Spring is nearly here!

Advice on Koi,Ponds and Equipment
roselanekoi
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

When I returned home this afternoon after taking the dog for a walk there was a tall cardboard box leaning against the back door. I was quite pleased to find that the tree it contained was around 5 ft tall, much bigger than I had expected for a 2 year old tree.

After saying I was going to grow my plum tree in a pot I started reading up on the Orange Pippin Trees website and it would seem that they are strongly against growing plum trees in pots. So hole dug and in the ground it's gone, sited about 10 feet away from the Denbigh plum.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

The best advice for planting a pot grown tree or shrub is to carefully tease some of the roots out, do not use compost or fertiliser just a good quality topsoil with a couple of handsful of bonemeal or fish blood and bone well mixed in. Do not plant it in a 'sump hole' in heavy ground were it gets waterlogged and dies in a wet winter. If you have heavy soil the hole should be over deep and good drainage incorporated, old dried out turves and sharp grit is the traditional method although 6" of crushed brick is ok. You should also hammer in a substantial support post before you plant your tree in the hole!
It's a big temptation to tidy them up for the winter but do not prune your plum tree or any stone fruit this time of year as the sap is draining back to roots and they will usually bleed from cuts through winter causing debilitation. If any branches are broken in transit, trim break to nearest bud and seal cut with Arbrex.
Mind you Colin, waiting another 6 weeks you could have bought your tree much cheaper delivered bare root from any fruit tree specialist including Orange Pippin, a method I much prefer.
Here below is what you will get in a couple of years time, lovely sweet purple plums right though to October!
Pic taken today Sunday, as you can see there are still more plums coming ripe.
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roselanekoi
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

When I ordered the plum tree I was intending to grow it in a pot so I thought it would be better to buy a pot grown plant, it was only after reading the nurseries advice on growing plum trees that I ended up planting the tree. If I'd read the planting instructions before buying I could have saved myself a tenner.

I bought this gadget recently and was a bit sceptical about how good it would be.
apple peeler.jpg
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I needn't have worried, it peels, slices and de-cores apples and pears with ease and all for £8.97 from Amazon, money well spent.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

I tried one of these peeling gadgets and found it took very thick peel off, have they improved?
It reminded me of the spud peeling machines in the army cook house,(when you got a spell of jankers or, 'volunteered' for KP duty!)
If you left the spuds in too long they were all rounded and reduced to the size of golf balls, 20lbs of spuds in, 10lbs out when peeled!
I have just peeled, cored and sliced a further lot of apples and a few pears this morning, the dryer I have takes about 8 to 10 large sliced baking apples and takes between 7 to 10 hours to dry them.
The beauty of drying fruit though is it takes up very little space compared to freezing it.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

I discovered this week that dried pears are really nice as a snack, they taste much sweeter when dried, a sort of crystallization takes place, our cleaning ladies thought so too when they were offered some yesterday and ate quite a bit. I peeled and cored them then sliced them thinly long ways on a veg slicing gadget, the slices come out about an eighth of an inch or five millimetres thick, ideal for drying.

I managed to get a couple of pic's when Colin came over a few weeks ago to photograph my grow and show Koi grown on from last year, see below.
Pictures will be judged next month, when Majdi goes to Japan.
My fish has changed remarkably in that the black is reduced somewhat but the red has increased.
I was also surprised by how much it's grown in an unheated pond.

I was over at Keith's this morning to pick up koi food and he informs me he has some spare Coppens 15kgs bags on offer, still at £20, cheap as chips and incredible value for money.
He's very doubtful for next Wednesday night's meeting due to his on-going treatment but let me know on Wednesday night and I will pass message on if you want fish food, or better still, call over and see him!
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pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

Addendum-
The Coppens fish food is Grower Astax 6mm and is priced at £20 for 15kg, even my Rudd love it as they are usually first up. I will have a spare bag with me on Wednesday night if anyone interested.

I have also been reliably informed recently that 15kg of Coppens Grower was selling for £45.00 plus P&P in 2012!
roselanekoi
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

After reading your endorsement of drying fruit rather than freezing I've gone and bought a de-hydrater myself. Slicing up fruit my peeler, corer and slicer gadget really comes into its own, the slice thickness being just right for drying. I'm even extracting the juice from the leftover cores and peelings when they come from the eating apples and pears.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

What an excellent idea Colin, I looked at all the apple cores and peelings last week and thought what a waste, particularly the juicy cores!
Out of curiosity what dryer did you get? I bought an Andrew James oblong 6 tray digital dryer, it came out best in trials in its price range and I'm very pleased with it. Another load of pears going in today and some of Keith's tomatoes to dry. One idea I read about was a lady had bought sun dried tomatoes in olive oil from Lidl, when she had used tomatoes she saved the oil in glass jar and put her home dried tomatoes back in to oil, apparently it works a treat.
One further news item, Keith has 15kg bags of Coppens Growth at £37.00 a bag this is far more expensive but still very good value as it is very high spec koi food, not for winter feeding though unless you have a heated pond.
pollygog
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:26 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by pollygog »

All this talk about plums on here recently brings me neatly on to the next item to remind you all of-

The Denbigh Plum Festival

It takes place this coming Saturday the 7th of October from 10.00 am to 4.00pm in Denbigh town centre.
However, on this Wednesday evenings club meeting if you bring along a genuine Denbigh Plum I can identify, I will verify and sign it for you, free of charge! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I was picking some Marjorie's Seedling plums this afternoon and heard a rustling noise below me, I glanced down and saw our Westie Hamish reaching up and enjoying a ripe plum. A little dog with a taste for plums he's now browsed just about every reachable plum off this season, which is quite a few!
roselanekoi
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:38 pm

Re: Spring is nearly here!

Post by roselanekoi »

The first food dehydrator I bought was the Klarstein Appleberry Food Dehydrator, this was a disaster as the heater stopped working after a couple of uses, so back to Amazon it went. One thing about Amazon is that their returns policy is second to none, I downloaded a prepaid return address label for the parcel and dropped it off at the local post office. I see that this item is now shown as "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock" so I suspect I'm not the only one who has had a problem.

My second dehydrator is from Koolle and so far this is working perfectly. Another thing I've bought recently is a new juicer from Aicok, their Whole Slow Masticating Juicer. Judging by how dry the waste is it's much more efficient than my old centrifugal juicer.
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