Hits & Misses: ‘Purple Baron’ millet and stephanotis
Question of the Week: Can water burn plants?
What’s bugging me? Tips on thrips
Business: Wainwright gardeners

I saw a movie this past weekend called ‘A Scanner Darkly.’ It’s a rather strange film that uses a technique called rotoscoping to transform actors into line drawings of themselves (you have to see the effect to understand it!). You could say that the film’s plot was about addiction, or you could look at it as a film about horticulture. One of the film’s characters (played by actor Keanu Reeves) becomes addicted to a fictitious drug called substance D that is derived from a blue-flowered plant. During a hallucinatory episode, he imagines aphids crawling across his skin and captures some to have positively identified. The character also sees his friends turning into a variety of garden insects. The Latin name of the plant briefly flashed across the screen and I managed to pick up the genus name Clerodendron but missed the species name. In real life Clerodendrons are pretty ornamental flowers, but in this movie they are portrayed as a plant poised to cause the downfall of western civilization. Truth be known, I didn’t watch the film for its artistic merit or for its horticultural references; I was just trying to escape the oppressive summer heat, and the theatre showing this cult film fit the bill rather nicely.

Hits & Misses
Hits
MILLET WITH MUSCLE
One of the bedding plants that I am very impressed with this year is the ornamental millet ‘Purple Baron.’ It is a tall, robust, deep-burgundy coloured plant that produces lots of long, thick spikes of flowers that look fantastic with yellow or lemon colored sweet potato vine or with trailing white petunias. This millet grows quickly and can be planted late in the bedding plant season in pots for a dramatic display. Purple Baron is a more robust form of purple millet than another variety we’ve tried called ‘Purple Majesty.’ Both are excellent varieties, but Purple Baron looks like a Purple Majesty that took a Ben Weider muscle-building program. Fortunately, I can guarantee that Purple Baron won’t kick potting soil in your face but it will provide eye candy.

Misses
A TOO HOT HOTHOUSE
We keep one gigantic stephanotis in a pot in the greenhouse so that the crew in our floral department can harvest the white, delicate and extremely fragrant flowers for weddings and other special occasions whenever needed. Lately though the flowers have been significantly smaller than normal, and we’ve been forced to bypass some flower clusters because they didn’t meet our standards. One of the main reasons for a decrease in flower size for a wide variety of plants is heat. The hotter the temperatures are the smaller the flowers. Last week, temperatures peaked at 44 degrees Celcius in one greenhouse—that’s with the fans going full tilt! It is amazing that the only deleterious effect on the stephanotis was a reduction in flower size. At 44 degrees Celcius, dry sauna is a more accurate term than greenhouse!

What’s Bugging Me
TIPS ON THRIPS
Thanks to the hot weather, a lot of gardeners are experiencing infestations of thrips in biblical plague numbers. For those unfamiliar with this bug, they are tiny, slender black insects that often go unnoticed until flowers become severely damaged. The worst time for thrips is during the hottest times of the summer. They love to feed on a wide range of flowers and have a particular love of pollen (which explains why you can often see them clustered in blossoms). Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be done once the thrips get into blooms. Cooler weather and rain are nature’s way of controlling them. It is interesting to note that when flowers fail to open during the heat of the summer, lack of water and fertilizer often get the blame when thrips are the real culprits.

Question of the Week
CAN WATER BURN PLANTS?
I got a call the other day to settle a debate about watering on hot days. The myth that seems to persist is that water droplets magnify sunlight, causing burning on the leaves of plants. In fact, the opposite is true. Water prevents heat damage by cooling leaves and flowers. We’re mistaken in thinking that water droplets act like little magnifying glasses for several reasons. First and foremost is that the water droplet scatters light rather than concentrating it because the ‘lens’ is, in fact, upside down. Secondly, the water droplet is dynamic not static, meaning that it is constantly evaporating and continuously changing shape until it completely evaporates. And if you want more pragmatic proof, think about the last time a cloudburst occurred that was followed by bright sunny weather. If the magnification principle were true, every plant in the neighbourhood would be covered in spots. Some myths die hard. What you do need to be concerned about though, is how much water is wasted through evaporation when you water in the heat of the day. And that’s no myth!

Business
WANDERING GARDENERS
I was pleased to welcome a large group of visitors to the greenhouse this week from the Municipal District of Wainwright, many of whom had never been here before. We had a great tour, and they asked all kinds of questions ranging from how to solve pest and disease problems to what to grow in difficult locations. It’s always nice to have these groups visit us: they get to see our operation from behind the scenes and we get to hear what’s on gardener’s minds!

House fires and gardens are not often talked about in the same breath, and although they seem to make rather strange bedfellows, there is an unfortunate connection between the two.

An Urban Issue
Many of the devastating fires that have occurred across North America in recent years have been due in part to our growing desire to locate homes near forests or urban green zones. Who could blame anyone for wanting to live close to beautiful forests? But, as always, desire comes at a cost. In this case, cost goes by the name interface fire—a fire that has potential to involve buildings and wildland.

Our farm in St. Albert was shaped by fire to a great degree. Not long after my parents settled there they endured several fires including one that burned our barn to the ground, another that reduced our tractor to a smoldering mass of metal, and several brush fires that cleared a swath of underbrush in the riparian zone (the woodlands separating the farm land from the Sturgeon River). Fortunately for us, we were extremely lucky that no one was injured and that our house was spared.

Be “Firesmart”
How one manages the property outside of one’s home can have a huge influence on how fire moves from the landscape to the home or even from the home to the landscape. As part of a cooperative program between Alberta’s Sustainable Resource Development, Partners in Protection and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources Fire Prevention Education, I recently had the opportunity to tape a TV episode about preventing fires in the landscape. The project in Canada is called FireSmart, and part of the idea behind it is to impress upon people the importance of creating “firesmart” environments—ones designed to mitigate the risk of fires. In essence, it’s an initiative to encourage people to recognize that the moisture-holding capacity of both plants and soil are factors that determine your landscape’s ability to survive a fire. As luck would have it, when it came to filming the shows, biblical floods were the order of the day, and our visiting television crew and cast had to do their best just to stay dry—another reminder of the power of nature.

Reduce the Fuel
A firesmart landscape is quite easy to achieve, and the simplest thing you can do is to reduce the “fuel” near your home. From a gardener’s perspective, fuel is vegetation (both living and dead) that is combustible. Tall dead grass, for example, makes an excellent fuel, so cut and maintain grasses around your property. Downed or dieing shrubs and trees are also highly combustible and should be removed. But keep in mind that cutting and storing that birchwood right next to the siding of your house is just asking for trouble. As a general rule, firewood should be stored at least 10 metres away from the house.

It’s not hard to identify fuel or what ignites it. What does seem to be difficult is breaking old habits that have potential for disaster. Stubbing cigarettes in dry planters containing peatmoss can easily cause a fire, and although a stand of evergreens is great for shading a home and providing wind protection, growing it too close to a home is akin to storing gunpowder next to a furnace.

Of course, no fire can be prevented if conditions are dry or hot enough, but some plants are more fire-resistant than others, and those resistant types should be located adjacent to houses. Beautiful Swedish columnar aspens and maples have a very low flammability rating whereas a black spruce, jack pine and lodgepole pine have a very-high flammability rating. I wouldn’t council gardeners to stay away from particular plants—just to be careful of where they place them and how they maintain them. Don’t forget to clean out underbrush if you live next to a forested area. Underbrush makes great “ladder fuel” that allows flames to climb high and spread quickly.

Knowledge Is Prevention
As of July 17, there have been 1,438 wildfires reported in Alberta. Sadly, with over three months left in the season, Alberta is poised to break its wildfire record. I consider my family and myself very fortunate never to have had a fire in our home, which incidentally, sits near a forested area, and I want to keep it that way. Knowledge is prevention. We often hear about fire safety within the four walls of our homes, but let’s not forget the potential risk that lurks in our landscapes—the more people who share concern that our urban ravines and river valleys could easily be lost to fire, the closer we are to preventing it.

To view a list of fire-resistant plants for Alberta, visit enjoygardening.com. The FireSmart series begins airing on Sunday, July 23 @ 3:30 p.m. on KREM. Jim Hole appears on the August 6th episode.

Hits & Misses: Grand Prix Plants and true-to-life trials
Question of the Week: What are those giant caterpillars?
The Business: Water saving potential
Science & Technology: An alternative to deet

I’ve just returned from attending the Greenhouse Growers Conference at Ohio State University where I had a chance to mingle with some of my American industry counterparts. This year I had another opportunity to work with colleagues from across the border while filming the FireSmart education series. The series airs on Sunday, July 23 at 3:00 p.m. on KREM (CBS affiliates). The episode I was involved with airs on Sunday, August 6th. I invite you to take in this series; it certainly offers fuel for thought.

Hits & Misses
Hits
GRAND PRIX PLANTS
The Grand Prix starts Friday in Edmonton, and we are responsible for providing over 400 containers of plants along with bouquets for the winning drivers. We used large barrels for the containers and filled them with a beautiful combination of ornamental millet, dianthus, heliotrope, vegetative coleus, white salvia farinacea and the eminently useful Wave petunias. Well over 200,000 racing fans are expected to attend this year’s three-day event, and I’m hopeful that the plants will provide some nice balance to the tarmac, the roar of the powerful engines and the smell of the burning rubber.

Misses
REALITY GARDENING TRIALS
I think that breeders and growers often make the mistake of not testing new plants in real conditions when they are trialing new varieties. I had a chance to visit the trial gardens at Ohio State University where each year they plant the latest bedding plant introductions into their flowerbeds with the objective of seeing how they perform in the ‘real world.’ The transplants aren’t babied but are given what the trial-garden grounds workers believe are the same sort of conditions and care that an average gardener would provide. The soil is poor, low in organic matter and rather hard. The results of this type of trial are some outstanding varieties intermingled with a fair number of “misses,” and all of the growers who attended were busily scratching notes on their pads to document the successes and failures. These are my favorite kinds of trials. Plants grown under perfect conditions don’t accurately reflect the conditions that the majority of gardeners experience in their own yards.

Question of the Week
WHAT ARE THOSE GIANT CATERPILLARS?
Entomophobia (the fear of insects) may well be wide spread this week in the Edmonton area thanks to the appearance of the poplar sphinx moth larvae. These “caterpillars on steroids” are about as thick and as long as your ring finger, and they have a long, distinctive horn on their backs. The sphinx moth has remarkable gripping power, and they tend to whip back and forth when touched. Although this large caterpillar looks like it could consume all of the plants in your yard, as well as your pet cat, they are, in fact, harmless. They will eat poplar and willow leaves but usually the damage is minimal. The best strategy with these big, fascinating insects is not to kill them, but rather simply to admire them. The adult moths are quite pretty and have hind wings suffused with pink. If you come across the larvae, use it as a golden opportunity to get kids interested in the insect world. I believe there are far more insect species that should be observed and protected than there are those that should be squished!

Business
POTENTIAL WATER SAVINGS
One of the most interesting talks I attended at the Ohio greenhouse conference was on the naturally occurring plant hormone called abscisic acid or ABA for short. ABA is responsible for several different plant processes, but the one thing that it does of interest to greenhouse growers and gardeners alike is close the stomata on plant leaves. Stomata are the pores in plant leaves surrounded by ‘guard cells’ that open and close the pores, thereby regulating the loss of water from the plant. Whenever the pores are closed, the water loss through a plant’s leaves is substantially reduced. One researcher at the conference had done a lot of trial work on the effects of water loss in a plant when ABA is applied to the soil. The results were quite amazing. Plants that were treated with ABA could survive several days longer in pots than could untreated plants simply because the treated plants had less water loss due to the effects of ABA on stomata closure. The next step is to continue testing ABA and to see all of its pros and cons. The implications of this study on the greenhouse industry (and perhaps even anyone who has to leave plants while on a holiday) are great. Hopefully, in the next few years there will be an ABA product on the market that will save water without costing too much.

Science & Technology
ALTERNATIVES
According to researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there could be a new tool in the fight against mosquitoes. The American beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana) from the family Verbenacea contains a compound called callicarpenal that has proven to be as effective as DEET (which is currently the world’s most effective repellant). There is still a fair bit of testing to do before it can be registered for use, but it does show tremendous potential.

Plant Killers

The heat seems to be killing everything this week—including my patience. Normally, I don’t feel inclined to vex, but the sight of restaurant patios decorated with plants in need of first aid has inspired me to embrace my inner ranter.

Restraint, Table for One?
The problem is I like eating on restaurant patios when the weather is beautiful, but years of being in the greenhouse business just won’t let me avert my eyes from crispy, brown hanging baskets that dangle mere centimetres from my face. It takes a great deal of restraint to keep me from snatching a restaurant’s garden hose, dragging it across the patio, and giving wilting plants at least one evening’s stay of execution.
My concern is partly self-interested and partly altruistic. The selfish side of me believes that being seated on the patio with the Grim Reaper hanging about is not a pleasant way to dine, while the altruistic side of me believes that the sight of dying plants isn’t good for the health of a community. If you want people to live and play in the city, then the first step to achieving this is to make the experience as pleasant as possible. Vibrant plants contribute to a vibrant community.

Every year, I get the same query from restaurant owners: “When can I put plants on the patio without having to worry about frost?” The concern is valid, but what they really should be asking is: “How do I keep my hanging baskets from turning into dried flower arrangements on windy 30˚C days?” The truth is that plants suffer more from heat than they do from cold.

Okay, enough ranting. Let’s take a look at the problem: how does one ensure that planters and hanging baskets don’t become potpourri?

Super Size It
Quality plants and soil are two fundamental and indispensable components for container gardening. If you start with garbage plants and soil, expect to have garbage as a result. With potting soil, volume speaks volumes about quality. Because containers and hanging baskets contain so many plants, there must also be a correspondingly large volume of soil. To borrow a term from car enthusiasts who talk about engine power, “There is no replacement for displacement.” The same is true of containers—bigger containers are simply better, so whether you’re a home gardener or a restaurant owner, start with large containers, fill them with quality potting mix and plant with quality plants.

Once you have addressed the physical requirements, turn your attention to the psychological side of things. Plants in containers are not a five-day-a-week job or even a six-day-a-week job; they are a seven-day-a-week job. All it takes is one hot and windy day to undo 40 days of unfailing attention and nurturing.

Eating Profits
There’s no doubt about it: hauling a hose around is a huge commitment and a huge inconvenience, which is why people are turning to drip irrigation systems—small, weighted “spaghetti” tubes that sit on the surface of baskets or pots and drip water. We have thousands of them in the greenhouse and couldn’t do without them. For added convenience, a timer is often incorporated in the drip system to make the operation fully or semi-automatic. Drip irrigation isn’t the best option for everyone, but if you are a restaurant owner spending thousands of dollars on pots and baskets each year, it just makes good business sense to take care of all your investments.

Going out to a restaurant on hot summer days when no one feels like cooking can be a great treat, but often, the only thing I seem to find on the menu is guilt. It’s hard to enjoy a cold drink on the patio when you know that not all thirsts are being quenched. So during these heat waves, please tend to your plants. It will save everyone a lot of aggravation—I won’t have to dine with the Grim Reaper, and you won’t have to listen to me rant about it.

After a brief hiatus spent trawling the dark recesses of mind and soul, the Unlikely Gardener has drifted back into the cybernetic dreamland of the internet. In the time separating then and now, tough questions have been asked. What truths remain to be told? How to tell them? And, why bother at all? Are you out there, dear, silent reader? Blink twice for Yes.

While much has happened over the past few weeks, let us begin with the pointless. Naturally, as a 150 lb weakling, I’m always eager for an arm wrestling match. To my disappointment, few at the greenhouse share my passion for the gain that follows the pain, and I have been consistently denied satisfaction. Always sympathetic, Heather, grower of Perennials, brought this to the attention of my coworkers over coffee, and they responded, let’s say, by stuffing their mouths with packaged snacks and quickly averting their eyes. Well, all eyes averted but two, both of which belonged to Production Manager Dot.

For those of you unfamiliar with our PM, Dot is a tireless mother of three, including the sullen but affable Alex of the Nursery, and there is little doubt that the young man’s thick arms are an expression of maternal genetics. For more years than I have been a grower, Dot has been chucking around bales of soil like they were balloons–always, of course, with grace and style. I knew I was about to meet my match.

Before I could refuse, Dot was down in the Headhouse, brushing perlite and soil off one of the transplant tables and wheeling it into place. Her crew had abandoned the planting of planters and was rallying behind her. Heather of the Perennials officiated. Dot and I locked clammy hands. Hearts pounded in anticipation. A crowd gathered as retail staff trickled in from the Front Greenhouse, looking, as usual, for trouble and action. The murmur in the Headhouse rose to a buzz. Before it could reach a frenzied roar any kind, Heather gave the signal.

I’d like to think muscles bulged and sweat streamed off brows and spit shot through clenched teeth. It didn’t. We strained lightly for a few moments for the sake of our audience, then Dot, perhaps realizing that she was arm wrestling on company time (which I bet Bill and the rest of the highest-ups wouldn’t have minded had we invited them to the three minute event), called it a draw and withdrew her hand. It was not about losing, I think, that she was worried, but winning. She was sparing me. We carried on with our work after that, much as if nothing happened. Every now and then, though, I’m sure I see in Dot’s eyes a fierceness, a certainty of my defeat as solid as the table she’d like to have driven my knuckles into, over and over again. It is something raw and instinctual. We have passed, I fear, into less innocent times.

All right! Come back next week and be stupefied by
Notes (of what I can remember) on the Year End Meeting
The Purging of the Coldframes
and
The Breaking of a Fellowship of Sorts

It seems like every time I turn on the television these days I’m bombarded with salacious news about one-name celebrities. Although wading into the shallow end of pop culture almost always rewards me with a mental vacation, this week’s gossip about “Bradjolina” and “Tomkat” left me thinking about how easy it is to get hung up on a name. Tabloid journalists aren’t the only people guilty of reducing people to one-name descriptors either; plant breeders also play the name game every time there’s a new “it” cultivar in town. Just like in Hollywood, sometimes the names are fitting and other times…

Take the name “honeysuckle,” for instance. As a kid, I thought it was reasonable to assume that the three-metre tall bush in our front yard that my parents called the “honeysuckle” should, in fact, yield sweet, edible fruit. Sadly, it took just one taste of those enticing berries to learn that our honeysuckle would never live up to its name.

Peanut Butter & Skepticism
Fast-forward a couple decades and I’m sitting at a lecture given by Dr. Bors from the University of Saskatchewan. Just my luck, he’s talking about new, tasty honeysuckle varieties out of Russia. Before I could indulge my skepticism about honeysuckles being even remotely edible, Dr. Bors popped open a few jars of honeysuckle jam with which he graciously planned on torturing us. Unable to come up with a convincing reason not to partake in the fun, I had no choice but to join in on the tasting. To my relief (and disbelief), the honeysuckle jam wasn’t just acceptable; it was up there in the rarified air of my two favourite jams: black cherry and chokecherry.

This honeysuckle that Dr. Bors was so excited about wasn’t the honeysuckle that I grew up with. The varieties he was talking about were from a species of honeysuckle called ‘Lonicera caerulea.’ There are about 250 species of Lonicera, but caerulea is a species indigenous to Russia and one that was bred to extract the excellent culinary qualities that lurk deep in its gene pool. It took 50 years, but the work paid off and today there are several delicious varieties. In a much-needed attempt to distance these new varieties of L.caerulea from the garden honeysuckle that most people think of, this new “it” fruit was christened with the fitting common name, “honeyberry.”

From Russia, with Love
Because the honeyberry is from the colder regions of Russia, it seems to be custom designed for the prairies. It is hardy to -45˚C, and even when it is in flower, it can withstand temperatures as low as -10˚C. Even more impressive is that honeyberries typically require only one growing season before they fruit, and that fruit is produced exceptionally early—often in the first weeks of June. Once the fruit develops, you can enjoy the impressive dark-blue, elongated 1-gram fruit. Just remember that honeyberries require cross-pollination, so at least two different varieties should be planted close to one another.

As for their care and maintenance, they don’t require much. According to Dr. Bors, pruning isn’t needed for about seven years. The only real concern is that the branches are a little brittle and prone to snapping, so just remember to take a little extra care when transplanting.

Being the honeysuckle convert that I am, I planted two varieties of honeyberry in our trial garden last year: Berry Blue and Blue Bell. Both survived the winter completely unscathed. Although honeyberries aren’t yet available commercially, I suspect that in about five years, these sweetly named berries will be the buzz of every local grocery store—a privilege that, I suspect, neither “Bradjolina” nor “Tomkat” will still be enjoying.

Hits & Misses: Marigolds & watering
Question of the Week: What is the white stuff on my plants?
Timelines: Trial Tomatoes
The Business: Ohio conference (notebook away for a week)

On Tuesday of this week, my family and I were invited to the official opening of the Lois Hole Memorial Garden on the grounds of the Legislative building. The garden is beautiful, and we’re so pleased with how it turned out. Mom believed in beautiful public spaces designed for all to enjoy. I invite everyone to come down to the grounds, to tour the gardens, to read the plaque placed there in her honour and to look at the magnificent building this garden highlights.

MIGHTY MARIGOLDS
Once again we are supplying the flowers for the West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix. In preparation we’ve planted up several hundred pots of marigolds in 6.5 inch pots (3 plants per pot). Three marigolds in a pot doesn’t sound particularly exciting or creative but its amazing how good they look when they are in bloom and how well they stand up to the conditions around the track. We’re so impressed with these tried-and-true plants that we’ve planted up extras for our customers who need to fill the odd void in their flower beds or want to add a little colour to their own special events. Sometimes we forget that something as simple and inexpensive as a pot of marigolds can make a big impact.

Misses
HOT, HOT, HOT
The temperatures in our greenhouses soar well above those outside and given the temperatures this week, those buildings have been darn hot. To meet the demands set by these temperatures, our watering staff adjusts schedules and the amounts of water they apply to plants While we’ve been able to train a great staff, we always have to remember to continue to train the public—after all, there’s a new crop of gardeners every year. This past week I’ve seen heat-shriveled plants on restaurant patios around town, and the number of customers coming back to the greenhouse with dried up plants is at its seasonal peak. With every commercial planter order we fill, we make a point of providing detailed watering instructions, but I’m thinking we still have a lot of water educating left to do.

Question of the Week
WHAT IS ON MY PLANTS?
I’m getting a lot of questions from customers about the ‘white powdery’ stuff on their plants. When they refer to white powder, you can be pretty certain they are describing a fungal disease called powdery mildew. We tend to associate this disease’s occurrence on plants with cool, wet weather not a heat wave. But powdery mildew is a bit of an odd disease. All it needs to get germination started is a bit of condensation on a leaf, and then it can spread rapidly.

I’ve seen a great number of powdery mildew cases showing up on begonias this past week. Begonias that are allowed to become dry are highly prone to mildew because the protective waxy layer the on leaves breaks down, allowing invasion by the powdery mildew. Strangely enough, it’s the drying and not the wetting that makes powdery mildew problems worse. Pinch off the affected leaves and keep these plants evenly moist.

Timelines
GOT WATER?
Our trial tomatoes are in fruit, and a steady even amount of water has become crucial to maintaining proper fruit development. Right now we’re watching carefully to see if the trial varieties are easily susceptible to a condition called blossom end rot. Blossom end rot is not a disease per se but rather a blackening of the bottom of the fruit due primarily to water stress and calcium deficiency. Without sufficient water, the plants can’t absorb the calcium in the soil, and this leads to poor quality fruit.

Business
GOIN’ SOUTH
I’m off to Columbus, Ohio at the end of the week to attend the biggest greenhouse conference in North America, so the notebook will take a break for one week and return on July 20. The conference showcases the latest in plants, equipment and information on pests that have an appetite for our garden plants. The greenhouse business is like any business: never static, continually changing and evolving and constantly requiring you to keep up. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to share when I return.

The Lois Hole Memorial Garden was offically opened at the Alberta Legislature on July 4, 2006. Lieutenant Governor Normie Kwong, Premier Ralph Klein, Minister Ty Lund, University of Alberta President Indira Samarasekera and Jim Hole officially unveiled the plaque commemorating Lois Hole’s tenure as Lieutenant Governor and her contributions to Alberta.

“It wasn’t just the ceremonies and the people who inspired Mom. The mere sight of the legislature building often made her smile. She truly loved looking up at this magnificent building, which is why this rock is placed in line with the door she used to enter through. So when you stand here and look up at this amazing view, know that you’re experiencing that same feeling of awe that Mom felt every time she stepped onto these grounds. I think it’s an extraordinary detail and a very physical reminder that we should all take time to stop and enjoy what’s right in front of us.”

“Mom learned a lot being lieutenant governor, and that knowledge was the perfect cap to a life spent learning. I remember Mom telling my brother and me that, “Each and every one of us is both a teacher and a student.” So I think that the most fitting tribute that someone could offer my mom is to read this plaque and to feel inspired—inspired to learn, inspired to help, and inspired to grow.”
—Jim Hole

When you plant a fruit tree, you are planting the hope that, sooner or later, it will bear fruit. But fruit bearing is a complicated process—and one that often yields more hope than fruit.

Delusions of Grandeur
Mom and Dad planted fruit trees around the farm when I was a kid. Being a kid, I expected that trees planted in the spring would yield tons of delicious fruit by the summer. Little did I know that some would take years to produce even a few pieces of fruit—most of which the birds beat me to.

Many fruit-bearing trees resist setting fruit until they are several years old. The reason for the delay is so a tree can build up enough nutrient reserves to support fruit growth. Apples are a source of energy for us, but it’s easy to forget that this energy source first had to be exported from apple leaves. In fact, it takes around 50 frenetically working leaves to grow one quality apple. If the tree is young or has too few leaves to support the required energy demands, it puts off bearing fruit.

Sibling Rivalry
It helps to think of flower buds and leaf buds as fighting siblings that try to pass off jobs to one another. Flower buds tell the tree it should make more leaf buds, while leaf buds tell the tree to make more flower buds. This battle is waged with plant hormones, the concentration of which determines who will win. Although most of us will cheer on the flower buds, we don’t realize that a win for them comes at a steep energy price to the tree that now has to produce seeds and the surrounding fleshy covering. Ultimately, all this sibling rivalry can cause a tree to become an alternate bearer—one that produces a spectacular fruit set one year and virtually nothing the next. Now, as a second born child myself (alternate fruit, if you will), I’m inclined to invite younger siblings everywhere to join me in a glass of paranoia.

To keep fruit trees from becoming alternate bearers, simply reach for the pruners. As brutal as that sounds, pruning some fruit off a tree that has a heavy fruit set is actually quite kind. Remember how hard leaves work to feed fruit. Well, pruning allows a tree to throw all its energy into the fruit that remains. Fewer fruit means less pressure on the tree to shift energy to leaf buds at the expense of flower buds. Pruning works well on apples, plums and pears, but remember that fruit removal is necessary only on years when trees produce a heavy fruit set. This year appears to be one of those years. So, if you have the fortitude to prune perfectly good fruit, the best strategy is not to remove entire clusters but rather to reduce the number in each cluster. It’s a lot like pinching the smaller buds off a peony or a dahlia. You’re much better off keeping the dominant fruit from each cluster and removing the ones that are inferior. Essentially, it comes down to quality over quantity—lots of apples of various sizes and quality or fewer apples of high quality and size.

Just Say Yes
Between frost, bugs, deer and birds, fruit removal seems criminal. But to those of us who want fruit every year, inconsistent production can be just as distressing. For me, higher-quality fruit that yields on a more consistent basis is well worth a bit of cringing and pruning. Really, your conscience isn’t likely to keep you up at night, and if it does, try silencing it with a slice of apple pie.

Oh, for the record, no matter what my older brother might have me believe, alternate bearing In No Way applies to people.