Fast Growing Snow Peas

Snow pea seedlings

Earlier this month I planted some seeds. Before the month is over, the snow peas are clearly the winner in growth. Mizuna takes second place, and green onions take last place. Onion do grow slow by nature but they get big. It's amazing how a tiny seed grows into a big onion. Last week, it almost felt like summer but this week is back to windy rainy winter weather. The plants are going to be so confused! I am confused!

Mizuna seedlings

The warm weather in the past 2 weeks have triggered many cherry trees into early bloom. The pink pedals are all over the streets. My peach and Asian pear trees are both growing new buds. I still need to prune the peach tree. I need to do that as soon as possible. There is a 50% chance of rain tomorrow. This is the perfect weather for grafting.

Asian pear buds

Passion

The only one cherry

On April 4th, I discovered one successfully grafted cherry scion; unfortunately, that section ended up dying. To my surprise, I discovered another success on the opposite side of the tree! This one has actually grew a couple new branches and one single cherry!

For weeks, I watched the cherry in fear that any second it would be taken by a bird or a squirrel. Although it was not completely ripe, I ended up picking it and ate it. Next year, this grafted new section should grow more cherries.

The tape on the right is where the scion was grafted on

I also discovered a passion flora in full bloom on June 16th. Today, I was surprised to see two passion fruits growing at where two flowers were previously. I can't believe that I didn't notice them before. It's starting to look like I will have a few passion fruits this year since the vine is full of flower buds.

Still Trying to Grow Some Cherries

one of the grafted cherry scions is blooming

I grafted some apple, plume, and cherry scions after coming back from the scion exchange in January. It was my first time grafting fruit trees. I found out later on that the ideal grafting weather is a heavily overcast day. A sunny day would great reduce the success of grafting because the scions have a much higher chance of drying out before establish themselves on the trees. Additionally, I didn't have enough grafting tape. After stopping at 2 stores and not able to find any grafting tape, I simply used some masking tape that was readily available in my garage.

I didn't expect much success in my first attempt to graft. To my surprise, one of the cherry scions is now blooming! In the picture above, I grafted 2 scions to one branch. One of them is budding and blooming. This is the only scion that shows obvious signs of life among all the scions I grafted. I might have additional success on the apple tree, which I will find out in a month.

planted cherry scion

In addition to grafting, I also planted one cherry scion in a small pot. It appears to be still alive although I am not sure how much it has rooted. It got knocked over a few times either by squirrels or birds. I also planted a small Capulin cherry tree in December. This is a fast growing variety which can reach 10 feet in 12-18 months and eventually reach up to 30 feet. I will have to make sure to cut it back so it doesn't reach 30 feet! I can't possibly pick the cherries from a 30 feet tree.

Master Ken actually told us in the class that we will most likely not getting any cherries from our yards if we don't have any barrier to keep birds and squirrels away.

planted Capulin cherry

Grafting My Apple Tree

The apple tree

I wanted to get those scions on the trees before they die off, so I worked on the apple tree today. Currently, the apple tree is dormant and has no leaves at all. I am not sure what kind of apple tree it is. It produces small to medium size green sweet apples in the summer. I got 3 different varieties of apple scions at Scion Exchange - Fuji, Royal Gala, and Summer Red. I picked these three just because they are red apples and low-chill varieties. My friend, Bethallyn, gave me the pointers as I arrived at the Scion Exchange. Hopefully I will have both green and red apples in the future.

Making a clean cut at an angle

Before I started cutting the branches, I wiped my clippers with alcohol to avoid contamination since I am going to be attaching scions to the openings. I made a clean cut at an angle on the tree and did the same to the ends of scions. The idea here is to maximize the contact between the tree and the scions.

Making clean cuts and an angle on the scions

Using a sharp blade (also wiped with alcohol), I made a few slits on the apple branch just enough to peel back the tree bark a bit and slide in the scions. Since I was doing this all by myself, I couldn't make a nice video clip for you. If you are interested in seeing how this is done in greater details, check out "How To Graft A Fruit Tree" on Youtube. After the scions were in place, I wrapped the connecting areas with grafting tape. I used the candle again to cover all the openings with wax to prevent the branches and scions from drying out.

Tomorrow I shall work on the cherry tree.

grafting the scions onto the tree

Scion Exchange

My friend, Joseph, sent me a note via Facebook asking me whether I would be going to Scion Exchange on Saturday. What? What is Scion Exchange? I Googled for it and found its website immediately - Scion Exchange is an event organized by The California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG). It is a non-profit organization headquartered at California State University, Fullerton, with chapters throughout the State of California (and elsewhere) and with members throughout the world. The members of the CRFG are professionals and amateurs all dedicated to the propagation of unusual fruits and vegetables, the acquisition and spread of knowledge about these plants and the enjoyment in doing so.

WHEN:       12 noon to 3:00 PM, Saturday, January 22, 2011
WHERE:     First Baptist Church, 4555 Hilltop Drive, El Sobrante, CA

EXCHANGE DETAILS: 
You can find the best varieties of fruit to grow!
•Hundreds of varieties of scions (fruit wood) to graft onto your own trees, including:  apples, pears, quince, plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, and more. . . 
•Cuttings to root: grapes, figs, pomegranate, kiwi fruit, mulberries, and more. . . •Rootstocks and grafting supplies   
•Grafting class and demo 12:30 and 1:30      
•Custom and assisted grafting of your selected variety onto a rootstock 
•Local Fruit Friendly organizations      
•Raffle       
•Questions answered, secrets revealed. . . 
•$4 donation to enter

This sounded very interesting, and Hilltop is pretty close to El Cerrito. I arrived at the event around 12:30, and the parking lot and surrounding streets were filled with cars. People were flocking to the exchange!

Grafting onto a rootstock

In the courtyard, there was a fruit vendor selling various citrus fruits and yam. They all looked home grown. I tried a couple pieces of oranges, and they were quite good. Next to the entrance of the event, a crowd gathered to have their twigs grafted onto a rootstock. I turned around, and there was my friend, Bethallyn, from Master Ken's class last year! She has an urban farm complete with chickens in Walnut Creek that I must go visit sometime. I need to schedule a time with her to go over there.

 

When I entered the room where the exchange was held, I was amazed by how enthusiastic people were over all the twigs! I have never seen anything like it. I know they are not just twigs. They are twigs with the potential to turn into trees and grow awesome sweet fruits for years and years to come and possibly graft onto other trees and continue to grow for eternity. This is what fascinates me about plants - their ability to keep on regenerating, something animals are not very good at.

 

There was a display of "exotic fruits." I recognized many of them being tropical fruits, since I am originally from the sub-tropics. What really caught my eyes was the passion fruit. I had some fresh passion fruit at my friend's homestead farm in Oakland. They were good but small in compare to what I remember as a kid in the tropics. The one on display in the photo above is the "normal" size that I remember. Can you find it?

There were many volunteers talking to people on how to graft. Master Ken was there, too! Many of Master Ken's students were there picking twigs as well.

Master Ken has covered the topic of how to graft in his classes, but I have never actually done it. Now I have the perfect opportunity to do it. I picked some apple, peach, cherry, plum, and mulberry twigs to take home. I don't have a plum tree, so I am going to try grafting the plum twigs onto my peach tree. I have a non-producing cherry tree. By grafting the scions, it might grow cherries in the future. One of the volunteers convinced me to take some Morus alba mulberry scions because they are very easy to root according to her.

I took some of Eileen's scions because the photos and description she included caught my eyes. Her tree is in El Cerrito practically just down the street from Sand Village Farm. I don't know if I'll be successful in preserving her beloved plum tree on my peach tree, but I have her number and I'd like to help her eat some of those 5000 plums!

Eileen's quest to save her plum tree