SF Bay Area Suggestions 

By Mr. Umehara

January

Early Part of the Month

At the beginning of the year, inspect all of your trees carefully
and plan your own work schedule - such as seed planting, making
cuttings, grafting,which trees need wiring, transplanting, air layering,
bud nipping, etc. Watch for the early budders such as some elms, maples,
akebia, and karin.

When the buds start to show the GLOW (certain shininess, change in
coloration), soon the buds will start to grow.  Just as the buds start
to grow is the best time to do the transplanting.

Select exhibition trees for this year's show (April 19-20) and make a
well-planned work schedule for them. It is not too late to catch up
with the work that should have been done last year, such as:
*       Deciduous trees can still be cut back
*       You still have time to work on black pines and five needle pines
to shorten long candles, eliminate buds if there are too many, and to do
needle pulling and wiring

Mid-Month

Make sure you have enough supplies of soil, pots, wire, and screen.     
All tools should be sharpened and in good shape.

Fertilizer Cakes
Make enough organic fertilizer cakes for the entire year.  Use a mixture
of 70% cottonseed meal and 10% to 30% bone meal depending on what it
will be used on.  Use Malathion, diluted 1,000 times (with water) and
knead it until the mixture becomes somewhat sticky and doughy.  The s
oftness of the dough should be like the ear lobe.  Put it in a container
and cover it. Let is stand until the surface is covered with white
mildew.  Then flatten it out to 1/2-inch thick on a flat board and dry
it out in the shade.  When it is semi-hard, notch 1-inch crisscross on
the surface and let it dry completely.  Break it up and store it for
future use.  Note:  you may remember that Lonnie McCormick suggested
pushing the dough through a large open-mouthed funnel and making cakes.

Late-Month

Some fruit- and berry-bearing trees, akebia and bittersweet especially,
need pollination.  Watch the spring growth of the male trees and adjust
the female trees' environment so that both trees will bloom at the same
time for better pollination.

Grafting
The late part of January to the early part of March is the best season
for grafting in the Bay Area. Start with the conifers.  Japanese shimpaku
to collected junipers, five-needle pines to black pine root stock.  The
very best time for these trees is the first part of February.  Be sure
to cover the trees with a plastic bag and/or protect them in a greenhouse.
For fruit- and berry-bearing trees, take the scion wood from the mother
tree while it still in the dormant stage.  Wrap them with moist paper
towels and seal them in a plastic bag.  Store them in the vegetable
compartment in your refrigerator until the root stock tree shows a sign
of bud movement or growth.  After grafting, protect it with a plastic
cover.

You will be rewarded with almost 100% success rate. For flowering trees,
the cuttings must be of the "leaf buds" being careful it is not of the
"flower buds."  This is very important, especially for plum grafting.