How to establish your Pawpaw plants

To successfully grow pawpaw fruit we must first understand a few things about its natural history. The tree grows primarily in river floodplains and shady rich bottomlands. They form dense groves, spreading clonally by underground runners and spend many years growing as an understory species until there is a break in the canopy and they can make their leap into the sunnier conditions provided by an opening in the canopy. It is only once they are growing in fuller sunlight that they produce significant crops of their delicious fruit. These are the conditions we must try to mimic in order to grow healthy paw paw trees that give us good crops.

Site selection

Rich, deep, well draining soils are ideal conditions for planting your new pawpaws in. Although they grow in river floodplains that may become seasonally inundated, the pawpaw does best when it has deep well-drained soil with a pH between 5.5 and 7.0. To mimic the understory conditions that the pawpaw needs for its establishment years you could plant on the north side of a fence where the pawpaw will be shaded while it’s young but receive full sunlight as it matures and grows above the fence line.

Another option is to establish a quick growing nitrogen fixing tree or shrub on the south side of where you plan on planting your pawpaw. Get this tree established the year before so it can provide adequate shade for your newly planted pawpaw tree. Choosing nitrogen-fixing species gives you a quick growing tree that will properly shade your pawpaw as well as providing fertility for the tree. The shade tree can then be cut down a few years later once your paw paw is established and the danger of sunburnt leaves and shoots is no longer a threat.

A third option is to plant quick growing annual legumes on the south side of the pawpaw while also building a simple bean or pea trellis over the top of the paw paw to provide quick shade, nitrogen fixation, as well as a crop from your leguminous shade-giving plants as you wait for your pawpaws to mature. Also, planting in a site that is as humid as possible is ideal for the pawpaw. Near a pond can be a great place to plant if you are in an area with dryer summers like we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

Transplanting

The paw paw can be a very difficult species to transplant. It has a very deep root system and does not like its roots to be disturbed or broken. For this reason we sell pawpaws while they are still quite small to ensure higher transplant success rates. While the plant is dormant, or in the spring just after bud break, is the best time to transplant. Be very careful not to disturb the roots. Water in well just as you would any other tree and keep very well watered for the first couple years.

Plant spacing

Pawpaws can be spaced relatively close together, even as close as 5 feet. Because you will most likely be planting grafted named cultivars, this is the best way to mimic the dense root suckering groves that paw paws form in the wild. It’s believed that pawpaws actively graft their roots together and share nutrients more readily than many other species, and close plant spacing helps to achieve this. Planting as close as 5 feet or as far as 10 feet apart, and planting at least three different varieties for cross-pollination, has been shown to be the most successful.

Pollination

Pollination can be the major limiting factor to getting good crops of pawpaw fruit. The flowers are protogynous meaning that the female organ, the stigma, ripens before the pollen does and is therefore not receptive when the pollen is ripe. This ensures that the flower cannot pollinate itself. The entire tree is also usually self-incompatible, meaning that pollen from one flower on the tree will not pollinate the stigma of other flowers on the same tree.

Therefore the pawpaw requires pollination from a tree with entirely different genetics to be successfully pollinated. This is why we always suggest purchasing many different paw paw varieties to ensure the most successful pollination. The more trees you have the more successful your pollination will be. Two varieties is the absolute minimum you can plant to get fruit but more fruit is produced with three or more varieties.

Finally, you must attract the pawpaw’s natural pollinators to achieve successful transfer of the pollen between flowers. In this case keeping honeybees will not help you out as the pawpaw flowers are designed for the decomposers of the world. They are a deep and beautiful reddish purple color and smell a bit like rotting flesh in order to attract various species of flies and beetles. One strategy for attracting these pollinators is to put road kill or rotting meat near your pawpaws when they are flowering to attract their natural pollinators. If this sounds too unappealing to you it is also possible to pollinate by hand, just be sure that once the tree starts setting fruit that no single branch is too loaded up with fruit or it may cause it to break or result in smaller fruits.

Checkout a more in-depth look into pawpaw pollination HERE.

Pests and Diseases

The pawpaw is relatively pest and disease free. If you have deer problems in your area then pawpaw trees are a wonderful choice. Deer avoid eating pawpaw leaves even in areas where deer populations are sky high. A few insect pests exist, but most are relatively minor.

The pawpaw peduncle borer (Talponia plummeriana) burrows into the flowers causing them to wither and drop and can even destroy the majority of blossoms, although this is rare. Other pests in the Eastern United States include the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly (Eurytides marcellus) whose larvae feed exclusively on young pawpaw leaves. The relationship between the Zebra Swallowtail and the pawpaw is similar to that of the Monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant.

The acetogenins that are present in the paw paw leaves remain present in trace amounts in the Zebra Swallowtails body for the remainder of its life, making it unpalatable to birds or other predators. The incredible beauty of the Zebra Swallowtail and the minimal damage it does to the leaves make this insect not much of a concern. A blue stain disease can also infect paw paws but it is not believed that a microbial agent is responsible for this but rather it is a result of stress or trauma to the tree. In general pawpaws are one of the most disease and pest resistant fruit trees that you can grow.

Varietal selection

The best way to select your varieties is to contact your local agricultural extension agency and ask them which pawpaw varieties will grow best in your area. In general, we recommend the earlier fruiting varieties for areas where summers are not as humid as the eastern United States where the pawpaw is native.

Using the Pawpaw Fruit

The fruit is primarily used for fresh eating. It is extremely perishable and is amazingly delicious when it is perfectly ripe. It can be used much like you would use a banana. Try replacing bananas with paw paw fruit in a banana bread recipe or adding paw paws to a berry smoothie. For longer-term storage you can freeze the fruit and make ice cream out of it. Any recipe that requires adding heat or cooking the pawpaw is not recommended as the flavor compounds are extremely volatile and cooking can destroy the delicious pawpaw flavor, although it seems to retain a good flavor when mixed with flour and used as a baking additive.

            Let us know about your experiences with paw paws, which varieties work best in your area, what recipes you’ve found to use them in, and what strategies have been successful for getting them established, and enjoy the look and taste of this amazing tropical tree in your own backyard!

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Click link > Sea Berry Catalog

It is no secret that we are huge fans of the Sea Berry here at One Green World. The deliciously tangy and nutrient dense juice is what gives our crew the energy we need to get through the busy season as well as the flu season. Its uses are many and its presence in the North American landscape is relatively small, so we decided it was finally time to shine a bit of beta-Carotene drenched light on what is so special and perhaps even magical about this plant and its fruit. Follow along in this Sea Berry Growing Guide to learn a bit of history and gain a better understanding of this wonderful plant.

The Sea Berry, also known as Sea Buckthorn, is native to Europe and Asia where it grows along riverbanks, seashores, sandy dunes and mountain slopes from sea level all the way up to 12,000 feet. All parts of the plant have a long history of use in China and Russia where it has been wild harvested for centuries and more recently brought into commercial production. It has even made its way into a few myths and legends due to its many nutritious and medicinal qualities. The Latin name for its genus, Hippophae, translates to shiny horse in reference to its use in horse fodder. The leaves have such a high oil content that they were often mixed into horse food to produce a shiny coat on the animals. To this day they are still used in horse feeds and supplements. Some legends speak of farmers letting their old, decrepit horses out to roam the hills, thinking this far more humane than killing them. After a few days grazing on the wild Sea Berry plants that grew naturally on the hillsides, the horses would return to their owners and be mistaken for young, healthy colts with their newly shiny coats and returned vigor. It is also said that the mythic horse Pegasus feasted upon Sea Berries and it was these magical berries that gave him wings to fly. That’s about 4,000 years before energy drink companies were claiming the power of flight through their products, making Sea Berries the original energy drink! Obviously, we believe that Sea Berry juice is far superior to any other “energy” drink on the market today.

Cultivation of the Sea Berry has only come along relatively recently, beginning in Russia in the 1940’s. Scientists first began to research and discover what had long been known as folk medicine traditions. Some of the first commercially harvested Sea Berries in Russia were used in The Great Space Race, as they are believed to be very helpful in protecting humans from radiation. In preparation to leave Earth’s atmosphere, Yuri Gagarin was given an extraordinarily large dose of Sea Berries as well as a Sea Berry skin cream to protect against any potential radiation, thus making the Sea Berry the first cosmic berry!

Sea Berries were almost completely unknown to North American growers until it was introduced to Canada in the 1930’s by Dr. L. Skinner at the Morden Research Station in Manitoba. They were later planted out on the Canadian prairies by the Shelterbelt Center of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. These hedgerows provided much of the genetic material to early North American Sea Berry researchers. The Canadians continue to plant out large shelterbelts of Sea Berries for stabilizing erodible soils, but the major developments in named fruiting cultivars have come to us from Europe and Asia, specifically in Russia.

And this is where our very own hometown hero Jim Gilbert, the founder of One Green World, enters the Sea Berry scene. Jim, who is fluent in Russian, has taken many trips to Europe and Russia over the years to collect Sea Berry varieties from plant breeders who have selected the finest fruiting cultivars known to the world, and brought them back here to make them available to North American growers. Many farmers around the country have since grown out seedlings of these varieties in attempts to improve upon them but breeding programs in North America are still very much in their infancy.

Growing Sea Berry plants

As of now there are very few large-scale Sea Berry productions in North America so Sea Berry products, aside from in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, are nearly impossible to find. Like so many of the finest fruits, if you want Sea Berries you’ll have to grow your own plants. Thankfully it is one of the easiest plants to grow, is incredibly vigorous, and is pest and disease free!

Site Selection for Sea Berry plants

When selecting your planting site the first thing to consider is that Sea Berries are very shade intolerant. As a pioneer species that is adapted to colonizing disturbed areas it requires full day sunlight to reach maximum productivity. It is possible to grow Sea Berries in half day sun, but anything below six hours of direct sunlight and productivity begins to decline drastically.

Good drainage is essential as well, otherwise plants will die from root rot. They prefer a sandy loam, but even growers with heavy clay soils have successfully grown Sea Berries if they are planted on a slope that drains well. Coastal growers will also benefit from Sea Berry’s tolerance of saline soils. They often grow on coastal dunes and slopes where the ocean spray makes it impossible for larger saline-intolerant species to grow up and shade out the Sea Berries. This adaptation is also especially relevant for urban growers who might receive salt build up in their soils from road salt used in winter road maintenance.

If you can meet these two broad requirements of full sunlight and good drainage, then you will likely have no problem growing Sea Berries. As a nitrogen fixing species it can tolerate some of the poorest nutrient deficient soils, and we have thoroughly tested this, planting in gravelly parking strips, post construction backfill, rocky outcropping where nearly no soil has formed, coarse sandy soils, etc. and the Sea Berry plant thrives where most other species wouldn’t stand a chance. Sea Berry plants will actually improve soil conditions over time. It has a broad pH tolerance, from 5.5 to 8.0, although it should be noted that the symbiotic root nodule-dwelling Frankia bacteria that are responsible for the Sea Berry’s ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen prefer a pH of 5.5-7.0. Plants will survive temperatures from -45 degrees Fahrenheit to 105 degrees Fahrenheit but typically set better crops below 90 degrees, and they are relatively drought tolerant.

Although they can tolerate nearly any well-draining soil conditions, there are a few nutrient deficiencies you may run into when growing them at home. Any yellowing of the leaves may indicate a deficiency in nitrogen or potassium. Marginal chlorosis, shortened stem internodes and death of the terminal bud may be due to a phosphorus deficiency and delayed opening of the flowers and leaf buds in spring or small chlorotic leaves may indicate a Zinc deficiency. These deficiencies are rare but worth noting.

The ability of Sea Berries to thrive in poor soil conditions and colonize rapidly might raise a red flag for those concerned with invasive species. It is true that Sea Berry plants will sometimes sucker from the root system so be sure your maintenance plan accounts for this. Mowing the suckers down is sufficient to keep them fully contained, though some may enjoy digging up the suckers and planting them elsewhere. Another strategy is to come in with a sharp spade once a year and cut any runners from around the root base. Sea Berry has not demonstrated the ability to spread rapidly by seed here but it is worth keeping an eye on if Sea Berry plants have no previous history in your area. The plant’s extreme shade intolerance also makes it unlikely to be a problematic species, especially in regard to its ability to invade healthy woodland ecosystems.

Sea Berry Orchard Design

Typically, Sea Berry farms are oriented on north-south rows to maximize sunlight penetration to every plant in the orchard. It is important to note that Sea Berries are a dioecious species meaning they produce their male and female flowers on separate plants, so in order to receive fruit you need to have a male plant in the vicinity and larger plantings require the correct proportion of male to female plants. One male plant for every eight female plants is a good ratio. For larger plantings one male planted every fifth plant and repeated every fourth row has proven to be one of the most productive male to female patterns. Flowers are wind pollinated so it is worth noting the direction of your spring winds when laying out your plantings.

Within the rows plants are typically spaced 3 to 5 feet apart with 16-20 feet between each row. Home orchardists can use wider spacing between plants if a more ornamental or spreading form is desired.

Young plantings require irrigation, especially where summer rainfall is low, and in Mediterranean or desert climates the plants may always need irrigation for optimum fruit production.

Pruning your Sea Berry plants

This may be the most confusing aspect of growing Sea Berries for many home orchardists as well as production farmers. Typically, the plants are so productive that even a lazy or sloppy pruning job will still give you an abundance of fruit, but proper pruning techniques will give you a more manageable shrub as well as long term productivity and larger crops.

Before getting into the more detailed Sea Berry pruning, know that general fruit tree pruning techniques can be applied to Sea Berry plants as well. Removing dead wood, downward facing branches, overlapping or crowded branches and heading back long, overly thin branches will benefit your Sea Berry plants. The goal is light penetration throughout the entire canopy, just as it would be with any other fruit tree.

The goals for Sea Berry pruning are:

• Improve branching habit
• Maintain an optimum number of new and young fruiting branches
• Remove old, weak & non-productive branches
• Increase light penetration
• Maintain an annual bearing habit.

The first thing to do with your young plants, if it hasn’t been done at the nursery already, is to remove the terminal bud as well as any superfluous lower branches. Removing the terminal bud will create a more bush like habit rather than an upright one by sending energy to lateral buds rather than the terminal bud.

Keeping trees at a height of 8-9 feet greatly reduces the shaded interior of the plant and keeps them at a much more manageable height for pruning and harvesting. In general downward facing branches are the least productive, upward facing branches are typically over vigorous and produce mainly vegetative growth and horizontal branches are the most productive and heavily laden with fruit.  Plants are pruned in late winter or early spring before buds begin to open.

Eighty percent of berries are born on second year wood, so maximizing the amount of second year wood on a year to year basis is the goal. One of the issues with this is that one of the most common and effective ways of harvesting Sea Berries, especially on a smaller scale, is to cut off the entire fruit-laden branch and freeze it before popping the frozen berries off. This is due to the lack of an abscission layer in the berries making them very difficult for hand picking. So again, you need to be sure that you are maintaining a healthy amount of second year branches each year to maintain a high level of fruit production.

Harvesting Sea Berry fruit

As previously mentioned, the harvest of Sea Berries can be somewhat tricky and may be one of the biggest reasons why there aren’t more large scale Sea Berry farms. The lack of an abscission layer and the small size of the berry, as well as its tendency to “pop” when picked make it very difficult for hand harvesting. Sea Berry plants are also somewhat thorny, hence the other common name sea buckthorn, and this adds to the difficulty of hand harvesting. It takes roughly 1500 labor hours per hectare to properly harvest an orchard! So in that situation the laborers are either being paid very poorly or the product ends up costing a lot, or perhaps a bit of both.

On the small scale the most efficient harvest method we have found is to cut off the entire fruit laden branch and freeze it. Freezing turns the berries from little water balloons that often explode into solid berries that can easily be popped of the branch with a fork or shaken off. Berries can then be stored frozen for the long term and thawed out as needed for juices, jams, sorbets, smoothies, or any of the endless recipes you might incorporate Sea Berries into.

Mechanical harvesting has also been shown to be profitable although it is not very efficient so very large plantings are required to make this economical. A few different tools for hand harvesting have also been created that cut the berries at the stem, though this is also very time consuming.

Though we often focus on the berry, Sea Berry plants are also valued throughout the world for their oil which can be pressed from the seeds, as well as for medicinal components found in all parts of the plant. The easiest of these to harvest is the leaves which can be dried and made into a lovely herbal tea that has many of the same nutritional qualities that the berries. The leaves have a surprisingly pleasant flavor, similar to nettle tea. Harvesting leaves for tea will also give you a use for your male plants besides pollen.

Nutritional and Medicinal Value of Sea Berry plant & fruit

The nutritional qualities and medicinal value of the Sea Berry plant and its fruit have long been valued throughout many parts of the world. To really understand the many properties and components of this amazing plant we could fill an entire book but we will touch on a few of its wonderful qualities here.

The first thing people notice about Sea Berries, especially when making juice out of them, is the incredibly high amount of carotenoids that give the berries their deep orange color. Carotenoids boost the body’s immune system and carotenoids in Sea Berries are especially easy for our bodies to absorb because of the oil content that is present in the fruits.

Sea Berries are also a great source of omega fatty acids, including palmitic fatty acids, palmitoleic (omega 7), oleic (omega 9), linoleic (omega 6), and linolenic (omega 3) fatty acids.

Concentration of vitamin C in Sea Berries is much higher than those found in oranges, strawberries, or kiwis and concentration of vitamin E is higher than those found in wheat, maize, or soybean.

Other vitamins include vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B9, B12, D, and the trace minerals potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, iodine, iron, chromium, selenium, and zinc. A 2010 report by Food Research International stated that Sea Berries contain 18 out of 22 known amino acids!

In the cosmetics industry the oil has long been valued for its use in decreasing wrinkles, as an antimicrobial, antiseptic, and for its ability to regenerate tissue. Many medicine traditions have also used the oil as a pain reliever and for its anti inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Reports show Sea Berrys consumption may improve the bodies abilities to inhibit tumor development and eradicate free radicals. Sea Berry consumption also improves cardiovascular activity and immune system functioning.

For more detailed information on Sea Berry’s nutritional and medicinal components check out some of the amazing articles and websites listed in the resource section below.

Other Resources:

Li & Beveridge. Sea BUckthorn Production and Utilization. NRC Research Press. (2003).

Li, TSC. “Sea Buckthorn: New Crop Opportunity.” Hort.purdue.edu (1999) http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/pdf/v4-335.pdf

Sabir SM, et al. “Elemental and nutritional analysis of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides ssp. turkestanica) Berries of Pakistani origin.” PubMed.gov (2005)

Bal LM, et al. “Sea buckthorn berries: A potential source of valuable nutrients for nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals.” Food Research International (2010)

Goel, HC, Bala M. “Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) as a Radio-Protector.” Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (n.d.)

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The Wedge Method

The first step is to collect your dormant scion wood. Scions must be cut while they are still fully dormant for the highest grafting success rate. Be sure to cut wood on new growth that is disease free and growing vigorously. The healthier and more vigorous your scion is, the greater chance of success when grafting and having a fast-growing young tree.

Once your scion is cut, label it and store it in the refrigerator where it will easily keep for at least a month until you are ready to graft.

Selecting rootstock is just as important as selecting what variety you want to grow. Most people think of height at maturity when thinking of rootstock, but disease resistance, vigor, lifespan, soil adaptability, suckering, and how well anchored the tree will be are other factors to consider. Most rootstocks are widely adaptable and resilient, hence their use as rootstock, but checking in with other gardeners/farmers in your area or your local extension agency can help you to choose the perfect rootstock for your location. And of course, trialing many different rootstocks for your location always yields valuable data.

We realized a few years ago in our grafting classes that using red fleshed apples is a great way for beginners to clearly see the difference between the pith, sapwood, cambium, and bark. The pith is that white spot in the middle, the sapwood is red in this case, and the cambium is the lighter layer beneath the dark red bark. The cambium is the most important part here as it is the layer that is lined up between the scion and the rootstock in order to get the vascular tissue to fuse and form a successful graft union.

Be sure to sterilize all of your tools before you begin grafting to avoid the potential spread of pathogens across plant material.

When choosing which piece of scion to graft onto which rootstock, it can be helpful to find diameters that are similar so that both sides of the graft match up, but this is not essential. Often the rootstock or scion will vary in size and if you can get one side matched up perfectly then you’ll have success.

The first and easiest graft that most folks start with is the wedge graft. The take rate on these grafts is typically pretty high and you don’t need to have that skilled of a grafter’s hand to have success with it.

First, make a split down the middle of the rootstock. It is important that the knife cuts the wood cleanly rather than having it split so that a more solid connection between scion and rootstock is achieved.

TIP: We often put our thumb on top of the blade and above the rootstock to ensure that the blade stops when our thumb hits the top of the rootstock. This ensures we don’t cut our other hand that’s holding the rootstock and keeps the blade from making too deep of a cut.

Next, cut the scion wood on both sides to form a wedge that tapers down to a very slim point. It is important to cut at a direct angle rather than “scooping” with the grain of the wood so that there are no air pockets between the cambium layers.

The scion should then fit neatly into the wedge you’ve created in the rootstock with no gaps between the two pieces of wood. It is better to line up one side perfectly than to put the scion right in the middle of the rootstock. Eventually as the young tree grows, it will fuse on both sides.

Once the scion is situated, wrap it up with grafting tape and tie a rubber band around to hold it tight so the rootstock is squeezed to the scion. Some growers will wrap the scion completely to keep it from dehydrating, but with apples it’s usually sufficient to put a small piece on the top like a little hat unless it’s a very old or dehydrated piece of scion that you’re trying to save.

The Whip and Tongue Method

Once you’ve gotten the hang of wedge grafting, you can try moving on to the whip and tongue method. The take rate is similar with both methods once you’ve mastered them, although, the whip and tongue has the advantage of lining up the two pieces in a more fluid way. It also has a bit more structural integrity for the young graft because of the interlocking wood.

To create a whip and tongue graft, you’ll make a cut about 3/4″ long from one end of the scion diagonally across to the other. After this cut, make the “tongue”, a little incision into the middle of the wood – usually right where the pith is. Create a mirror cut on the rootstock then interlock the two pieces together. The trick here is getting the two tongues on either side of each other. We’ve found the budding tool on grafting knives can be helpful for opening the tongues up a little more so they easily fit into each other.

The interlocking pieces will help the young graft be more resilient to anything knocking it out of place. Follow the same finals steps from above to secure it with grafting tape and a rubber band.

Final Steps

Pot up your newly grafted tree and put it in a frost-free location, but somewhere that is not too warm. We’ve found that for many of the more temperate plants, if they’re put into a warm greenhouse immediately the scion will break dormancy before the graft is fully fused and can then collapse. Other species such as figs and persimmons much prefer a hot environment while the grafts are fusing, but in the case of apples it’s best to either graft them after all danger of frost has passed or put them in a cool hoophouse or garage. The use of bottom heat can be helpful here too as it will cause the rootstock to begin growing and breaking dormancy more quickly while the cooler air above keeps the scion dormant. 

Grafting your own trees is a very fun and economical way to propagate young fruit trees. It is also an essential skill for orchardists, nursery workers, and anybody trying to conserve rare varietals. Experiment with different techniques, rootstock combinations, interstems, and materials and you just might discover a unique new way to propagate your favorite fruit trees.

Happy grafting!

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One of our favorite fruits, Blueberries are easy to grow and will produce abundant crops of delectable and flavorful berries. In addition to nutritious and delicious fruit, these attractive shrubs will add beauty to your yard, garden or patio. Following these guidelines in our Blueberry Growing Guide will help you succeed in growing this tasty berry.

SITE SELECTION

Blueberries like well-drained, acidic soil and ½ day to full sun. On wetter sites, where water drains slowly, Blueberries will like growing in 2-3 ft. wide, 8-12” high, raised beds. Planting your Blueberries near your home makes frequent harvest easy.

SITE PREPARATION

Providing a good environment for your plants in the beginning will give you delicious rewards in the future. Planting in acid soil is one of the most important factors in success with Blueberries. If you are planting your Blueberries in the ground, adding abundant amounts of pre-moistened peat moss to your soil will increase acidity and make a nice environment for your plants. For each plant, prepare an about 2ft. in diameter and 1 ft. deep. Work in about a cubic ft. of peat moss (usually about ¼ of a bale). Well-rotted fir or pine sawdust can be used as a substitute for peat moss. Do not use cedar sawdust as it can be toxic to the root system.

If you are growing your plants in containers, use a coarse, well-drained potting soil that is designed for acid-loving plants like Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

PLANTING

Highbush Blueberries can be planted as close as 3 ft. apart to form a hedge and 6 ft. or more apart to be grown as individual specimens. Lowbush and Dwarf Blueberries can be spaced as close as 2 ft. apart.

Remove your plant from the container and lightly loosen and spread out the roots. Remove any excessively long roots and then dig your planting hole large enough to comfortably accommodate the root system. Place the plant in the hole so that the top surface of the potting soil is at the same level or a little above the level of the soil surrounding the planting hole. Firm the soil around your plant and water well.

After planting, it is a good idea to mulch your plant with 3-4 inches of fir, hemlock or pine sawdust. This will conserve moisture, suppress weeds and contribute to soil acidity.

WATERING & FERTILIZING

Once planted and watered in well, your new plant should not need supplemental water for some time. If planting during warm, dry weather pay attention to the original potting soil and do not let it dry out. It takes several weeks for the roots to fully establish contact with the new soil. Summer watering should be done deeply and infrequently. A mulched plant should not require watering more often than once a week.

Blueberries like acidic fertilizers, like those used for Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Down to Earth Acid Mix is specially formulated for Blueberries. Blood meal, fishmeal, cottonseed meal and feather meal are also good, organic, acidic fertilizers for your Blueberries. Your plant will not need much if any fertilizer the first year. The year after planting, pull back the mulch in March and spread approx. 1/2 lb. of any of these fertilizers on the soil around the plant. Apply fertilizer annually for best results.

POLLINATION & BLUEBERRY TYPES

Most of the time blueberry plants are going to produce fruit as many of the varieties on the market are self-fertile. But, if you are interested in maximizing your production and generally larger berries, pollination is key. There are considered to be 5 “types” of blueberries; Northern Highbush, Southern Highbush, Rabbiteye, Half-high, and Lowbush. For best pollination results most often it is ideal to choose a pollenizer within the same blueberry “type” that also shares a similar bloom time. In addition, matching a blueberry to its suited climate will play a role in production. The Rabbiteye varieties are considered not self-fertile and need to cross with another variety within its own “type”. The key below offers some key indicators for which type might work best in your climate while also highlighting bloom times.

Northern Highbush

• Average size: 5-9’
• Tolerate colder regions (most hardy to -15 to -30 degrees F)
• Most need a moderate amount of chill hours
• Great choice for PNW
• Generally considered self-fertile, cross-pollinates with all other Highbush varieties with matching bloom times
• Varieties: Aurora, Baby Blues, Bluecrop, Bluejay, Blueray, Cabernet Splash, Chandler, Darrow, Draper, Duke, Earliblue, Elliot, Hannah’s Choice, Legacy, Liberty, Patriot, Pink Icing, Pink Popcorn, Midnight Cascade, Mini Blues, Razz, Rubel, Sapphire Cascade, Spartan, Sunshine Blue, Superior, Sweetheart, Toro

Southern Highbush

• Average size: 6-8’ (4-6’ in northern regions)
• Hardiness (-10 to 5 degrees F depending on variety)
• Can be partially evergreen in Northern climates (though tends to grow a bit smaller)
• Great for regions with fewer chill hours
• Cross with other Southern Highbush or Northern with similar bloom time
• Varieties: Biloxi, Emerald, Jewel, Jubilee, O’Neal

Rabbiteye

• Average size: 6-10’
• 4-6’ in Northern regions
• Not as cold tolerant and flower bud damage with temps under 0 to 5 degrees F
• Great for long hot summers
• In PNW fruit ripens late summer early fall
• Not self-fertile, need another rabbiteye cultivar
• Varieties: Florida Rose, Misty, Nocturne, Ochlockonee, Pink Lemonade

Half-High

• Average size: 3-4’
• These cultivars are very hardy most down to -35 degrees F or lower
• Choose these cultivars for colder regions where other blueberry varieties can’t grow
• Also great for container growing and not as much pruning as Highbush cultivars
• Cross with Highbush cultivars with similar bloom time
• Varieties: Chippewa, Northcountry, Northsky, Tophat

Lowbush

• Average size: 1-2’
• Hardiness at least -30 degrees F
• Low growing shrubs that spread from underground stems
• Pruning is less necessary but if it gets to branch it may be beneficial to cut the plants back to the ground every 2-3 years
• Not self-fertile, cross with lowbush or Highbush cultivars with similar bloom times
• Varieties: Brunswick, Burgundy

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Water is life

The most important thing for plants and all life is water. Every drop counts! A seed must absorb water before germinating. Roots can uptake nutrients only when water is available. This spaceship called planet Earth thankfully has an abundance of the wet stuff.

Let’s jump right in and start talking about the importance of watering newly installed plants during June, July, and August. These are the most important months of the year to water and ensure that your plants get established. It’s life or death out there this time of year, especially for an unestablished plant.

Many parts of the country are hot, hot, hot and getting hotter each year. But like the old saying goes “just add water” and it will grow. We strive to grow an abundance of our own homegrown fruit and veggies so we know that water can make or break your harvest expectations. Here in the PNW, we often go all summer without any appreciable rainfall so its crucial to water correctly during the summer months.

The most important thing you can do for a freshly planted tree, shrub or veggie plant, whether it was planted last fall, spring or even this summer is to provide the correct amount of water during the summer.

All plants, trees and shrubs need different amounts of water depending on where they’re native to and the types of soil and rainfall they are adapted to. Plants from areas with high summer rainfall often need much supplemental water to survive and produce fruit in our climate, while plants from areas with dry summers might actually receive too much water in certain areas of the country that receive summer rainfall. Understanding a plant’s natural history will better inform how much water to give it and when to water it.

Here are some of the factors that affect how much you water and how often you water:

• Type of plant
• Location
• Sun & wind exposure
• Soil type
• Slope
• Time of day

Trees, shrubs, vines, small ground covers- size, growth habit and type matters.

Newly planted trees benefit from less frequent, long, slow soakings. The big mistake people make is to casually hit the new planting with the hose every day for a few minutes thinking it’s wet enough. The better option would be to set the hose down at the root zone with it running very slowly and walk away. Take a walk around the yard, start dinner or maybe kick back in your chair with a tasty beverage. Let the hose run at a slow trickle for a couple of hours. This slow drip will penetrate deep into the soil encouraging a tap root to follow.

Drip Irrigation

As you can imagine, doing this for every single plant in a landscape would be a full time job which is why we often recommend drip irrigation systems to our customers, especially those that live in dry summer climates such as ours. Drip irrigation systems are incredibly easy to set up. All the materials you need can be found at your local hardware store and no prior experience with plumbing or irrigation is necessary to set up a simple drip irrigation system.

The two types of drip irrigation most commonly seen are simple soaker hoses that have emitters built into them usually about a foot apart and drip out a certain amount of gallons per hour all along the strip. This is a great option if you want to keep an entire area of soil moist or a long densely planted strip of plants that all require the same or very similar water needs. The soaker hose is by far the simplest drip irrigation system to install. All you need to do is roll it out and hook your garden hose up to it, set the timer and you’re done.

For areas that are less densely planted or require different amounts of water for different plant types within an irrigation zone a drip system with specific emitters running to each plant is a great option. This keeps the areas where nothing is planted dry so less weeds are able to grow and you can control exactly how many gallons per hour go to each plant. This is especially useful when planting species from many different climate types and also for integrating new plantings that require more water early on into a system with already established plants. All you need is a length of polytube, a pressure reducing garden hose adapter and a few different sizes of emitters and soon enough you’ll be a drip irrigation expert! Sitting back and watching your little irrigation system deliver deep waterings to each plant in your garden is a severe delight indeed!

Some plants are extremely vigorous growers that require more water and fertilizer. You know the types of plants I am talking about- Kiwis, Peaches and Cherry trees love to get watered and did you know summertime watering will determine next year’s crop size! Yes indeed, next year’s flower buds are forming during the early and mid summer months.

Next it’s location, location, location.

It’s all about the location! Whether it’s the south side of a wall with full sun exposure or the north side of a building many different microclimates exist, especially in the urban and suburban environment that will have a great impact on the water needs of your plant. New plantings in full sun versus a shady cool spot make all the difference in watering time and volume requirements.

Sun and wind exposure are a big deal too.

You know how thirsty you get after being outside on a hot, windy day. Likewise, a cloudy windless day seems to pass without much concern for hydration. Just like us, plants need more or less water based on the conditions. Wind can actually be a very powerful drying force. Not only does wind dry out the soil it also sucks moisture from the leaves.

What type of soil do you have?

Soil types are important to understand for determining the frequency, amount and speed of water flow. For gravelly, sandy or sandy loam types of soils, you have to water more frequently. The individual grains of soil are so much larger than in a clay soils so the water drains much more quickly from them. Check every 10 days by digging down about 8 inches next to the root ball. The soil should still be moist not dry when watering again. Clay tends to hold more moisture as well as nutrients so plan accordingly. Some sites can go 2 weeks or more before another deep watering. It’s important to monitor and stay consistent especially for 1st and even 2nd-year plantings in order to establish a resilient root system.

The underground zone.

As we all know water flows downhill, so it’s basic knowledge on placing your water flow uphill of the tree or shrub. But did you know that groundwater dispersal under the soil is based on a myriad of factors?

Yes, the spread of water underground is determined by capillary action and the composition and texture of the soil particles. After that it gets really scientific so if you want to nerd out on the water as we do then read more in-depth here about Efficient and Responsible Water Use. If not just remember to dig down and check you have watered enough if you are unsure.

Researchers in Australia discovered that Plants “listen” to find the source of water. We just wanted to throw that in there because it’s so cool!!

Don’t forget timing

Time of day when watering is important. The best time is as early in the morning as possible (maybe even with your cuppa joe in one hand and the watering can in the other). Watering in the morning gives plants a big gulp of water just as they are ramping up the photosynthetic factories for the day and beginning to transpire. It also allows the topmost part of the soil to dry out some which cuts back on soil borne fungal issues

It is an option to water in the evening or at night, and certainly more convenient for many folks, but it leaves your soil sometimes excessively wet overnight before the plants begin to really uptake the water the following morning and is still more preferable than watering during the heat of the day.

Of course the last and least desirable option is watering in the middle of the day, which please don’t get us wrong, water in the day if you have to and if your plants need it. We constantly have to water during the heat of the day throughout the summer. It’s especially important for container plants. If you see wilting then it’s often difficult to rehydrate them as the soil goes hydrophobic, so try soaking the container in a bucket until it perks back up. Some plants also despise being watered during hot weather, specifically Mediterranean plants and those adapted to dry summers. Watering them during the heat of the day, or sometimes during the summer at all, can bring about their demise. For plants adapted to these dry summer climates we strongly urge you water as early in the morning as possible.

But in general, listen to your plants and if they’re screaming at you for water give them water!

Key Points to remember.

Let’s remind ourselves of key points that apply to all plants from your trees outside to citrus and houseplants in containers indoors.

• If a plant gets too much water or doesn’t have enough drainage the soil will go anaerobic, which means lack of oxygen and your roots will die.
• If a plant gets too little water and dries out then important nutrients will not flow back and forth between leaves and roots, or if it gets too dry permanent damage to leaf tissue can occur.
• Plants require therefore just the right amount of water. Not too much and not too little.

Types of irrigation.

Irrigation can fill up a lifetime of research and practice all on its own. If you want to read a research-driven article on Irrigation Types from The Backyard Orchardist you can find out more specifics for different types of plants and soils. We use drip irrigation whenever we can on our own in ground plants as it is the most efficient way to water outside of hand watering and saves us incredible amounts of time. But we also utilize overhead sprinklers here at the nursery and of course hand watering will always be a necessity no matter what kind of irrigation system you have. It’s best to have watering options.

In conclusion,

Watering should be fun! After all, you get to use a magic wand that sprays out a life-giving substance. Take the time to observe your beloved plants and enjoy your time in the garden watching flowers unfold, insects fly, and life unfolding. When you water you are creating your own “one green world.” Happy Watering!

The post Summer Watering Guide appeared first on One Green World.

So, here you are with your new baby fruit tree, maybe you picked it up locally or received it in the mail. After all that winter planning, you picked out just the right spot so that it can grow into a beautiful fruiting specimen. Now, it’s finally time to plant!

You grab your shovel, maybe a pickaxe depending on where you live, a few soil amendments. Off to dig that mighty hole your new fruit tree will call home. With great care the soil is put back in the hole, gently you apply a thick organic mulch, water it in. Repeating the process until all your trees are in the ground.

But, when you stand back somehow it looks…rather disappointing. Just sticks with a few side branches sticking out of the Spring mud. You notice that 8-15 feet of barren ground between all those trees, it will take some years before the tree mature and their canopies fill in to fully soak up all that great sunlight. Surely, there must be some other way. Let’s fill up this empty space – companion plants for fruit trees to the rescue!

Which companion plants are the best has been hotly debated amongst gardeners for decades. There’s plenty of room to experiment. But, what is for sure is that good companion plants are the ones that are beautiful, ecology enhancing, soil building, pollinator attracting, drought tolerant, dynamic accumulating, pest predator attracting, and more. A list of beneficial plants could fill many a page, but we’ve come up with a list of our absolute favorites based on their ease of cultivating and their benefits to the young orchard.

Nitrogen Fixers

The first group of companions most home orchard and permaculture folks think of are the mighty nitrogen fixers. A special group of plants that are able to turn atmospheric soil nitrogen (N2) into a form of nitrogen that can be uptaken by plants (Ammonia – NH3 and Ammonium – NH4) through a symbiotic relationship that occurs in their roots with certain bacteria.

Many of the most known nitrogen fixers are in the Fabaceae or Pea Family. These associate with Rhizobia bacteria in root nodules. But, there are also many in other families, such as our native Red Alder, Garrya, Willow, Sea Buckthorn and Elaeagnus, or the Ceanothus genus that instead associate with Frankia and other bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form. For our needs, it is one of the most useful adaptations in the plant kingdom . Prior to the chemical fertilizers, farmers and gardeners alike relied heavily on the nitrogen fixing powers of these plants. But instead of going down that rabbit hole, let’s list some of our favorite nitrogen fixers in the perennial garden…

• Baptisia australis, also known as Blue False Indigo, is like the Danny DeVito of perennial nitrogen fixers, growing only 3-4 feet in height but is incredibly deep rooted. This prairie native is so vigorous, more often than not, we have to cut the pot off the plant because it’s vigorous root system has made it impossible to get out of the pot otherwise! It is not the most multifunctional of nitrogen fixers but it can be used to make an indigo dye, bees love the flowers, and last season’s flower stocks and seed pods are beautiful in winter. Blue False Indigo deserves to be lifted from its benchwarmer status on the nitrogen fixers all star team to a full time starter.
• Lupines! Who doesn’t love Lupines? They hold the spring rain water droplets on their leaves like the precious jewels each drop truly is! Their large spikes of pea flower towers in mid-spring are a cause for pause and wonderment. Yeah, we love Lupines in all their various cultivated forms. Deep rooted, drought tolerant, and tolerating a wide range of soils, Lupines always deserve a place beneath your young fruit tree especially in drier climates.
• Ceanothus, also known as the California Lilac, is an impressive genus that comes in many forms from ground covers and tiny shrubs all the way up to a large shrubs, there is surely a Ceanothus variety out there that will fit the bill and it seems the nursery industry finds new varieties to introduce almost every year. This genus might be exclusively useful to all of us here on the West Coast as most are not hardy below USDA Zone 7 but there is not a flower more enticing in the entire Apiary Candy Shop than the Ceanothus flower. Its drought tolerance, compact evergreen foliage and variety of forms place it as a perennial starter on the Nitrogen Fixers All Star Team.
  • Vandenberg has dark green crinkled leaves and beautiful fragrant blue flowers in late spring and grows 3-5 feet tall by 4-6 feet wide
  • Julia Phelps Ceanothus has been one of the more popular Ceanothus for the past 50 years and continues to be one of our favorites!
  • Midnight Magic is the perfect Ceanothus for small spaces or a low growing hedge. Compact dark evergreen green leaves contrast beautifully with the fragrant blue flowers. Midnight Magic grows to only 3 feet high and spreads 5-6 feet.
  • Centennial Ceanothus  this ground cover is a multi-functional and extremely tough plant. Centennial Ceanothus explodes with blue flowers in late spring as hundreds of its tiny blue blossoms open up, much to the delight of bees that seem to cover every blossom. If that weren’t enough, Centennial is also a nitrogen-fixing and drought tolerant evergreen. A truly wonderful plant for a permaculture guild planting or as a companion plant to one of your young fruit trees.
• Sea Buckthorn! Yes, you can have your nitrogen fixer and eat it too. We have gone on and on about the abilities of sea buckthorn to heal degraded soils and grow in the most gravelly nutrient deficient of soils, but suffice to say Sea Buckthorn really is a mighty vigorous nitrogen fixer with incredibly nutrient dense fruit and leaves as well. Plant it between your fruit trees and reap a wonderful harvest of sea berries until the canopy closes in on them at which time you can cut them down and get that big old boost of nitrogen in the soil. Dig up the suckers and repeat on a new planting area!
• Goumi! The more humble and equally as handsome cousin of the sea berry in the Elaeagnaceae Family, Goumi is one of the more well behaved fruiting nitrogen fixers, can tolerate a wider range of sunlight conditions and has some of the most unique fruit you will ever taste. It tastes like it sounds, goumi-ish! The dormant twigs are a gilded and speckled Winter pleasure. In the early Summer, red fruit hanging from the shrub must have surely been placed their overnight like a hundred little ornaments hung by an army of fruit bearing elves and fairies.
• Autumn Olive is similar in some ways to goumi, but with a tarnished reputation on the east coast, Autumn Olive grows larger with a more slender leaf shape and produces smaller but equally tasty fruit. Amber is a personal favorite here at the nursery and is proof that gems do grow on trees…nitrogen fixing trees!
• Silverberry is the elegant evergreen matriarch of the whole Elaeagnaceae family, boasting evergreen, or rather ever-silver foliage year round. Silverberry is unique in that it flowers in October-November and ripens its fruit overwinter to be eaten in mid-Spring! How wild is that! Not as cold hardy as goumi, or autumn olive, but it makes a great hedge. Try alternating Pineapple Guava and Silverberry for the ultimate nitrogen fixing, fruit producing evergreen hedge!
• Crimson Clover– If all this perennial nitrogen fixing sounds like too much work or if you’re the type that can’t bear to cut down a plant in the name of ecological succession than perhaps the annual nitrogen fixers are more up your alley, Crimson Clover makes the top of the list for its ability to fix boatloads of nitrogen per acre and it’s incredibly ornamental flowers, and maybe most importantly how easy it is to manage. Unlike it’s cousin the Dutch White Clover that doesn’t know how to take a hint when it’s time for it to leave, Crimson Clover with gracefully bow out after its spring flower show if mown down before it sets seed. Or let it go to seed and repeat its beautiful dance next year. With anything in the Pea Family, try a Rhizobium inoculant boost to insure your young plants have their bacterial companions alongside them at the time of planting.

Dynamic Accumulator Companion Plants

What exactly is a dynamic accumulator? You can think of them as deep soil miners that send their vigorous deep root system far below the depth where most plants send their roots, bringing to the surface nutrients that have slipped down through the soil horizons and concentrating it in their leaves. Over time, these types of plants rejuvenate soil by pulling up more and more nutrients and creating humus around their root zone.

The most famous of these is Comfrey and has long been touted as the best plant choice for “chop and drop” mulching, where you simply chop its abundant foliage back a few times per year and use that as a nutrient rich, weed suppressing mulch. Comfrey also has many medicinal and therapeutic uses and is an incredibly multi-functional plant. It has gotten a bad rap for its ability to rapidly spread via seed, but the varieties we carry cannot produce seed and are much more manageable.

One such plant is the Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey which is a clumping variety which can only be spread if you till and spread the roots through the soil. For a more aesthetic garden look, consider the gold leafed Variegated Axminster’s Gold Comfrey. It looks like a soft leaved hosta, and though it is not as vigorous as the Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey, it still has all the same wonderful properties. If you wish to remove comfrey after your fruit trees are established a thick sheet mulch will easily do the trick and you can take great joy in knowing that your comfrey plant’s root mass will act as a deep soil compost for your fruit trees.

Chives and perennial onions are an often overlooked companion plant. They are not only easy to grow, but many are worthy additions to the kitchen. Carpets of these plants may confer some immune system benefits to surrounding plants. Their beautiful small flowers provide nectaries for many beneficial insects including tiny harmless parasitic wasps that hunt pest insects. Many onions often intermingle very well with other forbs planted in the understory.

Globe Thistles (Echinops ritro) and Green Globe Artichokes  and Purple Italian Artichokes are huge clumping plants that produces tons of biomass, habit for beetles, and are great insectaries – while pulling up nutrients from great depths with their huge taproots! All the power of soil building properties of thistles but with without the spines. Plant these giving them plenty of space to flop around.

Yarrow is our other most revered soil miner! This plant can be found growing in lawns and fields nearly all over the temperate world and the reason for this is that it loves growing in disturbed soils. Like a diligent soil repairman, yarrow sends its deep roots into even the toughest rocky soils. Many new cultivated forms have been selected for their graceful foliage and flower colors, so you can now customize your ecological plantings. Yarrow is also a beneficial insectary plant as well as a useful medicinal herb.

Time to Go Get Planting

This is a short coffee-fueled morning rambling of some of our favorite companion plants chosen for their multifunctionality, ease of cultivation, and beauty in the landscape, but many other species can fit the bill as a companion plant. Water needs for your site may increase but by planting a diverse array of ground covers, small shrubs, and herbaceous perennials you bring in all sorts of beneficials to your site which decreases weed pressure by filling up the empty spaces.

Go out and experiment, try all sorts of new plants between your fruit trees and other plantings. Plant up those edges and borders. If the hydrozones are managed correctly, drought tolerant and xeriscaping plants will thrive amongst your more water thirsty fruiting plants. Don’t be afraid to cut things out if they get overcrowded. Study nature and copy examples you see using analogous plants of your choosing. Try alley cropping with vegetables. Create different patterns, textures, and smells! And plant more Monkey Puzzle trees – they are long-term human companion plants. Your grandchildren will thank you!

The post Companion Plants for Fruit Trees appeared first on One Green World.

Bags of dried fruits and a universe of jars of wonderful treats. Winter salad greens and fresh cut herbs could grace your plate. Your onions and potatoes seasoned with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, and more – if you’d only planned (or maybe you did!) Like they say, it was best to have planted a fruit tree 7 years ago. So, let’s get started on garden planning!

Well, what do you want to grow?

Focusing around economics, kitchen recipes, and personal/family/friend preferences will help shape that list. What do you spend most on in your monthly food budget that you could instead begin to grow? Think of the produce items that never look great or are devoid of flavor at the grocery store, especially in the winter. What does your family enjoy eating? That vegetable or fruit your friends really adore when they come over for a shared meal. The ones that the kids get excited about. Or, maybe that they should get excited about. What will make the neighbors squeal with joy when you share your abundant harvests? Hmm… Create a list to grow based on those considerations.

Part of the garden planning process is remembering what worked and what didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. Sometimes we get lucky and even get to figure out why things turned out as they did. When planning, whether you have a small backyard, patio garden, or even a full-on farm, it’s good to take an inventory of what we have and where we want to go. What’s growing well? What’s been struggling all along? “Right plant, right place.” Sometimes the plants we had high hopes for our growing conditions for whatever reason limp along while other times it’s nothing but uncontrollable gangbusters from the start!

Planting varieties proven for your growing area is essential especially if we don’t have a large area to experiment with. It’s good to strike a balance between honing on the tried-and-true, what provably works, but going out and trying that wild-hair experimental idea. Strike a balance, that way you won’t get in trouble with your spouse for being too “out there”. Thankfully, OGW’s got you covered with the right plants no matter where you live!

Designing Your Garden

Creating a map of your site and how everything relates to each other is important for best long term success. Gaia’s Garden by the late Toby Hemenway remains one of the most important works toward understanding the basic workings of an integrated garden design. Worth checking out and digesting its contents.

First off, we’re going to be interacting with the space, right? So, that means thinking about how people including yourself will use that space. How can they move around efficiently. Plan around what tasks currently happen there, what tasks you will want to happen there in the future, and how people need to move around in that space to complete the tasks. Design your garden so that it is both easy and safe to move around that space quickly and with ease but also so that physical movement time is minimizing by grouping tasks around the function they perform. This will look different to each person and that’s perfectly fine.

What are the permanent features of this area? The buildings on the property, the water features like ponds and downspouts, the paths and how they fit into the lay of the land, the trees, shrubs. What about the surrounding neighborhood and greater area. Then think about how the annuals fit into that scheme.

Think of your garden in terms of time. Creating a four-season plan for your garden that includes season highlights, planting schedules (both short-term growing year goals but also long-term), rotations, and processing storage time estimations can really help ensure you make the most of your growing season and also that you have the time to “put away” as much of your produce as possible. We all know the person that grows a ton of tomatoes but never finds the time to can! Maybe this means getting together with your neighbors to help share and preserve the harvest. This is obviously a huge subject, just broad-brushing over some greater concepts that we’ll touch more on later another time.

Timeliness and Garden Planning

Part of successful winter gardening is often starting with planning the year before. Many of the garden vegetables we love like Brussels Sprouts (Mar), Garlic (Sep-Nov, or Jan), winter hardy salad greens (July) require planning ahead usually at the height of Spring or Summer. Not a time our intuition screams WINTER! and yet, the seasoned gardener knows how to plan in advance during that time. To the maxim “right plant, right place”, add “right time”. Of course, the entire practice of gardening or farming revolves around starting and finishing tasks with the correct seasonal timing.

You’re in luck because there are many different books, guidelines for your bioregion, and blogs that have been published for pretty much any region of the US or Canada. For us in Cascadia (Vancouver Island to Northern California), Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide Second Edition continues to be a great for not just winter, but throughout the seasons as well. Strangely despite its popularity, it’s been out of print for the last year, but it’s still easy to find and pick up a copy online. Two other excellent books on this general subject continue to be Binda Colebrook’s Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest despite the planting dates being a bit off and a number of the Elliot Coleman books like The Winter Harvest Handbook and Four-Season Harvest. Here is our recommended books to plan your own food forests and gardens – OGW BOOKS

When planning for winter gardening, we need to pay attention to not only how we are going to help our plants cope with the typical lows and winter conditions like snow or ice, but also provide some planning for how to do with the occasional extreme winter weather. Getting to know your areas first and last average frost dates can help with planning ahead. It’s a bit technical, but NOAA publishes this information. Just select your state on the website to get your list.

It All Starts From the Soil

Speaking of temperatures, remember that soil life is basically dormant below 45 F. Which means if the compost doesn’t have core heat, no composting will happen. It means that the nitrogen fixing soil organisms are dormant and not ready to feed your plants. Which is part of the reason many plants stay dormant during the cold months. Which leads us to chatting a little about soil health.

Once the ground begins to thaw, typically in Feb, it is a great time to get a comprehensive soil test. I personally recommend the company Ag-Source – they are geared towards organics, very competitively priced, have great customer service that make the process simple, give excellent recommended fertilizer recommendations. and have offices throughout the US. Often us in the “ground yer own” crowd are driven by a desire to produce food that is not chemically contaminated and flavor rich. A big part of flavor equation is ensuring that our harvest is not only nutrient rich but nutritionally balanced. This is part of insuring that our homegrown isn’t an empty promise – having been chemically contaminated and/or devoid of nutrition. For more information about soil fertility in layman’s terms, see the book The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. Biology also plays a role of central importance with which Dr Elaine Ingham has extensively written about. The marriage of these two ideas achieves balance.

On the biology side of things, as you are cleaning up your garden and assessing winter damage, remember to recycle those on site nutrients as well! One of best ways to build soil fertility is by feeding it all sorts of vegetation. It has been said many times that composting is both an art and a science. But, by adding those clippings and woody debris to all those vegetable scraps you’ve been dumping on the pile, this will both help keep the compost pile aerated, heated and active, but will also help balance the carbon to nitrogen ratio in the pile which will make the best compost and in turn the best soil. Sometimes I like to compost in place for some things in layers, but for vegetable scraps I like to make layered piles in new locales over time, slowly enriching more and more space. Bio-intensive Approach to Small-scale Household Food Production shows the mineral makeup of different compostable materials. The rest of the guide is pretty cool, too!

By working on that compost, you’ve probably already checked on your tools a bit. But, take the time to clean, sharpen, repair, and replace those trusted tools that allow us to complete our vital work every day. Fix that wobbly wheelbarrow, repair or replace those leaking hoses and water lines, etc. Also, don’t forget about those motors! Periodically starting and briefly running will prevent later work flow problems in the early Spring or Summer when you need them most! Two-cycle engines like weed wackers and chainsaws don’t like their fuel/oil mixture just sitting in them indefinitely. Refer to your equipment’s owner manual for specific information about how to preform maintenance tasks for them.

A Lil’ Bit about Seeds!

Are your vegetable seeds still fresh? Check the dates. Try to keep records of when/where/who they came from. Save and learn the stories. Memorize like the keepsakes they are. Even if its scribbling on an envelope. Periodically check over your winter squash, potatoes, bulbs and tubers to keep your produce and planting stock in good order.

Seeds can be started early for transplant using southern facing windowsills and a chamber to keep humidity high. A great place to start those slowest growing seeds for transplanting months later. You can also test the viability of those heirloom tomato seeds that you got at that seed exchange several years ago. Taking out a few and planting them to see if they germinate in warm indoor conditions, will save later wasted time. A good wealth of information for starting seeds inside can be found at Wintersown. Some great local companies to check out are Adaptive Seeds,  Green Journey Seeds, Nichol’s, Peace Seedlings, Siskiyou Seeds, Uprising Organics, Wild Garden Seed and many more. OGW also has a great selection of seeds from these amazing NW growers in online and at OGW’s Garden Center in Portland. Don’t forget your local seed exchanges either!

Maybe you want to build some infrastructure? A bigger dedicated space to growing like a full-on with lights indoors grow space or a heated greenhouse. Perhaps building heated propagation beds in simple hoop house is the way to go? It’s also very easy to build germinate beds in a hoop house using a thick layer of finished compost a top fresh manure or hot compost bed. Also, cloches and cold frames can both help us start plants earlier, protected from winters worst, but also extend the growing season into the Winter. Floating row covers help keep winters worst off already established plants. Decisions, decisions.

Some Things to Think About

If you live in a more maritime climate or a milder area, January and February are excellent times to prune many types of fruit trees. While thinking about pruning, it’s good to also think of pollinators like mason bees. Check out our Mason Bee Guide. Check the bases of your trees for signs of girdling from voles or mice. There are various products you can add to the bark of tree bases to prevent damage. Learn the difference between mosses and lichens. Lichens as they fall to the ground over time actually feed the soil and thus the trees nitrogen while mosses, if not gently rubbed one, can actually cause harm to trees over time. Finally, most bareroot and potted plants can be placed into the landscape if the soil is not frozen.

January is also your first window to start planting those early vegetables like cabbage, onions in trays to transplant, peppers and tomatoes (indoors). While in late January/early February it is a great time to direct sow certain flower seeds like poppies that need to settle in and stratify (receive cold wet conditions) for some time before they will germinate. Some vegetables can also be direct sown like peas and fava beans directly into fresh earth.

While it is perfectly fine to prune many fruit and nut trees as well as small fruits, it is best to wait to do summer pruning on peaches, plums, and cherries due to the potential to cause disease issues in cold wet conditions. Grapes should be pruned and trained late Jan/ early Feb. In fact, I’ve laid my eyes on more than one old farming book relating that the best time to prune is actually in late Spring/early Summer but that they’d always learned to prune in the winter because they didn’t have time to do it when it’d actually have been best. Something to think about.

Winter is a great time to do some pest management. The organics-approved Dormant Oil can be used to stop a wide number of pest organisms that are living dormant on or in the wood like certain aphids, mites, and scales. And, don’t forget to set out those crowns and divisions like asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, onion sets, potatoes, artichokes, dahlias, lilies, gladiolas, and friends.

March is typically the month where many of our plants are awakening and is a great time to make divisions of many clumping or spreading plants like hostas, mint, strawberries, raspberries, bamboo, iris, daylilies, etc. It is also a great time to prune more winter sensitive plants like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.

Speaking of friends. I think of plants as friends, some are old friends, some I’ve just met. During the winter, it’s nice to have some plants that call out their presence during the silence of the winter. Some of my favorite winter interest plants include Garrya x issaquahensis which the males have these long white catkins, Jerusalem Sage  (Phlomis russeliana) which has interesting persistent flower heads, and the beautifully vivid yellow flowers of Witch Hazel and ‘Winter Charity ’ Mahonia. Winter flowering fragrant plants like some types of Jasmine, Winter Flowering Honeysuckle, Sarcococca, Daphne, ‘Dawn‘ Winter Flowering Viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense).

Okay! It is time to reach out beyond your garden! Garden planning is more than just being an indoor study. Get to know your neighbors. Find ways to bridge differences and strengthen ways to collaborate. Go to workshops and outings. Gain inspiration from those neighbors. Get to know your county’s extension agent. Join the local garden clubs and fruit societies, many are actually really lively and fun! If you live near Portland, OR come check out Home Orchard Society events and within Western Oregon, the Agrarian Sharing Network propagation fairs. And.. don’t forget to visit OGW and say hello!

~ Chris Homanics – OGW Community Coordinator.

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This list is a work in progress and we’d love to hear your experiences with these and other plants.

Contact One Green World for any questions that you may have regarding the hardiness of your plants.

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