Difference Between Japanese & European Plum Trees

Adaptable to different soils and climates, two main categories of edible plum trees, European (Prunus domestica) and Japanese (P. salicina), prosper at the western U.S. Both bloom in late winter or early spring. Fruit ripens sometime between May and September, depending on the cultivar and the weather. Expect Japanese plums to bloom and achieve harvest earlier. Maturity takes roughly 140 to 170 days for both types of plums.

Fruit Differences

Plums of all kinds are available in many colors, inside and outside. The range of skin colors contains yellow, red, purple, green, blue and almost black, while the flesh could be red, yellow or green. In general, the fat, juicy red ones are Japanese, although European types would be the smaller, purple, blue or purple fruits. But two old standard European plums, “Green Gage” and “Mirabelle,” are yellow and green, respectively. Prunes, a plum variety with sugar content high enough to enable sun-drying without causing fermentation, fall under the European group. European plums, which have firmer flesh, are often canned or made into jams or jellies, while Japanese plums are nearly always eaten fresh.

Pollination

Japanese plum trees are more prone than European varieties to require cross-pollination. Though most European plums are self-fertile, you may produce a better crop if you develop two or more varieties together, so long as they’re in precisely the same color group. “Santa Rosa,” a self-fruitful Japanese cultivar, is reputed to increase the yield of any other Japanese variety when both cross-pollinate. No one European variety is preferred over another as a pollinator.

Pruning and Training

In the orchard, both European and Japanese plum trees can reach 15 to 20 feet, with a slightly bigger spread. Pruning keeps them to about 10 feet in both directions. No truly dwarfing rootstocks exist for plums. Mature Japanese plum trees require more extensive pruning, cutting back side shoots to stop crowding compared to their European counterparts. Normally, Japanese plums are trained to a vase shape. When fruit types, the little plums must be thinned to you every 4 to 6 inches or so the fruit’s weight might break branches. Training a European plum tree to a single leader usually works best.

Outstanding Varieties of Each

“Coe’s Golden Drop,” a golden-fleshed plum having an intense apricot-like flavor and “Damson,” which has purplish-black green and skin flesh and excels in jam and jelly, are notable European plums. “French Prune,” the standard drying prune of California, and “Stanley,” sweet and hot and good for canning, stand from European prune varieties. All thrive in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 to 9. One of the most flavorful Japanese plums are “Autumn Rosa,” a late-season plum with purplish-red skin, “Burgundy,” with dark red flesh and skin and “Santa Rosa,” a significant commercial variety for fresh eating. Each grows in USDA plant hardiness zones 7 to 10.

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Easy Landscaping Plants

Easy landscaping plants supply the same benefits as high-maintenance plants without unnecessary time consumption. They are easy to look after and can endure various undesirable growing conditions. When choosing the simple landscaping plant, think about the requirements of the area. For example, evergreen shrubs hide eyesores in the yard, while perennial flowers brighten a shaded corner in the garden.

Evergreen Shrubs

Easy evergreen shrubs are ideal plants to hide unattractive areas such as your home’s foundation. “Rotunda” dwarf Chinese holly (Ilex cornuta “Rotunda”) is just a 3- to 4-foot-tall evergreen tree growth in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 through 9. This low-maintenance plant has a round form with spiny leaf and dense divisions. “Rotunda” does not flower or produce fruit and grows in full to partial sun. Peacock blossom (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) is a semievergreen tropical tree growing in USDA zones 8 through 11. This sun-loving plant produces ferny foliage and magnificent red and orange flowers which attract butterflies and hummingbirds. It is a quick grower, reaching heights between 8 and 10 feet tall. Peacock blossom is an easy-care plant which tolerates drought and works well as a hedge plant.

Ground Covers

Ground covers are versatile plants which suppress weeds and hide the awful ground under trees, shrubs and flower beds. Japanese holly fern (Cyrtomium falcatum) is a 1- to 3-foot-tall spreading evergreen with dark fronds. It’s a low-maintenance plant growing in nesting places in USDA zones 6 through 11. Goldmoss sedum (Sedum acre) is a succulent evergreen ground cover creating yellow, butterfly-attracting flowers in the spring. It grows 3 ins tall in bright regions in USDA zones 3 through 9. The deer-resistant goldmoss sedum is drought-tolerant once established and requires little to no upkeep.

Perennials

Low-maintenance, simple perennials brighten up places with vibrant blossoms that attract beneficial insects. Butterfly gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) is also an easy-to-grow flowering perennial creating continuous sprays of white flowers blushed with pink through the summer and fall months. It grows in full sun to partial shade in USDA zones 5 through 9. Butterfly gaura is drought-tolerant and resistant to deer. Cape leadwort (Plumbago auriculata) is a broadleaf evergreen perennial found in USDA zones 8 through 11. It grows between 1 and 3 feet tall in full sun to partial shade. Cape leadwort produces pale blue flowers during the growing season.

Trees

Easy landscape tree “Akebono” yoshino cherry (Prunus x yedoensis “Akebono”) is a flowering ornamental tree growing in USDA zones 4 through 8. It reaches heights of up to 25 feet in full sun. “Akebono” produces an abundance of fragrant blush-pink flowers in March and April. This tree requires weekly watering but is usually easy to grow. The cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas) is just a low-maintenance tree growing in USDA zones 4 through 8. It reaches heights of 15 to 25 feet in full sun to partial shade and tolerates clay dirt and deer. In late winter, yellow starlike flowers look and are followed by bird-attracting red drupes. Cornelian cherry dogwood works well as a hedge or privacy tree when planted in masses.

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How to Replace a J-Bend at a Bath Sink

The J-bend under the sink is also known as the P-trap, the U-bend and at times even only the drain trap. When there are a number of subtle differences between each of those fittings, they essentially mean the specific same pipe in a drain pipe system. Typically you’ll need no tools to get this repair since the joining nuts have been made to function as hand-tightened. In some cases, however, hand-tightening may not seat the drier correctly, particularly if your drain pipes are metallic, so slip-joint pliers may often be convenient.

Place a bucket under the J-bend pipe. Unscrew the compression nuts together with your hand, or if they don’t come loose, use a slip-joint pliers, turning them counterclockwise. As this is a drain trap, water is likely to be found inside the pipe. When the nuts are loosened, tip the J-bend upside down and drain the water into the bucket.

Inspect the compression washers as well as also the compression nuts. Generally, the compression nuts will be sound and are reusable. The compression washers can at times be reused; nevertheless, if there aren’t any cracks, pits or tears in the compression washers, they can’t be reused and must be replaced. Metal pipes will be fitted with rubber washers. These must also be examined and replaced if needed.

Acquire the exact copy of this J-bend you’ve eliminated. This is vital because the pipes under the sink were plumbed to match that specific size and style of J-bend. If any other sort of J-bend is employed as a replacement, you’ll have ill-fitting drain pipes that will be prone to leak. J-bends are available at hardware stores or garden and home or pipes shops. Generally, they are sometimes discovered in kits that have a new pair of washers and compression nuts.

Remove the J-bend in the bundle and dry-fit the pipe. It has to match up exactly. Then set the washers into the beveled edges of this J-bend and attach them in to place together with the compression nuts. Turn the nuts hand-tight, then check to see whether they leak from running water in the tap down the drain. If there is a slight leak, tighten the compression nuts 1/4-turn with slip-joint pliers. For alloy connecting nuts, dab plumber’s pipe dope onto the threads before tightening them down.

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Flexible Door Sweep for Garage Doors With Uneven Floors

A door sweep is a strip of flexible material in the base of a overhead garage door that makes contact with the ground to seal out rain and wind. If your garage floor is uneven, it can be hard to obtain a good door-bottom seal. But you can make an effective self-adjusting door sweep from inexpensive preformed slit foam insulation sized for pipes of 3/4-inch diameter. This type of pipe insulation is sold at hardware and home centers.

How to produce

Buy enough of the pipe insulation to match the width of the door. Open the door so the underside is head high. Place the pipe insulation over the bottom of the door so the slit will face down as soon as the door is shut. Expand the slit apart so that you can fasten the insulation to the door with screws. Use enough screws to securely hold the material. Add washers to the screw heads to stop them from tearing during the pipe insulation. If the material tears with usage, it is not hard to replace. In case you have a wooden door, you are able to simply nail down the pipe insulation to the back of the door with 4d box nails so that the insulation presses against the ground once the door closes.

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Spring Lawn Care for Female Spots

Dogs are beloved family members and loving companions, but their potty habits can wreak havoc on lawns. Dog pee includes a great deal of soluble salts and hydrogen peroxide. Small amounts of urine can fertilize the affected grass, causing it to be more dangerous and more vigorous than the turf about it. Massive amounts of urine can cause brown patches of dead grass surrounded by a halo of lush, deep-green grass. Taking steps in spring to correct dog area problems will help keep your lawn looking uniformly healthy and green.

About Female Spots

Green dog places are circular patches of grass typically reaching 4 to 8 inches in diameter. When brown dog places look, they generally have a 3- to 6-inch circle of brown grass surrounded by a halo of deep-green grass extending about 6 to 12 inches in diameter. Dogs frequently make pit stops at the exact same place throughout winter. So dog spots typically become evident in early spring, once the grass comes from dormancy. Although puppy spots can arise in any type of grass, their harm is usually most severe in cool-season grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), that is hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9a and dangerous in certain locations. Warm-season grasses spread via rhizomes and stolons, which allow websites affected by even big dog spots to repair themselves with time. The warm-season varieties burmudagrass (Cynodon spp., USDA zones 7 through 10), some species of which can be invasive in certain places, zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp., USDA zones 6 through 9) and St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum, USDA zones 8 through 10) hold up nicely to your dog’s potty habits. Keep an invasive grass variety mowed and confined to block it from spreading.

Rinse Them Away

Small, brown dog spots in grass are usually straightforward to fix when they look in spring. The University of Wisconsin Extension implies leaving places smaller than the size of the fist alone. The surrounding turfgrass must fill these spots rather quickly. Simply rub each affected area with water from a garden hose to help dilute the accumulated salts and revive turfgrass. Treat green dog areas with no browning in the middle by keeping your usual watering program to stop the salts from building up in the ground. Dry conditions often allow the salts to accumulate to the point at which they harm or kill grass.

Reseed the Areas

Larger brown dog spots in grass have to be overseeded. Spring is an perfect time to overseed since grass seeds germinate best when temperatures range from 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. With a seed mixture or a lawn-patch seed mix that matches the remainder of your property’s grass will keep the lawn uniform. Rake up as much of the dead grass as you can in each dog place website, and eliminate the best 1/2 to 1 inch of soil, taking care to not hurt the healthy turf surrounding each website. Heavily watering the affected areas for three times in a row helps to dilute the salts in the ground. Adhering to the instructions on the seed item’s tag, sprinkle the mixture over every dog spot’s entire location. Gently rake the seeds to the soil, taking care they do not go more than 1/2 inch deep. Water that the seeded areas thoroughly, irrigate them twice each day, keeping them moist but not too wet, until the new grass grows about 3 inches in height.

Increase Nitrogen

Feeding your lawn in early spring using a nitrogen fertilizer will help mask deep-green puppy spots. Each fertilizer has three numbers on its bundle tag. The numbers indicate the proportion of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in the fertilizer. If your basement has established grass, then use a fertilizer that has a nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium proportion of 3-to-1-to-2, such as an 18-6-12 fertilizer, that is 18 percent nitrogen, 6 percent phosphorous and 12 percent potassium. Feed your lawn 1 pound of available nitrogen for every 1,000 square feet of growing space. If, for instance, you use an 18-6-12 fertilizer, then implement about 5 pounds of that fertilizer on every 1,000 square feet of turfgrass. Fertilizer manufacturers’ instructions vary. So carefully read and follow the instructions on your fertilizer’s label.

Prevent Dog Spots

Help prevent future dog spots by training your pooch to go potty in a particular lawn area, such as an out-of-the-way part of yard, a place mulched with wood or one or gravel with tall grass you never mow. Thoroughly rinsing grass with water immediately after your dog urinates helps dilute the number of salts and sulfur which reach the soil. A whole lot of myths exist about dog spots, such as people who suggest changing the pH level of a dog’s urine using nutritional supplements or dietary alterations. No evidence is that these steps work, however, and never add nutritional supplements or change your dog’s diet plan before you seek advice from your vet.

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How to Grow Head Lettuce at a Greenhouse

Having a passive solar greenhouse — browse no electric heating required — you can develop head lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) through the winter in frost-prone areas. In some frost-free areas, even a greenhouse is unneeded, but with the additional protection offers peace of mind through a cold spell. During warm spring, summer and fall months, it is too hot to develop this cool-season crop in a greenhouse.

Soil Amendments and Sun

Lettuce needs full sunlight, so put the greenhouse in a spot that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight every day. Fill the bed with loamy topsoil leaving 2 inches of space at the top, then add 1 to 2 inches of compost to the bed. Mix the compost thoroughly with the ground down 6 to 8 inches using a garden fork. Insert a balanced fertilizer — like a 10-10-10 formula — to the bed and blend it into the soil. Use 12 tablespoons for an 8-square-foot-bed.

Spacing, Thinning and Watering

Space head lettuce 12 inches apart. If you’re growing from seed, thin the seedlings when they get 3 to 4 inches tall to your 12-inch-spacing. You can use the thinned lettuce seedlings as new greens. Stagger head lettuce for greenhouse planting rather than creating proper rows to get more plants in the restricted space. Water the bed once per week or when the ground dries our 1 to 2 ins. If the greenhouse gets hot, the soil will dry out rapidly, so check daily in warm weather.

Greenhouse Temperatures

Keep the greenhouse between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the afternoon. If it gets warm out, then open the doors so the air inside can cool off. Ideal night temperatures for lettuce are between 45 F and 55 F. Lettuce can survive brief cold spells at 35 F, especially when shielded in a greenhouse. A few days at 90 F will pressure lettuce but will not likely kill it. Keep the soil moist and circulate as much cool air as you can during warm spells.

Fertilizing Mid-season

Three weeks to a month into the growing season, give each mind lettuce plant a boost using 1 tablespoon of balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer. Scatter the fertilizer on the soil around every lettuce plant, then water until the ground is damp 5 to 6 inches deep. To avoid overwatering, schedule the mid-season fertilizer with one regular weekly watering. Weeds are rarely a problem in a greenhouse, but if any dip in, pull them manually. Lettuce has shallow roots, so weed carefully to avoid disturbing them.

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Feng Shui Bedroom for Bad Spirits

The fundamentals of feng shui tackle the stream of good and evil energy, called chi and sha, into your home. Since feng shui professionals and consultants operate from the premise that energy imbues everything, both living and nonliving, the clinic has remedies for dealing with bad spirits — those nonliving entities that feed on negative energy. The very first step is always to use feng shui to change your bedroom’s energy to positive, that rids it of ghostly energies that thrive on capitalism.

Optimum Bedroom Layout

The perfect way to fight negative energies that attract woeful entities starts with the optimal bedroom design. Face the foot of the bed from a straight-on perspective of the door. Set the bed so the door opens diagonally to the left or right of the bed foot board on the wall, never straight on. Place the bed against a wall, not just a window, however, make certain that a sink, cooker or toilet doesn’t lurk behind the wall where the bed rests.

Exorcise the Mirror

Mirrors generally represent great feng shui energy in your house — except in the bedroom. A symbol for water, a mirror can amplify negative energy at the space and bring about unwanted interference to your relationship, particularly in a few bedroom. When it’s directly across the bed, then it can result in insomnia since it doubles the energy already in the space. Mirrors function best in different rooms of the house in which they duplicate a gorgeous landscaped perspective, as at the dining or living rooms.

Pei Yow Foo Guardians

The Chinese Pei yow dogs can be utilized as a pair or singularly in the bedroom. Though they seem like a lion, they’ve a Peking dog face and may have a single horn on their heads. The Chinese foo dog is mainly used as protection against negative energies and bad spirits. You discover them guarding the doors to affluent Chinese palaces, residences and tombs alike, since the legend connected to the creature tells of its consumption all of the negative energy or sha. Displaying them in a male-female pair on either side of the bedroom door or in the foot of this bed protects the bedroom and its own inhabitants.

Inferior Spirit Cures

When your master bedroom is located on the north or northwest side of the house, place metal wood chimes outside, close to the room. Chimes of all kinds — steel, wood and ceramic — each type has different results and places where they achieve the best results. Metal chimes from copper, brass, bronze or copper with five poles help to suppress negative energy and bad fortune. To energize and bring fortune to your relationship, add rose quartz puffed hearts or other enjoy symbols in the southwest corner of your bedroom.

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Do-It-Yourself Children's Night Stand Made From Colored Storage Cubes

Kids have a good deal of stuff. They also demand a surprising amount of furniture, so it is a bonus when you are able to double-purpose necessary furnishings with storage, and even better when the storage can be reconfigured as children grow. Visualize those vibrant storage blocks you snagged to hold the toddler blocks as nightstands and bookshelves plus concealed storage which needs almost no effort from you and may be broken down tomorrow and then reconfigured into something different.

Plastic or Wood Cubes

Come up with the notion behind the type of storage you need from bedside blocks. Bookshelves need the blocks to be stacked with both open sides facing the exact same manner. Hidden storage allows you set one cube open-side-up and top it with the next cube, open to the side.

Drill a hole an inch in the edges in all four corners of the base of the greatest cube. Drill a hole in each of the front and back faces of the bottom cube, which will sit open-side-up on the ground. The holes in the bottom cube must be 1 inch from the top and one inch in from the side. Measure before drilling to ensure the holes in the bottom and top cubes lineup.

Place the items to be seasonally or longterm saved in the lower cube. Establish the side-opening cube in addition to the decrease cube and secure the two together with cable ties threaded through the holes in each of the four corners.

Place a lamp, clock and other bedside comforts on the flat surface of the highest cube. Use the reachable open inside of the highest cube for a shelf to store objects which are frequently used, like novels, favorite toys, bedtime animals or a audio player.

Clip the leading cable ties to lift the top cube up and eliminate seasonal storage items in the bottom cube. Alter the cable ties to re-secure both blocks collectively.

Wire Cubes

Assemble individual cable cubes according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Most cable blocks only snap with plastic links.

Snap two constructed blocks together, one in addition to another with both openings facing the identical side, utilizing the straps offered by the manufacturer. If the straps don’t look secure enough, then see Step 3 for an alternate fastening approach.

Stack 1 cube on top of another, with both open ends facing the side, in the exact same direction. Combine the blocks with plastic wire ties.

Cut a piece of thin plywood the size of one side of a cube. Sand the edges until they are smooth, prime and paint the plywood with high gloss enamel on either side.

Drill a hole in each corner of the painted plywood. Set the plywood in addition to the greatest cube. Thread a cable tie through every hole, grabbing a strand of the cable cube from the wire loop; pull the loop tight to secure the plywood into the cube.

Decide on a lamp or nightlight and a box of tissues on the nightstand and stash novels or stuffed animals from the cube shelves.

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