by Greg Alder | Jan 17, 2025 | Avocados |
In June of 2023, I planted a GEM avocado tree. It was a good-looking tree, on top and bottom. The leaves showed healthy new growth and the roots were abundant and with new white tips. I planted in the best way I knew, a way in which I’d planted many trees before that...
by Greg Alder | Jan 10, 2025 | Fruit |
Is this the year that you learn to graft? Would you like to grow a new variety of fig, peach, dragon fruit, avocado, plum, mulberry, or cherry? Then these events are for you. Winter is the season for the California Rare Fruit Growers “scion exchanges,”...
by Greg Alder | Nov 30, 2024 | Avocados |
Did you know that you live in Avocado Land? “The citizens of the Golden State can make a better claim for having ‘invented’ the avocado than anyone else,” writes Rob Crisell in the opening chapter of his new book California Avocados: A Delicious History. I did not...
by Greg Alder | Nov 22, 2024 | Fruit |
Guavas don’t get as big as some other types of fruit trees. And they certainly get bigger in the tropics than they do here. The biggest guava tree I’ve ever seen was on a coffee farm in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. Old guava tree on coffee farm in...
by Greg Alder | Nov 15, 2024 | Avocados, Misc |
Do you remember my interview with John Schoustra? He is – I thought about this for a while to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anyone or exaggerating – the most innovative, open-minded, and experimental avocado farmer I know. (Please refresh your memory by checking this...
by Greg Alder | Oct 11, 2024 | Avocados |
In 2018, I first visited this grove of Reed avocados. The trees had been planted ten feet apart. In avocado-world parlance, they call that “high density” planting. Traditional tree spacing is more like twenty feet apart. But then the farmer further added a...
by Greg Alder | Oct 9, 2024 | Fruit |
Shoemaker Farm (now called Ramona Fresh Fruits) will open for the 2024 persimmon picking season on Wednesday, October 30. The farm address is 18131 Traylor Road, Ramona. After opening day, they will be open from 9 AM to 4 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until...
by Greg Alder | Sep 27, 2024 | Avocados |
I found this display in a Sprouts market in San Diego County last week. Such displays selling “Jumbo Hass” avocados can be found in many grocery stores in California during August and September. What’s a “Jumbo Hass?” Is it a really big...
by Greg Alder | Sep 27, 2024 | Avocados |
I was touring a grove in Ventura County that had some large GEM avocado trees and many of them had respectable crops, but then I came to one whose branches were cascades of new fruit. The other two people I was with also stopped in their tracks to admire the amount of...
by Greg Alder | Sep 6, 2024 | Fruit, Pests |
My goal is to see birds as garden teammates — as they eat insects that can be pests, such as aphids — and not as enemies as they peck the fruit on my trees. As far as my experience goes, the best way to accomplish this is to prevent birds from access to...
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