Kinston artist wins 'Best in Show'
Bettie Saville has won Best in Show in the Miniature Show held recently at Carolina Artist Studio and Gallery in Morehead City.
Her oil painting "Where’s the Mouse?" was chosen as the best out of more than 130 entries. Tom Jones of Emerald Isle was the judge for the show.
Saville is a well known Kinston artist and teaches painting at the Lenoir County Council on Aging Skinner Senior Center.
Gardening Guru: Growing fruit trees at home
Fruit trees can be home produced by numerous methods — including grafting, budding, cutting, layering and suckering — with seedlings producing plants similar to the parent in two to three years.
Seed propagate by thoroughly washing the seed removed from mature fruit; sterilizing it by soaking in hot water at 120F for 5 to 10 minutes; cooling in water and surface drying. Store in plastic containers in the refrigerator for several weeks to several years. Most seed from fruit crops grown in our area have a dormancy requirement, which must be met before germination.
Cold moist storage of the seeds, or stratification, breaks the dormancy. Soak dry seed in water for several hours;placein a container filled with a sterile moist media — perlite, sand, peat moss or a mixture — to facilitate germination; cover with media and water. Plastic bags — with small slits for oxygen exchange — can be used for containers with small amounts of seed.
Plant smaller apple and pear seeds about three-quarters of an inch deep; cover larger peach seeds with 1 1/2 inches of media. Store between 35 to 45F for several weeks, or months for stratification. Apples require 60 to 80 days; pears, 45 to 90 days; peaches and plums, 90 to 130 days.
Don’t let media dry out. Root emergence indicates that dormancy has been broken and seeds are ready to plant.
Carefully pot fragile germinated seeds. Plant in late winter in clean pots or other containers. Water frequently and lightly fertilize occasionally. Discard weak or damaged seedlings.
Gardeners adopt cutting, layering and suckering propagation methods. Stem cuttings are used with blackberries, figs and grapes. Suckers are used with blueberries.
Grafting and budding skills must be learned. Many purchased fruit trees have been grafted or budded — when two plant tissues are joined to create one plant — to produce high quality fruit. The rootstock produces the roots and the scion or bud produces the shoot system. Rootstocks are selected to determine the disease resistance of the plant and the size. Pecan trees are often propagated by budding or grafting.
Peg Godwin is horticulture agent, Lenoir County Cooperative Extension Center. Reach her at Peg_Godwin@ncsu.edu or 252-527-2191.