THE GROWING NEWS

Volume 23/Issue 2

2 - Ground Hog Day 2 - TIEG Meeting, 6:30pm, CenterPlace, 2426 N Discovery Pl 3 - Lunch Munch Bunch, Tortilla Union SW Grill, Riverpark Square, 11:30am 3-5 - Fire & Ice Winter Fest, Lava Hot Springs, ID 5 - Super Bowl LI , FOX, 3:30pm 7-9 - Spokane Ag Expo, Convention Cnt 10 - Chocolate Affair, Downtown CDA, www.cdadowntown.com 10-12 - Int’l Auto Show, Spk Fairgrounds 10-12 - ValenWine Weekend, Spokane Wineries, 11am-5pm--wine and sweets 11 - Chocolate & Valentine Fair, Helena 11 - TIEG Tour - Parrish & Grove Botanical, 19 W Main, 10am, free 11 - Violets & Valentines, 10am, Manito Park Mtg Rm, 4 West 21st Ave, free 12 - Baby Fair, Spokane Conv Cnt 12-14 - Westminster Dog Show 14 - Valentine’s Day 15-26 - Sandpoint Winter Carnival 16-19 - Winter Wings Festival for Bald Eagles, Klamath Falls, OR 17-18 - Modern Vintage Quilt Show, Bremerton, WA 17-19 - Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering, Ellensburg, WA 17-20 - Great Backyard Bird Count 2017 18-19 - Golf & Travel Show, Conv Cnt 18-20 - Red Wine & Chocolate Festival, Yakima, wineyakimavalley.org 18-26 - Home & Garden Show, Seattle 20 - President’s Day Holiday 21-24 - TIEG Road Trip - A Taste of Spring Flower Show 22 - Go Red Women Luncheon, Conv Cnt 22-26 - Home Show, Vancouver, BC 22-26 - NW Flower & Garden Show, Seattle, www.gardenshow.com 23-25 - Jazz Festival, Moscow, ID 23-26 - Custer’s Home & Yard Show, Spokane Fairgrounds 23-26 - Wintergrass Festival, Bellevue 23-26 - Home & Yard Show, Portland 23-Mar 4 - Spokane Restaurant Week 24 - Taste Spokane, Northern Quest 24-26 - Garden Show, Bozeman, MT 24-26- Home & Garden Show, Pasco, WA 24-26 - Food & Wine Experience, Seattle 25 - Basic Beekeeping Class begins, 9am- 5pm, 222 N Havana, $50, 477-2195 26 - 89th Academy Awards, ABC, 5pm 28 - Kids at Heart Lunch, Spk Conv Cnt

FEBRUARY SPEAKER

Salem Oregon Master Gardener Harry Olson presents “Gardening with Grafted Vegetables--A Bright Future.” Grafted vegetables are superhero vegetables: stronger, bigger, faster, more able to fend off foes than regular vegetable plants--and they deliver a more abundant harvest! Grafted vegetables are created by attaching the top part of one plant (the scion) to the root system of a separate plant (the root-stock). When their tissues heal, they fuse into one Super plant with the best qualities of each: the rootstock contributes vigor and disease resistance while the scion is chosen for exceptional fruit flavor or quality. The resulting plant is more vigorous and productive, going above and beyond the call of duty to bring big, beautiful, wholesome harvests to gardeners everywhere. Harry is convinced grafted vegetables have a lot to offer and will explain and demonstrate why. This presentation will include an explanation of vegetable grafting and a very brief history of grafted vegetable development. Grafted/ungrafted trials and outcomes will be presented. The discussion will include the entire grafted vegetable line up: tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers and egg plants. The pros and cons of growing grafted will be discussed and the speaker’s favorites will be shared. This is a very visual Power Point presentation with vivid pictures sure to quicken the spirit of vegetable gardeners. After the half time break, Harry will return to briefly discuss and demonstrate a revolutionary way to prune and direct grafted tomato growth. The "Harry Prune" dramatically improves both plant growth and production. He will show you how to get 20 feet of tomatoes off one plant with four leaders. After this presentation you will be ready to "Harry Prune" this year’s tomato crop with amazing results.

FEB 2017

Published Monthly by The Inland Empire Gardeners, Spokane Valley, WA Meeting the 1st Thurs of the month, 6:30pm at CenterPlace, 2426 N. Discovery Pl.

"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." - Henry Ford

FEB 2017 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

“Botanically speaking,

tomatoes are the fruit of a vine,

just as are cucumbers,

squashes, beans and peas.” - Horace Gray

Our “Gardening thru the Ages” theme is not only about the gardens of the past but also the present and the future. Our February meeting is going to focus on grafted vegetables--the future of vegetable gardening. When I first heard about grafted tomato plants several years ago, I thought the idea was crazy. I was very aware of the great cultural benefits of grafted trees and shrubs but why in the world would you spend the time and effort to graft a vegetable that only grows for a season then dies with the first frost? It didn’t dawn on me at the time that the same disease resistance and increased overall vigor that the rootstock imparts to a grafted fruit tree could also work for a grafted tomato plant. When you think about it, this is a brilliant concept because tomatoes and many other vegetable crops have a plethora of disease and pest problems that we as gardeners are constantly battling. This is nothing new. It turns out that grafting vegetables is not a new practice at all--they’ve been doing it in Asia for a long time. One of the main advantages of grafted vegetables is their resistance to soil-borne pests and diseases. So even if diseases are lurking in your soil, grafted tomatoes are less likely to be affected because of their vigorous, disease resistant rootstock. You have a super plant! An heirloom tomato grafted on a superior rootstock will theoretically be more vigorous, healthy, and productive than if it were growing on its own roots. The root system of the “super rootstock” will be much more extensive, thus providing more surface area for absorption of water and nutrients. This should lead to a healthier plant. Many of the grafted tomatoes that you will find are heirloom varieties. These very tasty tomatoes can be more prone to disease problems than hybrid tomatoes so grafting may offer a healthier, more productive plant. So what do you think? Would you try your hand at grafting in the pursuit of a heavy crop of your favorite tomato, or maybe start nudging your local nursery to press for grafted plants from their supplier? I have a bumper crop of sauce in mind over here. - Vinca Vi

"What this country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." - Will Rogers

EDITOR: Chris Sheppard/PHONE: 509-535-TIEG

PUBLISHER: ViAnn Meyer/tieg@comcast.net

"A green thumb is nothing more than hard work and the desire to make things grow." - Albert Tuttle

FEBRUARY GARDEN TOUR

On Saturday, February 11, 2017 at 10am we will be visiting the newly opened Parrish & Grove Botanicals at 19 W Main in the Sara-nac Commons building in Downtown Spokane. We will be given a behind the

scenes tour and a demonstration on how you can build your own terrarium. In addi-tion to the new modern flower shop, the building is also home to Caffe Affogato, Mediterrano Mediterranean restaurant, Common Crumb Bakery, Black Label Brewing Co, and Sun People Bed & Bath with many more unique local shops also in the same block. So we are planning on having lunch after the tour.

LEARN TO GRAFT YOUR FAVORITE PLANTS

Grafting is a great way to propagate many trees, shrubs, and roses. Grafting is the mad-scientist way of propagating your plants. Slice a piece from one plant and splice it onto another. Cool! Let's see how. Many of the plants at your local garden center may be grafted. For example, many hybrid roses are grafted so they grow on the roots of a tougher variety of rose. This helps them stand up to tough conditions and bloom more vigorously. Likewise, most fruit trees are grafted onto smaller variety's roots. This keeps the trees more compact and vigorous. Plants trained as standards, or tree forms, are also usually grafted onto the trunk of another plant. Somebody really released their inner Dr. Frankenstein when they grafted several varieties on the same tree, so you have an apple tree that produces 'Red Delicious' and 'Golden Delicious' fruits. This is how we got the famous "fruit-cocktail tree." Once you've created healthy seedlings, learn how to transplant them to your yard. Step 1: Collect a Branch The best time to graft is late winter-- December to February, depending on where you live. Start by taking a fresh, 3- to 4-inch-long shoot with one or two buds. Select plants that are closely related; for example, graft an apple onto another variety of apple or a pear on another variety of pear. Or, try grafting almond, apricot, or plum branches on a peach tree. You cannot graft unrelated plants--such as a rose and a persimmon--onto one another. Step 2: Prepare the Rootstock The rootstock is the plant you'll be growing your new branch onto. Carefully make a 2-inch sloping diagonal cut through a stem about 6 inches above the ground. Next, make a 1/2-inch-deep cut straight down the stem, about a third of the way down your sloping cut. Step 3: Match the Branch Make a sloping diagonal cut on the bottom of the branch you'll place on the rootstock. Because you're splicing this branch on the main plant, the sloping cut needs to be the same size and angle as the cut you made on the main plant's stem. Then about a third of the way down the slope of your branch, make a 1/2-inch-deep cut up the branch to match the one on the rootstock. Step 4: Br ing them Together Carefully force the branch to slide onto the stem, lining up the cuts together. Make sure the two line up as closely as possible. Then wrap the joined area with twine and cover with grafting wax (available at your local garden center or nursery) to keep the tissue from drying out. If the graft takes, your new branch will begin to grow in spring. www.bhg.com

"Gardening is something you learn by doing--and by making mistakes. Like cooking, gardening is a constant process of experimentation, repeating the successes and throwing out the failures." - Carol Stocker

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IS THERE ANYTHING HE CAN’T DO?

“When the sun rises, I go to work. When the sun goes

down I take my rest, I dig the well from which I drink, I

farm the soil which yields my food, I share creation, Kings can do no more.” - Chinese

Proverb

Harry Olson is a lifelong gardener and a Master

Gardener since 2008. Harry specializes in grafted vegetable and vertical vegetable gardening. He has a small urban home and garden in Salem, Oregon which he has transformed into a vertical/grafted vegetable showcase. Harry’s garden is primarily an edible landscape with three raised and one ground level vegetable bed in which he grows green beans, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, kale, cabbage, onions, squash and more. “You name it,” Olson says, “I have 32 pepper plants from the mildest to the hottest, a Trinidad Scorpion. It’s insanely hot.” The 70-year-old master gardener also grows blue-berries, grapes and strawberries, and boasts several multi-grafted fruit trees that bear a continuous flow of fresh fruit for months. “I’m best known for highly productive, intensive gardening in a small area,” says Olson, who uses trellises for vertical growing. “Plants like growing vertically, and there is almost no fruit spillage. “It’s incredibly efficient, especially for tomatoes,” says Olson, who is well known in garden circles for his 32 varieties. “Plants like growing vertically. They get more sun and a lot better ventilation. They actually grow bigger and better fruit vertically. And for older gardeners, they are easier to pick.” Olson tries not to use any chemicals, relying on organic fertilizers if the need arises. “It’s the most natural way to grow things,” he says. “It’s more sustainable.” Olson keeps on top of his soil production by having a sample tested once a year and adding trace minerals every few years, adjusting nutrients to bring the soil back to neutral.” His soil, he says, has never seen a footprint. Instead of tilling his soil, he starts with a mixture of soil and compost and tops the soil every year with more compost. “Earth worms come up from underneath and pull organic matter down into the earth,” he says. “They’re my rototillers.” Olson hosts gardening classes every spring, gives talks to Master Gardener groups and anyone interested in vegetable gardening, and welcomes visitors to his Salem home to view his garden firsthand. “The best part of this is sharing with others,” he says. “Nothing is more satisfying to me than having someone who comes here go home and start their own garden. That’s my greatest joy.” Harry was one of the first garden researchers of grafted tomatoes and other vegetables. He has conducted numerous pre-release trials of new varieties and has perfected new growing methods for grafted tomatoes. He is the creator of the “Harry Prune” to dramatically increase performance and production of grafted tomatoes. Take-away tip - First and foremost: Grow grafted tomatoes. Give them plenty of space. "The roots of my grafted tomatoes are in the neighbor's yard," he says. Give them strong support. Don't make beds wider than 3 feet or you'll have to step on the soil to harvest. "My soil has never seen a footprint," Olson says. "When I turn it in spring, I don't use shovel or spade. I use a pitchfork and bury those tines a foot deep, and it just crumbles."

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"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell: fertilize." - Emily Whaley

"So, yes, I do experience a type of

reverie as a gardener. But it is

not something I control or strive for.

When I find spirituality in my

garden, it seems to go hand in hand

with hard work and diligence. Like a

burst of sunshine on a cloudy day, a

feeling of peace will come over me

and grab me by surprise. I don't

really know why or how it happens. But then again, I wouldn't

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"Happiness is possible only when one is busy. The body must toil, the mind must be occupied, and the heart must be satisfied. Those who do good as opportunity offers are sowing seed all the time, and they need not doubt the harvest.” - Jules Middleton

MEMBERSHIP INFO

Interested in joining TIEG? For further info, contact ViAnn Meyer at 535-TIEG.

Membership includes TIEG monthly newsletter, The Growing News.

REGULAR/FAMILY MEMBER - $25 BUSINESS SPONSORSHIP - $50

SEND DUES TO: TIEG PO Box 13184 Spokane Valley, WA 99213

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FEBRUARY BOOKMARKS The additions to the garden club’s library in February are designed to jump start your vegetable gardening plans this year. The Manual of Plant Grafting: Practical Techniques for Ornamentals, Vegetables, and Fruit - Peter MacDonald - Grafting is a long-established skill that is used to improve the performance of ornamental and productive plants. Fruit trees are grafted to control their size, willows to produce attractive weeping forms, and tomatoes and melons to enhance their disease resistance. The author describes the latest grafting techniques for students, professionals and enthusiastic amateurs, including information on the reasons for grafting, clear instructions on the formation of the graft union, bench grafting techniques, field grafting, vegetable grafting, and cactus grafting. An A-to-Z appendix of plants features detailed infor-mation on what type of graft should be used, when it should be done, what type of root stock needs to be used, and what environment it needs to be kept in. This authoritative guide offers clear, step-by-step instruction on the latest grafting techniques. Propagation expert Peter MacDonald highlights the importance of choosing appropriate plant materials, making good graft cutes, and caring for the plant after the graft. He also puts current techniques in historical context, explains the science behind grafting, and includes a list of recommended techniques for over 200 plants. Practical techniques for improved plant performance! Vertical Gardening for Beginners: How to grow organic food at home without a yard: grow unlimited delicious fruits, vegetables, and herbs in your urban home-stead (survival guide for healthy living) - Peter Kingston - Learn how to grow an unlimited quantity of delicious, organic fruits and vegetables in your small apartment that will feed your whole family! Do you want to grow your own healthy food at home but you don't have a big yard? Do you want to the freshest organic produce for a fraction of the cost of the grocery stores? Are you concerned about the pesticide and GMO epidemic plaguing our modern industrial farming practices? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this simple how to guide is the book for you! A complete guide for beginners to start a vertical garden in a small space--even indoors! This book will show you exactly how to begin producing your own amazing quality organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs at home. It doesn't matter whether you've never gardened before, or if you're used to gardening the traditional way. This book will show you all the benefits of vertical gardening and give you all the information you need to get started fast! You don't need a lot of space or nice weather to produce fresh organic food! Don't let your limited space force you and your family to consume mediocre, overpriced produce that have been hosed down with toxic chemicals by some corporate industrial farming conglomerate. Simply follow the advice and instructions in this easy how-to guide and start enjoying amazing, fresh food at home for pennies on the dollar! Anyone can be a vertical gardener! Imagine not having to bend your back, twist your joints, and end up hurting yourself from traditional gardening. Imagine not having to worry about pests or the weather damaging your hard work. Vertical gardening is the sensible alternative for people from all walks of life. Start today and enjoy all the benefits that come with vertical gardening! How to Graft Tomato Plants: A Guide for the Backyard Gardener - Nathan Reed - This book demystifies grafting tomato plants for the home gardener. Grafted tomato plants have proven to be an effective technique to combat soil borne diseases, increase both fruit production and plant vigor. Grafted tomato plants can extend harvest, increase tolerance to heat and cold, and reduce the use of chemicals to fight root borne disease. Included in this easy-to-follow guide are the critical steps for successful grafting, the essential factors for choosing rootstock, and the importance of a germination test. You will learn a grafting technique, and how to simplify the healing chamber. Instructions for planting and caring for your successful grafted tomato plants is also included. With patience and practice, the guidelines in this book will assist gardeners everywhere to graft tomatoes and enjoy the benefits of beautiful, vigorous tomato plants all season long in the garden.

LUNCH MUNCH BUNCH

For our February 2017 Lunch Munch Bunch, we are going to meet on Friday, February 3, 2017 at 11:30am at Tortilla Union Southwest Grill, Riverpark Square, 808 W Main Ave 1st level by Nordstrom. A celebration of southwestern food and drink. Taking full advantage of the freshest ingredients, their chefs and mixologists combine creations that let those flavors shine in their simplicity. From handmade fresh tortillas to tableside guacamole, they bring the full experience right here to the northwest. They believe it's not the desti-nation, but the journey, and they intend to make every day an important celebration of people and flavors from all over the southwest. Separate checks.

VOLUNTEER FAIRE CON’T

You can sign-up for Shutterbugs Photographers, Gourmet Gardeners, Snoopies Adventure Fun Club, TIEG Movie Lovers, and the Lunch Munch Bunch and Garden Expo and Spokane in Bloom at Feb’s meeting. If you can’t attend but would like to help/join special groups, call 535-8434 or email tieg@comcast.net. Thank you for your continued support!

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MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Renewals for 2017 Membership into TIEG continue thru the month. Please send in your dues for $25 to continue receive this newsletter via email or $35 to get a hard copy in the mail. This year’s theme is “Gardening thru the Ages--Never Enough Thyme” You’re not going to want to miss our lineup of fantastic speakers and events. You can mail your check to address above. Include a self-addressed STAMPED envelope to receive your money saving discount membership card via mail or you can always pick up one at a meeting. Please note the cards are pre-printed and you need to handwrite your name in. Welcome home.

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"It was difficult to enjoy the trees and flowers when I was so aware of all that I had not yet done--pruning, weeding, transplanting, mulching, composting, tagging. When I was doing the work myself, I was happy, free."

- Jay Neugeboren

THE MAD SCIENCE BEHIND VEGETABLE GRAFTING

If we think biotechnology was invented in the 21st century, consider the somewhat bizarre practice of sticking the top of one plant onto the bottom of another: Grafting, this is called, and it’s been around for at least 4,000 years. Those ancient Greek and Chinese gardeners knew that the right match could produce a plant greater than the sum of its parts--the roots of the first would

make the leafy second more vigorous and fruitful. Many of the woody plants in your garden are grafted--that weeping cherry tree now in bloom, for example--but the idea of growing grafted vegetables at home is new in the United States, with the first plants arriving five years ago in limited markets. It is still too soon to tell whether this is a passing fancy or something here to stay, though mail order catalogues and garden centers are betting on the latter. With each passing spring, they are increasing the quantities of grafted plants and the number of varieties. The main focus of this phenomenon is the tomato, but this year consumers will also find grafted peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and watermelons. “We went from zero grafts in 2009 to over a million this year,” said Alice Doyle, who with partners John Bagnasco and Tim Wada produces and distributes vegetable grafts to wholesale growers and farmers under the brand SuperNaturals. This year, the enterprise is offering a line of plants that will yield two varieties on one rootstock and a true Frankenstein plant that promises trusses of cherry tomatoes on top and a bed of potatoes below. It is being marketed as Ketchup ’n’ Fries. Beyond the novelty value, why would gardeners grow grafted veggies? Various rootstock hybrids have been developed to bestow different traits, including resistance to a slew of diseases that afflict such popular plants as tomatoes, including blight and wilt pathogens. Rare is the tomato patch in Washington that doesn’t have early blight, where leaves yellow from the bottom up and plants can become not just unsightly but feeble if the gardener doesn’t stay on top of it. Grafts are particularly useful for gardeners who don’t have the space to move plantings from bed to bed annually. Tomato plants grown in the same soil each year will perform fine for four or five years but then will take a tumble as diseases and pests such as nematodes build up, said Steve Dubik, a professor of horticulture at Montgomery College. Grafted plants can also achieve other miracles, such as producing more fruit, extending the harvest period and even tolerating hotter or colder climes. The selling point for heirloom varieties such as Brandywine or Mortgage Lifter is that grafted versions fix the general problems associated with antique varieties: poor yield and disease susceptibility. A researcher at the University of Maryland’s extension service found that the yield of grafted Cherokee Purple tomatoes increased by 25 percent. Chelsey Fields, the vegetable product manager for W. Atlee Burpee & Co., said heirlooms tend to have been developed or discovered by gardeners in a specific locale and may be ill- suited to other regions, climates and soils. “They aren’t necessarily as adapted nationwide as people would like them to be. The thing with grafting is that it really makes them adaptable to all these different environmental pressures,” she said. Burpee started selling grafted tomatoes in 2012 and now has a dozen tomato varieties for sale and more in the works as they are being trialed, Fields said. “Last year, I dropped Yellow Pear and added in Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra and Marglobe based on garden performance,” she said. This spring, Burpee added three pepper varieties and an eggplant to its catalogue. The downside to grafted veggies, apart from their added expense, is that their garden performance may not be as dramatically different as billed, and in some cases it’s worse because the highly efficient root system may produce lots of moisture to the fruit but at a cost to flavor. (con’t on next page)

TIPS FOR GROWING GRAFTED TOMATOES

When it’s time to plant this spring, follow these instructions:

- Be careful when planting. Traditional tomatoes can be planted deeply because roots sprout all along the stem. With grafted tomatoes, it's important not to bury the graft because it will produce roots from the original plant without the benefits of the grafted rootstock. Plant at the same level as the top of the soil in the pot.

- Remove any suckers that come up from the roots, and any roots that form above the graft line.

- Stake, trellis or cage grafted plants as they are very vigorous and tall and should not be allowed to fall to the ground.

- Get even more fruit by guiding the plant so that you get two to four main stems. You can even pinch out the main stem to direct growth evenly into side stems.

- Prune most of the side branches (suckers) out of indeterminate tomatoes (those that keep bearing throughout the season) so that energy goes into producing fruit. You may pinch the top out of plants when they reach desired height. That will help force fruiting on the lower plant. No pruning necessary for determinate varieties.

- Keep 2 feet between tomato cages so that plants get plenty of air circulation and light from all sides. Remove lower 12 to 14 inches of branches to avoid soil diseases splashing up during watering.

- If you grow in a container, use a big one; a whiskey barrel is about the right size.

- Fertilize and water as you would regular tomatoes.

- Stop watering tomatoes by mid--August. (Except in containers.) This will improve fruit quality by concentrating flavors.

- Expect (barring frost) about an extra month of good production from grafted plants. - Kym Pokorny

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“Make a pact with yourself today to not be defined by your past. Sometimes the greatest thing to come out of all your hard work isn't what you get for it, but what you become for it. Shake things up today! Be You. Be Free. Share.”

- Steve Maraboli

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"If you grow a garden you are going to shed some sweat, and you are going to spend some time bent over; you will experience some aches and pains. But it is in the willingness to accept this discomfort that we strike the most

telling blow against the power plants and what they represent." - Wendell Berry

HARRY OLSON'S FAVORITE GRAFTED TOMATOES

Based on the last few years of growing grafted tomatoes, Olson picked his favorites. Not all tomatoes are available grafted, but more come on the market each year. 'Black Krim' - One of the earliest to ripen, and Olson's new favorite-

tasting tomato. Grew to about 10 feet tall and produced a lot of fruit.

'Stupice' - Best early tomato in Olson's eyes. First to ripen, thin-skinned, very prolific with a "big tomato" taste. Ended up more than 10 feet tall. 'Pineapple' - "I love the taste of this large, yellow-orange slicer," Olson says. "It makes an excellent BLT." 'Bumblebee Purple' - A grafted tomato that Olson grew in 2012. It will be available to the public this year from Log House Plants (loghouseplants.com). "They are 1- to 1 1/4-inch, beautiful, variegated, extremely sweet cherry tomatoes; my wife's favorite," Olson says. This is the only tomato that did not split in fall rains.

'Berkeley Tie Dye' - A large, green tomato with yellow and orange variegation. The inside of the tomato has the same unusual, tie-dye-like mottling. Has an unusual flavor that Olson enjoys. Grew to about 11 feet tall; the stem at ground level was just a smidge under 2 inches in diameter. Double-grafted cherry - Two varieties of cherry tomatoes are grafted onto one root-stock. Last year Olson grew the combo of 'Sun Gold' and 'Sweet Million.' "It was a really fun plant," Olson says. "Both are good cherries, but are supercharged when grafted. You won't know what to do with all of them." Sources for Grafted Tomatoes - Most garden centers should offer some grafted tomatoes this year. Mail order: Territorial Seed, territorialseed.com, 800-626-0866 and GardenLife, gardenlife.com - Kym Pokorny, The Oregonian

VEGETABLE GRAFTING CON’T

Jeff Gillman, a horticultural instructor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, conducted field trials with students and found that when the growing conditions were optimal, the non-grafted tomatoes actually fared better than the grafted ones. In difficult conditions of poor soil and inadequate irrigation, he found that the grafts were superior. “I entered the experiment skeptical, and I left convinced that I would try grafted tomatoes if I were to grow them in a difficult

situation,” he said. Grafted vegetables “may not be a huge advantage to all gardeners,” Dubik said, “but for those gardeners who have to plant the same spot year after year and the disease pressures build up, they don’t have a lot of options.” And then there is the cost. You might expect to spend between $2 and $5 for a conventional transplant, depending on pot size and the retailer. A grafted plant is typically sold in a one-gallon container and retails for $12 or more. If you want to grow a fairly modest 5 plants, that starts to add up. Burpee sells three in 2 1/4 -inch pots for $26.85 plus shipping costs. Like many gardeners, I start my tomatoes from seed in March. (Starting now would delay the harvest until late summer, but it is still an option.) Tomato seeds can be as much as 10 to 20 cents each (I find this shocking), but if you were bean counting, so to speak, you would also have to calculate ancillary costs such as seed-starting equipment, electricity for growing lights and your time. As some gardeners are discovering, you can reduce the cost of grafted plants by making them yourself. This is still more expensive than starting conventional seedlings. You need twice as many seeds (one for each rootstock, one for each scion), extra equip-ment and an appetite for failure. After the grafting, the plants must go into a “healing chamber” where high humidity and low light levels must prevail if the graft is to take. Dubik teaches grafting to his students, and at first he found that he could count on only 20% of the grafts surviving. With experience, that is now up to 50% or more, and climbing, he said. “You’ll know in about 48 hours if it’s going to work. Some of them take really easily, others don’t,” he said. Grafted plants differ in another fundamental way from traditional tomatoes. Tomatoes are typically planted deeply to encourage more root development along the lower stem, but the union in a grafted plant must be kept above the soil line to prevent the scion from sending down roots and negating the benefits of the rootstock. Also, the plant must be supported and kept from sprawling so that stems do not touch the ground, where they would also put down roots. Seed companies such as Johnny Seeds sell specifically developed rootstock varieties to commercial growers and home gardeners alike, though the cost of seed is high. A packet of 50 seeds sells for $23.65. For demonstration purposes, Dubik will use seedlings of a robust, disease-resistant hybrid such as Rutgers or Jet Star and graft various heirlooms on to them. He uses a large plastic storage bin with a lid as a healing chamber and prefers a tube to a clip in securing the graft. The tubes are of different diameters to allow for variations in stem size. He offers this tip: Don’t water the rootstock the night before grafting. If it is too hydrated, the water pressure in the stem will separate the graft. But fixating on the cost or even the results of grafting may be missing the point: Gardeners like novelty and find delight (and frustration) in observing and growing new things. “It’s a little bit of a fad but relatively easy,” Dubik said. “I think a lot of people are going to get into it and stick with it.” - Adrian Higgins

GRAFTING VEGETABLES

With space in short supply, you may need to grow tomatoes or other tender vegetables in the same place each year. Grafted vegetables offer disease resistant roots and can provide earlier and higher-yielding crops. Grafting the plants yourself is challenging, but makes the crop even more special. Chilies, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, squashes and sweet peppers can be grafted onto suitable rootstocks. Spring is the time to grow rootstocks and scions (the cultivar of vegetable you wish to grow) from seed. As scions and rootstocks grow at different speeds consult suppliers of rootstock

seed for exact sowing intervals. The precise timing depends on the vegetable plant and the conditions you have in which to grow the young plants on. Plants can become leggy if the temperature is too high and the light uneven--such as can happen on a sunny windowsill early in the year. For outdoor crops, sowing in late March is ideal for crops such as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, since May to early June is the earliest these warmer climate plants can be moved to outside conditions. With a heated greenhouse and temperatures of around 60°F in which to grow plants on, sowing of tomatoes, for example, could start in mid-February. www.rhs.org.uk

"When all is said and done, is there any more wonderful sight, any moment

when man's reason is nearer to some sort of contact with the nature of the world than the sowing of seeds, the

planting of cuttings, the transplanting of shrubs or the grafting of slips."

- St. Augustine

The Friends of Manito 2017 Plant Sales

Spring Sale June 3

Fall Sale September 9

East of Gaiser Conservatory

in Manito Park

7015 N Argonne Rd, Spokane, WA 99217

Nursery Hours: (Mon-Sat) 9AM - 6PM (Sun) 10AM-4PM - Phone: 509-927-3637

www.environmentwest.com/smart-gardens-nursery

GARDENING BASIC QUIZ

1 - Plants are green because their leaves contain: a. Amoeba, b. Mitochondria, c. Chlorophyll, d. Algae

2 - Some flowers can be pollinated by: a. Rain, b. Frost, c. Sun, d. Wind

3 - Which of these doesn’t pollinate flowers? a. Locusts, b. Bees, c. Hummingbirds, d. Butterflies

4 - Which of these plants grows from a bulb? a. Delphinium, b. Daffodil, c. Rose, d. Sedum

5 - Plants pruned to a single stem are: a. Standard, b. Pinched, c. Thinned, d. Sheared

6 - Shoots that have dramatically fused stems are called: a. Virused, b. Regenerated, c. Etiolated, d. Fasciated

7 - Plants with more than one color or shade in their foliage are called: a. Unapparent, b. Abnormal, c. Herbaceous, d. Variegated

8 - Which flower is traditionally thought of as the first sign of spring? a. Crocus, b. Hyacinth, c. Snowdrops, d. Winter Aconite

9 - Which part of the flower produces the pollen? a. Corolla, b. Roots, c. Calyx, d. Stamen

10 - Which bulb plant caused one of the first speculative price crashes in the world during the 17th century in the Netherlands? a. Narcissus, b. Tulip, c. Allium, d. Lilium

11 - Bonsai literally translates to? a. Small tree, b. Shaped tree, c. Indoor garden, d. Planted tray

12 - Plants that lose their leaves seasonally are? a. Deciduous, b. Occasionally green, c. Perennial, d. Evergreen

13 - What is the tallest growing tree variety in the world? a. Philippine Rosewood, b. English Oak, c. Coast Redwood, d. Mountain Ash

14 - Vanilla is extracted from which kind of plant? a. Kalanchoe, b. Orchid, c Rose. d. Cactus

15 - Which is the fastest growing woody plant? a. Bamboo, b. Cotoneaster, c. Acer, d. Oak

16 - Which is the only fruit to bear its seeds on the outside? a. Strawberry, b. Raspberry, c. Apple, d. Coconut

17 - When is the time to plant Spring flowering bulbs? a. Spring, b. Winter, c. Summer, d. Fall

18 - Saffron comes from which spring flower? a. Daffodil, b. Snowdrop, c. Crocus, d. Tulip

19 - To prune a plant you. a. Put it in a pot, b. Remove its leaves, c. Remove dead flowers, d. Cut off tall stems

20 - Which garden implement is used for pruning? a. Spade, b. Secateurs, c. Rake, d. Fork

WOMAN WORK I've got the children to tend

The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop

Then the chicken to fry The baby to dry

I got company to feed The garden to weed

I've got shirts to press The tots to dress The can to be cut

I gotta clean up this hut Then see about the sick And the cotton to pick. Shine on me, sunshine

Rain on me, rain Fall softly, dewdrops

And cool my brow again. Storm, blow me from here

With your fiercest wind Let me float across the sky

'Til I can rest again. Fall gently, snowflakes Cover me with white Cold icy kisses and Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone

Star shine, moon glow You're all that I can call my own.

Maya Angelou

"One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race."

- Wendell Berry

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "Callused palms and black fingernails precede a Green Thumb. Work--the activity that interferes with gardening. When all the chores are done, the avid gardener will invent some new ones. Gardening

dissolves mental chatter in the sweat of bodily effort. How can gardening be considered a leisure time activity? All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy and a pain in the neck for others. We already live in the Garden of Eden, but we now have to work to keep it growing. By the garden one knows the gardener. To dig is to discover. The toil and sweat open

ourselves to fruitful possibilities. The wise gardener knows when to stop." - Michael Garofalo

ANSWERS 1 - c 11 - d 2 - d 12 - a 3 - a 13 - c 4 - b 14 - b 5 - a 15 - a 6 - b 16 - a 7 - d 17 - d 8 - c 18 - c 9 - d 19 - d 10 - b 20 - b