Thursday, April 16, 2015

Snowing in Colorado... BTE helps delay trees blooming

Well this is another typical crazy Colorado spring.  It is snowing outside today... Cold...  I am very glad for the moisture as we haven't had much, but it is these swings from the 60-70's into the freezing temps that really does a number on our plants, and especially our flowering fruit and nut trees.  All the trees around me that flower are in full flow already and they are just getting hammered.  Thankfully I have been working very hard to delay the bloom on my apple trees.  I have on tree that buds out into leaves early every year and usually it is also already flowering and of course getting killed by the frost and snow.   This year is different... At least so far.  Why?  Because of Back to Eden Gardening...

How does BTE help with early blooming?  Well the deep wood chip mulch is an insulation layer.  It is insulating the ground from the early warm temperatures.  The air temps may be warm, but the ground temps under that deep mulch are still quite cool.  Normally one of my apple trees is already blooming and instead the leaves have just opened up.  So I would say that the deep mulches have bought me at least a week if not 2 weeks in delaying the bloom on those trees.  Now all I can do is wait and see if it is enough to help this early tree to produce fruit for me this year.  Now both of my existing apple trees are planted out in the full sun so no attempt to delay them further by using another trick which is to plant them in the shade on the north side of a building or tree or anything that can provide winter shade and still provide full sun during the spring and summer months.  My new plants I just planted I planted a peach, sweet cherry, and an apricot in shady locations this year to see if it is possible in Colorado to get these trees to produce fruit.  Many of the experts say it is unlikely.  So we will see how BTE and observation/location can make a difference.  It is going to be an exciting gardening year!

I was supposed to put out my cold weather plants last weekend, but I was busy planting the orchard and about a dozen other things.  So this weekend in between getting loads of spoiled hay, leaves, and coffee grounds I need to set out my cold weather plants and get my other seeds started like my melons and a few other things that I like to get started indoors.  My tomatoes and peppers are just doing "OK" this year.  I have them in grow trays under lights with a warming mat.  I am going to give them a shot of worm juice probably next week and think about transplanting them into bigger pots and see what happens.   I am hoping to get some robust growth from them indoors so that I get a better start than I did last year.  My indoor seeds seem to really not beef up/thicken up and get hearty.  So I am hoping that some compost tea from my worms and some worm juice will give them a shot.  We will have to see how that goes.  I will try to do that next week. 

Well sorry it has been a while since I posted.  I have been very busy with other things that are taking up all my time right at the moment... But sometimes you have to pay the bills! LOL  I will be tied up again next week so it is crazy busy around here right now.   I hope your plants are doing well if your here in the Colorado front range! 

Until the next time... Keep on growing!

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