Plum mystery solved?
6 years ago
After 9 summers in my current home, I finally got enough plums on my 2 mature trees to identify the fruit (I think). In previous years fruit set was very poor and a lot of what did set was dropped prematurely due to plum curculio. This year with pollenizing help from some wild plum branches (using the "bottle-feeding" method shared in an old post by Konrad), and a couple of sprays of Permethrin, I got more plums than I knew what to do with. First 3 pictures are taken approx July 15th when we had a heavy wind storm and a lot of fruit dropped.
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Did original owner follow permacuture? Help me solve mystery!
Comments (2)I have fruit trees on a hill and do put the peaches uphill from the apples. At the very top of the hill I have apricots. The reason for this is order of bloom. Apricots bloom early when there is danger of the flowers or new fruit freezing. Peaches bloom a little later, but still are in danger of a freeze to blooms and fruit. The idea is that cold air sinks, so it will sink down away from the more tender trees. In the past we have had enough rain that position on the hill for water has not been an issue. Today I put some chives near a peach, but I don't put them too close as both are shallowly rooted. Garlic is tucked in near plums and autumn olives for no particular reason. Winter squashes go midway between any trees Dock is allow under all trees. I'll be putting in baptesia near all the trees but not really until I grow them in pots for a year or two so that I don't stomp the little things which are only a couple weeks old at the moment....See MoreOdor driving me crazy! Can you solve the mystery?
Comments (14)You say that you sense the smell mostly in the air. Is it possible that this particular area is just an area where other household odors accumulate? We have two such areas in our house, where odors will collect and linger- one is in a central area in the entryway, the other is in a bathroom that is in a back corner. One of those I can see having limited air circulation, but the first seems like odors would move through quickly, yet they don't and odors from other parts of the house will essentially leave those parts of the house and collect in these. I was just wondering if it was possible that the smell is coming from elsewhere (say a nearby bathroom or laundry room?) and is hanging there? What happens if you put a small fan in that area later in the day? Would the smell still be in that area with the fan on or off? The other thing that comes to my mind is bed linens- particularly any down or feather product. I've had issues on occasion with these getting funny/smelly odors that come and go, and it's very hard to pinpoint the issue, even when smelling the comforter or pillow directly. It's only by removing the item from the area/house for a little while, that we were able to pinpoint exactly what it was. I've noticed this problem more when the humidity is higher and it was worse later in the day when temperatures in the house had increased, and like I said, it smells fine some of the time and then other times there is a weird funk. I hope you can find the source. It sounds very annoying....See MoreA favorite house and mystery solved.
Comments (27)I guess I am the outlier one this one... I do not find the Bray house appealing at all. To me the view looking at the red door section looks like a church that kept adding pods as the congregation grew. I don’t see any originality in the design, as this treatment is now almost a knee jerk reaction to a nice or historic or expensive or otherwise important existing house—-add on a family wing, a guest wing, a recreation wing, an office wing, however many you want, connecting them with glass corridors. HNJ does this a lot, it’s now his signature even more than the egg crate shelving (which I love, btw). I don’t mean to say the add on approach never works, because I have seen houses for which such a renovation has worked spectacularly. But when the result is this Christmas village or church appearance I don’t think it looks good. At some point an architect should say to a client “no, you can’t add ten thousand square feet to a three thousand square foot house and make it look like anything other than a groovy motel....See MorePlease help us solve our bowed wall mystery
Comments (6)Lea, thanks for the pictures. I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what is causing this, but I would suspect one of two possible issues. One could be, that there is only one top plate on your wall and there is a splice near the end of your window header, allowing some flex in that location. The diagonal bracing ends in the same place and could be contributing too. The other possibility is that there is an air leak on that side of the window which also happens to be where a sheathing splice occurs. Because the outward movement happens during cold weather, I’m guessing this is most likely the case. Your sheathing looks like “intermediate” board or Built-Rite, a product that’s made up of pressed wood fibers, and expands when exposed to moisture. When it drys out, it doesn’t usually go back to its original size, but could soften enough to take the pressure off. I don’t think this is a structural problem to worry about, but air leaks do affect durability. The house has survived 70 years with this condition, I would learn to live with it and be careful with any energy upgrades that can create more indoor humidity or air pressures....See MoreRelated Professionals
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Fruit went from green/yellow-green to red with a purplish waxy bloom. The purplish bloom could be polished off with a cloth. The largest were almost 2 inches in diameter. They were sweet and juicy when first ripe. They went darker red and got sweeter and softer at full ripeness. The skin before fully ripe was very tart, and I spit out the skin after eating the flesh. Flesh was yellow and free-stone.
- 6 years ago
After the fruit became fully ripe, the skin was not as bad, but still retain some tartness. The fruit did not last well, becoming mushy after a week or so after picking. We picked 6 of 3.8 litre pails of fruit, and likely 2 to 3 pails of fruit fell on the ground and was ruined. We gave away quite a bit of the fruit, and my wife made 3 batches of jam which was really good.
- 6 years ago
6 years ago
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Konrad..just outside of Edmonton Alberta