Too Much Nice Weather

Last weekend we visited Adam. In the spirit of a budding tropical fruit fanatic, he added a mango and Barbados Cherry, and this weekend he followed up with jaboticaba and avocado. A winter storm forced us to stay an extra day, so we went fishing with Bryan of Southern Thunder Fishing Charters.

Today it's sunny and 55F, the day after the winter solstice. Lisa and I took to the greenhouse in T-shirts for a day of cleanup, repotting, and the remainder of the greenhouse winter insulation.

Jake and I put the film up on the roof at Thanksgiving. It was so difficult that I almost resolved that this would be my last greenhouse winter. But I have a new idea, one that will not require this tiresome effort every year. Stay tuned in the spring for an update.

For now we're going with 0.7mil film again. We finally got the north and south ends sealed up today and it's a better job that the last couple of years, with less infiltration.

The citrus are generally doing well. One lime is in intensive care, but we have good crops of Persian lime, kumquat, calamondin, and satsuma.

I fired up the heat map for a few of the plants which aren't thriving.

Kari didn't do well in the pot over the summer and hasn't done any better in the greenhouse. So we moved it into the ground in the center bed and gave it a couple of good shovels worth of tasty compost.

Loquat is blooming, and a couple of the mangoes look like they are about to bloom as well.

Our forecast is for highs in the 50s to 60s the next several days. I have some wine work to do ahead of the KC Cellarmasters Annual Wine Classic, it will be tough to hide out in the basement when it is so nice outside.

Fall Tropical Fruit Harvest

Today served up a nice variety of fruit. Cool weather has arrived and we'll start moving plants back tomorrow. 

Clockwise, from top left: 'Mallika' mango (Mangifera indica 'Mallika'), 'Kari' star fruit (Averrhoa carambola 'Kari'), strawberry guava (Psidium cattleyanum), limeberry (Triphasia trifolia), miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), lemondrop mangosteen (Garcinia madruno), Barbados cherry (Malpighia glabra)

Midsummer 2018

We've undertaken a remodel of the poolhouse and lanai. The columns need to be reworked due to water damage. In the poolhouse we're removing the grill, adding roll-up doors, and replacing the old warped cabinetry with new outdoor cabinets.

We plan to add a water softener and to rearrange the cabinets to allow a full size fridge/freezer.

In news of the recovery, we're up to 18 Vidal Blanc vines with signs of growth. Exciting to see the other grapes coming a long. We've already got bird netting on the Frontenac which show great color.

Despite the beetle damage, I still hope to have enough grapes for a small batch of wine.

My goal has always been to get one new fruit species per year and this year we met the goal with Garcinia intermedia, the lemon drop mangosteen. Apparently the old name was G. edulis and that is the label on this plant, which just goes to show you how long it took to get fruit. Honestly it wasn't great - inedibly sour - but I now have a second plant flowering and several more fruit set so there is hope for better fruit.

Starfruit is not a candidate for new fruit this year, but perhaps it should be. We've been without 'Kari' now for a couple of years and the new tree from Pine Island has set fruit.

Mango is another ineligible candidate. I grew 'Cogshall' for several years and finally got so irritated with it that I got rid of it. 'Cogshall' would never hold fruit to maturity. This time I went with 'Mallika' and so far it has not disappointed.

Trying a new technique - pollarding - on the lychee trees this year. Normally then get a firm prune mid-July but this time I really pruned them back very hard in an effort to get growth I can reach without a step-stool. Results in about 10 months.

We're just back from the Chalet and the post would not be complete without some Lake Michigan pictures, final pic photo credit to Bob Pierce.

RIP Kari

It is a good day for some greenhouse work, rainy and cold.  For the most part, the greenhouse is coming alive.  There is mostly good news.

It looks like we may have our first Psidium myrtoides, purple guava.  Grown from seed given to me by Sadhu at Govardhan Gardens, these plants are probably 4 years old.  They have proven extremely difficult to manage in containers, with a pendulous habit and a stubborn refusal to grow as a tree.  The first one bloomed a few weeks back and it looks like we got fruit set.  Too early to jinx it with pictures.

I've found the key to T.R.Hovey papaya, and that is heat...aimed directly at the pot.

 

Lychees are blooming, and for the first time, some overlap between Sweetheart and Brewster.  I'm not convinced I'll have any fruit set yet.

One little limeberry is pumping out fruit like crazy.  A few ounces last year went into the Tutti Fruiti wine.  We should have a bit more this year.

And finally, RIP Kari.

Signs of Life

Birds are a problem this year.  A cardinal has spent the better part of the last 3 weeks attacking his image in one or another window of our house.  And a guinea hen has settled in the area of the backyard.  One of these birds will not see summer.

We are pleased with the progress of our fruit plantings in the yard.  All of the pawpaw trees survived the winter, although the two tallest trunks died back after getting roughed up by deer last fall.  The elderberries are spreading to the point where I'm getting a little concerned they may become invasive.  The haskaps, which looked nearly dead last fall, have set fruit and we may get a pint of berries.  Hoping for twice that output of jostaberries.

Jostaberry blooms

Most importantly, there are signs of life in 'Kari.'  I pruned back a lot of dead branches, but we clearly have a flush of growth.

Weather is limiting garden work a little bit this weekend, but it makes for some interesting views.

Cell moving north-northeast across Fulton