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Oct 20, 2026 · Field noteour fall sale ends tonight oct 20, I decided to extend the season because it's been warm, on today's date a decade ago I remember the ground freezing while I was installing some underground cable, on the 19th the ground was workable with a shovel and the one very cold night and the next day it was like trying to dig into cement. we are no where near freeze up this year, it seems weeks away. maybe it's the el niño. after we pack up today's orders I can start thinking about storing the rest of our stock for the winter, some things are dormant enough now, the grapes and walnuts dropped their leaves weeks ago after some frost. we had a good season, the nursery is small and we're only setup for mail order, and it's a family business so at peak there's 4-5 of us out there picking out plants, packing and shipping boxes. the rest of the year it's mostly a one person job (work for Doug) where I'll take all the stock counts and pack things into crates and bags and store it all in the root cellar. a few more fall projects, planting part of our new vineyard with bare root grapes, a few dozen orchard trees in an east clearing with solid deer caging, and finish cleaning and storing all of the seeds collected this fall.Read field note →+5
Oct 19, 2026 · Seeds & Stratificationviginia creeper holding onto their attractive blue fruit on the red panicle, the branching structure. I collect these for seed so just a field note for me, I planted these two years ago along our deer fence. interesting fact, the first time I saw pagoda dogwood I made a double take because it has the same fruit structure just upside down. totally unrelated plant (last photo)Read field note →+2
Oct 19, 2026 · Seeds & Stratificationnorthern white cedar after two growing seasons from seed. conifers are all slow, at least in the early years. when you start them from seed, just plan on a couple of years to get them large enough to plant out. plug trays work if you keep them watered every day when it's hot out, and also if you're diligent about covering them up over the winter. easier in larger pots or in a garden bed.Read field note →
Oct 19, 2026 · Berries & Currantspink champagne currant seeds, a small batch from fruit collected this summer. currants are easy to grow from seed and size up in the first year enough to plant out by fall, and from seeds like this you'll get a similar plant with some genetic variation. the pink currants are very sweet and have a nice flavour, zero astringency or sourness in the, even though they're the same species as red currants (Ribes rubrum), the red ones have a bright tartness, and the pink and the white ones taste as though they're a different type of fruit. I'm going to grow pink seedlings next spring, and there's enough seeds that I've added a small batch of seed pack to our shop.Read field note →+1
Oct 19, 2026 · Berries & Currantscleaning small seeds, these are canada gooseberry. the process for small berry seeds I've found is made easier by mashing them and straining off the pulp, but leaving all the skins and other material in place and drying it in a dehydrator over night at 30-35C, then crush and rub over a screen. there's a good reason for this, berries with small seeds can be hard to separate from the skin when wet, but when crispy dry the skin will crumble to dust leaving just the seeds. if you were just planting these directly, you can skip the drying step. or save a part of your seeds and dry them to save for next year in a fridge.Read field note →+3
Oct 14, 2026 · Berries & Currantsnative currants and gooseberries showing fall color in a way that the cultivar black and red currants don't, these species are vigorous growing and well adapted for our climate and just good looking plants that should be in more landscapesRead field note →+4
Oct 14, 2026 · Field Notethere are a few scales that places used to rate cold hardiness or winter injured, 1 to 5 is used in a few ways. I've put together a page to explain it as a reference, so when you hear this cherry got a 4.5 or this pear was a 2, and if you wonder what that means, there's a reference to make sense of it. https://pomologica.ca/scalesRead field note →+6
Oct 14, 2026 · Field Notei've been working on some maps using public temp and zone data for canada but also to make sense of comparable european and northern russia and china areas. it on pomologica.ca at the bottom under atlas. it tries to pin research stations and major cities and help show what the climate and temp extremes really are, I think about this when I want to grow a sweet cherry bred in Lenningrad known for northern cold hardiness, or a Russian pear from an area that's quite cold - well is that like here or ten degrees warmer in the winter? these temperature band maps try and answer that, and they go along with different winter injury scales, and the systems used by other countriesRead field note →+6
Oct 6, 2026 · Apples & Crabappleskerr apple trees just loaded with fruit in early october, planted as whips four years ago in rich soil with a deep wood chip mulch, on dolgo/siberian crabapple rootstock. I'm impressed at the size.Read field note →+3
Sep 28, 2026 · Tomatoes & Peppersa tomato locally named black convent, with an interesting back story, if this looks familiar like another valiety lmk. medium sized, high anthocyanin the tomatoes have almost a brown tone, the green/brown is maybe they're slightly under ripe. not like any others that I've grownRead field note →+1
Sep 27, 2026 · Seeds & Stratificationjack pine cones on a fallen tree, the cones are easy to collect because they stay firmly attached and closed. it's convenient compared to spruce that will open and disperse their seed in late summer. in either case, a good way to collect conifer cones is a chance fallen tree or a down branch after a storm. a low hanging branch is another, or walking around until you find a squirrel cache. If you're serious about it then a long pole with a hook can be used, since most of the cones are at the top of the tree. it's a good reason to go for a walk in the forest, a pocket full of pine cones and some fresh air. in Japan I've heard you might get a prescription to take walks like this, forest bathing shinrin-yoku, mindful immersion in nature to lower stress and boost wellnessRead field note →+3
Sep 26, 2026 · Apples & Crabapplesfrostbite apple in it's third growing season. a medium size, a fall apple but ripe in time for zone 3, very crisp and just sweet enough, a treat for the end of sept when most of our other apples have dropped. these productive branches are a success on an unconventional apple rootstock, they're part of a trial patch I made above the deer browse line, about shoulder height, onto our wild saskatoon trees.Read field note →+2
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