Trail cam picture, blotting out the sun

Taken at 6:04 the evening of 3/21/14 in what appears to be an eclipse but that wouldn't be the case for Iowa on that day. Pointed up the hill to the neighbor's house to the west:

An interesting aberration from one of the trail cameras. There is nothing wrong with the camera, and it has been working well, before and since, to deliver pictures of deer, dogs and coyotes. Other than eating through batteries, I have no complaints.

Wednesday Wildlife, 3/26/14

After the disappointing discovery of the fish kill on the pond on the 15th, frozen in mid-ice, this past weekend, I was pleased to find the pond without ice and almost 7 feet deep in the middle. But no dead fish floating.

About 10 feet up the bank there were what remained of a single fish and dozens of tracks surrounded the pond bank.

The raccoons apparently had a fine meal.

In one way it saved me from netting the dead, but I intended to fertilize the trees. The bad news is the varmints are back now that trapping season is over.

2014 planting update, 3/24/14

Red oak planted in containers:

 

One month after planting, the tallest reached 2 and a half inches. Those planted in the star trays are only about an inch. I'm not sure why the difference, but I like the progress on these. The roots will start to wrap around the bottom of the container or try to poke its way out the drain holes. I've had good success with pin oaks the past two seasons with this size of cup and will get these in the ground after another 6 weeks or so.

When we get back to actual spring-like temperatures for good, these will be outside for the duration.

Also in the ground this past weekend: 15 coffeetree seeds and another 10 black oak acorns.

Winter's demise was bit premature

Single digit wind chill this morning and 2-3 inches of snow for tomorrow.

Wednesday Wildlife - Spring 2014 is officially here

Not quite like the swallows of Capistrano, the return of red-winged blackbirds to SE Iowa marks the return of spring. I first spied a couple on the way to work last Friday and their mating calls this weekend at the pond was a pleasant sound during a break.

Although this picture was taken a couple of years ago, this is an example of what we have been waiting for these long weeks of what has been a harsh winter. Their return was a couple of weeks behind when we normally see them, but I gladly welcomed their singing while at the pond.

While working this past weekend, pelicans flew north with their erratic flight pattern in contrast with the numerous flocks of Canadian geese honking overhead. The pond is up a couple of feet from January and I found too many fish and more than a few frogs frozen in ice. We're hoping this winter didn't take all the fish out and it's strange that they weren't there the week before.

Preparing coffeetree seeds for planting

Two years ago David over at True Blue Sam sent me a large batch of coffeetree seeds and I've had a 20% survival rate after two dry years and I'm cautiously optimistic after this winter. I found a local source and was able to get 177 seeds for this year's planting.

Known as scarification, my method of preparing Kentucky coffeetree seeds for planting is simply to scratch my way through the hard shell of the seedcoat to get to the meat of the seed. About the size and coloration of the popular candy, Milk Dud, I would not recommend playing a trick on your friends by throwing a couple of seeds in the box.

My original method of scaring the seed was to use a triangular file and spending 15+ minutes filing to breach the seedcoat. I switched to an oscillating cutting saw and could prep a seed less than a minute but this made me a bit nervous having a vibrating blade near my fingers. One slip and I'd never play the violin again.

I picked up a Dremel 8100 tool this past weekend for this specific purpose. Except for the limitations of the original cutting wheel (it's not designed for cutting plant fiber and would gum up), I'm pleased with the results so far. This particular model holds a charge for about 15 seeds, or 30 minutes, and I think I will get better results with a different cutting blade and I ordered one.

Some cautionary pre-instructions:

1. Do this in a well ventilated area and you may need to wear a mask. The dust can be an irritant and the cutting wheel can end up "burning" the seedcoat which irritates the eyes as well.
2. Do not hold the seed with your hands. Common sense
3. Make small cuts and go slow.
4. Wear eye protection. Chips from the seedcoat can fly up into your face.

I use this ratcheting clamp to hold the seed: 

Use the cutting blade to cut the seedcoat, make small cuts and stop when you reach the yellow "meat" of the seed.

I've had more success when I cut about 90% to 100% around the seed, but I'm experimenting the results of cutting about 50%.

It's not the neatest cut, but does the job. One interesting note is that sparks can fly using the cutting tool blade.

Others recommend soaking the seeds in water for 24 hours after scaring but I plant the seed right away, either in the ground or potted. The moisture in the soil will soften the seedcoat in less that a day. I planted these seeds near the surface in pots and the previous best results is to keep the soil moist but not too wet, otherwise the seed will soften and rot. In about two weeks, the taproot will start to form.

I'm conducting tests this year as I can afford to with this many seeds. I bagged up some in wet peat moss and will plant them at the tree farm after germination. This worked well with the acorns, so why not? I soaked some in acid to see if this would be an alternative to using electric tools. I'm working on a couple of other ideas including the cut direction, temperature and seed planting depth. There's not much information out there as the coffeetree is not a popular tree in the public's mind.

I'll report our progress and share the best method that works for us.

Spring planting update, 3/16/14

As of 3/16, we have 35 chestnut sprouts from 55 nuts potted on 2/22:

And the red oak are breaking ground after initial planting on 2/22 and 3/1:

Our small "forest" numbers about 200 acorns and nuts planted so far in the basement. As the frost is below 6 inches at the acreage, I planted 20 black oak acorns (10 on 3/9 and 10 on 3/15) and 5 coffeetree nuts on 3/15.

No signs of white oaks or chestnuts that I planted in the ground last fall. Yeah, I know it's way too early, but I'm impatient and want some progress.  

Spring 2014 thaw

The pond is filling:

One of the apple trees:

Our aronia plants were cleaned out by the native rabbits as they clipped every plant. But there are signs of hope as buds are visible:

We invested a lot of time planting last fall and putting up fencing to keep the deer out, but I didn't add enough protection against the smaller critters. Deer are known to pull these plants out of the ground and the rabbits do a very good job of "pruning" small plants.We're encouraged that the aronias will respond well after this cold winter.