Thursday, September 03, 2009

The Joy of Learning.

I'm glad some of you are having to wipe sticky lemon bars from around your mouths!
 The joy of learning never deminishes for me - I thrive on it. I want to Thank Chookyblue for information that has helped me update what I was doing with photos on this blog. I also found she has photos on another shared site which are beautiful , have a look.
These are some of the fabric pages I am making for a larger picture book for the Ruel Foundation. I cut them all the same size then sewed 2 side by side. When 4 were sewn I laid them right sides together and sewed around the edges leaving a couple of inches to pull them through to the right side. I then top stitched as close to the edge as possible closing the turn through gap at the same time. Then pressed. I will then sew the double pages together down the spine. These should be really servicable and totally washable. ( many of the children are babies and toddlers )
Now some orchard content. The sap is rising in the Kiwifruit vines ( Springtime ). I am going around removing all the old fruit stalks and broken plastic clips from the tied in canes. ( very boring neck aching job! )
This is a stump graft. The old vine had a problem, so rather than pull it out 2 new canes with growing spots ( buds ) has been firmly inserted in the old trunk and water proofed ( bandaged ) till it starts to grow/ sprout from these small pieces of wood. It will grow quickly as it has a fully developed root system already.This is a normal graft. A new rootstock plant was grown for 2 years then wood with 2 growing buds, from an older vine was grafted in and taped / bandaged up. The tape will be removed when the graft has taken ( joined ).  I will show progess photos of this as it happens, over the next few months..

4 comments:

Meggie said...

So interesting about the grafts. I had a grandmother who was so knowledgable about grafts, & how to get them to grow. I also had the priveledge of seeing a fruit tree with 6 different fruits grafted into it. A bit like blended families!
I too,never tire of learning.
However, learning some things proves so anger inducing... I want to give up!!

Thimbleanna said...

Wow -- grafting has always been such a mystery to me. I remember learning about it in school, but it just seemed so hard to do. Thanks for showing pictures of your grafts!

Unknown said...

If you don´t take the old stalks will it affect how many new kiwis will grow now?

Diana said...

My uncle was interested in grafting and used to make some unusual combinations. I'd forgotten about that until I read your post. I hope your new grafts grow well.