Victoria Limbertwig to replace Purple Robe Locust

The Purple Robe Locust in the front yard died a couple of years ago. We submitted a request to the HOA to plant a fruit tree instead, and they approved!  Now 7429 has the only front yard fruit tree in the neighborhood.  Yippee!  It needs a pollinator so we planted a Wealthy apple tree in a yard around the corner. 

The Limbertwig was last pruned in March 2013, along with the peach, two apples (backyard), and sour cherry in the backyard.  We will continue to prune and manage the other pollinator. 



Purple skin with white dots and crisp yellow flesh. Very juicy and rich in flavor, excellent quality. This is a great dessert apple that stores well. Ripens very late-- usually October in most locations. Considered one of the best Limbertwigs.
Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 5,6,7,8,9,10
Pollination: Select another midseason bloom apple variety
Fruit Storage: Excellent
Mature Size: Medium
Ripens: Very Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Rootstock: Semidwarf
Size when shipped: 5/8 to 3/4 inch caliper (width around trunk)
Height prior to shipment: 5 to 6 ft.
Shape when shipped: Feathered (prominent side branching) and Whips (no branching)

Companion pollinator for Victoria Limbertwig

 

The Victoria Limbertwig apple tree in the front yard needs a pollinator.  Since the apple tree across the street died we planted this one in a neighbor's yard. 

 

 

Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Pollination: Self-fertile
Fruit Storage: Fair
Mature Size: Small
Ripens: Midseason
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking
Rootstock: Semidwarf
Size when shipped: 5/8 inch caliper (width around trunk)
Height prior to shipment: 5 ft.
Shape when shipped: Whips (no branching)

August 2011 Fruit Tree Care - Northstar Cherry and others

Fruit crops vary this year depending where your garden/orchard is located. I have some apples in Reno and Paradise Valley, but nowhere near a full crop. I did get a good harvest off my 3 yr old Northstar cherry; it lives up to its name as a tart cherry, but will make a good jam or pie.
If you have apples and pears and are tracking codling moths, now is the time to hang your second trap. When you catch moths three nights in a row, you will have your second biofix.

If you have cherry trees, you will want to check for pear sawfly larvae damage. Although a pest of all fruit trees, cherry trees seem to be especially susceptible in northern Nevada. Examine the leaves on your cherry tree for leaf damage evidenced by the green upper surface of the leaf is gone leaving only the brown skeletal veins. Then look on the leaves for a small (3/8 inch long and 1/8 inch wide), slimy, dark brown to black, little slug—the larva of the pear sawfly (a small wasp). For more info, go to: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r603302211.html.

If the damage is extensive (more than 20 % of the leaves effected) and the larvae are still present, take action. I generally will spray with Sevin. Organic methods include picking them off by hand (yuck) or sprayed off with a water hose. If unchecked, the larvae will strip the leaves on a large portion of the tree and severely damage the tree if not kill it.

Check your soil moisture by digging a small hole just beyond the drip line of the tree; the soil should be moist but not soggy. If the soil is hard and dry, increase your watering time. You will also want to check the moisture in your garden and yard as well.

Now is the time to apply Bt to tomatoes to kill the tomato hornworm before one eats one of your tomato plants for dinner; you can also use it on cabbage to control the cabbage looper (the 1” green caterpillar).  Buy a small container; it goes a long way. I mix and apply with a sprinkler can.

CC & R Farm fruit trees

The fruit trees are doing great!  We've been pruing them each year using the skills we learned from the UNR Cooperative Extension Master Gardener tree guy, Michael Janek, and our local permaculture group.  They're all between 3-5 feet tall and filling out nicely.

This is the Meteor sour cherry tree.  It arrived a scrawny bareroot; we whipped it according to instructions even though it was really scary to cut off the branches.  The poor thing was little more than a stick when we put it in the ground in 2009.  We were sure it was going to die but removing the wood so the tree would focus on root development really paid off.  It's beautiful.  We hope for fruit in about 2 years.

This is the genetically altered apricot tree with the icky name....15MA522. It is also doing well. We purchased genetically modified because we needed a small apricot tree that would grow in a pot. Apricots can grow in northern Nevada but the climate must be right; we figured there must be a suiteable microclimate someplace in our yard, so we planted it in a pot to make it easy to relocate. Until spring 2011 it was located close to the house and the warmth from the siding caused the tree to blossom too early -- we lost the blossoms in two or three subsequent frosts. We're hoping this spot is cooler so the tree will blossom later next year.

This was a mistake!  In 2009 we planted asclepias for the butterflies.  The seedlings where so puny I didn't really think they'd survive so I positioned them in front of the espaliered Calville Blanc d'Hiver apple tree.  The asclepias grew well in 2010.  This year it took off sending up shoots all over the place!  It is now taller than the apple tree and is undoubtedly winning the competition for nutrients and sunlight.  Next year we'll leave the runners that sprout behind the tree and remove them from the front. 

The Reliance peach tree is beautiful.  It also developed blossoms this year but the frost got 'em.  We'll try coving it with Agribon in spring of 2012 to protect the blossoms.

And finally -- the Newtown Pippin apple.  I really expected this one to develop some fruit this year because apple trees are supposed to produce within a year or two of planting.  My friend Leslie had fruit the second year.  This tree has been in the ground three years. What gives!  The good news is the traps did catch a single coddling moth.



Hail falling on hollyhocks in a northern Nevada garden

Doggie gardening

Time 5:25am
Temperature - Sparks 58, CC&R Farm 48


Soil temp - still don't know where thermometer is

Is this dill?

This could be dill but I'm not sure.  I seeded a bunch last year but not much grew. This is just one of about 8 plants like this.

I think I'll try fall seed sowing this year.  Plants seem to have more vigor when they pop up where they want rather than where I want them.

Random pics and progress in my Northern Nevada garden

Is it too late for these bush beans?

Time 6:45am
Temperature - Sparks 51, CC&R Farm 51
Soil temp - unavailable; thermometer is lost in the plants

 
These bush beans should have been planted a few days ago. They had been wrapped in a moist paper towel inside a plastic bag, the point being to increase germination success by introducing the seeds to moisture before planting. I'm going to plant them anyway and see what happens.

Red Heritage raspberry blossoms

These canes were planted last year. We took the necessary yet painful step of removing all the blossoms they produced the first year so the plant would focus on root development instead of fruit development.  Hopefully this year we'll get to eat raspberries growing 6 feet from the kitchen door.  Yippee...I can harvest them in my pajamas.

Jerusalem artichokes? When did I plant these?!

These showed up in the garden in March.  I don't remember planting them but here they are, none the less.  At first I thought the plants were perennial flowers but then, while digging for something, I pulled out a Jerusalem artichoke. They're spreading fast!  I may have to take drastic measures next year if they get out of hand because they're in the prime bed.

They want to liiiiive!

Time 5:48am
Temperature - Sparks 55, CC&R Farm 47
Soil temp 60

Even though the weather has been crappy the Lazy Housewife pole beans we planted June 7th have sprouted.  I cover them with bottomless drink cups, anchored with bamboo skewers to protect them from birds.  It also helps keep the pill bug invasion down long enough for the plant to get established.

Pole beans, bush beans, third round of beets

Time 7:18am
Temperature - Sparks 57, CC&R Farm 66
Soil temp 62

Yesterday I planted onion starts that should have been in the ground at least a month ago...if they don't get to full size we'll eat them as baby onions.

Sowed third round of beets (Baby Ball and Cylindra).  The pill bugs in our raised beds really love these and ate the other two batches.  I'm going to start picking them out of the beds.  There's no mulch so no place to hide.

Sowed Kentucky Wonder, Contender, Lazy Housewife, and Empire pole beans, and Tri-color bush beans.  Some on the slanted fence trellis, other at the base of 6 ft bamboo poles inserted into the keyhole bed soil. 

Last year pill bugs ate most of our bean crop right when the seedling emerged, and birds picked what was left to death.  Lesson learned?  Pull the mulch about 6" away from the planted area to discourage pill bugs, and cover everything with something to keep the birds out. I use the flat racks nursery pony-packs ship in (see pic).  Nurseries will usually give you a few if you ask.

To increase bean germination success rate I roll the seeds in moist (not wet) paper towels, put the roll into a sealable plastic bag, and let it sit for hours prior to planting.  Then the seeds were coated in legume inoculant right before they went into the soil.  

Windy Sunday made both me and my garden cranky, but yesterday was a better day

Most of the transplants survived the wind we had the other day and yesterday's calm weather gave them an opportunity to recoup and settle in.  The summer squash and cucumbers especially took a beating but might be OK.  I planted extra seeds next to the plants just in case. 

This is a White Scallop summer squash, an heirloom variety that I recieved for my birthday last year. Because this plant went into the ground just a couple of days ago I cut the blossoms off so the plant can put all its energy into root production.  It's hard to remove blossoms but plants produce more and better when root systems are strong.  And bonus...the blossoms were really tasty chopped and sauteed with scrambled eggs

Here's a wishful thinking crop that I fully expect to fail in this region....fava beans.  Why do I expect them to fail?  Fava beans, or broad beans, require a 120-day growing season; ours is 90-days.  Why do I hold out hope that this might work?  I've read (though not actually experienced) that fava plants are frost tolerant to a certain degree so perhaps our frosty days will count as growing season days. Why do I insist on trying to grow them?  Because I love fava beans and I don't mind failing.  Everything I learn this year, through success or failure, will improve my skills next year. And the blossoms are beautiful!

This is a pic of our Nyagous tomato, an heirloom variety purchased from Seed Savers Exchange.  We grew these for the first time last year and had some success.  The single plant didn't produce a huge crop but the mature tomatoes are beautiful and the taste is fantastic.  We're off to a better start this year so I hope to get a bigger crop in 2010.

Distorted leaves on our Calville Blanc d'Hiver apple tree

Time 6:38am

Temperature - Sparks 58, CC&R Farm 54.6

Soil temp 61.7

A healthy Calville Blanc d'Hiver apple tree looks like this:

The leaves on our tree look like this:

Hoping for a diagnosis I contacted Michael Janek, the owner and orchardist at Michael's Apples.  Michael grows and sells, among many other fruiting trees and canes, heirloom apple trees.  Here's my answer:

"Crinkly leaf. It's probably frost damage from that freeze a couple of weeks ago. It happens when the leaves are just starting to unfurl."