The Best Freeze/Frost Tolerant Peach Variety

I recently found out about this peach variety called Intrepid that blooms late and has blossoms that are resistant to freezing temperatures. The tree's blossoms have survived freezing temperatures even at full bloom. That is pretty amazing and might make it worth growing peaches in areas prone to late spring frosts. It will survive in zones 4-8.

I found one place that sells this variety. I am sure that there are others.
Stark Bro's

Another variety that came up in my browsing was the Ranger peach. It also is a late bloomer and more winter hardy for northern climates than the Intrepid peach, but is probably not quite as frost resistant in terms of full bloom. It grows in zones 3-7.

I saw it listed here.
Sanhedrin Nursery

I am still interested in trying the White Heath Cling peach and the Indian Iowa White Freestone Peach. I just made peach pie today and boy was it delicious.

Using Dirt Instead of Potting Soil to Start Seeds

For quite some time I have been a bit disappointed with the traditional store bought potting soil. It presents a few problems when starting seeds.

1. One is that potting soil often contains a lot of shredded wood which invites fungus gnats to make their abode in your potting soil. The gnats also munch on nice little roots sometimes killing the seedlings. Dirt from outside is usually denser, has less wood particulate for the fungus and gnats to grow, and the dirt seems to deter the fungus gnats.
2. I have been concerned for some time about the difference in soil environment between the commercial seed starting soil and the real soil that the plants will be growing in the garden. The idea behind potting soil is that it provides the optimal conditions that will allow more seeds to sprout and is sterile so the seedlings will avoid soil borne diseases and be healthier. In the case like mine where I save and start my own seeds I am more concerned about them growing well in my soil. What if the potting soil encourages the growth of certain seedlings over others that may thrive better in my real soil? On occasions in the past where I used commercial seed, I have noticed that many commercial seeds that are typically started early in the season in potting soil don't sprout readily in the open garden soil. I am afraid that these seeds are bred and conditioned to only grow well in the cushy potting soil conditions and are not hardy enough or adapted well enough to grow and survive if planted directly in the ground. Why not plant the seeds in real dirt and let natural selection proceed eliminating the plants that are less tolerant of fusarium wilt and soil borne diseases? Over a few generations of seed saving, the plants should improve their ability to grow in your soil and adapt more perfectly to your real conditions. Starting seeds in sterile potting soil may confound the selection process.
3. Dirt is Free! Why spend lots of money on potting soil? This was the fundamental changing point for me. I got tired of the high prices for potting soil when similar and possibly better long-term generational results might be obtained with just plain old dirt from my yard.

Here are some pictures of onion starts that I planted last week in just plain dirt from my garden. They seemed to have started to sprout just fine. I expect more to continue to come up over the next week. I am hoping that the weak or poorly adapted seeds don't sprout as I would prefer to select for the hardy onions that are adapted to my soil. It just makes sense to me to start them in the soil that they will be exposed to in the garden.

Typically it is a good idea to chop onions back to an inch or two, like these below, until you harden them off and plant them outside in the garden.

Cold Hardy Grapes -40 to -50F

I remember as a kid in Idaho, that the grape vines never took in our marginal zone 3 climate. They always died each year that we tried. After a couple of years we gave up on growing grapes in such a cold windy climate.

If we had known about the more recent cold hardy grape selections, then we probably would have had no problem growing grapes back then. We originally tried concords and himrod grapes and planted them in somewhat sheltered spots.

Instead we should have planted something like Somerset Seedless, Bluebell, King of the North, Sabrevois, Prairie Star, Louise Swenson, or Valiant. These are hardy grapes that can take -40^oF to -50^oF weather. These northern hardy grapes are often hard to find, but are available at St. Lawrence Nurseries, which is a great place to find cold hardy fruit varieties. Now it is a bit late to plant grapes this year, but there is now plenty of time to plan for next spring's edible landscaping.

Frost Dates and Garden Planning

If you haven't gotten your garden in the ground and growing, then this is the perfect time in many parts of the country. The first week in June is after the last frost date in most locations and is ideal for planting corn, beans, and tomatoes, which are frost sensitive plants. Your peas, radishes, onions, lettuce, and carrots should all be growing readily.

When you are planning your spring, summer, and fall gardens you need to pay attention to timing to make sure that you miss the spring frost for your summer plants and get the sensitive ones finished up before the first fall frost. This will also give you an idea of when to plant your fall garden to start harvesting when the frosts start occurring. If you are not sure when your first and last frost dates look up the dates closest to you in your state with this Frost Date Selector from Victory Seeds.

Blackberry Seedlings

Here is a picture of the blackberry seedlings. This picture really doesn't do them justice. They look much better than the picture and have a reddish hue to their stems and petioles.

Update: Growing Fruit Trees from Seed

This is an update from a previous post. The tree seedlings are really starting to take off and here are a few pictures.

 

This is a picture of some almond seedlings.

I wasn't sure if the almonds would grow because I had heard so much about chemical treatments and irradiation of almonds for the "pasteurization" process required for U.S. almonds. All I did was take a few of the leftover almonds from Christmas, cracked the shells carefully to remove the kernels, placed them on a damp paper towel, sealed in a ziplock bag, and left them in the fridge until they started to germinate. I think the two look pretty good. There might be a third in a few days, we'll see.

Spitzenburg Apple Seedlings.

I started a few of these seedlings from one of my favorite apples. I'm hoping that they are at least decent tasting. If not I'll graft onto them.

Old Fashioned Red Delicious Seedlings.

These are seedlings, rather a lot of them from some 100+ year old red delicious trees. These trees have apples that are large and somewhat red, although not nearly as red and tasteless as the store-bought red delicious apples of today.

Bartlett Pear Seedlings.

These Bartlett Pear seedlings look rather haggard and mostly destroyed by fire blight and other seedling problems. I'm purposely allowing the disease to take over so that only the strong disease resistant/immune trees will survive for my orchard. I am a bit disappointed with these seedlings and am surprised since Bartlett has been used as a rootstock in the past. It doesn't look very hardy in the least.

Seckel Pear Seedlings.

I am much more impressed with the Seckel Pear Seedlings than with the Bartlett. These almost all look strong and vigorous. I've heard they can sometimes come nearly true from seed. I'll have to wait a few years to see if it is true. They look like they would make a better rootstock than Bartlett. I think I'll be planting out a number of Seckel seedlings.

Starkrimson Pear Seedlings.

Starkrimson is my favorite pear variety. I really like the taste, the thin skin, and the red color. These are somewhat damaged by blight and disease, a few have fallen over and are in the process of dying, but they are much less affected than Bartlett. Some of them look like they are going to make it, while many will not.

Red Bartlett Pear Seedlings.

These are Red Bartlett seedlings. They look pretty good so far, I'm guessing that they will be somewhat obliterated by fire blight due to the relationship to the Bartletts that already died. Maybe they have somewhat better genetics. They aren't as crowded. Maybe I'll have to induce some disease by touching them to the infected plant to kill off the weak ones and only keep the immune trees. I've done that with the others to make sure that they all were at least exposed to disease from the Bartletts.

That is the latest update on growing fruit trees from seeds. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the blackberry seedlings came up and look good. They are a little small so I haven't taken a picture of them yet. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities of some of these trees. Time will tell if they are any good.

Great Article about Elevita, Poverty, and Self-reliance

I recently read this great article about Elevita in the Mormon Times. Elevita is an organization that is working to help improve the lives of the poor in developing countries around the world by putting their crafts out in the global marketplace. They work to connect these often skilled artisans with the global marketplace to allow them to provide for their own needs and to help them provide for themselves. This is by far one of the best ideas that I have seen in recent years. Rather than just giving away money to the poor, this provide a way for the people to work for their own living. The organization just provides the medium of exchange or connection to the global market. This is amazing! My wife bought a beautiful tablecloth after I showed her the article and website Elevita where you can view the artisans goods.