HI, JWR! You mentioned that Yoinishi is the ultimate pollinator for Asian pears. I have an unknown variety of Asian Pear that I just planted. The tag reads only "Asian Pear" but gives neither the cultivar or nursery name. I also planted an Ayers, which I've read has sterile pollen, and a Kieffer, which is also fairly early blooming. Is there a benefit to sticking with another Asian pear variety? I'm very new to growing fruit trees! Thanks for any help you can offer. Betty Smith

Whitegarden, send me an email about winter sowing anytime. All those seedlings, including the tomato seedlings, you've brought home from my plant swap, the past 2 years are all wintersown seedlings. Just think about all those containers, inside my fenced in yard in the back and those are all wintersown seedlings. Though, the term winter sowing implies that you "must do" this during the winter months, it really is a misnomer to think that. Unless you are sowing seeds that truly need a long cold stratification, you don't really have to start sowing seeds, even perennials until April, if you don't want to. I've been wintersowing for 8 years, year 9 is coming up this year and I've found that the overall germination of the seeds doesn't change much. That is to say, depending on the seeds, they will germinate at the same time each year, regardless of when you sow them. Seeds sown in January, February, March, even starting in early April, will germinate when the time is right for them and the conditions are right for them to germinate. So if the seeds would normally germinate around the second week in April, getting them out in January vs April 1st will not make a difference, they will germinate around the same time each year. Some seeds germinate earlier than others, and nothing but mother nature will change that. All of the seedlings that I had for the swap, the ones in my back yard that where not for the swap, all where sown from April 8th on. Just lots and lots of things well out of my control prevented me from doing any Winter sowing before April 8th, and the results where no different than if I had started in January or February. ONe other thing, the containers for WS must be outside in the open to get the snow/rain, etc directly on them. inside will not work, such as a barn, covered porch etc. Fran

I am really happy to see that a company will do the measured 'smaller' dose. Needs to be done more often and would save a lot of mis-use for the less common treatments but still makes them available on a smaller scale. It does bother me that a city recommends this tree for mass plantings. A nearby town did this once not so long ago, and I don't think there is one of them left standing. They also installed some trees with the potential of becoming massive into some fancy ornamental grates, and extremely near to buildings. Looked super for awhile, but the eventual and inevitable 'un-installation' is a major hidden cost. If you are field growing ornamentals, then it would be worth the cost and effort to send off some samples to a diagnostic lab for pathogen confirmation. It's getting harder and more cost prohibitive than it used to be in our state, due to budget cut-backs, but it may save you some time and $. Like said, however, I did see this a bit in my very young plantings this year, but sat on it before any applications of anything and the issue resolved spontaneously.

Bumping up this good question since there has not been a reply.