by Greg Alder | Nov 20, 2020 | Fruit |
My first memory of eating fruit involves being at the pomegranate tree and my mom saying something about red juice stains all over my shirt. I don’t recall how I opened that fruit, but here is how I open pomegranates today for my kids. First, score the peel in a...
by Greg Alder | Nov 6, 2020 | Avocados |
“I wanted to ask about your avocado tree,” I said. “Everybody wants to pick my avocados!” the man replied. We were standing in his driveway next to an old Fuerte. “I don’t want any avocados, actually,” I said. He looked...
by Greg Alder | Oct 23, 2020 | Fruit |
Aren’t fruit trees supposed to bloom in spring? Then why do some of mine have flowers here in October? My pluot trees have a few flowers (those on Flavor King pictured above). Also with a few flowers are my Pink Lady apple, Fan-stil pear, and Blenheim apricot. ...
by Greg Alder | Oct 2, 2020 | Avocados |
The good news is that even if you don’t train your young avocado tree to the perfect shape, the tree can still ultimately be healthy, balanced, and fruitful. I should know. I’ve got a number of mature avocado trees that perform well but that I wish I had trained...
by Greg Alder | Sep 25, 2020 | Berries and Vines |
Maybe you don’t have much yard space, or maybe you don’t need a bushel of berries, or maybe you don’t want to invest in a trellis support structure. By tying the berry canes of a single plant onto a stake you make the bush’s footprint smaller — you...
by Greg Alder | Sep 11, 2020 | Berries and Vines |
My Aunt Renee always grew the family’s best strawberries in her garden in Corona, where she had a permanent strawberry patch near her garage. All she did each year was rake out a few old or dead plants and add new ones to fill gaps. With a permanent strawberry patch,...
by Greg Alder | Aug 21, 2020 | Avocados |
Whether you’re planting a single avocado tree or an entire grove, you need to figure out the spacing. How close should you plant your avocado tree to your house or your driveway? How far should the tree be from another fruit tree or a retaining wall? Can you plant an...
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 | Jul 18, 2020 | Avocados |
When you see comparisons between avocado varieties, often discussed are the flower type, size of the tree and its fruit, peel color, and cold sensitivity. Rarely, however, do you get a clue as to a variety’s sensitivity to heat. (See, for example, Table 5 on page 30...
by Greg Alder | Jun 26, 2020 | Fruit |
I never met the man, but Floyd Zaiger made my yard taste better. I grow some of his apriums, like Cot-N-Candy. Cot-N-Candy aprium. I’ve got a tree of his nectaplum, SpiceZee. SpiceZee nectaplums. I’ve got his cherry for warm-winter places like Southern California,...
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