Learning from my mistakes

Sure isn't that what life is all about - learning from your mistakes?  I'm a graduate from that school of philosophy, for sure. One thing about doing the Master Gardeners program is that as I sit in lectures, learning how to garden correctly, I realize how many things I've done wrong!

Take planting fruit trees for example.  I planted five cherry trees too low in the ground and added organic matter to the hole before putting in the tree.  Wrong, wrong, wrong - on three counts!

1) Make the hole wide, not deep.  Plant the tree so that  the "delicate crown" (where the roots meet the trunk) is slightly above the grade.  Build a small trench at the drip line for irrigation. Here's a rough (very rough) sketch of what you should do.

 

And here is a picture of what you should NOT do!

The crown is too low compared to the level of the original soil. That red lava rock has to go, but even with it removed, the tree will still be too low.

2) Put only the native soil back in the hole - no amendments.  The tree will sink as these decompose.  Guess what I did...  Steer manure, compost and fertilizer! Another shot of what not to do...

The tree will be two foot under by the time its all over!

3) Plant trees suitable for your climate.  For example, cherries need on average 600 hours of chill time (temperatures below 45^oF) and we tend to get less than 400 hours.  So what did I do?  Yep - I just planted me five sweet cherry trees that will probably never fruit!

But here's the up-side.  All the trees I planted were free.  All of them volunteers in some shape or form, so at least I'm not out of pocket.  They've all broken dormancy, so I plan to wait until next winter to dig them up and replant them if they are worth replanting.  I can also buy some more suited to this climate and at least plant them right.

And to add insult to injury we've been given a frost warning for the weekend!  A frost warning - what's all that about?  Hey, Arney - you never mentioned this is all your ads inviting us to come to California.  

I'm also sure that the rest of the northern hemisphere has little sympathy for central Californians crying about a touch of frost, but when it hits after an unseasonably warm spell, like we just had, (though I can't really figure out what unseasonable means here anymore) the trees have pushed out their buds and some have even blossomed, making them all the more vulnerable.

I swing between panic and complacency. My nectarine is in full bloom.

The predicted lows vary between 31^oF and 27^oF.  So my garden may be okay...

 

First off, it seems that the temperature has to reach 27^oF to harm 10% of my nectarine tree, (read peaches) according to the Michigan State University Extension. This website has a really easy to use table of what temperature will kill which stage of growth on a variety of fruit trees. How much damage a tree suffers depends on what stage it is at in its blossoming and fruiting cycle .  

So, my cherries are safe to 23^oF, the plums, with their first bloom, safe to 27^oF, and although almonds are not mentioned on this website, they are related to plums and thus technically a stone-fruit, so I guessed that 27^oF is the magic number there too. Having learned not to make assumptions, I checked this out with The Almond Doctor, (yes - there is such a guy!) and found that in fact 28^oF is the lower limit for those.  I have one really young almond tree, so I will protect it tonight by draping a sheet over it supported by two unused tomato cages - I'm sure the squirrels will appreciate that!

It seems that the rain we are getting today will help too.  I read somewhere that if you water the soil well it helps, BUT then when I researched my temperatures for citrus, the UC Davis pdf said that humidity could make matters worst!  This is something I have no control over now that it has rained all morning anyway.

However,  29^oF will damage my ripe oranges, so I'm going to have to do a big emergency harvest, juice 'em and freeze the juice, or I may loose the lot.

On a more uplifting note, I'll direct you to the photo at the beginning of this post.  That is the arbor that my Mum bought and helped erect, together with my Godmother and husband,before the visitors departed for home this week.  I'm dreaming of all the beautiful vines I will grow over it.  When I'm in the garden, I'm never far from my Mum.

Byddi Lee 

Frost and foremost

Honest to God, you'd think it was the end of the world here.  The News has carried it every night in their headlines, urgent voices warning of the destruction that is imminent, and whilst it's not quite the end of the world, it has been the end of my zucchini, eggplant and pepper plants - FROST!

When I gardened in Ireland, I never held much hope for a winter crop.  I was too cold and too lazy to plant anything in the autumn, and when the freezing temperatures, hit I did not much mind what happened to the garden.  Springtime would come and I'd start again. 

Here it's different.  If I'm careful, I can have stuff growing all winter that I couldn't grow in Ireland.  But the question is, what will survive the frost and what won't?  I'm looking froward to the Master Gardeners program to get a more definitive answer to that question.

Last year, I took precautions when we had the one and only frost warning of the year in December.  I put bubble wrap over the lettuce, and they did really well surviving well into the hottest part of the summer before bolting. I'd heard that if peppers are protected from the frost they can be perennial, so I decided to wrap them in bubble wrap - some of them still had fruit on them.  I also wrapped up the egg plants too, more as an experiment than anything.

I also covered the little potato plants that had sprouted.  Notice the cherry tree growing in this plot.  I pruned this off a cherry tree that was dying and in the end needed to be cut down.  I used the cut branches as supports for peas and they blossomed!  It is still growing strong, and I'll move it, and three others like it, in Janurary. 

I had heard that you just need to cover the plant to protect it from frost, and that frost drops straight down. So I didn't worry about the pots that sit along the front under the eaves of the house.  I did experiment with other covering devices, like upturned buckets,

 and even garden chairs.

I made sure to cover the lettuce and bok choi. Only because they seem to me to be fragile, and therefore frost would make a difference - to be honest, I'm just guessing at this stage.

And so I went to bed content that I had done the best I could for my little garden. 

Why is frost and low temperatures so damaging  to some plants?


Well, when water freezes it swells, so if a plant freezes the water within the cells expands, bursting the cell walls.  That is why when the plants thaw out, they just flop over. 

The night before last the temperature dropped to 28F.  The zucchini wasn't covered and it bit the dust.

Where the basil was peeking out from under the bubble wrap, it got damaged, (right hand side of photo) but those leaves under bubble wrap seemed okay.

 The cilantro was very happy snuggled under its covers.

The bok choi were also well protected.

On close inspection the spuds were slightly damaged - you can see where the leaves have turned a darker brownish color.

 

 The leaves beneath seem okay and so my plan is to just leave these alone and hope that they recover to some extent.  I've also read that some other plants might recover too, and its best not to prune off the frost damaged parts.

 

Despite being covered, the peppers and eggplant took a a hit - that's how it goes, I suppose! I did however come across a website with great tips on frost protection (which you can read for yourself by clicking the link) that said to avoid covering with plastic - perhaps the bubble wrap was not as clever a plan as I had thought.

But the arugula was thriving.

 And the lettuce...

But wait a minute - I forgot to re-cover that patch of lettuce last night - so how did it survive the low of 29F?  After a garden fence clinic, (which usually occurs when I catch Al in his garden and quiz him on gardening matters over the fence) it transpires that, in fact, the lettuce is fairly frost resistant.  This was totally unexpected.  I turned to the internet for a second opinion and discovered that lettuce does survive a light frost. So, was all my nurturing in vain - those varieties that died were doomed - and covering those that were not susceptible, a waste of time?  

Not necessarily - the BBC website suggests covering lettuce when a frost is likely. Admittedly, British frost and Californian frosts may drastically differ, but if it does get cold enough, damage will be done. 

So, what makes a plant frost resistant? Apparently if a plant has a high content of salt in its cells, it is more frost resistant. This makes sense as adding salt to water lowers its freezing point. That why it is used on roads in the winter - not just to make them taste better for crazy people who may want to lick the road!
 
One thing I love about researching a question is that I tend to pick up lots of other useful titbits along the way.  From the same website I read,

"Growing tips

• Winter salads traditionally have a strong, robust flavour that can sometimes be a little bitter. If you find that your salad leaves are too bitter for your tastes, try blanching the leaves by covering the plants with an upturned flowerpot.
• Left like this for a few days before harvesting, the leaves will become paler and less bitter."

I'm going to try this with my arugula.

As for my kale forest - yummy - frost should sweeten the leaves!  A silver lining in every cloud.


Byddi Lee