by Greg Alder | Apr 8, 2022 | Citrus |
April is a great time of year to plant a new citrus tree, but which kind to plant? Take a cue from these Yard Posts readers who share their favorite varieties from their Southern California yards. Lavender Gem tangelo Bob started gushing to me about Lavender Gem...
by Greg Alder | Feb 18, 2022 | Citrus |
Cara Caras are tasting like candy here in mid-February. They’re like a pink Jolly Rancher – even though they’re an “orange.” I hear of people harvesting Cara Caras around Christmas, and the entry for Cara Cara navel orange in the University of California at...
by Greg Alder | Jan 14, 2022 | Citrus |
Choosing a mandarin tree to plant can be overwhelming because of the abundance of varieties available to us in California. One way to narrow the possibilities is to consider seasonality. Among the types of mandarins that ripen earliest, I grow two that I like and that...
by Greg Alder | Aug 20, 2021 | Citrus, Fruit, Pests |
Back in the winter of 2015, a neighbor noted how poor my lime tree looked. She said her lemon tree didn’t have those “curly leaves” because she sprays it. A couple days later she brought over a blue bottle of the stuff she uses: Bayer Advanced...
by Greg Alder | Mar 26, 2021 | Citrus |
Because there is a citrus tree in almost every yard in California, we often inherit one when we move into a new house. Which kind is it? What if there’s no one around to tell you? Here I describe how I approached figuring out the identities of a couple mystery...
by Greg Alder | Jan 29, 2021 | Citrus |
My wife came home with some limes from the grocery store one day nine years ago and I said, “We shouldn’t be buying those. I can grow those.” That’s how I ended up planting our Bearss lime tree back in 2012. In this profile, I’ll tell you a bit more about my own tree...
by Greg Alder | Dec 11, 2020 | Citrus |
We were on the corner of Arlington and Magnolia in Riverside, looking at some citrus trees surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. It was 2012, I was with a group of Master Gardener trainees, and our guide started telling us the story of one of the trees. The tree was, at...
by Greg Alder | Aug 14, 2020 | Citrus |
What can you learn about your lemon or orange, mandarin or grapefruit tree from its leaves? Following are photos of citrus foliage mostly from the trees in my own Southern California yard, and each photo tells a small story. It’s likely that you’ll recognize some of...
by Greg Alder | Jan 10, 2020 | Citrus |
My orange tree above looks fine, right? That’s what I thought until I crouched down and noticed this little devil: That branch growing from the base of the trunk — that’s the little devil. It’s not a branch of my orange tree; it’s rootstock. Citrus trees are usually...
by Greg Alder | Dec 13, 2019 | Citrus |
It’s December, my oranges aren’t sweet yet, but they’re splitting. Oh no! Happens every fall, actually. Just as the cool nights start to turn the rinds from green to orange, and just as the first rains arrive, navel oranges begin to split. My orange tree...
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