Fruit Propagation Update

The cranberry plants I divided earlier this year are putting on lots of new growth.  I have about a dozen potted plants now from the two that I purchased three years ago.  Strangely, they haven't produced many flowers (and hence, fruit) during this time. I wonder if there is something I should be doing that I'm not.


I also have seven raspberry plants that I grew from suckers taken from our old garden.  After I potted them up, I placed them inside a sealed plastic bag for about a month until sufficient roots formed to support the foliage.  I love this everbearing variety and was glad that they survived.  They've since been moved to my community garden plot.

On the left-hand side are black and red currant hard wood cuttings that I took in early spring.  I removed about half of the buds and applied some rooting hormone to the cut ends before potting them up and placing them into a sealed plastic bag for about 6 weeks.   From the 6 cuttings that I took, 4 went on to root successfully.  I imagine they all would have survived if I'd noticed that they'd become infested with whiteflies and tiny leaf-eating caterpillars while they were covered in plastic.

Soon, I plan on taking even more cuttings from from all of the fruit shrubs around our townhouse.  It'll be a few years before we settle into a more permanent home. By then, I hope to have a ton of potted fruit shrubs ready to be transplanted. 

Moving and Propagating Cranberry Plants

Before we moved out of our Massachusetts home earlier this year, I'd attempted to dig up my two cranberry shrubs (vines) to take with us. I'd purchased them when we'd first moved in and they'd grown tremendously over the past two years. Cranberries are definitely worth growing in the home garden in my opinion because even if they don't fruit well, the foliage alone is quite attractive, particularly in late summer when the leaves turn several stunning shades of red and burgundy. To my dismay, despite the fact that the ground was completely frost free due to the unusually warm winter we'd had this year, the soil was nonetheless so compact that I could not dig them up with my trusty garden fork without destroying the fine roots. I could have used a spade but because I was moving them into pots, I didn't want a huge block of soil to contend with. As a result, I was resigned to leaving them behind.

Over the past two months, the ground did in fact freeze solid. Now that it has thawed completely, I was curious to try this again. When I stuck the fork into the ground this time around, I relieved to find that the soil was not nearly as compact as it was before. Why the change? My guess is that when the ground froze, the water expanded, lifting and aerating the soil in the process. In the end, I was able to shake off much of the dirt from the roots and haul these two monsters back to Vermont.


I have to say, dividing cranberry shrubs is not an easy task. The low lying branches root easily when in contact with the ground so the plant grows like a carpet. You can sever the rooted stems from the mother plant and propagate your cranberries that way. Cranberry shrubs also send out runners, which root readily as well. The downside is that they also weave their way through the branches so what you are dealt with is a tangled mess when you attempt to divide your plants.

It took a lot of time and effort but in the end, I ended up with enough cranberry plants of varying sizes to fill a small patch, which I won't be doing any time soon unfortunately. My only other piece of advice is to handle the mother plant with great care as the older stems are extremely fragile at the base and easily break off. I lost a ton of branches in the process.

I'm glad I won't have to buy new cranberry plants.  It amazes me how expensive young fruit trees and shrubs can be these days.  In this case, another plant saved is another dollar earned.

Garden Notes - Rabbit Troubles and Plant Updates

I've been having my fair share of rodent problems lately. It seems 2x4 inch wire mesh is not enough to keep the rabbits out, especially the baby ones. The adults seem to have a bit more sense. So far, they've picked over my soybeans, nibbled on several of my green beans, decapitated one rather large head of lettuce and corn stalk and shaved off one of my pepper plants. As a result, I will be spending my weekend putting up chicken wire all around the perimeter of my garden. Hopefully that will be more of a deterrent.


I really should have put more effort into growing flowers this year. The garden looks a bit too green at the moment. I've always loved the European potagers and their classic style of mixing edibles and ornamentals in unique patterns. Well...that will have to wait until next year.


The cut-and-come-again lettuce mix that I grew in my salad box a few months ago failed miserably. I really only have myself to blame as there was little to no fertility in the garden soil that I used. I will try again this fall with a mix of compost and potting soil. For now, I have little patch growing in the garden.


A year and a half after purchasing the small cutting, my Kaffir lime tree is flowering for the first time. Citrus blossoms never fail to get me excited. I'm curious to see how the fruit develops.


I'm not sure what type of lettuce this is but it's beautiful. I've enjoyed watching it grow. It resembles a butterhead but the leaves have a crispiness that is more reminiscent of iceberg. I think it's either Korean or Manoa. I will have to ask Winnie if she has any ideas as the seeds were from her.


The cranberries I planted out last year are beginning to flower and spread. The leaves are bright green at the moment but should develop into a bright burgundy as the fall approaches.

Finally, here's a look at my celery after they've been thinned down to one plant. I transplanted them out in clusters of 4-5 plants simply because I was too lazy to thin my seedlings. Now I'm glad that I didn't since in each cluster, there is always one plant that drastically outperforms the rest. And looking at the size of my celery, it doesn't seem like the crowded conditions have hurt them too much. I've been harvesting the thinnings to use in soups. Delicious! I think I'll stick to growing them this way.

Welcoming the Winter Garden

It's official. The winter garden is finally here. When I broke ground in late July, I really had no idea what to expect from my garden when December rolled around. All in all, I'm really happy with how things have turned out and I'm glad that my crops have made it this far. The real test for them, however, will come during the next three months. I've done a few things this week to further winterize my garden, which I will get into in another post. But for now, I thought I'd mention a few random observations from this past weekend. In no particular order:


I decided to pull up my pea plants finally. The vines were still relatively healthy with only minor signs of mildew, but I figured at this point, they weren't going to be doing much of anything anymore. What I've learned from my fall peas this year is that in all likelihood, I chose the wrong variety to grow. Next year, I will aim for one with a shorter maturity date. Also I noticed that I may have set them back a bit by direct-sowing them in early August when the weather was really too hot to support them. I think next year, I'll start them either indoors or in a cooler/shadier spot and transplant them into the garden in early September. Also, I noticed that by harvesting the main shoot, the plants responded by focusing most of their energy into maturing the existing flowers and pods. The plants also started to produce multiple side shoots. I think I'll do some research on whether pinching the main shoot produces side shoots that will provide a larger pea harvest in the spring.


All cleaned up, the radishes now look a bit lonely in this bed.


I planted out my rosemary this past weekend in a south-facing raised bed behind our garage. It has spent the last year and a half in this pot and was so root-bound that it was nearly impossible to get it out without breaking the pot or ripping the main stem from the roots. I am not hopeful that it will survive the winter unprotected, but who knows, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.


The supermarket softneck garlic I planted in mid-October is really reaching for the sun. Still no signs of the hardneck ones I purchased from Seed Savers Exchange.


My first sowing of minutina is really starting to take off now. I love the look of their thin jagged leaves.


My first sowing of mache is growing pretty irregularly. Germination was about 60% and some plants are really lagging behind the others in their growth rate.


I spaced my second sowing of mache 1 inch apart instead of 2 and germination was a bit better - about 75%.


The leaves on my cranberry vines are now completely burgundy. I had underestimated their ornamental value when I purchased them last summer.

Finally, I've only posted about my starfruit tree once before. It had spent most of the summer outdoors and really suffered when I brought it inside earlier this fall. In fact, it has lost more than half of its leaves. However, I think it's finally starting to adjust to the diminished light indoors and is growing again. I think I'll re-pot and fertilize it soon. The flowers of the starfruit tree are really quite striking. Here is my earlier post on this plant.

Some Cranberry Facts

I have yet to find a home for the cranberry plants I purchased a couple of weeks ago. (I know, shame on me.) Since most of our yard is partly shady throughout the day, I'm having trouble deciding where would be the best spot to plants these guys. I have, however, made an effort to do some research on cranberries. Here are a few random tidbits I found:

-cranberries are a great source for vitamin C and have a high antioxidant content
-cranberries have two types of growth habits: runners (which trail and spread the plant as much as 2 feet per season) and uprights (which are born on the runners and bear the flowers and fruit)
-cranberries have a fine root system that only grows in the upper 4 to 6 inches of the soil
-1 year cranberry cuttings take about 3 to 4 years to fruit
-the cranberry is 1 of 3 fruits native to North America (the other 2 being concord grape and blueberries)
-wild cranberries were probably served at the first Thanksgiving dinner
-the first commercial cranberry crop was harvested in Massachusetts in 1816
-cranberries bounce when they are ripe (which is why they are also called bounceberries)
-some commercial cranberry beds are over 100 years old and still producing

Welcoming Fall with Cranberries

Fall in Massachusetts means the beginning of cranberry season. One of our favorite day-trips we like to take in early October involves driving down to Middleboro, Massachusetts (proclaimed as the cranberry capital of the world) to witness the harvesting of cranberries. Park alongside the road during this time and you're likely to see acres and acres of flooded cranberry bogs against a backdrop of crisp fall colors. Farmers stand upright on motorized water beaters, which knock the berries off the vines, and then use floating booms to gather up what one could describe as a sea of cranberries. A perfect rendition of fall in New England if you ask me.


All of this came to mind as I walked the grounds of Lake Street Garden Center this past weekend and noticed cranberry vines for sale. I just couldn't resist. From what I've read so far, cranberries like to grow in soil conditions similar to that of blueberries. I will have to do a bit more research before planting these out, hopefully by the end of the week.

The brilliant burgundy and green foliage provides a stunning display in the garden.

Cranberry vines send out runners as one means to propagate themselves.