Bustin Out, New Arrivals,& WTF

This has been a fun week around here alot of  my fruit trees have started blooming (bustin out), I planted 4 new trees, and 1 of my peach trees trees has shown up with some freaky looking wounds. First off my Anna and Golden Dorsett Apples started budding out, along with my Florida Prince Peach tree(bustin out). I planted 4 new trees. One Pineapple Guava the flowers are supposed to taste like candy, I don't no much about the fruit, but I love candy so I probably won't get much fruit. Two plum trees Santa Rosa and Mariposa Plums, the Santa Rosa is a proven winner here in the valley, the Mariposa is supposed to be even better. We'll see I haven't been able to find alot of info on the Mariposa except what's on the Dave Wilson Nursery website. Both of these trees were root bound , I took a knife to the root ball and opened it up I also cut them down to 30 inches to build a better scaffold hopefully? They were 12 bucks each from HD so if they don't work out I can get my money back. Finally I planted a Chinese Honey Fig, I bought the tree through the VPA fruit tree program.. According to the info about the tree in 1979 general secretary to the communist party of China Deng Xiaping brought a Chinese Honey Fig as a present for then President Jimmy Carter in his 1979 visit to the U.S. The tree was then cloned and grown throughout the US, the Az Rare Fruit Growers propagated the trees for this years tree sale. It's a cool story even if it's not true and I've got a new fig tree. Finally my Desert Gold Peach tree showed up with some real gnarly looking wounds all the sudden. Nobody really knows what's going on but I think it has to do with the freezing temps 2 weeks ago and now the trees are bustin out, we'll see.

Florida Prince Peach bustin out

Dorset Golden Apple bustin out.

Anna Apple bustin out.

Bubbler system for the newbies.

New bubbler system finished I now have 8 zones on my sprinkler system in my backyard for watering my lawn and trees.

Pineapple Guava

 The Mariposa Plum, and Santa Rosa Plum I decided to try a few different things with there planting. The tree was extremely root bound so I really cut into the rootball. I also applied some new school planting techniques, I only dug the hole as big as the container, I didn't amend the soil, and I made sure that the tree was planted above the soil level of the backyard. The tree is planted on a mound and the root flare (where the roots start at) are right at the top of the hill. This tough love style of planting seems odd but it makes sense. Amending the soil and digging the hole 2-3 times bigger than the rootball only coddles the tree and doesn't really help it adapt to the valleys harsh soils. Planting the tree on a hill with the top of the root flare almost exposed keeps the tree from drowning, the main killer of new trees is over watering, because the tree sits down lower than the level of the yard that's around it,  you want to encourage the tree roots to grow deep, not shallow. You accomplish this by deep infrequent watering. I also knee capped the trees which means I cut all branches off at 30 inches this will insure that the trees form a short wide structure better for urban orcharding. The pics above are before and after Mariposa Plum

Santa Rosa Plum planted high and knee capped.

Chinese Honey Fig planted high no knee capping required. Side notes, chickens love figs, and fig trees are one of the few plants that love a top dressing of cow manure. You want your fig to grow big, throw down some cow manure.

Finally my Desert Gold Peach showed up with these crazy wounds. I have no idea where they came from, I'm hoping they're from the recent crazy weather, 5 days of freezing and an inch and a half of rain over this weekend. I hope?

Winter Pruning

I've never thought much about pruning my deciduous fruit trees, but this year I took a couple of pruning classes and have decided to give it a shot. You prune your fruit trees to create a better structure within the tree, trees that aren't pruned get tall and leggy and cannot support the weight of the fruit they bear. A mature peach tree can produce 600 lbs. of fruit. You can also prune trees to dwarf them, dwarfing rootstocks inhibit the growth of trees which usually means you get an under performing tree but if you prune properly you get  the advantage of using better rootstock and you can keep the tree any size you want. Backyard orchardist keep there trees smaller so they can plant more trees in a smaller area and so they don't have to use ladders. You prune your trees when they drop all of there leaves(go dormant) the same with grapes. This year that day was January 16th. I pretty much removed a third of the trees growth and tried to focus on getting 5-6 main branches growing up from the trunk of the tree this is called a scaffold. These branches will be the main fruit bearing branches, fruit only forms on 2 year old growth, so you always want to leave some of last years growth on the tree so you get fruit. I also pruned off branches that crossed or grew towards the middle of the tree. It's pretty hard knocking off a third of a tree that you've spent the last 3 years caring for but in the end I think I'll be rewarded with a better tree. I also pruned my grapes back but that was not as dramatic because I've done that before. I've put a couple of links in this post for cane and spur pruning grapes, they're spot on. Grapes also only grow on second year growth.

Three year old Florida Prince Peach before

After

2 year old Desert Gold Peach before

After, I wasn't real happy with the way this tree grew so I decided to prune heavy keeping only the main structure which means I won't get any fruit this year but in the long run the tree will have better scaffolding and support more fruit in the future.

Grapes are different each variety needs a different style of pruning my Thompson Seedless needs the be cane pruned but my Red Flame Seedless needs to be spur pruned.

Thompson Seedless before.

After cane pruned

Red Flame Seedless before

After spur pruned

Monukka Seedless this grape didn't grow to well this year (I think because it's to close to the wall) I just trimmed him back we'll see if it even buds out this spring.

Pruning review Don't be afraid in case you cut the tree flush with the ground you won't kill it, pruning is actually good for deciduous fruit tress and grapes, make sure you use a good sharp pair of pruners. I like to grind braches up in the chipper and use them for mulch around the trees, but with chickens the mulch doesn't stay there long.

Chicken Rototillers, Spring Seeds, & the BIG FREEZE

It has been busy around here, even though we're in the middle of winter. I've been busy and the weather has been down right ridiculous. For the last five days the highs have been in the mid 40's and the thermometer on the back porch has read 26 degrees every morning. THIS IS PHOENIX!!! My brother in D.C. has had nicer weather. The garden hoses in the back yard are frozen solid but thankfully no pipes have burst. My chickens have weathered the hard freeze well, they got a new piece of garden to pick through, and the cold hasn't seemed to phase them at all. I've always wanted a chicken feather coat, I bet it would be super warm.

Chickens are great they're easy to keep, you get fresh eggs everyday (and yes they taste better), and they're always entertaining. BUT they are a menace to your garden, they spend there entire day trying to invade your garden to destroy everything they touch. BUT they also provide some great benefits, they scratch and turn over the ground and they add little bits of fertilizer every time they poop(and they poop alot). I finally figured out how to harness these little self fertilizing rototillers. I've cut chicken size holes in my garden fence that are closed off with gates most of the time. When one of my garden beds get's finished producing I cut it down, put up temporary fencing, and open up the gates. I really believe the beds are in better shape after a month of chicken rototilling.

 Temporary fence going up.

A view through the chicken gate.

The final setup the chickens are doing there thing but they aren't running wild in the garden.

I also started my spring tomatoes and peppers. This is the first year I've tried this and have high hopes for a bunch of different varieties. I used the Jiffy pods to plant in because they're easy to start seeds in. Overall I have over 100 different starts.

Here's my starts all planted up should be 7-10 days for germination. Peppers planted Serrano,Italian Pepperoncini, Poblano, & Anaheim. Tomatoes planted Prudens Purple, Better Boy Hybrid, Juliet Hybrid,Super Sweet 100, Glacier, Silver Fir Tree, & Early Girl Hybrid.

Finally THE BIG FREEZE
I haven't seen it get this cold here in a long time but everything outside froze and we had a few casualties here.

 My cape honeysuckle & potted peppers, pretty much dead.

This is what came out of my garden hose once water started flowing through it it was frozen solid for 5 days.

This is my passion fruit vine I'm pretty sure all it's foliage is dead but the vine will grow back. We'll see
booyah?

Screwin around in the yard on Saturday

COMPOST PILE OMEGA

Thanks to some landscaper friends of mine I was able to build this enormous compost pile it consisted of my old compost pile and a trailer full of leaves and grass they gave me. The pile measures 12 feet long by 5 feet wide by 4 feet tall.

My original pile that I mixed with the donation from the landscapers. I also placed 3 inch perforated pipes on the bottom of the pile to help add air for the micro organisms that break down the pile.

 Thanks landscaper buds.

Finished pile ready for break down. To bad it's been frozen solid for 4 days, the weather around here has been crazy.

Plant those taters & the tomatoes are dead Jim!

The first of the year here and it's time to plant your potatoes. So I double dug my bed and planted my taters. I tried saving some of my potatoes from last year in the crisper of my fridge to plant this year but, they turned into a big pile of mush. So I went to the store and bought sacks of Red, Yukon, and Ruby Crescent potatoes. When you buy your potatoes it's best to buy seed potatoes or organic. These taters aren't sprayed with the chemical that inhibits sprouting. All regular grocery store potatoes are sprayed to keep them from sprouting on the shelf. Grocery store potatoes also supposedly carry more disease and fungus's. Where seed potatoes are really clean and have no chemicals sprayed on them. This year I decided to go with what I found at the grocery store (mainly because after I dug the bed I opened up my fridge and found that my seed potatoes I saved from last year turned into mush, and I didn't feel like looking for seed potatoes). I hope I don't have to eat crow on this! The Red Crescent taters were at least organic, and I rinsed the rest of the potatoes off to try and get them as clean as possible. I will say this, I've grown potatoes here before, and the red  taters always produce a bumper crop while the rest are always so so. That's why I always plant half the bed with reds and try other potatoes in the other half.

The bed before I knocked it down, it's my old tomatillo/ pepper patch.

Here's the bed, I double dug it and added a layer of homemade compost. 

Tater from left to right Ruby Crescent Fingerlings, todays chicken eggs, Red, and Yukon Potatoes.

Here's the bed all planted I only bury the potatoes a couple inches deep and then add a deep layer of alfalfa on top, harvest when tops die back usually in May, Stay tuned.

One of my big time goals is to have tomatoes all year long. I haven't even come close in summer but I've come close in winter, last year I had one survive all winter long and had a bumper crop in the spring. This winter has been much colder and the frost has already killed my tomatoes. It's pretty disappointing since some of my plants were 6 feet tall at one point. Next year I'm going build cold frames, but that's a different post. This coming Friday we're forecast to have a hard freeze so with great sorrow, I went and picked all my green tomatoes today. You can place  these green tomatoes in a window sill and they'll ripen in a few weeks, but they just don't taste as good. It's better than letting the hard freeze get them.

Dead Jim!

Maybe next year.

Asparagus & Harvest/Forage Party

Last year at this time of year I planted Asparagus. The process involved digging a trench 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep by 10 feet long in an East to West direction. I then placed the Asparagus root balls in the the bottom of the trench and covered them with a 2-3 inch layer of soil and compost. When the Asparagus started popping up through the soil I added a 6 inch layer of soil and compost until eventually the trench was completely back filled. Asparagus is a long term commitment you can't harvest any of your first year spears ,you leave them alone and let them develop there root mass. In there second year you can harvest from your patch for the first week that they sprout then leave them alone to develop more root mass, in the second year  you can harvest for 2 weeks, and so on until year 7 when you can harvest for 6 weeks. Like I said it's a long term commitment. In the middle of December through the end of January you cut your Asparagus down to let it go dormant.

The 2 pictures above are my Asparagus patch.

Asparagus Seeds

Here's the patch all cut down I leave the leaves and stems right where I cut them down to break down and nourish the soil for next years spears.

We also have a alot of stuff coming out of the garden and the neighborhood. I can't grow everything I like but there are other ways to get what you want ?foraging?

This years black-eyed pea harvest you put a pea and a quarter in your wallet for good fortune in the new year  then you cook a big ole pot of ham and beans.

Yeah I found/foraged a half of box of Pecans. BOOYAH!

The dill is getting growing.

Our stir fry, red bell,  broccoli, and, sugar peas

The stir fry is my favorite, but the pecans are just as good, if you like dill pickles buy a regular jar of pickles and throw your fresh dill in the jar, instant dill pickles. Stay tuned for my bad ass booyah pickles.