The kiwifruit vine

For a garden wrangler there are few projects more full of mischief than an untamed kiwifruit. When facing a vining medusa running 60 feet along a teetering 25 year old trellis and unpruned for several years, it does not take long to admit that you are in for quite a skirmish. Most plants even at their wildest grow in something of a straight line. Even corkscrew willow, curling and vigorous, barely entangles one branch with another. But when describing an untamed kiwi, one utilizes all the wild and unruly descriptors available in the mother tongue, borrows a phrase or two from somewhere else, and still feels deficient.

Certainly there is artistry in a cane that, having reached skyward, spirals back upon itself into a botanical double helix drawn from the imagination of Dr. Suess. But that singular artistry is a rare thing. Even to the trained eye, twenty feet of new growth layered and entwined with twenty and twenty and twenty feet of old growth — to say nothing of uncontrolled encounters with maple and bamboo and rhododendron and downspout — can only be described as one big tangled mess. If one has any expectation of progress — or income — Dr. Suess must be set aside and whimsy replaced with a cold-hearted determination to “get through it”.

In my maritime northwest corner of the North America, only ivy, wisteria, and Himalayan blackberries come close to equalling kiwifruit for chaotic vigor. Wild clematis, a major pest east of the Cascades, has made inroads, and both hops and grapes, usually controlled under cultivation, are daunting in their undomesticated vigor. In the Southeast, one must deal with kudzu, where it "... is estimated to cover 3,000,000 hectares (7,400,000 acres) of land in the southeastern United States, mostly in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi", (from Wikipedia). Other corners of the planet have their own wicked vines.

There are cases where kiwifruit have completely taken over natural areas. In parts of New Zealand such as near major shipping ports, excess fruits were dumped only to sprout and then take over. Botanical war has been proclaimed against kiwi vines that are not under cultivation, sprawling and crawling and climbing over and through native vegetation. In western Massachusetts some hardy kiwis escaped decades ago and they too climb up and over and through everything, an impenetrable and tangled mass 60 feet high. In this case the origin story is less clear and Actinidia enthusiasts cry foul as they find themselves pitted against steely eyed conservationists who seek a total state ban on cultivation of the hardy kiwi.

The one thing certain is that very few people know how to contain an established kiwi vine. In a commercial operation, 90% of growth is removed by the end of the growing season. Aside from the main trunk and scaffold branches, almost nothing of the plant remains that is older than two years, and even of the younger growth much is selected out. New growth is redirected away from the fruiting part of the vine which grew new only last year, and male plants are grown on a separate structure and pruned on an earlier cycle. The pruning tools are never really put away but shortly after harvest the pruning equipment comes out fully, the canes that fruited are removed, and the new canes trained in place for next year.

Where I would vary from how a commercial operation grows kiwifruit (beyond the obvious of scale) is by experimenting more in trellising and training. It is commercially easier to harvest kiwis that grow just overhead, and so this is the main model followed. But it is often harder for the small grower to manage them when trained in this way, and so year after year new canes pile up on old ones in one hopeless out of reach tangle. Look at systems for training grapes and you will find dozens of variations. This is because grapes have been in cultivation for thousands of years. I would take a page from the book of grapes and try a trellis that is lower to the ground, to keep regular pruning at its easiest.

A well-trained Kiwi vine is generous in its fruitfulness. But an under trained Kiwi vine is exasperating. If you cannot maintain your Kiwi arbor, try rebuilding the structure and retraining the vines to a form you can more easily maintain. If that still doesn't work it is no sin to admit defeat and and replace that vining vigor with something else.

Favorite tools that hang around me -- (My tool belt)

My tool belt attracts some attention and amusement. I cannot stealth about noiselessly, and the nervous stranger regards my appearance with suspicion. But my well-stocked belt allows me to work more effectively, and it helps me keep track of the tools I need -- and that I spent good money for. Every gardener has favorite tools -- tools that one has to have in order to tackle whatever garden task awaits. I of course am no exception. Over the years I have accrued, and misplaced, and broken, a multitude of useful tools. My list has changed some with the passing of time, although certain tools have been on the must-have list for decades.

Toolbelt, weeding version

To hold my tools my belt has, typically:
• Two plier holders
• Three hammer loops
• Two long narrow pouches
• A phone pouch.
What I holster varies depending upon my needs -- weeding or pruning. It is rare for me to actually carry pliers or hammers.

During fruit tree season (winter) I often carry two pairs of hand pruners, because when up a ladder or in a tree, inevitably I drop a pair of pruners and this way I don't have to climb down after the dropped pair. I use one less hammer loop, and use them for loppers -- long dangly heavy, but it frees up my hands when I move about.

When I'm more ground-bound,:
•  One plier holder has hand pruners.
•  The other holder has a stout knife for weeding.
•  One hammer loop has a hand claw, great for weeding.
•  From the second loop dangles a hand sickle, with a bright green tennis ball jammed onto the butt end so that it will stay in the hammer hook, and also so that it does not (as readily) disappear in the vegetation.
•  The third loop varies -- I can opt for a serious hand hoe or a pair of stubby loppers, depending on circumstances.
•  One narrow pouch holds a folding "super sharp" saw.
•  The second long pouch holds reading glasses / magnifiers.
•  The phone pouch holds my cell phone, which includes calendar, clock, and noisemaker for entertainment.   These days I listen to recorded books, and soon may write a whole blog on books I have listened to.  But today's blog is devoted to tools, not distractions.

I am looking at belt upgrade -- suspenders on my belt.  When my belt tries to push my pants down, well, that isn't helpful.  While the thought of suspenders on a belt makes me smile, truth is that as an addition, they are fairly easy to find.

So there you have it -- the work belt of my joy and other's ridicule and fear (and maybe appreciation).

Glen

From sod to garden

Right now I'm devoting most of my time to pruning and mid-winter garden projects. But I came across a response I wrote a while ago to a question (not on this blog) about the best way to remove sod. If a January answer does not seem timely (you can't use a sod-cutter when the ground is frozen or sodden), it is not completely off topic either -- spreading cardboard and mulch in the winter in anticipation of spring is perfectly suitable. Thus, I am discussing it here and now. Originally I described three ways, each with its advantages and needs. There really are five, but four and five are half-way measures. The three main ways -- cardboard and mulch -- sod cutter -- rototiller -- requires some heavy lifting, literally. The lightweight ones -- killing sod, and over seeding -- are kind of just partial answers, with their own array of plusses and minuses.

While there are a number of compelling reasons to get rid of lawn, don't eliminate sod to eliminate work (like mowing, weeding, and edging). BEFORE you get rid of that lawn, have a plan in place for what you will install in place of the lawn that you remove. AND, be ready to carry it out almost immediately. Any untended patch of ground devoid of lawn becomes a patch of weeds, three times harder to maintain.

This is not to say that eliminating a lawn is a pointless task. Lamentably, a lawn never mows itself. Sometimes lawn IS a pest -- especially along the edges. But IMHO, the best reason to eliminate lawn is when its job as a placeholder is over and you are ready to expand the garden. If you malign your lawn because of the weeds growing with it, or only because you don't like to edge it, keep in mind that when the sod goes away the weeds may not, and then it is harder to control and contain. To read about one of my favorite lawn weeds to hate, and how I made peace with my lawn by controlling the weed, see my blog on eliminating hairy cat-ear, (Hypochaeris radicata).

Ok, thanks for reading.

1) Cardboard and mulch

With this you have to gather supplies, sometimes a lot. Usually this techniques is very effective if done deep enough. "Mulch" can be anything from leaves and grass clippings to garden soil to composted manure to wood chips, depending upon what you are planting. I have done this many times and, despite the following cautions, I like it a lot.

The greatest caution is that really bad weed roots -- bindweed or quackgrass -- may flourish under the cardboard. The lawn is the biggest weed in the garden, mostly an easily managed weed -- until it isn't.  I like to cut a trench along the cardboard edge so that the remaining lawn does not invade and become a weed. You can plant small things in it right away, but it takes half a year for the sod to break down and even longer before worms, moles, ants, etc start to naturally till the soil and merge the margins.

Planting small stuff and veg and annuals on top of cardboard is not a problem. But you do not want to plant larger plants on top of the cardboard, nor will you want to cut through the cardboard and sod after dumping all the mulch on it. Instead, dig a hole in the sod for the big plants, and then put down the cardboard and mulch everywhere else. The mulch eventually breaks down and settles.

How deep you plant is kind of tricky. If you plant too high, the shrubs can end up with their roots exposed as the mulch disappears. Along the native shrub edge we inherited, where this cardboard and mulch system was used, we have some shrubs standing high on their roots, looking like a miniature mangrove forest minus the salt water. If you plant too low, the crown can be buried under too much mulch.

2) Sod cutter

Sod cutters are a brute of a gas powered machine, with a vibrating sod-cutting blade.  Ahead of cutting the sod you need to have mowed the lawn.  Then you fire up the sod cutter, then walk behind the beast as it cuts free a perfect sod strip.  You can roll up the strips and move them elsewhere. The undersoil is unaffected, meaning it is ready for mulch -- but you still need to chop or till the underlying soil before planting.

A sod cutter is best where the lawn / sod is an even surface, with few tap-root weeds -- mostly turfgrass and turf-type running-roots such as clover.  It is not as suitable on a weak lawn with many tap toot weeds, and not workable in soft wet conditions.  It does reduce the amount of grass that resprouts as weeds, and leaves a very finished look.

I really like a sod cutter when extending an existing shrub bed where either mulch or tilling would look awkward / lumpy. After a bit of  practice it is kind of fun and easy. If the sod is in good shape you can give it away, maybe even sell it and recoup some (all) of your rental costs.

3) Tiller

There basically are two types of tillers, front and rear tine. Front end tillers are cheaper, lighter, and somewhat more maneuverable, but they bounce more (and you with them) and the end results are rougher. A rear tine produces results that are smoother, more "professional".  If the soil is rocky or with lots of big roots you  will still have a good work-out. Either way, you are chopping grass and weed roots into the ground that have the potential to resprout, and of all the techniques requires the most follow-up vigilance. The big advantages are that with  a tiller you have the least amount of materials that you either haul in or haul out, and as you till you can blend in various amendments.

After tilling the soil, one can plant a cover crop, discussed further in the next section on overseeding.

4 Overseed / plant

One can modify a lawn by overseeding it with different grasses and forbs.  It is not the most effective or efficient, but can be a simple, interesting solution if one has a certain level of tolerance.  One can choose a mix of flowers, or cover crops, or leafy greens.  Certain "ecology" lawn mixes include a mix of flowers and low herbs that tolerate occasional mowing. Mostly these are not techniques that eliminates the lawn, but they can alter it.  

A person can even plant winter wheat or other winter grain in the lawn; it will change the soil texture and possibly the plant make-up.  As a means to grow grain, it is amusing if perhaps not the most effective: the grain will mature in summer, by which time the lawn grasses will be probably also be quite tall and also germinating seed.  

One can experiment in what and when one plants.  After planting, consider tilling up the old sod several months later, or vice versa -- i.e. till first then plant a cover crop.

5 Chemical death

There are a number of herbicides available from fairly benign -- Acetic acid 20% (household vinegar is acetic acid diluted to 5%) -- to rather nasty.  For what it is worth, in my book Gyphosate (Roundup©) is somewhere in between nice and nasty, but rarely a first (or 2nd or 3rd) choice for sod elimination.  

In every case, herbicides are far safer when the instructions, such as application conditions and product dilution, are followed.  Of those who ignore the instructions, homeowners tend to be the worst in part because no applicator license and oversight is required.  Even if you do not need an applicator license, consider reviewing the pre-license applicator materials.

if you do kill the sod chemically, you still have not eliminated the sod, simply killed the plant growth.  Before planting you will still need to cut through or rototill the sod; if you simply are top-dressing the old sod with a mulch this step can be skipped.  

Pruning fruit trees

It is a long time ago that I pruned my first fruit tree.  To further my skills over the following years, I have attended classes and lectures, and read books and pamphlets, and asked many questions, and looked at many trees.  I return to trees I've pruned and look at how they have responded to my pruning.  At first I wasn't very good with fruit trees, but I have been determined to understand the trees and discern what to do to make the right cuts.  By now my skills and and knowledge (and confidence) have greatly improved.

To this blog I've added some fruit tree "static pages" which I hope you find helpful (I welcome your feedback).  They are on Why Fruit Trees Fail to Bear, on Helpful Terms (some terminology and concepts), and on Questions to Consider before making pruning decisions.

I've challenged myself to identify Ten Rules when Pruning Fruit Trees.  A number of years ago I wrote a brochure about Ten Rules for Success with Mason Bees and I still figure ten rules are enough.  At this point the "rules" are only a list, but a list is starting point none-the-less.  I have a different "list", made of quips and sage advice, that folk inevitably hear from me. The first 50 times are the hardest for any effort, and the problem with fruit trees is that you can only guess the tree's response, that will take three years of pruning, then watching, and then pruning again, before the tree has noticeably changed its form.

Please also look at the reading list at the bottom of the article, and also the static pages, above.

My (January 2017 version of) Ten Rules when Fruit Tree Pruning:

1. Trees grow vertically. Work with their natural growth.
2. Trees react to being pruned. Anticipate their reactions.
3. Use sharp and clean tools. Don’t hack and tear. Minimize damage.
4. Take enough time. You can’t glue it back afterwards.
5. Balance. Each scaffold needs enough branches (and leaves) to thrive.
6. Study from the ground up. Follow the main shape (scaffold).
7. Too few branches and too many branches are both mistakes.
8. Select for branches growing up and out, at about a 45° angle.
9. Leaves feed the branches and roots. They need light and air.
10. Roots hydrate and anchor the tree. They need water and nutrients.

Start with selecting what to prune and what to keep.  First:

1) Is it dead?
2) is it damaged?
3) Is it crowded / crossing?

Here is a simplified branch diagram to help decide what to keep and what to remove:

Gray lines are other main (scaffold) trunks -- with branches omitted.

1] Main Scaffold Branch: Important. Should be four to six scaffold branches. Each scaffold branch needs enough side branches (and leaves) to feed the main scaffold branch.
 
2] Downturned branch: Often removed — shaded, old, unfruitful. With good light, can be fruitful.

3] Tip of scaffold branch: Keep until it grows down and / or too big, then prune back to branch 4].

4] Fruitful replacement branch: Branches growing outward and 45° upward are ideal for fruit.

5] Potential replacement branch:
If the shoot is useful, tie or weight a vertical watershoot to a ~45° angle; more often, remove it.

6] Fruitful, but inward growing: May make tree crowded, so often they are removed.

This highly simplified drawing shows the diversity of branch patterns and some thoughts on which branches to keep and which to cut.   The tree itself is of course far more complicated.

GOING FURTHER -

There are some good on-line resources for pruning fruit trees.  One pub I recommend frequently is Training and Pruning Your Home Orchard, an Oregon - Washington State Extension publication.  Two other extension pubs of merit are Pruning to Restore an Old, Neglected Apple Tree, and Pruning Basics.  Each emphasizes different aspects of pruning fruit trees, and none will be a waste of time spent studying.

There are some good fruit tree pruning videos on the web (and are some bad ones too), and I will look to add some to this list in the coming weeks.

Glen

Banishing Bitter Pit -- Kudos to Calcium

Before we moved into our current home I had plenty of experience with apple anthracnose and scab and wooly apple aphid and codling moth. In the seven years since our move I have become way too familiar with apple maggot and with bitter pit. Words cannot adequately express my disdain and frustration for the beastly little apple maggot, (at some point I might try), but up until this year equally venomous words were saved for bitter pit, the scourge of my apple crop.

I say "up until this year" because this summer I began to spray the apples with liquid calcium and now notice a remarkable improvement in fruit quality.

Bitter pit is a fruit development problem linked to calcium deficiency, possibly to soil moisture — as well as to fruit variety. I had barely even heard of it until we moved to our current home in 2008. Here our lone apple tree produced hundreds (hundreds!) of early yellow-green apples pockmarked by dozens of small brown spotty indentations. These “bitter pits”, where fruit cells have shriveled and died, affects both the fruit flavor and the storage.

Following recommendations, this past year I began spraying the fruit on my trees with liquid calcium. By now this tree supports seven different varieties (a different story) and some types seem more prone to bitter pit damage. Our 2016 season had a wetter than average spring after an excellent fruit set; I cannot say whether it was my several applications of liquid calcium or because the fruit was better hydrated, or how much the two are related. I just know that all the varieties of apples I am growing were far cleaner in this year of spraying calcium than in the past.

The One-tree Orchard

When we moved to our current address several years ago, in the back grew one apple tree. It was a misshapen, poorly pruned tree, (at least by my criteria). And though the tree was highly productive, the apples were terrible -- a poster child for bitter pit. I'll say more about bitter pit in another blog, but the poor apple quality drove me to finally stop being afraid of grafting. I determined that I could add another variety of apple to the tree that I'd prefer, replace the apple I didn't like, (couldn't eat) with one tasty and disease free.

About five years ago I finally took the plunge, buying scion wood from Michael Dolan of Burnt Ridge Nursery, a guru of tree and shrub edibles and an anchor of the Olympia Farmer's Market. I selected five apple varieties:

• Red Gravenstein
• Liberty
• Golden Russet
• Spitzenberg
• Tydeman's Early

After deciding how I'd partition the tree and how I'd mark the different varieties, (colored tape), I starting grafting, one variety per section. I tested several different techniques and achieved adequate success -- maybe 50% each. The next summer a friend asked if I could save some fruit wood from a tree likely to be cut down, and I was able to successfully bud graft a sixth variety -- we think it is "Burgundy" -- into the tree. Since then I've grafted more of each into the tree and appear to mostly have a good showing; my rate of success in improving.

I am determined to reduce further the original tree. I'll have to make several harsh stub cuts, and onto each stub I will graft more stock. While I will not fully transform the tree, I hope to make the original tree significantly less dominant. I want to add one more variety, one I found in an orchard that seems to ripen late and keep well; it will probably replace Tydeman's Early, which on my tree is not thriving. Watch for updates.

Return to Blogospere

What to say on a blog when I haven't written anything for a year and a half. It is just that when I am gardening I am gardening and when I'm on the computer I'm more likely to be working on stuff related to pollinators or something more fundamental like invoices and emails. But today amid weeds and drizzle I started considering what I could write about and came up with a list of possible topics. Here goes.

• Dead or alive (when to decide against a plant)
• Banishing bitter pit -- my new love affair with liquid calcium
• My tool belt (favorite tools that hang around me)
• Botanical Latin -- on not being a word wimp
• Hiding ones cuts
• Thinning, heading, shearing ... and hacking
• Fun with grafting
• Apical dominance, or why plants grow UP, and how to outguess them
• Good gardening books
• iPod companion -- some books I have "read" when gardening
• Going to seed  -- when to deadhead and when to leave it
• Biennials  --  valuable volunteers
• Vexing visitors -- Slugs, Deer, Raccoons, Moles, Cats
• Lawns, revisited
• Naps, candy, and other minor vices

Lots of topics, now I just need content and a photo or two.

Glen