tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18787455830669048392024-03-25T02:29:35.089-07:00Steve's gardenSteve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-35617250847393284232016-01-01T20:51:00.001-08:002016-01-01T20:51:56.756-08:00Growing Amorphophallus Titanum from Seeds for entires season largest flower in the worldBack in January of 2015 I ordered 60 amorphophallus titanum (arum titan) seeds off eBay, and have since been selling all of them except for one for myself to keep. These are grown in pro-mix HP potting mix with mushroom compost mixed in to hold the soil together better. Once they had leaves completely unfolded, I started fertilizing them with water soluble miracle gro. I also added in some epsom salts, myccorhizae, and azomite to make sure they have the nutrients they need. Almost all of them came up, some sooner than others. It has been an entire year, and now almost all of these plants are in the hands of others. <br />
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They took 2-3 weeks to start sprouting roots and nubs.<br />
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In 2 months, they started producing their first petioles. These did not fully unfold until at least 3-4 months. I had them on a heating pad, and 4 T5 lighting bulbs to speed up the process.<br />
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By the 3-4 month mark these guys have started to have fully unfolded petioles which continue to grow for a while until they are fully unfolded. First petioles usually have 5 leaflets. <br />
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In this period, some of them have started to produce their 2nd petiole. Each successive petiole usually grows to a larger size than the parent plant. New new petioles will grow to full size before the older ones die off in the beginning, but once they get to a more mature size, this plant will start entering dormancy periods.<br />
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Here's a nice size up on a new petiole next to the old one. <br />
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Some more on their 2nd petiole.<br />
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By the 5-6 month mark some of them have completed growing their 2nd petiole while some of them are much slower. Some keep their old petiole on while others will lose it once the new one is grown. Most of them are still on their 1st petiole. The ones on their 2nd have a noticeably thicker and taller stem however the leaves are not that much greater in size. I start up-potting them to 2.5 gallon pots once they are bigger. Their stems generally have more spots. I have already started selling off some of these plants at this point. <br />
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By the 6-7 month from seed mark, many of them are on their 2nd petiole.Here are a couple plants with massive 2nd petioles, getting up to 7 leaflets on their petiole. I have been selling these at this point since many of them are over 2ft in height already, and will get tougher to ship if they get any bigger. If you've purchased a titanum off eBay in 2015, there's a chance it could have come from my collection. These 2 have about a golf ball sized corm at this stage, getting close to 2 inches in diameter. <br />
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The one on the far right is my a konjac which has noticeably way more leaflets at the same size as a 2nd petiole titanum.<br />
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Some of them which got sun-burned when it got into the mid 90s have recovered. Once an a titanum gets stressed to the point where the main petiole gets damaged or destroyed, it will go dormant temporarily, and gather itself to shoot another petiole with it's stored energy. This one is a bit larger than an average 1st petiole however it only has 4 leaflets since it's main petiole was destroyed, and sucked it's energy back into the corm temporarily. <br />
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By the 8-9 month mark, some of the ones I still haven't sold are starting to produce their 3rd and 4th petioles. At this point it is possible to produce multiple petioles simultaneously. The largest ones have corms up to a plum size diameter, getting up over 2 inches on their corms, and will only get bigger with more photosynthesis.<br />
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Here are some of my biggest ones before they were sold.<br />
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Here's how much they grew in 1 week from the previous pictures right before they were shipped away. This shows how the 3rd petiole is not necessarily larger than the 2nd right away, but within another month of growth, it will tower over the 2nd.<br />
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Here's a line of them from smallest to biggest.<br />
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They keep growing and producing new petioles well into August.<br />
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9-10 month mark.<br />
Here's one of them that went dormant after it's initial petiole for around 3 months. It ended up simultaneously putting out 3 new petioles.<br />
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Here's a few more<br />
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Right now, I have only saved one of them for myself. This one happened to have been kept indoors most of the time through the summer, and it has not put up any new petioles however it's corm is still continually expanding. It will likely make a petiole in the spring. I have limited window space so it doesn't make sense for my to grow lots of them. Right now, some of you guys that have my plants may have petioles at the 3ft mark given that they have grown for an entire year.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-91751403300373485412015-05-28T09:22:00.000-07:002015-05-28T09:22:31.313-07:00Tree Peony Blooms 2015This year is definitely the best year so far for blooms, and they should get better from here on out. Here's a sample of what I have.<br />
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Some of them are grown from seed however those all tend to be pretty boring single blooms, nowhere near as impressive as the known cultivars. The do appear to however carry more vigor than the other ones. I will likely dig those out and replace them with more impressive plants. <br />
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TP seedling<br />
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TP seedling<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-22399116194735033552014-08-10T22:12:00.000-07:002014-08-10T22:13:42.115-07:00Mid summer fruiting vegetablesHere are some of my climbing vegetables producing fruits, most which can be harvested any time.<br />
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Fuzzy gourds/wintermelons: The fuzzy gourds tend to be longer, and wintermelons are more round, but both taste about the same. Fuzzy gourds are better adapted to grow on trellises while the wintermelons are better grown on the ground because they are really good at growing roots off their stems, especially when soil is mounded over them. <br />
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Angled Luffas<br />
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Canteloupe<br />
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Bittermelon<br />
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<br />Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-7496000208113760602014-05-05T19:43:00.000-07:002014-05-05T19:43:05.372-07:00Tree peonies finally making some good growth for 2014Ever since May, it looks like most of the tree peonies have started to take off, and many of them have flower buds which should start blooming in about 3 weeks. <br />
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Some of the Japanese tree peonies with flower buds. They tend to make their vertical growth very quickly, and then leaves increase in size afterwards.<br />
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Some of them that are not as vigorous with much fewer leaves can still flower<br />
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The tree peony seedlings still aren't flowering yet, but the big one should start next year because it is bigger than some of the smaller Japanese tree peonies that are flowering.<br />
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The Kinshi in the background by the pot is probably the slowest species, but even though it's no taller than this seedling now, it will likely turn out becoming my largest tree peony because it has been in the ground for 4 years already. <br />
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This tree peony seedling looks like it needs a boost of nitrogen soon.<br />
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The itoh peonies are much slower than the tree peonies, but they should end up getting up to at least the same size if not bigger. They are still red which means that they are just getting started.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-9295939985435515002014-04-14T19:44:00.000-07:002014-04-14T19:44:27.198-07:00In ground peonies waking up after a warm week 2014Finally, most of my peonies have broken out of their shells, so here are the photos. We just had 2 days of temperatures over 80F which will make many plants including peonies break their dormancy. <br />
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Herbaceous<br />
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Newly hatched tree peony seedling<br />
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1 year old tree peony seedling<br />
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2 year old tree peony seedling<br />
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3 year old tree peony seedling. Picture taken 6 days ago so development won't be as much as all the other pictures in this post.<br />
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Japanese tree peonies planted as 1 year old grafts back in 2012, 2 years ago.<br />
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Yellow tibetian tree peony, ludlowii planted spring of 2013, coming back to life.<br />
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Itoh peony<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-39769509364066495732014-03-27T19:50:00.000-07:002014-03-27T19:50:08.207-07:00Taking a look at the results from tree or itoh peonies grafted last fallOne of the things I experimented with is the grafting of some tree and itoh peonies and I'm finding that there has clearly been bud swelling from these grafted plants which is a clear indication that the grafts have taken. I have taken them from scions and nurse roots of all sizes ranging from the 1/4 inch diameter stuff to 3 inch diameter/ 5lb nurse roots attached to a whole tree peony branch. The purpose of this is to see the results and learn from them so I can develop an understanding of the true requirements of getting successful grafts.<br />
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Here's one of the massive ones where I take the biggest herbaceous nurse roots I can find, and hook it up with a nice big branch and these seem to be taking very well as expected. The buds are fattening up on the scion meaning that energy from the nurse root is already getting pumped in there. <br />
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I believe it is the species of tree peony that determines how fast the grafted plant will wake up because I'm seeing all grafts on certain species wake up while all grafts on others stay dormant.<br />
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The scions with tiny buds, or no buds at all will obviously take longer to sprout if they even produce shoots.<br />
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Here's a rockii one<br />
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This is an extreme form of grafting where I use just the bud and a bit of cambium attached and I believe this will actually work when healed properly.<br />
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As the tag reads, yes, this is a copper kettle itoh peony, and it appears that grafting works on itohs as well because I see many swollen buds on them.<br />
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I have even done more extreme tests such as bud propagation experiments in good soil, or simply putting tree peony branches into the soil with no nurse root to see if it can produce it's own roots and thrive. I have succeeded with branch and bud propagation in the past so I am looking forward to see if it's just the particular species I had, mere luck or just the right conditions.<br />
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Here are a couple of the herbaceous peonies which I get nurse roots from. When I grab roots, I try to make sure I don't get the chunky stuff with herbaceous eyes because those are very prone to generating herbaceous shoots which can easily become a parasite for the future tree peony.<br />
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Here are some of the stumps where I got some of my grafting scions from. These little buds may not look like much, but give them another month, and they may rise 1-2 feet tall.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-38110891962979098212014-03-27T19:25:00.000-07:002014-03-27T19:25:35.123-07:00Removing the tarps for good to let the give tree peonies some airMy peonies have been tarped for 3-4 months now, and I can finally get a sneak peak into the results. Some of them have done a good amount of growth underneath the tarps even though the average outdoor temperatures has lingered only around 32F for the past 2 weeks. It has been colder than average for the entire winter however it looks like the ground will no longer freeze so it should be safe to expose them to the air.<br />
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Here are some of the tree peonies that have really sprouted fairly well. The Chinese tree peonies seem to sprout way sooner than the Rockii ones. <br />
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Some of these are set to flower right away.<br />
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There are green ones too.<br />
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On the flip side, some of them have been attacked by either voles shrews or some kind of rodent that chews off the cambium layer of the tree peony. This seems to happen almost only on the ones that are weaker and still on their herbaceous nurse root perhaps since they may have softer or younger wood, but I believe I may lose about 1% of my plants from this.<br />
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It is not that big of a problem when there are viable buds beneath the chewed section.<br />
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This sometimes causes them to rot. You can see the freshly chewed section. All I can do is add more soil and hope that having them uncovered can allow the rodents to take cover someplace else. <br />
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<br />The one important thing is to have some cambium section still attached all the way down to the nurse root so that nutrients can be pumped up to the buds, and some of them look pretty bad.<br />
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For some reason, the ones that are on their own roots already just seem to be avoided even if almost the whole plant is exposed so perhaps the herbaceous nurse roots produce a better flavor. I guess that means not to avoid tarping grafted peonies right?<br />
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This is a worst case scenario where the entire thing gets devoured including nurse root which has only happened on a couple of them. There's no saving this especially since the tree peony section has already dried up quite a bit meaning I won't be able to quickly re-graft it. These rodents aren't very forgiving. I would like to use this blog to inform people not to tarp their grafted tree peonies if there are rodent problems because it allows them to have a warm place to feast on it. <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-8454780256002553732013-10-01T18:49:00.000-07:002013-10-01T18:49:45.869-07:00Propagating some Tree peoniesI visited Cricket Hill Gardens last weekend, and came back with some seeds and scions. I have germinated them from seed successfully in the past so it shouldn't be a problem this time around with fresh seeds.<br />
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These are supposed to be white Rockii tree peonies.<br />
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They are supposed to germinate next spring since they are still yellowish and have their moisture. <br />
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I clip off a piece of the shell with a nail clipper, and space them about 2 inches apart so they won't compete when they germinate.<br />
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I then push them down about 1 inch, and I intend to keep these inside my greenhouse where it won't get that cold over the winter.<br />
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Here are my materials for grafting. I have my bucket, bleach, grafting knife, paper towels, rubber bands, or grafting tape which both work fine for grafting.<br />
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According to Dan Furman's blog, they can be grafted in a few ways as shown in the following link. The big thing appears to be that the cambium layers of the root stock and scion need to line up in order to take. http://crickethillgarden.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/grafting-tree-peonies/<a href="http://crickethillgarden.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/grafting-tree-peonies/">http://crickethillgarden.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/grafting-tree-peonies/</a><br />
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It should also be at least 5 inches in length, but I think the main point is that the nurse root needs to have enough starches to power a decent sized plant, given that it takes successfully.<br />
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The scions are drenched in 10% bleach with water for 10 minutes, dried and then washed off to be ready for grafting.<br />
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Here are some of the grafts in action.<br />
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I find it easier to just cut a slit through the middle of the nurse root, then slide in the scion. I made sure these were clean cuts and that both sides were as even as possible so that the scion layer from both the root stock and scion can sit flush.<br />
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After I finished the grafts, I put them in a tin tray and filled it up with sand that is just barely enough moisture as too much can cause them to rot.<br />
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There are some newspapers to keep the moisture in. The tray is on a reptile heating pad, and I will try to get the sane temperatures around 90F for healing which should take 5-7 days. I was fortunate enough for my neighbor to allow me to dig some of her peonies out for nurse roots which are necessary for grafting. Hopefully many of these will take. If anyone has any advice, please feel free to comment. <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-73359872589144847002013-05-11T18:58:00.000-07:002013-05-11T18:58:49.577-07:00Peony update, almost fully leafedIn the last post, all the peonies were just waking up, but it has been 4 weeks since then, and they are almost fully grown for the year. Peonies tend to make almost all their growth before June which is when they typically flower.<br />
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Here are a few Japanese tree peonies which are noticeably larger and healthier than they were last year so most of them shouldn't be relying on their herbacous nurse roots anymore.<br />
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Some of them have flower buds already on their 2nd year as grafted plants.<br />
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The Itoh peonies appear to be exceptional performers despite being only 1 eye fragments last spring. Many of them are already loaded with flower buds this year.<br />
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There are plenty of itoh peony buds on a lot of them, but you really have to zoom in to see them as they are still covered up by the leaves.<br />
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My peony bed is really filling in. There aren't that many blooms this year, but next spring, there should be blooms on most if not all of them in this bed.<br />
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3rd year tree peony seedling up front, 4th year grafted kinshi Japanese tree peony middle, mature herbaceous peony back, and 2nd year tree peonies on the sides.<br />
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Another angle<br />
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3rd year tree peony seedling<br />
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That 3rd year tree peony seedling in the front is already developing its flower buds to go to flower next year. After growing peonies for a while, it is pretty easy to tell which buds are likely going to flower the following year.<br />
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Here are some typical 2nd year tree peony seedlings<br />
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All the smaller 1st year seedlings are marked with chop sticks so they are easier to locate.<br />
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The herbaceous peonies are still the biggest at around 3ft, and close to flowering, but the tree peonies can eventually surpass it. Here's a closer look at one of the herbaceous peonies. <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-82450010823851468912013-04-13T19:31:00.003-07:002013-04-13T19:31:40.917-07:00Distinguishing all kinds of peoniesI like growing as many kinds of peonies as possible so I've grown them from seed as well as purchased many plants to get together a nice collection. I'm not even too concerned about the names anymore, but I am able to tell their age, and whether they are herbaceous, itoh or tree peonies just by their appearance. I'm only selecting no more than 7 of each type as it would be too long of a blog post to post hundreds of photos. <br />
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Here are some <b>1st year tree peonies</b> which are just starting to come out this year. They usually make no more than 1-3 leaves on the 1st year while there has been a case where I've gotten 6 leaves before. These have just started coming out after a good week of rain and temperatures slightly above freezing. <br />
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The <b>2nd year tree peonies</b> are usually much larger, and on average are further along as they typically get up to around 6 inches tall with more like 4-10 leaves depending on the species and vigor of the seedling. Some of them will even gain a little bit of height forming a small stem. The potted ones are usually much further along. <br />
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A <b>3rd year tree peony</b> from seed will typically have multiple buds as opposed to the typical 1-2 from a 2nd year, and have a much thicker, established woody stem as shown below. This happens to be the only one I kept from the generation born in 2011. <br />
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Here are some of the <b>grafted Japanese tree peonies</b> that were planted last summer as 1 year old grafts. These are more or less on par or slightly ahead of my 3rd year tree peony grown from seed as some of them have grown their own tree peony roots, no longer relying on the herbaceous nurser root. I grew some of them almost sideways as an attempt to get more shoots and more root development. <br />
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Moving on, here are some of my <b>itoh peonies</b> that were purchased last summer or spring.<br />
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Bartzella: This one is making up to 15 buds which is pretty impressive from having only 2 original stems.<br />
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Cora louise: This one has most of them right around the main stem.<br />
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Early Arrival: 9 shoots are not bad for starting from a very small plant. These all should be up to flowering size.<br />
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Lemon Dream: This one won't flower, but it's well ahead in development due to the nursery pot.<br />
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Keiko: This was divided up from a large 4 gallon monrovia pot so I have a couple dozen divisions which are just starting to show themselves in the last few days. I hope the eyeless divisions will sprout too as I can always use more peonies.<br />
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Old Rose Dandy: This one appears to be really spreading out quite a bit for an itoh peony.<br />
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Here are some of the herbaceous seedlings which are the glossiest out of the 3 categories, and these won't form woody stems at all. They also produce nector which attracts a lot of ants. Unlike tree peonies and itoh peonies, these also have very round leaves, and appear to be more prone to certain fungal diseases such as mildew than the rest. The good part about them is that they can be used to graft tree peonies. <br />
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Here are a couple of seedlings.<br />
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These clumps are over 15 years old, but they don't really increase in size once they get to around 20-30 stems per clump as they don't have a way of sending rhizomes or new growth further away. They do sometimes drop some seedlings. There's a seedling in the 3rd picture. <br />
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Here are a bunch of them that were transplanted to this spot back in the fall of 2011 and they have already almost reached their full potential as herbaceous peonies only take about 5 years to max out their growth potential as opposed to tree peonies that can take many decades to reach their full size.<br />
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I have a few garlic plants growing between them. <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-8602860348196686812013-04-07T18:54:00.000-07:002013-04-07T18:54:56.717-07:00Taking down the greenhouse for spring 2013This year, spring came kind of late, but this weekend, it is finally in the 60s with a forecast that looks OK. I decided to take off the greenhouse that has been up since 23 September of last year. These plants have been under a greenhouse for 6 1/2 months, but they are still looking pretty good. I keep mostly bamboos in this thing. <br />
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It took about an hour to move all the stuff out and clean up the area.<br />
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The greenhouse was destroyed under the weight of the snow last winter, but that didn't seem to faze the plants. Since there were 4 (55 gallon drums), a shorter greenhouse insulated even better.<br />
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I could probably use the same metal pipes to set up the greenhouse again, but it would take less time build a more durable frame than try to re-inforce these skinny hollow pipes.<br />
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After I removed all the pipes and pots away, I left the barrels in place, and attached the reflector so my plyllostachys edulis "moso" bicolor can capture more light which is very meaningful as we are getting longer daylight hours. This is just an attempt to maximize the photosynthesis.<br />
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I added a nice layer of horse manure and gave it a good watering so the roots can really get going.<br />
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This whip shoots was around last fall and survived through the winter being inside the greenhouse. It should activate or abort in about a month depending on the weather. <br />
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Here is a view of the whole area which used to be the greenhouse before I cleaned it up completely. <br />
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<span id="goog_904743291">The main prominens division looks very healthy. </span><br />
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Another prominens is looking stressed, but it may recover with warmer temperatures, and natural outdoor conditions. <br />
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Fargesia robusta shot while it was inside the greenhouse, but it should shoot again some time this year as this shoot already looks like it has reached full height.<br />
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One of my vivas huangwenzhu inversas is looking pretty good while the other one died likely due to not enough rhizome mass.<br />
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<br />The only thing that looks very sad is the bambusa ventricosas. the lowest it got in the greenhouse last winter was 17-18F which is too cold for tropicals, but they may bounce back.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-77484171260486675952013-03-25T19:24:00.001-07:002013-03-25T19:24:27.734-07:00Peony seedlings getting ready to take offIf you have been following my posts, you would know that I'm obsessed with these plants, especially when they are actively growing. We have had unusually cold temperatures for the past couple months, but it looks like the soil is finally starting to thaw out as temperatures are supposed to moderate by March.<br />
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I'm seeing that many of these are clearly tree peony seedlings, but some of them could be herbaceous or even intersectional (itoh) peony seedlings as these come from various sources with different leaf shapes. <br />
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Here are some pictures. Enjoy.<br />
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The following ones were from the last blog that was posted 17 days ago. They have really reddened up form exposure to the sun.<br />
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2013/03/removing-tarp-to-take-out-peonies-and.html<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-26292372099678281812013-03-08T23:49:00.000-08:002013-03-08T23:49:30.579-08:00Removing the tarp to take out the peonies and bamboos 2013It looks like the threat of a major freeze into the teens is diminishing, and a lot of plants are starting to wake up so I decided to take off the tarp for my potted plants. <br />
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Here's the tarp back in February under 1ft of snow<br />
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I have since taken off the pool liner tarp. The bamboos and other plants are generally hardy enough to stay out. I separated the peonies because they have tender sprouts that still need to adapt to stronger light conditions, and likely can't handle hard freezes at this point. I have the tarp on the side in case it gets below 27F.<br />
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Bamboos/ trees <br />
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Phyllostachys Shanghai III/ parvifolia divisions<br />
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Tree/ itoh peonies- I planted garlic in with the itoh peony divisions to prevent fungus from growing<br />
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Here are some close up pictures showing how these peonies are very light in color due to the lack of light from being under the tarp. It has varied from 32-38F under the tarp which is more than enough to activate peony growth. Surprisingly some of them had leaves that survived through the entire winter under the tarp which got down to around 25F.<br />
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Just to show the comparison, here's a tree peony growing in one of my flower beds which shows much more red due to continual exposure to the sun. This is what I want the tarped ones to look like after a couple weeks as they keep growing.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-89394470956350733172013-02-18T23:06:00.000-08:002013-02-18T23:06:19.479-08:00Some tree peonies waking up very early in 2013This year some of my tree peonies, mainly the ones that sprouted last year are waking up very early, even earlier than they did last year so I hope they know what they are doing. I do have a few set to sprout this year which are coming up early however those are not nearly as developed as these.<br />
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These are mainly Chinese tree peony seedlings. <br />
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I have a couple of them sprouting indoors, but it seems like with the temperatures getting no lower than the mid 50s in the cool room, they do not appear to have nearly the vigor as the ones outdoors. The new one is already leafed out, but the older one is still just getting started.<br />
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Here's an older tree peony for comparison. This happens to be the Japanese Kinshi variety which really hasn't started waking up that much yet as we really haven't had much warm weather yet this year.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-22916894274301979162012-12-08T04:11:00.000-08:002012-12-08T04:11:00.431-08:00December peony buds, and buds for other plants 2012With November and early December, temperatures will often fall withing the ideal vernalization zone of 40F to 45F which causes many plants to develop their buds in preparation for spring. For my climate, vernalization usually occurs once in the late fall, and then again by early spring as the plants produce the growth hormones needed for flowering, and overall vigor for the following year.<br />
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Here are some pictures of the tree & itoh peonies. The buds for the herbaceous peonies still haven't popped out of the soil yet so I didn't take pictures of those. They don't look like much now, but some of these may have enough energy stored from this year to produce flowers next year. They usually start swelling more by the beginning of March when daylight gets noticeably longer and temperatures start to rise. <br />
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Here are just a few of my tree/ itoh peony buds. It would be a very long post if I posted pictures of every one of them. <br />
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Here are some of my other plants which will set buds in the fall, but not as noticeably as the peonies. </div>
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Asian Pear buds</div>
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Pear buds<br />
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Silver maple tree buds<br />
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Raspberry buds<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-63902062483426534642012-12-03T21:07:00.000-08:002013-03-09T00:01:08.634-08:00Growing Ensete Ventricosum Maurelii by the windowI decided to get a jump start on my Ensete Maurelii so that I can have bigger plants to bring outside by the spring time. I purchased these guys 3 weeks ago, and they have since put out a couple of leaves. The only thing I hope for is that their pseudo-stems stay healthy and strong, and giving them light from a south facing window will hopefully be enough.<br />
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There are 3 plants total.<br />
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November 13th 2012: They looked kind of skinny when they came out of the box. <br />
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November 21st: Each plant has grown a leaf, but overall there hasn't been much of a difference.<br />
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December 3d. 2012 After another 2 weeks, they have since put out another leaf, and the stems are finally starting to gain a little bit more thickness so they are starting to look promising. I hope they will fill out their pots by May when they will need to adjust to outdoor conditions.<br />
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March 8th 2013 update<br />
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These guys have grown a lot since the last pictures and the have turned much redder as well. One got pretty big so I up-potted it and removed it from the window sill.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-186001781913018922012-11-12T16:02:00.000-08:002012-11-12T16:27:57.881-08:00Getting new bamboos on my road triplast weekend, I happened to be in the area of a fellow bamboo collector so I got a few bamboos from him. I acquired phyllostachys Shanghai III, phyllostachys prominens, phyllostachys huangwenzhu inversa, and another cultivator of phyllostachys parvifolia. It was already getting dark by the time I got there so the pictures may be a bit blurry. Here are the groves.<br />
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Phyllostachys Shanghai III: This one behaves and looks just like Dulcis, except it may be a bit more vigorous with straighter culms.<br />
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Its biggest culm is just a bit under the 3 inch mark, and still have the potential to get a bit bigger in the next few years. Its potential is still unknown in the U.S.<br />
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Phyllostachys Prominens: These are 2 year old divisions from a 1ft length of rhizome which shows that this species upsizes pretty quickly. This also means that this species probably won't be rare in the U.S. for that much longer. <br />
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Phyllostachys Vivax Huangwenzhu Inversa<br />
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Phyllostachys Parvifolia: I already have this species, but this is supposed to be a different cultivator with slightly longer internodes, but I can't tell a difference between them. <br />
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<b>Potting the bamboos up</b><br />
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Shanghai III: The larger Shanghai III divisions were planted in 15 gallon containers, and topped to balance the root mass and number of leaves to ensure survival as these guys are the most important ones.<br />
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<b> </b>The 2 smaller Shanghai III divisions also look good since they were originally potted up, and have plenty of root mass<b>. </b><br />
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Phyllostachys prominens: These are the 2 main culms which happen to have lots of root mass, rhizomes, and shoot buds attached so they should explode with new shoots next year.<br />
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The whip shoots from the prominens seemed to have much less root mass since they ran along the side of the pot so they may or may not be viable. It has some pretty bad leaf curl now, but I hope they can recover soon as they are kept in the greenhouse.<br />
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There were a lot of prominens rhizomes running along the side of the pot so I decided to pot some of them up hoping some will be viable, and sprout shoots next spring.<br />
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Phyllostachys Vivax Huangwenzhu inversa: It looks like the one on the left should recover, but the one on the right might not make it through the winter.<br />
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Phyllostachys Parvifolia<br />
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Most of these bamboos went into the greenhouse where they have higher humidity and more favorable conditions. It is more like a zone 8 inside the greenhouse even without heating so they should be very safe in there.<br />
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I have a 400 watt metal halide light which I still haven't turned on, but this should be strong enough to keep the greenhouse from getting below freezing in the winter.<br />
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The field divisions were too big so I decided to put them in my tarp bed which has many other small potted plants.<br />
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I added leaf bags around the bed, but don't plan on tarping it unless it drops below 22F. I wrapped up the 2 Big Shanghai III's in plastic trash bags to make sure the soil doesn't pour out when they are tipped over on their sides.<br />
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This shot shows both the tarp bed, and greenhouse in the background.<br />
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<br />Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-3315148401590599882012-11-04T01:45:00.002-08:002012-11-04T01:45:52.194-08:00Pictures of my garlic in the fall of 2012Garlic tends to grow a little bit in the fall. The foliage is usually hardy enough to make it through our zone 6a winters without much damage, and they come back much stronger by March. I grow around 2000 cloves each year not including the bulbils that take 1.5 years to reach full size.<br />
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Here are some of my garlic beds <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-34483794984343549902012-11-02T15:02:00.000-07:002012-11-02T15:05:30.893-07:00Overwintering the bananas and other plants for winter of 2012/2013This year I'm overwintering all the bananas with barrels that have their bottom cut out. The steps are.<br />
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1. Cut off all the excess foliage which can't survive the winter anyways<br />
2. Shrink wrap all the trunks<br />
3. Add additional insulation if necessary<br />
4. Stick a cut open plastic barrel over the entire banana stem<br />
5. Fill the barrel with leaves<br />
6. Add additional leaf bags with leaves if the stem is too long<br />
7. Shrink wrap the entire set up to keep it stable<br />
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Here's the musa mekong giant which was much easier to over-winter since it is still very small.<br />
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The musa basjoos are a lot bigger so they require a little bit more work, but it will be well worth it if I am able to save most of the pseudo-stem to the banana plant can pick up growing where it left off this year instead of dying back to the ground.<br />
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I use leaf bags on many of my other plants such as elephant ears to hopefully get them through the winter and come back next spring.<br />
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Here's a semi-tropical plant that grows like a banana that lacks a pseudo-stem.<br />
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I am also saving all my bhut joloka hot pepper plants by sticking many of them in the same pot, and I will eventually place them by a window indoors. If I can over-winter these plants this way, I should be able to get a much faster start and faster harvest with next year's peppers. They were 3ft tall before I cut them back, and that would take up too much window space. <br />
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This one was in its pot the whole time, and not huge like the rest so I didn't cut it back.<br />
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<br />Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-83988563902882073262012-10-11T17:04:00.000-07:002012-10-11T17:07:33.459-07:00Progress of the musa mekong giant "itinerans"I tried purchasing musa mekong giant last year however they never made it through the winter when I tried planting them outside. The appeared to still be alive by the spring time however too much moisture in the spring must have killed them out so I ended up ordering a couple more of them from eBay this spring. Here's the links to when I tried them last fall.<br />
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-banana-plants-musa-mekong-giant.html<br />
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-update-on-banana-plants-2.html<br />
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I bought them as tiny plants in 2 inch pots some time in April of this year to replace the ones I lost last fall.<br />
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3 May 2012<br />
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Plant 1 on the right, and plant 2 on the left.<br />
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30 June 2012: Both of them filled out their pots so I planted them in the ground about 76-12 inches deep.<br />
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Plant 1<br />
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Plant 2<br />
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28 July 2012<br />
Getting up to 2ft tall.<br />
Plant 1<br />
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Plant 2<br />
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18 August 2012<br />
Getting up to 3ft tall<br />
Plant 1<br />
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Plant 2<br />
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24 August 2012<br />
Getting up near 4ft tall<br />
Plant 1<br />
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23 September 2012<br />
They are breaking the 6ft mark now, and starting to produce pups<br />
Plant 2 on right <br />
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Plant 2's pup<br />
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Plant 1's pups<br />
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3 October 2012<br />
With the cooler weather, these guys aren't getting that much more than 6ft for this year by approximately 3 inches in diameter. I gave away one of the pups on plant 1 to even it up. I also added a nice layer of leaf mold to improve the soil and provide some protection for winter in advance. Each of these bananas are also starting to run some 2 inch thick rhizomes up to 2ft away. <br />
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Plant 1 near side<br />
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10 October 2012<br />
Frost is supposed to come by the 12th of October so this is about the most that they will grow for the year.<br />
Plant 1 near side <br />
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<br />Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-3768052538917222262012-10-04T19:44:00.001-07:002012-10-04T19:44:21.243-07:00Growth of the Musa basjoo throughout 2012My musa basjoos were successfully over-wintered to about 2ft last year, and they ended up close to 14ft at the peak, but frost is imminent within the next few weeks so they will be going dormant pretty soon. Here's the documentation of the growth all throughout the year.<br />
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21 April 2012: I successfully protected them up to around 2ft, and they are already getting up to 4ft within a week.<br />
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Left plant<br />
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Right plant<br />
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12 June 2012: After another 7 weeks, these guys doubled up in height reaching around 8ft.<br />
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7 July 2012: The one on the right side is starting to pull ahead by a bit, reaching the 10ft mark while the one on the right is still around 8.<br />
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28 July 2012: These guys seem to be gaining about 1ft every 3 weeks, and the pups are really starting to put on size.<br />
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19 August 2012: The one on the right is up to 12ft now while its tallest pups are getting near the 6ft mark.<br />
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23 September 2012: The bigger one is breaking the 13ft mark while the smaller one is about 2ft behind. The diameter of the pseudo-stem on the right side banana is now up to around 8.5 inches. It's very hard to get an accurate measurement on the leaves as they aren't always pointed up, but I believe that some of of these leaves pointed up may have gotten near the 14ft mark which is still not near the size potential of this banana. It got up to around 10 1/2ft last year, and 5ft the year before then so they will likely keep getting bigger each year. I am also starting to give the pups away. <br />
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3 October 2012: These bananas are just about done with their growth as the taller one is topped off between 13 and 14ft tall, and the other one about 2ft behind. I dug out and gave away all the larger pups as it will be very hard to over-winter all of them, and each banana plant happened to produce around a dozen pups this year starting with none.<br />
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Here are the older blog posts on the musa basjoo.<br />
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2011<br />
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/08/summer-updates-on-musa-basjoos-and.html#more<br />
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2010<br />
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/04/uncovering-musa-basjoo.html<br />
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This winter, I plan on over-wintering as much corm as possible with 4ft tall 55 gallon plastic rain barrels in my setup. <br />
Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-23000544216767366722012-10-04T00:22:00.000-07:002012-10-04T00:22:32.817-07:00Blueberry shooting seasonBlueberry plants are shrubs which mean they will sprout new shoots from their base. These new shoots can eventually be divided off to become new divisions, or left to grow. This ensures the survival of the plant. Shooting typically starts in the late summer, and continues until it is no longer warm enough to grow.<br />
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Here are a few pictures showing how this looks.<br />
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Blueberry shoots can emerge several inches away from the main plant.<br />
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Here's how these new shoots from the previous pictures should look after another year of growth. They typically take 2 years from the point of emerging to the time they start setting fruit.<br />
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Here are links to my previous blog posts on blueberries in case anyone is interested.<br />
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-experience-with-growing-blueberry.html<br />
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2011/04/over-view-of-blueberries.html<br />
Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-33770937534424965022012-09-30T23:29:00.000-07:002012-09-30T23:32:22.876-07:00Some of my garlic emerging in the fallIt is around the time to plant garlic so I ended up putting them in rows, about 10 inches apart, while their individual distance is usually about 6 inches just to ensure they get nice and big. I tilled up the soil, and made separate beds so the cloves can dig their roots into the ground further which will result in larger bulbs next summer since they can take in more nutrients.<br />
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Here's one of my beds for soft neck garlic with last year's bulbils, and new cloves that haven't emerged yet.<br />
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Here's the soft neck garlic emerging from a different bed. I have around 2000-3000 cloves of garlic planted of all species as I literally grow these guys on my bamboos, and all the available garden space I have.<br />
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Here are some of the hard neck garlic cloves from last year's bulbils. They should produce full sized bulbs next year, but I may have planted them a bit too close to reach a close size. They are planted in distinct rows so it will be easier to take out the weeds once in a while, at least until the garlic manage to dominate the soil with their roots. <br />
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They are emerging at different rates as 1 species hasn't even shown itself yet.<br />
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Some are planted in advance, just to serve as markers for where I want to plant the rest of them.<br />
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These are from bulbs that were left in the ground over winter so they ended up sprouting over the summer, and will be well developed going into winter. I don't really see a problem as damage on the foliage over winter doesn't seem to hinder them in the spring. I separated them, and planted them all over the place. <br />
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Here's how a few of them look unseparated.<br />
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This picture shows a mixture of bulbils from last year, and bulbils from this year. There is a clear difference in size. Bulbils will upsize a bit in their first fall to form a round, then they will wake up again in the spring to gain more size so they will be at the size of regular cloves within 1 year of growth as they grow twice.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-59726116968464322802012-09-23T18:42:00.000-07:002012-09-23T18:42:22.969-07:00Growing angled luffa (loofah) gourds from seedBy around late May of this spring, I planted a few luffa (chinese okra) seeds in the ground, and eventually only 2 of them survived until maturity, but here's a complete picture documentation of the 4 months of progress since they were planted. I may have been able to get harvests faster if I started them indoors under a strong metal halide, but that's OK because I'm still able to get over 100 fruits per plant. The key to getting heavy yields is tons of water, lots of space for crawling, and good fertilizer. I fertilizer with manure, compost, and azomite. These plants produce lots of vines and take up a lot of space.<br />
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9 June 2012: Just barely coming out<br />
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30 June 2012: They are starting to make vines, but still haven't really taken off. <br />
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28 July 2012: They finally made it to the top of the trellis, but both of them are still not growing that fast yet. At least they are picking up the pace just a bit. <br />
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11 August 2012: With 2 more weeks of growth, they have already taken over most of the trellis. There are both male flowers, and fruits are starting to form at this point so had to put up the deer netting.<br />
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The stem on the larger one has also risen to around 2/3 inches in diameter.<br />
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Some of the fruits.<br />
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18 August 2012<br />
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25 August 2012: Those fruits that were just forming a week ago are now getting up to around 2ft long by nearly 2 inches in diameter which is edible size.<br />
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This one is going to be left alone for seed production. The first picture is from a week ago on the 18th just to show their rate of growth. <br />
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23 September 2012: 1 month later, they are still producing very well, but the ones that are produced later tend to grow a bit shorter as the growing season is coming to a close.<br />
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Here's the big one getting old. It will be left on until the first frost so the seeds have a chance to mature all the way.<br />
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The stems are simply getting huge at the point in time. The bigger is fatter than the 1 inch diameter pipe which makes sense since it is supporting as many as 50 fruits at any given time. .<br />
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The smaller plant has nowhere near as many vines, but its main stem is still around 2/3 inches in diameter. It has also only produced around 20% as much fruit as the bigger plant, maybe because it is getting shaded out. <br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1878745583066904839.post-13662941931749575302012-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:002012-09-30T17:41:46.735-07:00Setting up the Solar greenhouseOne of the fall projects I have worked on is creating a completely solar greenhouse. I built this right over my moso bicolor so I can protect it as well as speed up its growth. I'm also using it to place some of my bamboos so they can grow a bit more through the winter. My objective is to insulate it well enough so that additional heating will not be necessary here in zone 6a. At this time of the year, the greenhouse typically raised the greenhouse about 5-20F, but those numbers typically increase in the middle of the winter. <br />
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Here's the outside of it.<br />
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This may not make sense, but I placed the door on the west side where the wind blows into it, but over the winter, there will be an entire tarp that goes over the greenhouse partially so that the wind and snow drift does not pile onto the door. It will also make it much easier to get inside when there's a lot of snow.<br />
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The solar vent was added yesterday to help with the air flow as carbon dioxide can be depleted with all the plants in the greenhouse. It works well because it only turns on when the sun is shining strong enough which also means that the plants will be photosynthesizing. That's when they actually need more air flow. I placed it on the south side of the greenhouse at a 45 degree angle to make sure it is functional.<br />
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Here are my 55 gallon drums for the heat sink. I am using black colored drums on purpose so that they can absorb more heat which can keep the greenhouse warmer through the night. I can also stick a fish tank heater in one of these which should be enough to keep the greenhouse above freezing however it will also make it even more humid than it already is. <br />
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Right behind the heat sink on the north side of the greenhouse, I already have reflective bubble wrap to help provide more insulation. It can also help reflect light back onto the plants. It's reflective capabilities should also help heat the greenhouse up a little bit more.<br />
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Here's the shelves that came with the greenhouse kit. I plan on using it to place either a small heater, a 400 watt metal halide, humidifier, paraffin lamp, or any heating device that will be enough to keep the greenhouse from freezing over. <br />
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Here are the 2 shoots on my bambusa ventricosa which have gained about 2ft of height after 3 days of being inside the greenhouse.<br />
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Finally here's the moso bicolor<br />
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30 Sept 2012: I decided to add a 4th 55 gallon barrel to the greenhouse, and it has been tarped on the north and west side so there is more insulation. It also allows the wind to blow over the greenhouse much easier instead of radiating too much cold air inside. I've noticed that north and west facing windows are more likely to have cold air radiate in so I'm providing extra insulation on that side.<br />
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Many more leaf filled bags will be stacked up on the north side to help provide even more insulation.<br />
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Steve Lauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398643598426170132noreply@blogger.com11