I can't wait to get my DTE! It's funny I just picked a VDB off my tree too & thought it was awfully early for it to start ripening, it definitely was watered down.
Are you growing Planera? If so, how does Planera perform for you in the valley in comparison to De Tres Esplets? Ripening, productivity, fruit quality, flavor, etc.
I have it but not in the ground. It’s also usually among my favorites for flavor and texture. Very thick pulp. It’s also not as early as DtE. It also has a tendency to split in too much rain. For where I’m at it’s still worth growing because it’s early enough.
It’s highly rated here in WA too. It’s one I don’t have yet but is on my wish list. Shouldn’t be too hard to find cuttings to root from someone locally.
Solid fig here in the valley, gets a bit wattery fast and a tad fragile tho.. Just found your channel and looking good! Saw the channel description and now I'm curious if youve ever worked with local clays, and if theyre even worth cleaning up and firing?
I’ve used local clays but mostly in glaze applications at cone 10. Most of the clays I’ve found are pretty high in iron and mostly all fire with the same color. There was one that I found way back in the day that fired to an awesome chocolate brown satin glaze with a 70% gerstley borate mix. With GB getting harder to come by I’ve backed off a little bit on messing with glazes. As far as clay bodies go, most of what I’ve found has been stable at low fire but usually over fires around cone 4. There’s some nice clay deposits over on the coast.
@Loftinart Much appreciated on the info! Yea we're just Nw of Eugene in the foothills and digging out a pond I got into a layer of clean light yellow turning to white clay and was debating trying to work with it. Not sure how realistic but ultimately trying to make an amphora..
I can't wait to get my DTE! It's funny I just picked a VDB off my tree too & thought it was awfully early for it to start ripening, it definitely was watered down.
Are you growing Planera? If so, how does Planera perform for you in the valley in comparison to De Tres Esplets? Ripening, productivity, fruit quality, flavor, etc.
I have it but not in the ground. It’s also usually among my favorites for flavor and texture. Very thick pulp. It’s also not as early as DtE. It also has a tendency to split in too much rain. For where I’m at it’s still worth growing because it’s early enough.
Very helpful comparison. Thank you!
It’s highly rated here in WA too. It’s one I don’t have yet but is on my wish list. Shouldn’t be too hard to find cuttings to root from someone locally.
Solid fig here in the valley, gets a bit wattery fast and a tad fragile tho.. Just found your channel and looking good! Saw the channel description and now I'm curious if youve ever worked with local clays, and if theyre even worth cleaning up and firing?
I’ve used local clays but mostly in glaze applications at cone 10. Most of the clays I’ve found are pretty high in iron and mostly all fire with the same color. There was one that I found way back in the day that fired to an awesome chocolate brown satin glaze with a 70% gerstley borate mix. With GB getting harder to come by I’ve backed off a little bit on messing with glazes.
As far as clay bodies go, most of what I’ve found has been stable at low fire but usually over fires around cone 4. There’s some nice clay deposits over on the coast.
@Loftinart Much appreciated on the info! Yea we're just Nw of Eugene in the foothills and digging out a pond I got into a layer of clean light yellow turning to white clay and was debating trying to work with it. Not sure how realistic but ultimately trying to make an amphora..
Absolutely do it. I haven’t found a good yellow clay. Might be a good one.
@Loftinart Well good deal! Now I'll probably end up with a kiln project next lol..