Pruning Peaches & Muscadines 2011

It's late winter, so hopefully most of the hardest freezes are behind us here in central Alabama. That makes it time to prune fruit trees. I was unable to attend the local pruning workshops, so I settled for a series of videos to freshen my memory. The following one by the UMass Fruit Advisor provides an overview of the process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBrwFTYrlc4

Since every tree is a different, I dug around youtube a bit more and came up with the following series of videos by Gurney’s Seed on how to train young trees.
2nd year pruning => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lILzh8_hmuo
3rd year pruning => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIycAFKPI8
4th year => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VnQwEsOEuY

Important peach pruning notes:

1. Remove diseased or dead limbs.
2. Peaches bear fruit on last year's wood.
3. Keep fruit low enough to pick
4. Thin branches for good air circulation, to minimize disease, and to provide sunlight to leaves
5. Provide sturdy "scaffolding" to carry the weight of fruit
6. Limit number of fruiting branches so remainder of fruit will be large and healthy.

I got out my trusty Corona bypass pruners and mixed a container of bleach to wash off diseases instead of spreading them everywhere I make a cut.

 

I cut this tree back to 4 scaffold branches a couple of years ago, so this year I just needed to clean up the new growth.

 

 

Before 2011 Pruning

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 2011 Pruning

 

 

 

In a few months we’ll see how well it worked.

I also have several muscadine grape vines which needed pruning. They were planted and trained to a geneva double curtain trellis as described in http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0774/ANR-0774.pdf

If you especially like videos, here’s one from goGardenNow in south Georgia about pruning his vineyard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdcaKO4Lk10

Now if I can find a professional in this area to critique my work I’ll know better what to do next year. Luckily, pruning is a fairly forgiving venture. Go enjoy your garden!

Learning To Work

Quite possibly for the first time ever, I am glad to have been assigned a particular book as a "textbook." I had to first get over the rather nebulous term "evaluative inquiry" and move on. You should too. "Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations" is all about the changes happening in our workplaces and economy and how we can be more effective working as teams. Whether we like it or not, we are moving into an era where knowledge is the key to prosperity. Ironically, sharing and continued learning, rather than hoarding information, is critical to success. As PF Drucker stated, knowledge "constantly makes itself obsolete, with the result that today's advanced knowledge is tomorrow's ignorance."

"Evaluative inquiry" is a method of evaluation which accepts and thrives upon regular review of our goals and progress as we move forward. A team working together with excitement and commitment to a common goal is capable of far more than would seem possible.

Preskill & Torres point out that a team's ability to work together will not happen instantly. No doubt we would agree everyone comes around at their own pace. Most of us have been taught (or inadvertently trained) NOT to share. The book outlines ways to create effective teams. Effective teams result in effective organizations, making this worthwhile for any individual or leader.

Some key quotes:

Adults learn most effectively when there is
* A perceived need for new knowledge or skills
* An opportunity to apply what has been learned
* An emphasis on integrating new learning with what is already known
* An appreciation for past experiences

Creating the environment for individuals to learn means that organization members must
* Have accurate and complete information
* Be free from coercion and distorting self-perception
* Be open to alternative perspectives
* Be able to reflect critically on presuppositions and their consequences
* Have equal opportunity to participate
* Be able to accept an informed, objective, and rational consensus as a legitimate test of validity.

The authors point out that "discussion" comes from similar root as percussion (breaking apart) whereas "dialog" can be thought of as "a stream of meaning flowing through and among us where the goal is a spirit of understanding, not competition of ideas."

I'm not sure I'll use the formal evaluation process, but it is encouraging to have it so plainly described. The abundance of practical examples and outlines should make a useful reference, but I am most impressed by the early chapters and the potential to use evaluative inquiry with informal team "projects."

- posted (messed up?) from Blogpress on iPad

Rose Garden Irrigation

After reading that fellow rose enthusiast Chris VanCleave (see his blog at http://vancleaverose.blogspot.com/) is working on an irrigation system, it occurred to me that I should share my experiences...and gain the wisdom of other gardeners' comments.

For those new to irrigation, you should know that sprinklers waste a lot of water to evaporation. Drip irrigation minimizes this waste and allows you to direct water exactly where it is needed. When watering roses it is important for the leaves to remain dry, as roses are often susceptible to a fungus called blackspot, which loves our hot, humid, Alabama climate. Together, these issues make drip irrigation the obvious choice for roses.

When you're learning what you want/need it is hard to beat the bargain prices of a starter drip irrigation kit on sale from Harbor Freight. As a friend of mine says, "cheap is a quality overcoming many faults." Such a kit typically includes a pressure reducer and an adapter to hook 1/4" drip tubing onto a garden hose. One step "better" involves using 1/2" polypropylene for the main lines.

When paired with a timer it can keep your roses and other plants happy all summer. I'm hoping this timer will last more than a year, but if it does it'll be the first. This one was used with my rain barrel during the summer of 2010, but is typical of my first few rose irrigation timers.

For the first several years in our current home I wished I could water roses with the same timer installed for the lawn and other flowerbeds. Instead I used a system primarily comprised of parts like the above plus extensive lengths of 1/4" drip tubing, soaker hoses, and eventually 1/2" polypropylene. It worked fine but required extensive annual repair/rebuilding.

My wishes came to life when we added a pool and enlarged the lawn. It was easy to justify the integrated sprinkler/dripper system while the yard was already a mess. I buried 3/4" schedule 40 PVC at the edge of the rose bed, just as if we were going to install sprinklers. By using the higher quality indoor timer, solenoids, and PVC, the primary parts of this system should last for years. The key component is an adapter which allows the drippers to connect. I bought these at Lowe's.

If you want a sprinkler head AND the dripper, you can use an adapter like this one.

Since there's only a few feet of 1/4" tubing it should be fairly long lived and easy to replace when the time comes. In the past I used standard drippers rated at 5 gallons/hour. Those worked OK but my ability to accidentally get sand in the lines meant that actual rates varied widely. If only there were a way to open the dripper and clean it out. Enter the adjustable rate "bubbler." The top unscrews for cleaning and the rate is adjustable, making the same part number work for every plant and its individual water needs. Drip irrigation bliss!



For the finale I added a soaker hose to one of the risers so our water loving Mexican Heather could be kept happy. It all adds up to an automated irrigation system which requires very little maintenance, should last a very long time, and lets me spend more time smelling roses and less time digging around under them.

Old Farmers Advice (via e-mail)

(My apologies to the author(s), but these words of wisdom seemed worth keeping. -greg)

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a Ford or John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered....not yelled.

Meanness don't just happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It doesn't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don 't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you'll be happier.

Don 't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, Speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.