The first days of Winter are aponds us.  The shortest Day of the year are less than a week away.  Changed a metal frame into a light closet.  Used a piece of 10'x 100' roll of clear 4mil plastic.  Using a 2'x4' led panel to light it.  There’s another larger metal table upstairs.  Those Led lights came in a pack of four.  Even have a 2'x4' heat mat.  Everything I need for seed propagation. Even have the 4 Avocado and 2 Mango seeds to go in.  If these sprout I figure I have 3 months till the roots out grow the 5lb containers.  By this time next year they will out grow the 10lb container.  After that is how big do I want them to get.  All still growing from a 5lb insert. Well that getting ahead of myself.  Let me make it there first.       

Now that the Winter Soltice is behind us, Christmas is over and the new year is about to start.  Spring is coming. That’s all this means to a gardener.  Green things of imitation start growing in your mind.  Images so real the tastes and smell your nose and mouth start watering.  You look out the window and think even if there is snow on the ground... I’ll be out there soon.  

To that end I've ordered 20 Peach cuttings and 6 Pecan seedlings.  I'll use a 5lb/10lb container combo for all of those..  

Interesting thing I found working with the Pecan seedlings.  The length of their roots were nearly half the plant.  I had to bend them to fit the 5lb insert.  But that’s the idea behind causing many tap roots to form.  Which then form secondary roots that allow the plant to grow larger in a small space. Secondary roots gather nutrients, their what interact with the Fauna (Bacteria)in the mix to produce food for the plant..  That’s the advantage of this system.  It produces it’s own food for the tree.  Before you get your head to spinning, that’s Nature’s way.  We forget because we have pots.  We think what a plant needs to grow in a pot.  Mined nutrients, organic fertilizers.  But what about something that’s already there...bacteria.  Fauna.  An the worse of them are the best for the plant.  Anaerobic ones.  One’s that will kill any plant in any potting system...but this one.

Look at any inground tree.  What’s fertilizing that tree in Nature.  Please understand that if you ask anyone about me and plants.  They will tell you with a smile that I kill plants.  I’ve killed them by the thousands.  I’m 73 and Nature provides a lot of choices to practice with.  And what I found out was in Anaerobic’s it’s all about”taste”.  

You know I had to change my planting awareness because they sent more than twice what I ordered.  Something to complain about right.  Made enough mix anyway. These are going into the light closet.  First month is growing roots, second is growing leaves and the third is just becoming a tree.  The wood is old enough just not strong enough. It’s January and by April everything is ready to go outside.   It also means i have to make 5lb inserts for all of them and containers as well.  

So while this list shows 6 different types of cuttings I got many more per order than promised.  Chicago Hardy Fig ) Sun Red Nectarine ) Celeste Fig ) Belle of Georgia Peach ) Red Haven Peach and Majestic Peach.  This mature fruiting wood.  The peach and nectarine cuttings I’ll wait till the buds develop more.  Than pick off the flower buds leaving the branching bud.     Now the idea here is I’m going to grow any cuttings growing by April to a single 2gal insert.  That’s a lot of inserts.  That’s a lot of mix.  Really tho that’s only if a lot of them do grow.  

See I asked the question about whether or not these were cut from grafted trees.  Answer was yes.  So unless you graft it it’s not going to be the same “size” fruit.  That’s going to be the main difference.  Maybe half with the pit remaining the same size.  But you’ll get a lot of fruit.  The Figs should be fruiting by end of Summer.

Made another 8-5lb inserts.  Ran out of 5lb cups.  The coffee seedlings came in.  There’ quite the number of them.  They were package nicely.  I’ll have to wait to transfer them till next week.  I have enough dirt mix but...  Feeling like taking a nap but want to work on the plants.  The coffee plants seem 10 to a pot.  That means I’ll have nearly 30 seedlings to work with.  Light’s still the problem tho.  

Got to work on the 2 sets of cuttings.  So that’s 2-5lb inserts for each set of cuttings.  Have to say I did get many more than asked for.  

The pear cuttings I took earlier are from an un-grafted tree.  I’m hoping those take.  It produces a incredible amount of pears every year.   People, birds and squirrels can’t eat them all.  Even when their taking bag fulls.  Never see any on the ground so something gets them over night.  But I’ve noticed those are the type trees I knew in my youth.  So it’s going to be easy to get a hundred cuttings to grow to fruiting size in 2yrs.  A 20'x40' space should be enough.  I say that amount of space because they’ll be in containers.   In 3yrs you can start grafting them to each other.  Point being you can get a large amount of fruit while waiting.   

!!!It's Cold!!!

Every now and then, during the coldest nights.  This plant comes back to mind like a forgotten lover.  I know that’s strange to say but I’m 73 an this plant is older than me.  I met the woman who owned it first, She got to the point where she couldn’t take care of it.  She wasn’t the only one who grew old with a loved one who she knew would out live her.  She told of different places she lived with it.  Children raised, gand children cherished.  But the plant was there thru all those times.  All those years it flowered twice a year.  Two year out of the five I took care of it, it bloomed twice with nearly a hundred flowers like that one.  It flowered every year but those stood out.  The windows were automatic so during the winter the branches leaned out the window and got covered with snow.  I have a picture of a snow covered Orange Bird of Paradise.  Somewhere.  

A few weeks back I said that I wanted to see if I could start plants at office buildings around town.  Well yes, people in those office buildings want plants as well.  Since I’m using cuttings and start several in one insert I can give them one of the cuttings for watching them while their there.  I’m working on another contact tomorrow.  They have even larger windows.  

CARBON FOOT PRINT

Now I was thinking about my carbon foot print.  This method of gardening doesn’t present any.  I’m thinking there’s some in the process of making the plastic.  Once it’s made it can last for years in full sun light if painted and holes made by heat.  There gas in the plastic that makes it flexible.  Everything is in a sealed container.  You don’t even get water run off.  Everything in that container is there to make the plant grow.  A simple Natural symbiotic system.  That relationship can last for years as well with the seasons.  A Boom and Bust of different Fauna.  An where does the Fauna come from?  The plant breathes them in.

It’s Feb 2-16-2024 has anybody else see that the trees are greening eary.  Way early?  Of course not.  It’s all in the trees imagination.

See plants make their food thru light.  If that light gets stronger the plant feeds more.  As swelling buds they have some temp room.  But in two weeks?   Climate change is apond us.  These changes started back when I was a child and I’ve seen the difference.  But what it really comes down to is we’re going to have to grow a lot of our own food.  In large amounts using as little resources as possible.  That doesn’t mean we’re limited to our choices of food stuff.  We’re way passed that now.  You hear the rumors about having your garden is bad.  That it’s really the small gardeners polluting the planet.  An if we were talking about hydroponics I’d agree.  Because every time you flush that shit down the drain your poisoning the planet.  AN THERE ARE MILLIONS OF YOU.  I want you to drink an ounce of that filth every time you flush a hundred gallons of that stuff down the drain.  Get use to it.  Because your children will have too.  And you do it every two weeks.  Oh yeah you can make it a month by making it even more poisonous.  Well, that’s my hydroponic soap opera rant.   See the problem with growing in ground is their talking about “if” you use their products their right.  They just don’t tell you their using “their” products.  That’s why they use chemical names.  Their whole argument falls apart other wise.   No the real problem here is water.  And we’re wasting it.  Now I’m not giving myself a pat on the back.  I think I have an answer.  That’s what we come on this box for.  Answers.  I get in a mood sometimes.  Back to the plants. I’m pretty pleased with the results from the cuttings.  I’ll post a few pictures below.  Now there were a few problems because of the culture of plants I take for granted that others just don’t know.  My fault.  But it taught them about damping off.  So we’re all back to gardening again.  Lost three out of the first 6.  But plenty more coming in the next batch.  There are 24-5lb insert/ container combo with four cuttings at least  each.  Most more.  Around April I’ll separate them into their own 5lb inserts.  By the middle of May they’ll be set outside and by Winter will be ready for next year.      

It’s been snowing here and freezing as well.  So I thought I’d show the Blueberries.  Remember everything here sits in water frozen during the winter but comes back evey Spring.  Blueberries like every other plant sets it’s own ph in relationship to it’s environment.   

The whole idea around the Gardens of Ease is to the same thing using less inputs.  Aquaponics leave a lot of surface area exposed to evaporation.  You need large numbers of fish to produce the waste needed to feed the plants.  You need large amounts of food to feed the fish.  pumps to move the water and air.  None of that is needed in the Gardens of Ease.  I even got rid of the air by using Anaeroponics.  

There are cuttings I can put outside.  Trees that are hardy to this area.  So I think I’m going to risk it.  Just a question of where.  All the trees out front are budding now.  The Blueberries are really going to produce.  Or I should say that the oldest Berries are going to produce this year.  Looks like the Red Chief Nectarine is going to bloom first.  Then the Elberta Peach.  The DWF Gala trees are showing the first stages of white fuzz.  I’m thinking of starting fertilizing them.  It would be about two weeks early.  An I'm not expecting any hard freeze.

One of the points I want to bring up again is there are more than just the three.  Air, water and ground.  And that neither of the roots can grow in the others environment.  Aerobically But Anaerobically?  Want you to understand that I’m people trained not class room.  I didn’t learn ABC, I learned E,N.K. and fell overA,B,C.  But these were friendships in other things I’ve learned.  It’s the best reasons to learn different things because of the friendships it allows you to make.  So in my theory there are 6 types of root.   The normal three and the others.  Using the ABC you use a mix of manure and or mined nuitrients to feed the plant.  The “other” way is using bacteria to E,N, K way to feed the plant.  Anaerobically Bacteria that would normally feed on the roots but don’t because of the environment created by the plants.  So the bacteria feeds on the waste produced by the plants. Creates a Boom and Bust cycle from Winter to Spring.  Thing is there’s a little S,M,Y in there as well.  Because now you can grow plants over Winter in Buckets of water that freeze and come back every Spring.  S,M, Y bacteria has an Anti-freeze that allows the plant to freeze but remain viable because of the slime the bacteria leaves as it goes thru the Morning and Sun Set thru the plant.  That only works if you give the bacteria time to boom before the bust first frost.             

Of all the things I was thinking of insects weren’t one of them.  Just surprised by two Brown Wasps flittering thru the Nectarine and peach flowers.  Some of them aren’t even fully open but they push their way in.  Took pictures but can’t tell yet.  I’m taking the first plants out.  Pecans I think.  Didn’t mark them.  Now I don’t remember.  But their growing.  Their going out front in the strong sunlight.  

The DWF Gala apple trees are waking up.  I have 10 of them.  All over 6'and I'm bending the longest branches downfor better fruiting this year.  They've had all Winter to develop their roots so they should ut out a lot of flowers this time.  An..an lets not forget the test to see if Fire Blight over Wintered.  One of the reasons I think Fire Blight might be blocked is the plant isn't be forced fed nutrients. Breaking the Osmosis barrier.  But since this is a natural method of feeding plants it might not be open to infection because the plant sets the ph not the nutrients.    An Anaerobic  environment Fire Blight can't live in.  

Now I’m thinking that the root system hasn’t spread out more is because of the Root stock is Dwarf.  I’m Getting good growth from the upper trunk tho.   Having the root system exposed allow me better understanding.  That trees grown with standard root stock grows a lot of roots to produce a bigger tree.   Same with trees growing on their own roots.  So thinking ..if I grow a standard tree I might get 800 to 1 thousand apples.  While growing Dwarfs I might get 50 to 80.  But the thought is the amount of space each takes.   So lets say the standard tree takes 30' all around the tree for good growth.  So if we use a square rather than a circle you could have 60 Dwarf trees in that same area.  An it would use less water.  You could have 60 of the same or 60 different types. In just a 60' square.  Feel that tingling on the back of my neck that tells me I’m on to something or it’s going to rain. 

Sorry soapbox time.  Feel I should say something about water here because we use water with wild abandon.  That’s why when I learn by N,LT instead of A,B,C.  The amount of water waste appalled me.  

APPALLED ME.  

That’s why I say that’s hydroponic is the worse.  They all act like water is to waste.  But everything was so easy.  So convenient.  Test your Rain water lately.  There are places in the world where you can’t drink the water and people are selling whole death to each other like a road Warrior movie.  Hey! I’m not trying to scare you, that should happened years ago.  

But I don’t want to leave you with a downer.  This is America and better start recognizing we’re Blessed.   Even our trash is valuable. Look what we can do with it.