Your Garden

[Albion]

Albion, you definitely can grow a peach on a wall. I have seen it before. There is one problem with that, though. It will blossom much earlier, which increases the danger of losing the fruits.

I'll address that problem as it arises.

I just fear that your summers are too humid and the sun is not strong enough, which provides a perfect environment for the leaf curl disease.

With leaf curl disease the tree will usually shed the affected leaves and grow some new ones. Of course it's not good for the tree, but I don't worry about it too much. I've heard that a garlic and citrus water spray can help keep it at bay to an extend, I suppose the natural repellents in these plants that are absent from peaches must help. I don't put too much faith into them though.

Regarding sunlight - I've considered this many times, it is an obstacle I face with grapes and figs too and is the reason tomatoes take so long to ripen. The English varieties have been bred mostly in Southern England around London and certainly can grow outside there, but it's the warmest and sunniest part of the country. I'm quite far north, at the start of that dark green band labelled as Liverpool on the map, so the sunlight he can be weak. I did think about using mirrors to reflect light directly at the plants, but I researched it a while ago when researching if I could use mirrors to grow Cordylines indoors and came to understand that they don't reflect the full light spectrum. Some of it is reflected though, so outside they might help a little, but I don't think it's worth it.



I've researched the different ways that plants photosynthesise (C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis). Grapes are probably C3 - this method of photosynthesis evolved during an era of greater C02 levels than at present and subsequently these plants respond well to increases in CO2. They yield more and can handle slightly lower temperatures. In a greenhouse the level of CO2 could be artificially raised, outside it cannot so that's another reason a greenhouse would be a good investment.
The plants I keep in the house are kept in a bedroom which is not only warm but also probably sees a significant increase in CO2 levels at night when humans are exhaling in there. Plants grow very well in there - it is 24c, south facing and has a lot of sun through most of the day. I believe a part of the reason for the success of plants in there is the increase in C02. C3 photosynthesisers are only 4% efficient - when carbon dioxide is increased slightly above normal they can become upto 7% efficient - it sounds insignificant, but in marginal climates this can make all the difference.

So that´s what I would do: Amsden, 5m away from a southeast facing wall, try the first years without spraying.

5 meters seems a bit far. I'll see what I can get first.

Good luck with your fig fruits!

Thank you. I hope I get some off it.

BTW, here are those peach seedlings about a week on:


The one on the left is consistently outperforming the other two and the middle one came through latter than the one on the right which isn't doing so well. Strange really, the one on the left was the one that I pulled out and replanted.


They've grown quite a bit since those pictures I posted above. They've slowed a bit now though, they mustn't be drawing as much from the seeds now. The Hyacinths are almost blooming as well, and the paperwhites grew in around a week and a half.


Paperwhite daffodils. They're hardy to Cornwall and SW England, they might have survived the winter here so far, but I wouldn't chance them outside most years. The normal hybrid and wild daffodils I tried indoors haven't bloomed and they've been in since September - I give up and conclude they won't flower indoors.

I've also received 25 strawberry plants through the post of an unknown variety, for free from someone down south. I don't know what they're like yet, I'll have a look at them on Saturday or Sunday.

[Albion]

A part of me is just tempted to give up attempting to grow warm climate crops in a cool climate and to grow typical cool climate ones instead.
I've already got apple, cherry, plum and pear trees as well as strawberries. I suppose other things I could grow would be raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, red and white currants and gooseberries - all of which do well here. I don't so much like the small berry bushes though, I want large yields of large fruit like grapes and peaches. I suppose once the fruit trees grow, they should provide that though. Blueberries, cranberries, rhubarb and hazelnuts also grow well here, so maybe I'll look more into cool climate fruit that is reliable here.
I'll still try to get fruit off the grape vine, fig plant and attempt to grow the peach seedlings and melons as an annual. These are more liable to fail though.

[Albion]

Planted raspberries and gooseberries today.

[Han Cholo]

April 29: 5:00 pm


April 30, 11:00 pm


May 1, 3:00 pm


Other plant from same date:


This shit grows really fast, it's almost catching up in height with other plant of different origin that was sick, and is about 2 weeks older.