I had a fig tree that fell over due to fast growth after prolonged heavy rains. Some of the wood has been saved, and is seasoning, for possible use in smoking meats and/or conditioning of home-brewed beer. Are there potential toxins I should be concerned about? What flavors and/or aromas might I expect?
None other than the New York Times has an article by Florence Fabricant (May 23, 2001) about the aromatic properties of fig wood (including using it to flavor meats):
Excerpt:
“Chefs love hardwoods for grilling. Fig wood, which burns hot and fast and sends a heady, almost sweetly floral aroma into the air, is the latest one gaining their favor.”
Pascal Baudar’s book, The Wildcrafting Brewer (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018), has a section on the use of bark and wood in making beer. He suggests using wood chips, toasted and added to fermenting beer (or soda, or mead). Fig is among the woods he recommends for its “mild and nutty qualities.” (Other wood chips he mentions as worthy additions are manzanita, maple, mesquite, olive, white ash, and yellow birch).
The only toxicity I can think of would be the sap (latex) that is in the leaves, stems, and unripe fruit, and can cause skin irritation. Here is additional information from Purdue University’s New Crop Resource Online.
I’m looking for detailed information on how well Pacific wax myrtle (Morella aka Myrica californica) performs in northwestern Washington. Also, when is the best time to prune this shrub for renovation?
Morella californica is native to the Pacific Northwest (including the southern part of the Washington coast), and is generally recommended for planting in our area. It’s very fast-growing during the first 10 years after planting, and is tolerant of drought, wind, and salt spray. It’s also tolerant of varying soil conditions, and takes well to pruning.
However, during the past decade, it’s been found to be susceptible to a leaf-blight disease, Phytophthora taxon morella. Many Phytophthora species are primarily root-rot diseases, but this one is a foliar disease. It’s important to remove affected growth and clean up fallen leaves. New leaves produced in late fall and winter are very susceptible, so pruning should be done in spring. Infections tend to fall off as the weather warms. In the past, California wax myrtle was considered both sun and shade-tolerant, but plants growing in shady conditions are more susceptible to this disease than plants growing in open conditions.
I know that synthetic reeds are used in making some woodwind instruments like oboe and bassoon, but what plants are the source for the natural reeds? Is there a difference in sound quality between synthetic and natural reeds? Can the plants be grown in the Pacific Northwest?
There is an article entitled “Wind driven: A bassoonist nurtures reeds from rhizome to riff,” by Diana K. Colvin, published July 21, 2005 in The Oregonian. Oregon Symphony bassoonist Mark Eubanks grows Arundo donax in the Portland area. He says that the plants grow best in areas where the temperature does not drop below 10 degrees. They are also sensitive to drying winds and ground freezes. They perform well in areas where grapevines would thrive. His reed-making business, Arundo Reeds and Cane (now archived), has since been sold, but the company website offers a history of how Eubanks started it.
Another musician in New Jersey, Lawrence J. Stewart, has also made reeds from the plant. Musicians’ opinions on the sound quality of natural vs. synthetic reeds may differ but, in his experience, the sound seemed “very resilient and vibrant.” Unlike synthetic materials, the structure and therefore the sound of the reeds made from plants can vary widely. An article [“Anatomical characteristics affecting the musical performance of clarinet reeds made from Arundo donax L. (Gramineae)”] from Annals of Botany, vol. 81, Issue 1, found that “good musical performance was associated with reeds with a high proportion of vascular bundles with continuous fibre rings, and bundles with a high proportion of fibre and a low proportion of xylem and phloem. Significant differences in these anatomical characteristics were also found between reeds originating from cultivated plantation plants when compared to reeds produced from agricultural windbreak plants.”
This plant has been used for woodwind reeds for quite some time. According to “Arundo donax: Source of musical reeds and industrial cellulose” by Robert Perdue Jr. (Economic Botany, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 368-404), it may have been used in making flutes shortly after the late Stone Age.
The invasiveness of Arundo donax is essential to take into consideration. It is on Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board’s quarantine list. It is also considered invasive in many other parts of the country, including California. If you can salvage reeds that are being removed from a natural area and put them to musical use, so much the better. But I cannot recommend cultivating a stand of Arundo donax for any purpose.
I’ve noticed a tree in my neighborhood that has rosy-red blossoms that seem to be sprouting right out of the tree trunk. Is this normal?
I can’t be sure about what tree you saw without more information, but it sounds as if you may have seen a redbud, or Cercis. This tree does produce flowers that may grow from the tree’s trunk. (It also flowers in the more expected way on branches.) This phenomenon is called “cauliflory,” well-illustrated by the website of Wayne’s Word. Carob and cacao trees also have this attribute.
Wisconsin Master Gardener Program website also has an article by Susan Mahr (posted December 17, 2007) about this trait. Contrary to what one might think, cauliflower is not cauliflorous. The article explores possible advantages of cauliflory, such as the ability to bear heavy fruit (on a stout trunk instead of weak new growth), and enhanced cross-pollination potential.
I need step-by-step detailed instructions on how to grow Murraya koenigii, a tropical Southeast Asian herbal plant.
Murraya koenigii now goes by the name Bergera koenigii, but older resources still refer to it as Murraya.
According to an article by Jekka McVicar in Gardens Illustrated, no. 132(2007), p. 17, Murraya koenigii is a tender shrub or small tree best grown in a container (unless you are in a tropical or subtropical climate). “Use a soil-based potting compost mixed in equal parts with horticultural grit. Place the container in partial shade. Water daily and weekly throughout the growing season. As the plant grows, keep trimming it regularly to maintain a supply of young leaves for cooking. Protect during winter and water sparingly. Reintroduce water and feed as soon as the light levels and temperatures increase in the spring and move the plant to a warm light place.”
If you wish to propagate it from seed, “sow fresh ripe seed in autumn into modules using a seed compost mixed in equal parts with perlite. Cover seeds with perlite and pit in a warm place or propagator at 20 degrees Celsius [68 Fahrenheit]. Germination is erratic but usually takes two to four months.”
If you plan to cook with curry leaf, you can use Murraya leaves fresh, toasted, dried, powdered, or frozen. Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages will provide additional information.
For more about the food, medicinal, and ornamental uses of this plant, see Susanna Lyle’s Discovering Vegetables, Herbs & Spices (Csiro Publishing, 2009). As with the article cited above, she suggests growing Murraya in a container which can be protected over the winter in colder climates. It can be trimmed to size (and is occasionally used as a hedge in warmer climates), has fragrant flowers, and attractive edible fruit.
Can rice straw be composted or used as mulch, or is there a risk of it sprouting? I have rice straw wattles that were used for an erosion and stormwater runoff control project which is now complete, and I’d like to use the straw in them.
I checked a couple of our books on grain growing, Homegrown Whole Grains by Sara Pitzer (Storey, 2009) and Small-Scale Grain Raising by Gene Logsdon (Rodale Press, 1977). Both of them refer to using rice straw as a mulch, Logsdon saying it makes an excellent mulch and Pitzer saying it can be left in the field to enrich the soil after the grain is harvested. In general, composting books don’t make any distinction between different types of straw, but caution against the use of hay because it may contain more seeds.
I don’t know which rice wattle product you used in your project, but some of them claim to be weed-free. You would certainly need to liberate the straw from the binding material (plastic netting or geotextile) which gives it its wattle shape before composting or mulching it. Another consideration is the source of the rice straw: if you are gardening organically, you will want to be sure that the rice was not treated with pesticides.
If you are curious about the nutrient balance in rice straw, University of California, Davis’s publication, “Rice Producers’ Guide to Marketing Straw,” October 2010, includes discussion of this issue.
After reading an essay on opium poppy (now archived) by Michael Pollan, I’m worried and confused about the legality of planting Papaver somniferum in my parking strip garden. Is this permitted in Seattle?
While our library cannot offer legal advice, I will say that my understanding of Pollan’s essay is that knowingly growing the poppies with the intent of manufacturing narcotics would certainly be prohibited. However, the poppy is a ubiquitous plant in our area, and the overwhelming majority of gardeners are growing it solely for its beauty.
There is information about laws concerning controlled substances in the Revised Code of Washington(RCW 69.50.401), which describes prohibited acts as follows:
“[…] to manufacture, deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or deliver, a controlled substance.” In the section which defines terms, poppy seeds are excluded:
“‘Opium poppy’ means the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L., except its seeds.”
Washington State University also addresses this issue:
“It is legal to grow Papaver somniferum in the United States for garden and seed production purposes; it is illegal to manufacture opium from the poppies.”
If you are concerned, I suggest contacting the King County Law Library for greater detail and professional expertise in legal matters.
I am a landscape designer, and I want to use Amelanchier in my design. Which species are most readily available in the trade? I have seen some which have a single trunk, and others which are multiple. Is the growth habit specific to the species or cultivar?
From what I can tell by searching Plant Information Online, there are quite a few cultivated varieties and species of Amelanchier which are widely available from both retail and wholesale sources.
As far as which species and cultivars are more likely to have single or multiple trunks, I found a few descriptions in Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs by Michael Dirr (Timber Press, 1997.
- Amelanchier arborea is described as “a small tree or a large multistemmed shrub of rounded outline.”
- Amelanchier canadensis “is hopelessly confused in the landscape trade. In general, it is an upright, suckering, tightly multistemmed shrub with a dome-shaped crown.”
- Amelanchier x grandiflora is “a naturally occurring hybrid between Amelanchier arborea and A. laevis. It exhibits characteristics intermediate between those of the parent species […] The best of the [cultivars] include: ‘Autumn Brilliance,’ with red fall color, ‘Ballerina,’ with brick-red fall color, and ‘Princess Diana,’ with red fall color. ‘Robin Hill’ and ‘Rubescens’ have pink buds that fade upon opening.”
- Amelanchier laevis is “not too different from the other species, especially Amelanchier arborea, in flower, fruit, bark, and growth habit. The principal differences are the purplish to bronze color of the emerging leaves and lack (almost) of hairs on the leaves and flower stalks.”
Here at the Center for Urban Horticulture, we have a grove of Amelanchier x grandiflora, all of which are multi-stemmed. Arthur Lee Jacobson lists several additional species in his North American Landscape Trees (Ten Speed Press, 1996), including the Northwest native Amelanchier alnifolia, which he says is “little planted, especially as a tree.” Its leaves are rounder, with coarser teeth. It flowers later, and its fall color is inferior. Its berries are larger.
You might also explore the Oregon State University Landscape Plants database to see comparative images and descriptions.
If you want to intervene and shape the growth habit of Amelanchier, the American Horticultural Society’s Pruning & Training (edited by Christopher Brickell; DK Publishing, 1996) says that this “upright, multi-stemmed shrub can be allowed to develop naturally with minimal pruning. It may also be trained with a short trunk to form a small, branched-headed tree.” The time to prune would be when dormant in the winter, or after flowering in late spring.
It’s already the middle of March and I’m worried that our soil is still too cold to plant peas (both edible and sweet). When is the correct time to plant them in the Seattle area?
Since weather patterns vary from year to year, it may make more sense to plant based on something other than the calendar date. An old adage says that it is time to plant peas when the lilac leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear. This may sound quaint, but it turns out that the growth cycle of the lilac (Syringa) is an excellent indicator of temperature. Phenology is the science concerned with the timing of specific biological events, and lilac is among the plants often studied. Project BudBurst has additional information about phenology and climate change. The U.S. National Phenology Network is also a good resource.
If you don’t have a lilac in your garden (or a mouse’s ear, for that matter), Washington State University Extension (link no longer available) says that a safe time for planting peas is usually mid-March, not so much because of soil temperature, but because in February the soil is often oversaturated, and your peas would rot in the ground.
Is there dwarf crape myrtle tree/shrub (no more than 12 feet high) suitable for Seattle’s climate?
I know there are dwarf or smaller varieties of Lagerstroemia, and they would all be suitable for our climate, depending on what your expectations are. Often, crape myrtle does not flower in our sometimes cool and unsunny summers. The Center for Urban Horticulture is a test garden for the U.S. National Arboretum’s crape myrtle varieties. You might want to visit (especially in late summer) to see what they look like. See this article by Valerie Easton.
Meanwhile, the National Arboretum has a poster of different varieties. There are several cultivars which typically do not exceed 12 feet in height.
This information (no longer available online) from Rainyside Gardeners may be of interest:
“Paul Bonine of Xera Plants, a local wholesale grower, has done quite a bit of research on how these grow in our region. He shared his research with me a few years ago. For those in Sunset zones 4-5 (or USDA zone 8b), he recommends going for varieties that bloom early. Here are some to look for; * marks Paul’s top picks:
- ‘Pink Velour’ – early bloomer
- ‘Acoma’
- ‘Arapaho’
- ‘Biloxi’
- *’Hopi’- early bloomer
- *’Natchez’
- *’Tuscarora’ – I have this one and love it.
- *’Zuni’
“Plant it in the hottest, sunniest spot in well-drained soil in your garden; give them reflected heat if possible. Contrary to their reputation as drought-tolerant in other parts of the country, you need to water (deeply, infrequently) during our long, dry summers for best performance. Avoid heavy fertilizing and watering late in the season; it can significantly reduce hardiness. Paul also told me that crape myrtles are one of the last deciduous plants to break dormancy in our area so patience is a good thing.”
Once you have found a few varieties that appeal to you, you can contact your favorite local nurseries to see if they carry them. A couple of years ago, I noticed that Molbak’s in Woodinville had a fairly good selection. There are also mail order sources. You can search Plant Information Online (try searching under Scientific name, Lagerstroemia) for mail order nurseries and additional information.