Monthly Archives: March 2014

Click the image below to view the poster for the 2014 Fruit Grafting Workshop.

As a member of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, you will be mailed a copy of the Urban Scion Post. It is one of the ways to keep up-to-date with club activities, and to connect with club members. It contains a schedule of events, a letter from the STFS President, reports on club activities, and educational articles related to fruit growing and use. Are you curious? Check out a copy here.

Want to become a member and start receiving your copy of the Urban Scion Post? Click here for the application form for club membership.

One of the highlights of the year for our club is the annual Grafting Workshop. Here are the date and location details for this event:

• Date: Saturday, March 22, 2014
• Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
• Location: Cedar Valley Grange Hall, 20526 52nd Ave West, Lynnwood, WA 98036
• Admission: $5. Free admission when you become a member of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society.

The Cedar Valley Grange Hall is a few blocks south of Wights Nursery in Lynnwood in Snohomish County. Here is a link to the location on Google Maps.

Scionwood and Grafting!

There will be a large collection of  scionwood of heirloom varieties of apples, pears, plums, and cherries. There will be grafting demonstrations so you can learn how to use the scionwood to custom make whatever kind of tree you want.

Lectures!

Growing Grapes by David Johnson. Kiwis and Figs by Kiwibob. Soil Fertility by Randy Lee.  Little Known Pollinators by Dave Pehling.

Tool sharpening!

The Seattle Tree Fruit Society again had a booth at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. We shared the booth space with Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation. The booth was organized by Ingela Wanerstrand and Mike Ewanciw of STFS, and Ira Collins of WWFRF. Thank you to this team for the great job they did in putting it together.

A thank you as well goes to the many volunteers who staffed the booth. If you would like to volunteer at the booth next year, put it on your calendar. One of the benefits you get for volunteering is free admission to the garden show.

Seattle Tree Fruit Society now has its own Facebook page. You can find it here:  https://www.facebook.com/SeattleTreeFruitSociety.

This page is a place to find out about club activities and to connect with other STFS members. Current members can benefit by participating in the conversation on Facebook. Since it is open to the public, it is hoped that potential new members will learn about STFS through our Facebook page. Others will see what the club is doing, and share it with their friends on their own pages. This is one way to grow the club membership and to have better participation in our activities.

Please take a look at our new page. Share news from the page with your own Facebook friends. Like it!

As reported in the STFS newsletter, The Urban Scion Post, election were held at the January 18th Annual Membership Meeting. Thanks to Lori Armitage for taking the responsibility for getting candidates for the Board of Directors and the officer positions. There are two changes approved by vote of the members.

• Tracey Bernal replaces Dave Hanower on the Board.
• Ingela Wanerstrand replaces Mark Lee as Vice President.

Continuing on the board are Paul Mallary as President, Lori Brakken as Secretary, and Mike Ewanciw as Treasurer.

The Apple Identification program was developed by Lori Brakken as a tool for the identification of apple varieties. One of the uses is at fall fruit shows where people bring in bags of apples to be identified. Often they have acquired trees on their property planted by the previous owner, or they have a favorite apple that they ate as a child and never learned the name of. The Apple Identification program is now hosted at AppleName.com.

But there is another use for this online tool that is useful when selecting new apple varieties to plant. Let’s say you want to select a variety that ripens early, is large and crisp. Here is how to search for such a variety using applename.com.

1. Point your web browser to applename.com.
2. Select “Very Early Season”  and “Early Season” for the Harvest Period.
3. Select “Crisp ,Breaking” for the Flesh (Texture).
4. Select “Large” for the Fruit Size.
5. Click on the button labeled View Matching Varieties.

Of all the varieties currently in the database, only one is early, large and crisp:

Duchess of Oldenburg

On the topic of selecting varieties, an excellent article on the topic can be found the February 2014 edition of the Urban Scion Post newsletter. Look for “Starting Out: How to Decide What to Buy” by Marilyn Tilbury.

Lori Brakken reports in the latest STFS newsletter that the Apple Identification program has moved to http://www.applename.com.

“The Apple Identification program has been evolving over the years and is now taking shape as a usable tool. I’m so delighted. It has taken a lot of hours in front of the computer. While I’d rather be out in the garden, I am so excited about finally getting it smoothly running. My hope is that by apple harvest this year, 2014, I’ll have all my photos up, and also be able to add more varieties to a smoothly running Apple Identification, too.”

“Look for more photos and information on apples this spring and summer. Also, we have a pear identification site to look forward to hopefully next year. I have the address “pearname.com”, and we’ve begun discussing how to make this happen.”

One way to get the AppleName.com is to use the tabs as shown below. Click on the picture to see a larger view.

Thank you Lori for all the work you have put into this!