What's Growing in the Garden

trc65 said:
I'm thinking maybe a 3" layer of wood chips raked together with soil, then fill with soil/compost.
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Thanks, but is it a crazy idea to think it will help with water retention? If not, then no reason to do it? You mention uping the N. How and with what? All I ever use/have is 12-12-12. Not that I couldn't get something else.
 
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It will help some with water retention, plus, your soil is clay correct? The organic matter will help a clay soil. Loosen it up some and keep it from turning it into a brick when it dries out.

Raised beds also tend to be warmer and thus dry out quicker than other soils.

If your only goal is water retention, it's probably a wash on raised bed with chip base vs regular soil. If the goal is also to lessen the problems with a clay soil, I think a raised bed is worth it.

A mulch on top will also help with water retention.

Using 12-12-12 is fine, but if you could get your hands on a small amount of urea or ammonium sulfate, they would work quicker to break down the chips.

With 12-12-12, and a 4'x8' bed, use 2 oz for a 20# nitrogen/acre rate. No need to weigh it out, a volume measure is very close to weight. If you have ammonium sulfate (22% N) use a little over an ounce, and 0.5 ounce for urea (46%N).
 
Nothing growing in the garden yet, but trying to get all the fruit trees pruned in the next few days. Can only do a couple hours at a time before my knees tell me to get off the ladder.
 
We had two potentilla bushes with a bunch of daisies in between. Grass started growing inside the daisies and around the bushes and last year it just took over. So now the only recourse is to dig it all out - flowers included - and maybe replant some color. So started digging today. The clods are too heavy to put in the trash bin so guess a trip to the dump is in my near future.
 
DLJeffs said:
We had two potentilla bushes with a bunch of daisies in between. Grass started growing inside the daisies and around the bushes and last year it just took over. So now the only recourse is to dig it all out - flowers included - and maybe replant some color. So started digging today. The clods are too heavy to put in the trash bin so guess a trip to the dump is in my near future.
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There are herbicides that will specifically kill only grasses and not affect ornamentals. I buy it by the gallon, but small amounts of premixed RTU are available.

Ortho "Grass B Gone" is one. It has the active ingredient "fluazifop". Other active ingredients (in other products) are clethodim and sethoxydim.
 
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Thanks Tim. I used to work in a plant that blended and packaged all the Ortho products so I am familiar with most. I'll get some to keep this area cleaned up but it's so bad right now the best thing is to dig it out and add a little fresh topsoil and replant - but replant with some spacing and control. It's just a jumbled mess right now.
 
Florida Everglades tomatoes. Plant over 8' tall.
Picked about 50 today. About size of a marble, about 5/8" diameter. Sweet tasting!

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More questions - lol.
I received my bare rooted Montmorency trees from OnLine Orchards through Home Depot. The instructions say to plant the tree so the root graft is level with the ground. Shouldn't it be just slightly above ground (the string in my picture)? I read their instructions as half in/half out of the ground. Plus if it's suppose to be about ground, does it matter how much? I'd planted it 2 or so inches above so when it settles it's just above ground level. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.
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We always kept the graft union above ground. If the scion is wood stock, above, if root stock, below. Additionally, if the graft is not perfect, being at or below soil increases chances of infection. Above allows time for the graft to develop more callus wood properly. Good luck.
 
There is a reason that there is a graft with rootstock below and scion wood above. Often it is about getting as many trees to sell as you can. Fruit trees openly hybridize and they do not come "true" from seed. If you want a Honeycrisp tree, planting a seed from a Honeycrisp apple will not likely end up as a Honeycrisp - probably possible, but highly improbable - maybe even better. The other main way to propagate pome fruits is to make cuttings. Many pome fruits do not readily root from cuttings and the ones that do are not all that reliable. Additionally, some selections do not seem to grow on their own roots too well in all environments. It has been deemed much easier to graft buds onto selected rootstock. Find an easily grown-from-seed variety that has the correct growing characteristics, and hopeful resistance to the diseases of the area, bud a desirable variety on the rootstock and viola - you have a tree you can produce cheaply and sell expensively. But perhaps most important nowadays, there is a growing reliance on advanced growing "systems" to produce the most fruit per acre and be easily and inexpensively harvested. That often involves reduced height trees. there have been a number of rootstocks found and/or developed that impart "dwarfing" characteristics to the variety grafted on top. What might naturally be a 30' tree at maturity, might be dwarfed by the rootstock to only 6' tall. Denser plantings, easier harvesting with less expensive means results. If the graft is situated at ground level, there is a possibility the top graft could sprout roots and those roots taking over. If you have a standard size top on a standard sized rootstock, that might not be a problem. But if you have 500 acres of high density planted, dwarfed apples, you don't want or need a lot of them converting to standard size. 3" is usually touted as a good distance above ground level. Higher could reduce vigor and could cause other undesirable results.

Now, if your trees is an "interstem", then the above is out the window. That means that a piece of stem/trunk has been grafted between the rootstock and the top variety. There will be two grafts on the tree trunk. These should be planted with the "interstem" partially buried in the ground.
 
Mike Hill said:
There is a reason that there is a graft with rootstock below and scion wood above. Often it is about getting as many trees to sell as you can. Fruit trees openly hybridize and they do not come "true" from seed. If you want a Honeycrisp tree, planting a seed from a Honeycrisp apple will not likely end up as a Honeycrisp - probably possible, but highly improbable - maybe even better. The other main way to propagate pome fruits is to make cuttings. Many pome fruits do not readily root from cuttings and the ones that do are not all that reliable. Additionally, some selections do not seem to grow on their own roots too well in all environments. It has been deemed much easier to graft buds onto selected rootstock. Find an easily grown-from-seed variety that has the correct growing characteristics, and hopeful resistance to the diseases of the area, bud a desirable variety on the rootstock and viola - you have a tree you can produce cheaply and sell expensively. But perhaps most important nowadays, there is a growing reliance on advanced growing "systems" to produce the most fruit per acre and be easily and inexpensively harvested. That often involves reduced height trees. there have been a number of rootstocks found and/or developed that impart "dwarfing" characteristics to the variety grafted on top. What might naturally be a 30' tree at maturity, might be dwarfed by the rootstock to only 6' tall. Denser plantings, easier harvesting with less expensive means results. If the graft is situated at ground level, there is a possibility the top graft could sprout roots and those roots taking over. If you have a standard size top on a standard sized rootstock, that might not be a problem. But if you have 500 acres of high density planted, dwarfed apples, you don't want or need a lot of them converting to standard size. 3" is usually touted as a good distance above ground level. Higher could reduce vigor and could cause other undesirable results.

Now, if your trees is an "interstem", then the above is out the window. That means that a piece of stem/trunk has been grafted between the rootstock and the top variety. There will be two grafts on the tree trunk. These should be planted with the "interstem" partially buried in the ground.
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Thank you, excellent and informative explanation. Not having to worry about planting depths with a potted tree is why I wanted them originally. But when the 5 gallon size went from $65 in the Fall when I was first looking, to $88 this Spring, I opted for the bare rooted variety. I know I'm frugal (aka cheap) to a fault. Can't help it; it was the way I was raised.

On grafting, a Brother of a neighboring farmer was going to show me how he grafts trees. But unfortunately, he died before we ever got together. So much knowledge lost.
 
Actually, in my mind, bare-root isn't "cheap". You don't actually get a head-start when using potted or ball-n-burlap, or bare-root. What you pay for is generally, the watering of the pots and the greater freight cost of transporting pots, soil, and plant. What you get with the potted tree is the opportunity to plant anytime. They do not have to wait until winter to dig and then sell them before it gets too hot. With potted plants, you can plant in any season as long as you have enough water, and they can sell the trees any time as long they water the pots. Actually, a number of potted trees are unsold bare-roots that get planted in pots.

BTW - grafting ain't hard. Hardest thing of that is finding scion (the variety grafted on the rootstock). Most nurseries don't sell it - they don't want to. If you can find a hobbyist that has a number of different trees, that is a great source. Also some organizations have members who are willing to share what they have - NAFEX is one. You can also find it on etsy and other websites. Well, also rootstock is even harder to find. Very few people sell it to hobbyists. Or you could find the cheapest bareroot and graft another variety on.

P.S. Just googled rootstock and scion! Wow, there is a lot more places to buy it from than when I was doing some grafting!
 
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I don't have a good picture of my garlic but it has 1 inch wide 8 inch and taller leaves on it already. That being said, mine is heading north of 20 inches at full height if I am not mistaken based on other plants in previous years.
 
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