by Greg Alder | Jul 5, 2019 | Fruit |
Summer pruning is monkey work. I love its simplicity. There is joyously little thought or skill involved. But it is necessary monkey work. If you want to keep a deciduous fruit tree small and you skip a summer pruning, you start to lose hold on the size and...
by Greg Alder | Jun 28, 2019 | Avocados |
The Reed avocado variety is the first I ever grew. It is a great beginner’s avocado tree because it is relatively tough and productive. In addition, the fruit itself stands among the finest tasting avocados so it deserves consideration for planting by the first-time...
by Greg Alder | Jun 14, 2019 | Fruit, Watering |
These are the rules of thumb that I try to keep in mind: If the fruit tree is two feet wide (about as wide as your body), then give it two gallons each week. If the fruit tree is five feet wide (about as wide as your wingspan), then give it ten gallons each week. If...
by Greg Alder | May 24, 2019 | Fruit |
The most pleasing chore I have had in the yard over the past few weeks has been making sure that branches don’t break under the weight of their fruit. This certainly hasn’t been needed on all of my fruit trees, but there are some this year that would be torn apart if...
by Greg Alder | May 17, 2019 | Fruit |
Spring is for pinching. Nothing to do with Saint Patrick’s Day, this is using your fingers to prune. In the spring, trees are growing new branches that are succulent and easily snapped off by hand: no tools required. But why pinch? And what and where to pinch?...
by Greg Alder | May 10, 2019 | Avocados |
It was my first avocado tree’s first winter when a couple leaves started getting yellow veins. Oh no, what disease was this? I sent a photo to a seasoned avocado grower and he wrote back, “This is leaf senescence. The leaf is just dying naturally.”...
by Greg Alder | Apr 26, 2019 | Fruit, Watering |
Here in late April, it’s about time to water my deciduous fruit trees for the first time since winter. I water most of my fruit trees — both deciduous and citrus and avocado — using micro-sprinklers. Micro-sprinklers are small emitters that work on...
by Greg Alder | Apr 5, 2019 | Fruit |
Deciduous fruit trees demand to spend their winters in certain ways. Peaches, plums, apricots, apples, cherries, nectarines, they like to get chilly in the fall, then shed their leaves and stay chilly for a certain length of time, then warm up in the late winter or...
by Greg Alder | Mar 29, 2019 | Avocados |
I think of my Hass avocado tree as small even though it is far bigger than the newly planted trees above. As I looked at my Hass last week, it stood 17 feet tall. It was time to prune. I prune it every year in order to keep it down to 15 feet. This post is about...
by Greg Alder | Mar 8, 2019 | Avocados |
In 2013, I planted a Lamb/Hass avocado tree because its fruit was said to be ready for harvest in summer. I didn’t know much else about the variety, and I’d never tasted its fruit (knowingly). During the past five or six years I’ve learned a lot more about Lamb...
I'm Greg. My goal is to help others grow some food at home, with a focus on vegetables and fruits -- especially avocados -- in Southern California. I write a new "Yard Post" every Friday. 
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