Question about the American Elderberry
paulan70
18 years ago
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carolync1
18 years agopaulan70
18 years agoRelated Discussions
Question about Elderberry
Comments (5)The grow so prolifically around here that I can't be a source for whether a mate will do it good or not. From watching the clumps here, there could be several things going on. Sometimes the fruit produced are few because of poor pollination. I have noticed that in the shade, they probably seem to have a 10% set. Then the berries produce are tiny and are eaten quickly, so it may be fruiting sparsely and you missed them. If you are not watching them, they set, ripen and are eaten within a couple of weeks. The ones in the sun generally get big and weigh the bush down, and they seem to last longer. If you have never noticed, them and Viburnum trilobum have the wide white panicle of flowers that absolutely glow in the full moon. Quite different from their daytime appearance. I think only Germany has a commercial Elderberry industry. I know you can buy drums of Elder extract for outlandish sums of money, and every couple of years they have a crop failure.I know one lady who almost lost her job from the vagarities of the market. She wanted an Applesauce colored red from a natural source, and developed a recipe using Elderberry extract. The problem was, when they ordered the drums, the price had gone up 10-fold. Then there's the time she put the decimal point at the wrong place in the specs and they used up all the strawberry concentrate long before it should have run out.......See MoreQuestions about American Ladies
Comments (11)Miss Sherry, Thanks so much for all of that AL cat information! That is a very pretty picture of a chrysalid! I don't have cudweed, but I guess if I would mine would probably not mind our weather up here, although you wouldn't know that I live in PA judging by the 90+ degree temps here lately along with fairly high humidity. I'm still surprised that I got cats here this early. It's the first year that I've had AL cats, but I didn't expect them until later considering that I haven't seen the butterflies here yet. I guess they could have been here and I just wasn't outside at the time? I hope you have luck with the helichrysum. It would be interesting to see if you get cats in the fall and they'd overwinter. I might just try bringing one cat in so I can get to see the pupa. I'm sure I probably won't see them outside when they pupate, as there are so many different places where they could go. I just remembered something else I wanted to ask. I noticed that the cats are bristly so I was wondering if they're the kind that you can't touch. I didn't know if all caterpillars that look like that hurt when you touch them or not. Since I've only raised Monarchs and BST's so far, I don't know about the ones with bristles (or whatever you call those things that stick up on their backs). I can certainly relate to you about having so many gardening projects. My husband teases me all the time about the fact that I should have a fulltime gardener so I can keep up with everything here. lol It is actually getting difficult getting everything done, but hiring someone is out of the question. I like doing the things but it is getting a little overwhelming. If the weeds wouldn't keep coming up, I'd be okay. It's exciting getting to see a new kind of cat here this year! I wish I could raise every cat that will ever show up here, but I can only do so much. It was almost more than I could do raising over 500 Monarchs last year. I only had about 25 BST's, which wasn't bad at all, but those Monarchs sure kept me hopping. Another question: Have you ever had an American Lady cat that had been parasitized by a wasp or fly (I don't know if they do that to those or not)? I'm concerned that if I leave them outside that hardly any of them will actually end up being AL butterflies. I guess now I know what happened to the flowers of the pussytoes since you said the AL cats eat them. I had been hoping for seeds from them but oh well. Cathy...See MoreQuestion about American Hydro NFT set ups
Comments (11)I'll try and explain my system since I cant message you or link my website. Here is a pic of my test system I bought a 10' section of 4" thin walled PVC pipe..you'll want thin walled. plus 4 endcaps for the pipes, I cut the 10' pipe down to 5' sections. get a 2 7/8" hole saw or as close to 3" without going over. I drilled out a line of holes in the pvc 9" on center. leaving about 3-4" at the ends of the pipes to keep water from splashing out. I also bought 1/2" electrical conduit bulkhead fittings..they're plastic fittings with a threaded end on one side so you can feed it through a wall and attach the nut on the other side. you find them in the electrical section at home improvement stores. I bought the ones that have a 90 degree elbow. like this but mine have and elbow section on one side I drilled one hole in the endcap and attached the bulkhead fitting, on the opposite side of the pipe, opposite the holes for your plants i attached another bulkhead fitting. i did this for each pipe. then i drilled holes in the lid of the tote, one for an airtube line, one for the pump feed line and one for the return line. I ran 1/2" tubing to the bulkhead fitting in the endcap, and then connected each tube with 1/2 hose and finally a short section to drain back to the reservoir. i start the seeds in rockwool and keep them in a shallow plastic tote under a florescent shop light, fed 2x a day until the root system is strong enough to transfer to the main system. hope that helps and i'll add an article from urban garden magazine, step by step with pics.I tried the square tubes and didnt like them, the and caps dont fit tight and it's a pain to seal them Here is a link that might be useful: DIY...See MoreQuestion about American Hazelnut
Comments (7)C.americana is monoecious - both male and female flowers on the same plant, but for the most part, they're not considered to be self-fertile - you really need two different plants to get reliable nut crops. Bulldinkie may have a clump that's actually more than one plant, or there's another one nearby, if she's getting well-filled nuts.(Be aware that they're tiny - the nutmeat in a big one may only be about the size of a (small)green pea, enclosed inside a fairly thick nutshell, and you'll have to beat the local squirrels to them.) They grow wild on the farm here - I've never seen one more than 8-10 ft tall, max; most are smaller. Multistemmed shrubs - yes, I suppose you could force it to be a single trunk, but you'd be forever cutting back new suckers at the base. If you want a single-trunk small-medium tree, look at C.colurna....See Morecarolync1
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