dead bees on the snow. They go on cleansing flights and sometimes don’t survive. The carpet of dead bees in the bottom of the hive, though, was a shock.  Had they starved? Had they succumbed to one or more of the many diseases that bees have to deal with? Had they frozen because there was too much moisture in the hive?  It was very upsetting to think that I might have killed the bees because of my ignorance.

But then a week later with more warm weather……………….

March 13, 2012

And I saw a couple of bees with pollen sacs full.  It’s too early for pussy willows or aspen so someone must have crocuses in flower.  And today, with temperatures reaching 19˚C, they were doing a lot of foraging and returning with bright yellow pollen.  Wherever I walked in the garden, I was met with inquisitive bees trying to figure out if I was a pollen source.

So the bees have survived the winter but there is still a risk of starvation.  Although the 14-day  forecast calls for daily highs between 9 and 19 and lows between 3 an 11,  it’s still very early and it’s likely that they don’t have much left in the way of winter stores.

Nonetheless, I’m a lot happier than I was a week ago.

More pictures.

In a previous post, I wrote about Altrei Coffee lupines.  Richters has since sold out of these seeds.  I’ve had a number of inquiries about seeds which got me to thinking about what Richters was attempting to do:

Richters is proud to introduce SeedZoo™, a project to preserve traditional and indigenous food plants from around the world. Teaming up with botanical explorers and ethnobotanists, we are searching for rare and endangered food plants that home gardeners can grow and enjoy, and help to preserve.

It occurred to me that a forum was need to put those who have in contact with those who want, something similar to Dave’s Garden but focused on SeedZoo™ seeds.

I began talking with Conrad Richter about the need to share seeds from his SeedZoo™. While he finds the seeds, he doesn’t have the facilities to propagate them. That means that supply is limited. If we buyers grow the seeds and then share them, then we help achieve the SeedZoo™’s objective of preserving some of the world’s rare food diversity.

With Conrad’s support and encouragement, I’ve set up a SeedZoo™ Seed Swapping & Growing Info forum – http://seedzoo.proboards.com/. This forum is not affiliated with Richters but rather it is a forum of gardeners interested in growing the seeds of SeedZoo™.

If anyone is interested in obtaining  Altrei Coffee lupine seeds or any other SeedZoo™ seeds (they don’t have to be sold out varieties),  can I ask you to register and list what you have or need?  You don’t have to be active but it gives you a chance to respond, if you so choose, to those seeking Altrei Coffee seeds or any other SeedZoo™ seeds that you may have grown. Even if you don’t have seeds to share, sharing a growing experience is helpful because it builds a knowledge base for others.

As with any forum, email addresses are kept private unless you choose otherwise. Members contact other members via personal messages. This is a moderated forum so polite, civil behaviour will be maintained.

A couple of the white pines and a couple of the white spruces died but everything else has thrived.  The white cedars, being the most vigorous of the four species, have done the best, doubling in size.

Tending was minimal with a heavy weeding early in the summer and two or three waterings during the summer.  We’ll keep them in pots for at least one more year before planting them out.  We’ll still need to keep the existing vegetation under control but that’s what the scythe is for.

We are so pleased with the results that we have placed an order for more trees next spring.

More pictures here.

Filed under: Propagation ]]> http://portageperennials.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/1371/feed/ 2 portageperennials http://portageperennials.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/me-and-the-girls/ http://portageperennials.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/me-and-the-girls/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:03:50 +0000 MikeH http://portageperennials.wordpress.com/?p=1336 Continue reading →]]> The fall garden cleanup continues and today was a beautiful clear day for it.  Grass clippings from one last cutting to give the voles less nesting material were added to the fall compost pile which is made up mostly of other people’s leaves.  We do curb side pickup but we don’t do raking.

And pots are sunk into empty raised beds to over-winter.

There isn’t much to do to prepare the bees for winter other than to reduce the number of entrance holes.

A bit of activity yesterday as the afternoon sun warmed the hive

Bees in flight foraging for nectar in today's afternoon sun

I had planned to pull up the remains of the broccoli but that plan changed when I found out where the bees were foraging on a few remaining broccoli flowers. Pickings are slim but that didn’t deter them from pollen gathering.

Note the pollen sack

The sun was warm. The fall colours were spectacular. The air smelled musty and earthy from the falling leaves in the woods that are damp on the ground. I was humming as I worked and the bees were humming as they worked. Life is simple and good.

When I was putting a guard on one of the M7 rootstocks, I noticed what I thought was a root. So I carefully pulled back the earth to find that two of the shoots around the main stem had roots.

Two new M7 rootstocks

And in the part of the bed where the rootstock had been trench layered …….

……….. roots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   That makes 4 new rootstocks and the other rootstock that I didn’t check will probably have some new rootstock as well.  And if I can lay my hands on some pear and plum rootstock and produce my own…….

Oh, the possibilities!

Haskap in flower October 30, 2011

Since we first planted haskap and honeyberry in 2008, I’ve been trying to propagate them from stem cuttings, in part, to get free plants but more importantly to learn propagation techniques.  My first attempt at softstem cuttings in 2009 was deceivingly successful.  I got 6 of 8 cuttings to take.  Three of the cuttings are still in the garden and bore fruit this year while two have been given away and one later died.  My attempts last year were a complete failure.  I didn’t give up on softstem cuttings but I decided to try layering this year since honeysuckle in general is supposed to layer well.   So, in the spring, while branches were still green and pliable I buried a number underground while leaving the branch tip above ground and held them down with rocks.  Where the branch was underground, I nicked the underside of the branch with a knife to encourage roots. Over the summer, the bushes leafed out and grew and I didn’t pay much attention to the layered branches except during the rainless weeks of July.  I checked a number of the visible branches and found that they had died.  And then I forgot about them until yesterday when we were preparing to over-winter plants by sinking them into the ground in the haskap beds.  To prepare the beds, a general clean and weeding are done.  When I went to remove the rocks, I tugged gently at the branches and found resistance which means that there were roots.  Cutting the branch and gently digging up the cutting, I found well developed root systems.

A well developed root system

A couple had such substantial root systems that they could be subdivided before potting up.

A layered branch which can be cut into two plants

By the time that I was finished, I had eight plants potted up: four 9-92 or Indigo Yum as they have been renamed (the first 4 plants on the left), 2 Borealis (the next two plants), 1 Berry Smart (top right), and 1 Polar Jewel (just below Berry Smart)

Eight new plants from layering

Needless to say,  I’m very pleased.  This is a very easy propagation technique.  You don’t need anything more than a rock and you don’t have to monitor results as you go along.  I’m doubly pleased because I can provide pollinators – the Berry Smart and the Polar Jewel – to people to whom I gave rooted Borealis cuttings. I didn’t have pollinators to give at the time and had hoped that last year was going to be a successful year with cuttings.  Now they will be able to get fruit and know how to multiply their plants if they choose to.

More pictures here and here.

Both were planted at the same time and both germinated more or less at the same time around the 3rd week of June.  We planted each about 6″ apart and had close to 100% germination.   By July 4, there was a noticeable difference in growth rate.

Soybeans - July 4, 2011

The first group are Harunamai, then Laura, then Laura on the other side of the post, then Harunamai, and lastly Laura.

Soybeans - Sept 26, 2011

By September 26, the Harunamai, on the left, were ready to harvest while the Laura, on the right, were still growing.  So we harvested the Harunamai and got one litre of beans from 36 plants in a 3′ x 4′ plot.  We have no idea whether this is a good or bad yield.

Even though we haven’t had a killing frost yet I decided to harvest the Laura beans on October 22 because we’ve had so much rain that the lack of rain that day was an opportunity not to be ignored.  It was cold, very cold and I was tempted to quit but as I stood there it occurred to me that were we depending on this food, I’d have no choice but to continue to harvest.  So I did.  Mentally, if not physically, I was warmed.

Both harvests were very good and it would appear that, although not entirely shelled yet, the Laura harvest is perhaps twice as good as the Harunamai although they went right to the wire for ripening.  Planting earlier next year by one or two weeks might help.  Perhaps staggering the planting one week apart would be a hedge against a late spring frost and an early fall frost.

At this point, we’re just pleased to have enough beans to dry roast, continue our Ongoing Soy Beverage Experiment, and increase our planting next year. We are quite please with how this has turned out.