9/12/11 BLACK KNOT OF PLUM

ORNAMENTAL PLUM WITH BLACK KNOT DISEASE

EPICORMIC GROWTH

YOUNG INFECTED BRANCHES

THE "BLACK KNOT"

WHITEWASHED CHERRY TRUNK

Monday, 8:00 AM.  63 degrees, wind SW, calm.  The barometer still predicts rain but it is evidently a very weak low and the humidity is only 47%.  We sure could use rain, though.
    Black knot of plum and cherries is a very serious fungal disease of species in the  genus Prunus, which infects both wild and domestic cherries and plums.  the first symptom is a swelling at the base of the petioles of infected trees and shrubs, and over a period of years it usually infects the entire plant, eventually exhibiting the “black knots” on stems, branches and trunks that gives the disease its name.  From a distance, leaves will appear wilted and the plant un-thrifty, and a severely infected tree will have a lot of “epicormic growth,” heavy suckering from the trunk at ground level.
    Plums and cherries are relatively short-lived, and if planted for fruit or ornament one must not expect them to be long in the landscape. They are very thin barked, and sun and frost damage often occurs.  Orchardists often whitewash cherry trunks to reflect the late winter sun and prevent sun scald and frost splitting of the trunks. I never use cherries or plums, ornamental or fruiting, as a focal point or anchor plant for these reasons.
    Once infected with black knot, constant pruning out of infected material (along with sterilization of the pruning tools after each cut) is needed to slow the progress of the disease.  Spraying with an appropriate fungicide may help slow progress of the disease, but I think it is essentially a death sentence.  Diseased plant material should be burned or at least properly composted or the disease will spread. Never plant another cherry or plum in the same location as an infected plant.
    Flowering cherry trees, purple-leafed plums, sand cherries and edible cherries and plums are certainly worth growing for aesthetics  or edible fruit, but be aware of their problems and limitations before you invest a lot of time, money and energy in them.  As with all living things, overcrowding and proximity to sources of infection will lead to greater incidence and severity of the disease.
    And, thanks to all who have wished me well after my recent medical emergency!

9/11/11 FLAG OF OUR FATHERS

E PLURIBUS UNUM

NEVER GIVE IT UP

A LITTLE COUNTRY PATRIOTISM

 BROAD STRIPES AND BRIGHT STARS...SO GALLANTLY STREAMING

8:30 AM.  71 degrees, wind NNE,  light.  The sky is cobalt blue, the waters its mirrored reflection.  The barometer still predicts rain but the humidity is only 49% so there’s not much chance of that. I have been watering plants and lawn, and we have a nice crop of Big Boy tomatoes.  The city has remained busy, due to the very nice weather.  Most of the apple varieties are ripe or ripening fast.  This has been an exceptional year for apples, berries of all kinds, sweet corn and even hay (some fields have been cut three times).
    The weather is a perfect duplication of that of ten years ago when the terrorist attacks occurred.  There are thousands of people who can relate real stories of the day, so I won’t bore you with any of mine, except to say that I was dismayed and angry that the New York City that I love was so abused, and that there have been so many of our own citizens that have dismissed the attacks as some sort of justifiable retribution, or worse an “inside job,” and have thereby dishonored many of our leaders and our real heroes with their childish rhetoric.  But enough; we will all remember the day and honor the fallen in our own way. Fly the flag of our fathers!

9/10/11 VERTICALITY

GREAT MEAL...IRON CHEF ANDY  LOWER RIGHT

TROUT AND WHITEFISH

COFE'E''S ON

CAMP FIRE ON A CHILLY NIGHT

Saturday, 7:35 AM.  49degrees, wind NE, calm.  The sky is clear with some haze, the barometer is down but so is the humidity, and I doubt we will get any significant rain soon.  Yesterday’s weather was fair and summer-like with an almost full moon that brightened the night sky and illuminated the ground fog in fields and low places.
    We went to camp dinner at the Larsen’s yesterday evening, they also had guests Al and Judy from Cedarburg, who are going to do some mist netting and banding of small birds this weekend, they are trained and licensed to do so as part of an international study group. Andy did himself proud with a marvelous whitefish and trout dinner, all done on the open fire.  There should be an Iron Chef camp cooking competition, he would win hands down.
    Getting back into the swing of normal life (at least as normal as we get around here) makes me realize how many people…wife, friends, good neighbors, our grown children and extended family, doctors, nurses…it took to get me vertical.  I suspect that none of us would remain vertical long without the help of the rest of us and with the grace of God. I do not wish to be maudlin, but I want  everyone to know how good life is, and that we all depend ultimately upon each other, and we should remember that every day of our lives and act accordingly.

9/08/11 EVEN IF IT IS A THOUSAND FEET LONG

RUNNING FOR A LEE

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  59 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is clear, the barometer is up, and it feels like fall.
    There is no fool like an old fool, and this one feels mighty foolish, having spent the Labor Day holiday in hospital in Duluth due to an allergic reaction to an antibiotic I probably didn’t need to take and was told specifically to discontinue.
    In any case I survived and at least had the opportunity to watch lake traffic from a sixth floor hospital window for a while.
    Lake Superior and indeed the rest of the chain of inland seas we call the Great Lakes, along with the Welland Canal and the Saint Lawrence River are indeed a relatively pristine and somewhat rare ecosystem.  But the view from the window also reemphasized to me that it is a great route of commerce, important to America’s history but more important even to its future.  Like the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and all the seas and canals associated with them, it has been used for trade and transportation by humans for thousands of years.  Ships are still the least expensive and most environmentally acceptable method of transporting bulky and heavy goods…grain, coal, oil, iron ore, heavy manufactured goods…and to deny human commerce reasonable access to it is to depress human activity, commercial and social, and there are many environmental extremists who would, and indeed do their best to do, just that.
    Watching the giant ore boats leave the Duluth harbor to ports national and international, some loaded and low in the water, some empty and riding high, plowing straight white lines on blue, wave tossed water, actually made me feel excited…adventure, profit, human interaction…all there in reality, not just in imagination…I can easily see a young person wanting to get on board and ply the seas with their cargo to places perhaps strange and far away.  And yet the Lake is so vast that those giant ships disappeared into the mist and fog quickly, slipping away like wraiths at midnight.  There could have been twice, thrice as many and all would still have been emptiness. These lakes are a multiple resource for human use, and I am confident that with cooperation and the best use of science and engineering, these resources can be used for the long, long term benefit of society as well as the “environment.”  One last quote, from where I don’t recall,  “Oh God, Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small,” (even if it is a thousand feet long).

9/04/11 AN INJUSTICE TO ONE AMERICAN EVENTUALLY BECOMES AN INJUSTICE TO ALL

COUSINS

AUNTIE AND NIECE

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  63 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is partly cloudy, mostly clear in the W and N and dark in the SE.  The barometer predicts partly cloudy skies and the humidity is low.
    We managed to stay out of the way of real storms yesterday, but when we got to Plainfield there were trees down and cleanup operations going on all over the little town.  High winds in mid-morning came through and did a lot of damage to this and nearby towns, and several of my cousins' properties suffered damage, but evidently nothing major.
    Fields and roadsides are bright yellow with goldenrods everywhere now, but I couldn’t find a photo opportunity that did it all justice.  We saw hen turkeys with chicks about the size of Cornish game hens around Merrill, both going and coming.
    My Uncle Paul was a full blooded American Indian, so my cousins from the marriage of Uncle Paul and my mother’s sister Esther always were either blond, blue-eyed and fair skinned or black haired, black-eyed and copper skinned, and their offspring have sort of followed that pattern of gene linkage.  My Uncle Paul’s people were, I am told by my cousin Ted, part  of a group formed from seven Northeastern Indian tribes (The Bothertown Tribe)  that converted to Christianity  and turned to farming, and were granted American Citizenship by the U.S. Congress in 1839.  But that didn’t keep them from having their property confiscated or outright stolen and themselves pushed west with other Indian tribes during the hard times of the Indian removals of the 1830’s and '40's (go to the Devil, Andrew Jackson), and that’s how they came to Wisconsin from upstate New York. The actual history involved here is more than this blog can relate, but detailed information can be had by Googling Brothertown Tribe.  They probably escaped further removal west when President Polk granted the petition of Chief White Buffalo of the Ojibways not to remove Wisconsin Indians from their homelands.They have never been compensated in any way for their tribulations or property, because they are not considered a tribe, and they have been in limbo, trying to get Congress to again declare them Indians so they can gain some of the rights and privileges that other Native Americans tribes have.  How complicated America is!  But, it has indeed been a melting pot, and an injustice to one has a way of becoming an injustice to many, and finally an injustice to all.

9/03/11 MORE SIGNS OF FALL

SUMAC ARE TURNING CRIMSON

PRETTY, BUT...

ELEPHANT EARS

Friday, 7:00 AM.  69 degrees, wind W, at times blustery.  It is a humid, foggy and unsettled morning. We got enough rain to dampen the garden last night. The barometer predicts partly cloudy weather. 
    The leaves of stagorn sumac, Rhus typhina, in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae)                      
    Are beginning to turn crimson.  Sumac is a fine plant for natraizing large areas and is very coloful, but it spreads viciously and must be used with extreme cation.
    The very invasive Japanese knotweed, actually two very similar spedcies which often hybidize, Polygonum sachalinense and Polygonum cspitatum, in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) is blooming.  Known locally as elephant ears, these are massive, speading, bamboo-like plants (although not grasses, as are bmboos). Introduced n the 1930’s for erpsion control, they do their job arguably too well. 
    We are heading south to  Plainfield  for a family get together and will be gone all day, and I suspect we will see more signs of early fall as we travel.  It may be a stormy trip

9/02/11 THE SUN ON ITS TIMELESS ROUNDS

SUGAR MAPLE TREE HEAVY WITH SEED

MAPLE WINGED SEED

Thursday,7:00 AM.  64 degrees, wind SW, light.  The sky is somewhat overcast and the barometer still predicts rain, which we got bout .5” of the last two nights, enough that I don’t have to water the lawn.
    Signs of summer waning are eveerwhere now.  I picked our first ripe tomato yesterday and soon there will be more.The sugar maple trees are shedding their two-winged nutlets, called samaras, as are the hedge maples.
    A few sumac leaves are turning blood red and soon whole hillsides will be carmine.
    The first apples, notably the transparents, are being sold in the orchards.
    And, the word on the street (actually neighborhood decks) is that the male hummingbirds have left for winter habitat, and the females and  youngsters will be leaving by mid-September.
    And so our Bayfield seasons are marked; not so much by temperature as by the progression of the sun on its timeless rounds.