Another productive day

Another productive day.

My hazelnut trees from Great Plains showed up. The Grand Traverse was 27" tall from the top of the root-ball to the tip of the shoot. The Beast was slightly shorter. They were still dormant and the root-balls had been removed from their pots and packaged in plastic bags which were then secured with wraps of packing tape to the inside of the shipping box so they did not bounce around.

I cut the tips off of the tiny trees to make a couple of back-up copies. I have several seedlings that are shy producers and are not paying their rent. They have great root systems, so top-working them to a more productive variety is a way of getting a jump on a full-sized plant in the right place.

"The Beast" is Trademarked so I cannot sell the backups nor could I sell nuts from those backups under the name "The Beast". But the breeder's number OSU 541.147 is not Trademarked. That number is a neologism which identifies the breeder (Oregon State University), row number and seeding-in-that-row number.

Plant breeders migrated from Plant Patents (which run out 17 years after application) to Trade Marks which are eternal. It takes the majority of that 17 years to gain acceptance of customers in the marketplace. Consequently, most of the "protection" of a Plant Patent occurs when there is very little revenue. 

There is more flexibility associated with the Trade Mark. The holder of the Trade Mark is also protected against "improvements" on the original "invention". Had the name "Honeycrisp" apple been Trade Marked, sports and mutations of the actual apple like "Red Honeycrisp" and others would also have been protected.

Bumblebees active

Cloudy. 58F by our thermometer. I wanted to dig up some tiny persimmon seedlings in a patch of Dead-nettle. A bumblebee disputed my claim. We compromised. I out-waited him/her. Bumblebees are not as sensitive to the weather as honeybees.

Wild plums are starting to bloom. I have a friend who lives 25 miles south of here who has a magnificent stand of Japanese plums that have been very shy bearing. Presumably due to lack of viable pollen. I intend to take her some sprigs of wild plum (P. nigra, in fact) for her to festoon her trees with nose-gays. Monday is predicted to be partly sunny and Tuesday mostly sunny.

One more woodchuck went to Woodchuck Valhalla

I am not a finish carpenter

But I try.

Quicksilver is pulling at every loose, tag end. We have a wee-bit of vinyl floor covering in the kitchen that was not battened down with a molding. I rectified the situation today.

Sage

The Great Misinformation Superhighway informs me that sage seeds can take SIX WEEKS to germinate.

I guess I have to be patient.

Apple trees

This image is in black-and-white so you cannot see that the building is Smurf-blue. Cinder-blocks are to prevent the bags from rolling down the hill.

I had five apple trees left over from my wholesale purchase that are earmarked for my nephew's new demesne. Mrs ERJ and I moved them to a 7 gallon tub and into dog-food bags.

It was not intentional that three of the five varieties tend to be very large but that is how it worked out.

One is Liberty/Bud-9. It will be a puny tree.

The other four are Enterprise/G.890 which will be great big brutes, relatively speaking.

I top-worked three other varieties into three separate trees. All three of these varieties are late-for-our-area:

GoldRush: As hard as a rock and as tart as battery acid when first picked. Develops intense, rich flavors after a month of storing. Keeps until May.

Boskoop: This heirloom keeper apple originated in Boskoop, Holland, in 1856, and is still prized in Europe where it is a popular commercial variety. Trees produce heavy crops of very large apples that are superior for cooking and baking into pies, with a rich balance of sweet and tart flavors. Red Boskoop is rated among the highest in phytonutrients, high in Vitamin C making it healthful and delicious!

The apples, which are russetted over a red base, ripen in mid-late fall and store well all winter long, with flavors improving as they age in storage. Trees have some resistance to scab.

Spigold: Spigold apple tree produces an exceptionally high quality apple in most locations. The Spigold is a very large yellow fruit with firm, juicy flesh that carries an aromatic spicy flavor. It's hard to believe that such a large apple can taste so good. Spigold apples are best picked and stored for a few weeks for optimal flavor. The Spigold apple tree is a delicious blend of flavor of its parents. One also favored for pies. Displays some resistance to fire-blight. 

My nephew is already asking about hard-cider and what kind of blends would work. Frankly, you press what you have, add sugar if required. Yeast makes a difference. Lavlin 71-B makes a cider that is not tart. EC-1118 is a very fast yeast with no distinctive flavors. Red Star Cote de Blancs makes a hard cider with flavor and mouthfeel similar to Chardonnay wine.