crab apple

The blossoms are more pink this year and not fading to boring white. This is an improvement.

 

Calamondin thoughts.

 

In previous years it was never in great shape after the winter. Full of bugs and yellowing foliage.

This year I sprayed it with Roseclear 3 times during the winter - this kept the outbreaks of pests down.

I also took it outside and gave it a deep watering a few times. Drenching it with fresh rainwater. When indoors I water it less because it will overflow its driptray otherwise.

It kept good dark green in the leaves because i fertilised it quite a lot - every 10 days or so - with half strength micracle grow general purpose - and I also gave it a few doses or CalMag which it really enjoyed last summer.

This fertilising regimen seems to work well - so I intend to have the Calamondon and the Satsuki's on the same rotation of fertiliser and CalMag.

Field Maple

 

This is one of my first collected trees. It was found in a sorry state on a footpath - roots already ripped out. I experimented with constant mist and various tent configurations to recover it.

It has too many straight branches and it's also quite skinny. It really hasn't grown well in a pot. I did make some mistakes with my fertiliser schedule in years gone by - so I expect much better results this year.

It does look nice with the leaves out.

Crab Apple

 

Taken with my Z7 and the 24-70 F4. This is just a few days away from blossoms. I will try to take this same angle in a few days with blossoms.

Last year in Belgium.

Taken with my Nikon D810 and a sigma art series 24-105. 

 

Satsuki photography technique

 

Due to the cold weather this Satsuki was brought in. It lives in a small greenhouse during the winter for frost protection and a bit of warmth - but it was too cold last night - so in it came. This gave an opportunity to clear off all the old leaves and critters and then thoroughly spray it with insecticide. 

I am hoping that with the right water and fertiliser this tree will grow vigorously this coming season.

My backdrop for photography is very glossy and wrinkly and I don't have great lighting gear so I opted to paint the tree with a hand held light on a 30 second exposure - you can see my hand and the blurry light as I fill the image. This bottom picture is an uncropped raw image direct to JPG. The top image is the same one cropped with the exposure tweaked. 

Pomegranate 3 years

 

Here it is in the garage where its spending the winter. I have cleaned off all the old leaves and trimmed off the longer shoots. I struggled to get enough growth in the first years.

I struggled with leaf curl and purple leaves due to nutrient deficiencies that I couldn't correct. Turns out it doesn't like tap water and it wants a tonne of food. And it also likes extra calcium like citrus.

Once I have enough foliage I will begin to select branches and wire a bit. For now I am just cleaning up the dead wood with a ball cutter.

The twigs are really brittle. I broke off a few - luckily nothing critical.

Beech progress

 

The tree is still a bit skinny. I placed it in a larger pot hoping for some more trunk growth.

January 2021.

Some years earlier - about 8 I think. Not happy with the progress.

 January 2013 in fact.