Tag: apple
Newton’s apple tree continues to test gravity
Associated Press—Sir Isaac Newton’s famous apple tree is about to leave gravity behind.
Flying aboard space shuttle Atlantis next week will be a 4-inch sliver of the tree from which an apple fell nearly 350 years ago and inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity.
British-born astronaut Piers Sellers is flying the piece of wood for The Royal Society of London.
“I’ll take it up into orbit and let it float around a bit, which will confuse Isaac,” Sellers said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week.
When Sellers last flew in space in 2006, he carried up a gold medal that the society later presented to British physicist Stephen Hawking. This time, he told them, “What about something for you?”
The small slice of Newton’s apple tree they offered is “from THE apple tree, from the one that he was looking at when the apple fell down and he got the idea,” stressed Sellers.
“It’s his personal apple tree … that’s really something, isn’t it?”
Friends of Trees sells apple trees at discounted rates to area homeowners. Friends of Trees’ apple trees are much larger than four inches but have never been in orbit.
–Toshio Suzuki
Fruit trees in the Northeast budding too early
What to do with 30,000 Apple Trees that bud in the first week of April?
This is the issue facing many growers in the Northeast after an unprecedented hot streak hit the area in early April, reports The Associated Press.
An excerpt from the story:
“We’re just praying that we don’t get some really, really cold weather over the next few weeks,” said Frank Whittemore, 85, co-owner of Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis, N.H. “It would be a disaster for us.”
While most residents of the Northeast were enjoying the recent spate of warm weather, apple growers fretted about an unprecedented early bloom that could leave the nascent fruit vulnerable to a dangerous cold snap. And farmers around the country fear that other fruits, including cherries, blueberries and plums, could also fall victim to frost.
Orchard managers and fruit experts said a balmy early spring — the mercury climbed to a record-shattering 92 degrees in parts of New England on April 7 — combined with an early snow melt and heavy rains in March has trees blossoming two to three weeks ahead of schedule on average. That leaves plenty of time on the calendar for the region’s notoriously unpredictable weather to strike back with a killer freeze.
“There will be a couple of weeks where the growers, I think, will be pretty nervous,” said Russell Powell, executive director of the New England Apple Growers Association, which represents hundreds of commercial orchards in the region.
The danger with the accelerated growing pattern, Powell explained, was that once the tiny buds push out, they can easily be killed off by a hard and sudden frost.
How about the schedule here on the West Coast and in Portland? Are we on schedule here?
Speaking of fruit trees, check out the Friends of Trees selection, including several species of apple and pear.
–Toshio Suzuki
Ride-along unearths tree removal policies
Sometimes the street tree inspection is done before the pickup truck is parked.
That’s what comes with 20 years of experience as a Portland Urban Forestry tree inspector.
Ned Sodja, one of eight urban forestry inspectors for Portland, is responsible for all residential street tree removal inspections in Southeast Portland.
Dealing with street tree removals—both fining for illegal removals and issuing permits for approved removals—Sodja often finds himself using his people skills as much as his tree knowledge.
“As an area inspector you gotta have a broad knowledge of trees, then you gotta communicate well, then you gotta be well-versed in customer service,” said Sodja.
As far as fines for violations go, Sodja, like a police officer, has some leeway for discretionary calls.
“Most of the time I won’t fine them but they’ll have to do something,” said Sodja, referring to the costs of properly replacing a street tree.
Portland street trees are planted in the strips between curbs and roads, an area owned by the city but the responsibility of home or business owners.
This fact is a common reason why unknowing citizens can be fined up to thousands of dollars for removing a street tree.
Upon paying the $35 application that gets Sodja on the scene for an inspection, the main criteria for removal is if the tree is dead, dying or dangerous.
At his first stop last Thursday, the street tree was an excellent candidate for removal because it was topped for utility lines, had chopped roots that had previously necessitated a sidewalk replacement, and most importantly, it was leaning precariously.
“If this tree had a big canopy it already would of fallen into the street,” remarked Sodja, also spotting decay in the tree. “This is a pretty easy call.”
With that decision, Sodja spray paints a small dot on the curb indicating the best location for a replacement tree, and then returns to his cab to take notes.
Taking off one of his four pairs of sunglasses in the cab, Sodja explained that being a city employee is often what supports his decision-making process.
“It’s all liability—how can I alleviate liability for the city,” he explained. “Everything I do out here I got to justify.”
Mayor Adams plants fruit trees in Sabin
Seven new fruit trees were planted Saturday at the Sabin Neighborhood’s new community orchard.
Mayor Sam Adams, along with Commissioner Amanda Fritz, joined the Portland Fruit Tree Project and other volunteers to plant the fruit trees: pear; asian pear; apple; persimmon; fig; plum; and cherry.
Supported by a grant from the city of Portland’s Neighborhood Small Grants Program, the Sabin Community Orchard is located on Portland Bureau of Transportation land, at Northeast Mason St. between 18th and 19th.
Of course, Mayor Adams, like all area residents, has an open invitation to any Friends of Trees planting. Here is the online planting schedule. Friends of Trees and its Neighborhood Trees program will plant in the Sabin community on March 13.
–Toshio Suzuki
Tree storage & distribution 101
How many trees fit on a standard Portland-sized lot?
Not enough for Friends of Trees.
With the largest planting season in Neighborhood Trees (NT) history starting Saturday in Vancouver, site upgrades were necessary to make room for all the nursery stock, which began arriving this week by the truckload.
More trees being planted not only equated to site upgrades for storage, but also necessitated more local nursery partners, a larger variety of tree species for home owners to purchase, and a higher frequency of muscular endurance workouts for NT staffers.
“We’re offering more fruit trees than we ever have,” said NT staffer Cain, who quickly totaled about 122 tree species for this season, all purchased from 12 different Willamette Valley nurseries.
Among the most popular are Rocky Mountain Glow Maple, Green Vase Zelkova and Royal Raindrops Crabapple.
Come down to the lot and check out the selection, then view our planting schedule to see when the NT program is coming to your neighborhood.
–TS