Tuesday, April 07, 2009, 03:11
Apple Tree Experiment
I have a big flower pot in the basement in which I planted apple seeds last summer. The pot was outside, then. Whenever I found sprouted seeds in an apple that I was eating, I saved the seeds. The apple seeds sprouted, and trees started to grow!
I put the pot in the basement for the winter. The barn kittens have been very hard on my apple trees. They have got them chewed back to nubbins. I have noticed, however, that the short sticks of apple trees are starting to sprout leaves. Maybe they are going to survive after all. If they come back and get leaves, I am going to plant them outside where they can really start to grow.
Three years ago I started my first set of apple trees. To begin with, I had eight of them. I ended up with three I could plant outside. So far, the apple trees are continuing to grow, although not very quickly. It has been much too dry -- and I often forget to water the poor things during the summer. They are growing in the thick grass on the bank between the driveway and Isabelle's pasture.
It is going to be a long time yet before I know whether the ones I planted outside or the ones still in the pot will actually bear any fruit. I have no idea which kind actually sprouted or which kind these are. I saved seeds from all kinds of apples -- Fujis and Braeburns and Pink Ladies and Golden Delicious and Jona Gold.
Maybe I will find out someday what kind of apples they are. Or maybe I won't. Maybe none of them will ever have fruit. Time will tell.
The real problem is that I am too stingy to buy apple trees. We have so many rabbits and deer around here, and we have had a drought for five years. It strikes me that the chances for survival for expensive apple trees that I could buy from nursery would not be very good under those conditions. Because that's the way it goes, you know. That's Murphy's Law. If I invest in apple trees and spend a small fortune, none of them will grow. If I just save seeds from apples, I might have a chance at getting apple trees.
I can only hope!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, April 04, 2009, 05:24
Much Better
Kajun appeared to be doing much better Friday morning. He was eager for his grain and cleaned up every crumb. He also ate all of the hay I put out for him, and he drank most of two five-gallon buckets of water -- plus a third of his feed bucket of molasses water (about a gallon). He was funny with the molasses water. He wasn't sure if he should drink it, try to chew it or if he should lick it up. He finally settled on drinking what he could and then licking the rest out of the bucket.
When I went into town Friday afternoon (I had to get a copy of a criminal complaint for a newspaper story), I stopped at the store on the way by and bought two gallons of 100 percent apple juice. The vet said I should try putting a little apple juice in his water to encourage him to drink more. I mixed some apple juice with Kajun's grain Friday night -- and Isabelle's, too. Both horses thought it was quite a treat.
As for the lady bugs, we're still vacuuming them up. Randy spent a half an hour Thursday evening sucking up lady bugs in the basement with the shop vac and another half hour Friday evening sucking up more lady bugs. The weather is still cool, in the upper 40s in the afternoon. So it would seem that the lady bugs are ready to be active but are not ready to find their way outside. We dump the shop vac outside, so they will have to take it from there. And with any luck at all they will *stay* outside for the time being. (sigh)
LeAnn R. Ralph