On the market in Saskatoon

I have been keeping an eye out for what is coming into the market here for Blue Honeysuckle. So far at Home Depot and Walmart I am seeing the two varieties Blue Moon and Blue Velvet. The plants look very stretched and spindly as in this picture. I noticed the branches break very easily. Not a good sign for the market.

I am glad to see Blue Velvet on the market here so I may have to pick one up yet.

My own plants are /have been blooming like crazy but there seem to be very few pollinators.

Finally spring and the Blue Honeysuckle are blooming

Well it was a long winter no doubt and there was some damage by mice and deer but so far things look pretty good in the orchard. I was surprised to find some plants really quite chewed up by the mice or voles but not a lot of stems stripped which means the tops will still bloom and bear fruit. This is one of the worst but it is in a group of Russian seedlings which are a disaster anyway!

 These are 5 cuttings of my plant number 51. I like the uniformity.

 Very nice shape. Worst weeds are the dandelions.

 This is a seedling of Nimfa. I think the one behind it is too but I did not check the tag. I seem to be able to pick them out in this randomized block.

Another good bloomer. Let the bees come!!

More later.

Bee n thinking about spring.

One of the issues most fruit growers is pollination of their fruit plants. Blue honeysuckle are particularly a challenge as they are self fertile and need pollen from another suitable plant from the species. One of the early possibilities is solitary bee species who are resident in the area and who emerge early in spring. One source of ideas is the Instructables web site. If you type in Solitary bee there are a number of simple housing projects which come up and are reasonable for anyone who is handy with a saw and electric drill. Here is a link to one that I thought was quite artistic.

Interestingly Lee Valley also now carries one made of plastic.

There are many resources on the internet regarding Mason Bees and others who might serve well in the early season pollinating process.

Here is what the result can look like!

 

 

How I hope this summer can be a good producer again!

Found this site with so many wonderful looking possible choices to build. Enjoy!

A few fall observations

Well I must apologize to anyone who is following this site because I just have not been posting here. The summer was disappointing to say the least as so many things did not go well. Though there was good fruit set and good moisture there was little production due to the Cedar Waxwings and high winds we ended up with about 2l of poor quality fruit from about 200 to 250 plants. The tallest plants seemed to really take a beating from the wind especially. The birds even climbed up under the netting to eat the berries. Bah!

So here is what is happening right now. I am watering new seedlings with drip irrigation and the big plants are getting some rainwave watering as long as we can.

 The rainwave is not very visible here but it is happening. With no rain it has been very dry and for some plants it has cause premature leaf drop.

 I still have more than 60 pots which need to get planted into the ground. These are about 4 years old in the pots so they really need to get their roots spread out.

Here is an example of the drying out in some seedlings which are seriously affected by the lack of water.

We are into a grey day so that is why these pictures are a little dull.

Nothing to report!!

Well this year was/is a disaster in terms of berry harvest so that is why you have not seen anything posted here! We got about 2 l off of over 250 plants and those were not really great berries. I think it is time to thin out the nursery and get it down to something we can manage with good netting to keep out birds and some kind of windbreak. The wind whipped the berries off of the taller older plants and the Cedar Waxwings just keep eating till there was nothing left. Even under the netting which we pulled over the rows! They would fly down to the ground and hop up into the bushes. Then if you came along they flapped about till they were on the ground and out they flew. Bah.
I did see someone on another blog talking about using the kind of row covering you would use in spring to protect the plants from frost and I think if we are here and there is opportunity to do that, we will buy some and try it.
Here is an example as sold by Lee Valley. Our problem is we have several row widths and heights to contend with but I think I would still try it!
I don't even have pictures.

Until next time.

Clayton

Seedlings starting! Wow.

Only one but here they come.

New post over at A Prairie Journal iin Saskatchewan

Did some seed planting today and there is a little info over at my Home blog. Here is a teaser.